One of my favorite beginner poses in yoga is downward facing dog. You know the one where your butt is in the air? This pose is essential for any beginning yoga student to practice and has many stress reducing benefits.
Downward dog pose calms the brain and helps relieve stress. I love doing downward dog for 10 minutes before bed because it settles my mind and releases tension in my upper back, neck and shoulders. Down dog pose also relieves headaches, fatigue, back pain and insomnia.
But what if you’re like me and have extremely tight shoulders or weak wrists? How can you get the many stress relieving benefits of downward dog pose if you can’t physically maintain the pose for more than 10 seconds? Here are three of my favorite yoga hacks I love using in my personal beginner yoga practice.
Hack #1: Downward Dog Step-by-Step Instructions & Video – YogaJournal.com (Boulder, Colorado)
The Yoga Journal provides detailed beginner instructions on how to get into downward dog including how to activate the pose. The video accompanying the how to instructions is short (only 1:47) and provides a 360 degree view of downward dog being performed; which is what every beginning yoga student needs to see. This Yoga Journal article also provides the contradictions and cautions of downward dog pose. For example, people with carpal tunnel syndrome and pregnant women should not perform downward dog pose. This Yoga Journal also provides much needed information about how to modify downward dog pose and how to use yoga props, such as blocks or a bolster, to assist beginners with gaining proper alignment to obtain the stress relieving benefits while in downward dog. The Yoga Journal blog also provides instruction on how to practice downward dog pose with a partner. My yoga instructor teaches her beginning yoga students using the same downward dog hack and I can say from experience that having a partner use a yoga strap in this manner helped me feel and understand what downward dog pose feels like in my body. And lastly, this blog provides relevant links to other downward dog pose articles and videos from yoga instructors around the world.
Hack #2: Downward Dog Tips for Beginners – BrettLarkinYoga (San Francisco, California)
This YouTube video by yoga instructor Brett Larkin answers a fan question on her Facebook page about a beginner struggling with downward dog pose. I love this yoga hack video because I posed the very same question about downward dog to my yoga instructor during our yoga basics class. In this video, Brett Larkin explains the importance of having a long spine in downward dog pose and that not everyone, especially beginning yoga students, can get their heels on the ground when properly in downward dog pose. In the video, Brett Larkin shows how downward dog is performed improperly with rounded shoulders and overall poor form. She recommends doing downward dog in front of a mirror so you can see your alignment. I don’t have room for a mirror large enough to see myself doing downward dog, so I improvised. I set up my video camera and used my iPad as the view finder to see myself doing downward facing dog enabling me to correct my alignment immediately.
Hack #3: Downward Facing Dog: A Guide for Plus Sized Yogis and Beginners – BodyPositiveYoga.com (Charlottesville, Virginia)
Body Positive Yoga embraces that fact that yoga is for everybody and acknowledges that downward dog can be a source of frustration for many yoga beginners and for larger bodies. I love this blog because it answered many of my beginner yoga questions and gives many safe modifications to doing downward dog pose. Like hacks 1 and 2, Body Positive Yoga explains the stress reducing benefits of downward dog pose and the importance of a straight spine; but my favorite part of this blog is the detailed instructions on how to modify downward dog. For example, those of us just beginning yoga may have weak wrists that aren’t used to having weight on them. This article provides easy to follow ways to modify your downward dog to accommodate wrists that hurt, backs that round, tight shoulders or boobs that suffocate.
“Whether you do your first downward dog at 14 or 44, it’s not your history but your presence on your mat that counts.” K. Pattabhi Jois
About the Author
Elizabeth Green is a beginning yoga student, teacher and photographer.
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