Hey, Blue.
What you got there?
What you bringing us?
This is perfect for the yoga show.
It says love.
Hello everyone.
Welcome to Yoga with Adriene.
I'm Adriene, and this is Blue.
Today we're going to learn the famous downward-facing dog.
It has a ton of benefits, and you will encounter it
in a public class.
In general, it's just great to spend some time with this
posture.
Hop on the mat and let's learn downward-facing dog.
We're going to begin on all fours; surprise: Wrists underneath the
shoulders, knees directly underneath the hips.
If you have a moment, maybe a nice little warm-up of cat-cow would be
good here.
There's a video for that, and you can click in the box somewhere
around this area and watch how to do cat-cow.
I've taken a couple cat-cows to warm up but just for the
spine.
I'm actually going to prep my downward dog with puppy posture.
Get it?
Puppy grows into a dog.
Too many countless hours doing kids' yoga with
children.
For puppy posture, I'm going to actually drop my elbows where my wrists
are.
Just in terms of alignment, that's a good little marker.
I'm, of course, going to be mindful of my palms, maybe
playing a little piano, going all 10 fingerprints rooting; just sending
awareness from fingertips to toes, even as I prep.
Then from here, I'm going to create a long neck,
and then keeping my elbows and all 10 fingerprints where they are, I'm just
going to simply walk my knees back, letting the spine fall in line and the
heart release towards the earth.
Forehead kisses the mat.
My hips are still stacked above my knees, but I'm definitely
letting my pelvis rock up towards the sky.
Prepping for downward dog in Anahatasana, heart-to-earth
pose.
I can take a couple breaths, just letting my heart sink to the ground.
Sometimes it's nice if you have tight shoulder, which I feel like these
days we all have tight shoulders.
Facebook.
Just letting the shoulders relax away from the ears and taking some nice,
solid, smooth, deep breaths.
After a little time in this puppy posture, then we'll begin to shift gears,
growing into downward dog.
I'll inhale, keeping my shoulders drawing away
from the ears, look up gently, drawing a nice sweet line with my nose,
paying attention to the transition, prepping my posture with grace and with
control.
I'm going to slowly walk my knees forward just a little bit,
curling my toes under.
In my public classes, I do not waste this moment.
There's this playful excitement, so rather than just blasting into downward
dog, I'm just taking the time to enjoy how I get into it.
Then one by one, I'll lift an elbow, an elbow, a knee, a knee.
I'm engaging my core, and then as if someone's pulling me up from my
tail, I'm going to take that same action that I did in puppy posture and
grow it into downward-facing dog, Adho Mukha; pedaling the feet.
Couple of action points, here we go: Spreading the palms nice and wide,
especially the area between my index finger and thumb.
If you have weak wrists or if you're feeling a little bit of
fussiness in the wrists, press into that area between the index finger and
thumb.
Everyone, at first this will be difficult for you, but Hasta Bandha,
hand-to-earth; we have to press through all areas of the palm equally.
I'm going to grow that integrity all the way up to my shoulders.
I'm going to allow my shoulders to rotate away from the ears, and then gently
relax the head and neck, melting my heart towards my toes.
I did not fall in love with yoga until I fell in love with this posture.
Believe me; that took a little while.
It took a little practice.
My main loving tip for you is keep moving in this posture.
If you're holding like this, cursing my name, making
a voodoo doll of Yoga with Adriene right now; there's no point.
We want to pedal the feet.
We want to keep moving.
Keep the mind at ease.
Full with breath as I explore through this posture.
If you're holding static, you're probably going to give up
and you're probably never going to watch a video again.
You're probably never going to practice yoga again.
We have to find ways to fall in love with the poses to find what feels good.
My tip for that is movement with your breath, pedaling the feet.
If the heels don't touch the earth, who cares?
Bend the knees generously.
Get that belly melting towards your thighs, opening the shoulders.
Shoulders have that sweet external rotation.
The tops of the thighs have the opposite rotation; they're spiraling in and
out towards the wall, or in my case, the door behind me.
Sometimes it's nice to turn the two big toes in just to feel that spiral,
and then pedaling it back out, feet parallel.
Long side body, heart melting to the earth, relaxed in the head and neck,
tops of the shoulders drawing away from the ears, pressing into all areas
of the palm.
In time, the heels with grow down towards the earth.
Sometimes we take our toes to our heels; just drawing them down, melting the heart,
one at a time.
To come out of the pose, I inhale in and exhale; often will shift.
A little foreshadowing into another posture, or just
on an exhale, melting gently back to all fours, walking the palms underneath
the wrists, just finding a natural tabletop position.
Then if you're a beginner, maybe bringing the
two big toes together, widening the knees, and melting it back into
extended child's pose, which we also have a video for.
Click for that somewhere over here.
Then melting with a breath.
Downward-facing dog; it's actually . . . you're not going to believe this,
a resting posture.
When I tell my students that in public class, usually
there's a big belly laugh.
My main tip is finding what feels good in downward-facing dog because it's such a famous
pose.
I don't know if I've been to a Hatha Yoga class yet where we don't
practice downward dog.
Find what feels good.
Keep moving.
Don't be static and still.
Save that exquisite stillness for Shavasana.
That was the famous downward-facing dog.
If you're a beginner, this is a great posture to go in with an open mind,
open heart.
Just focus on finding what feels good rather than being stuck in
doing the posture perfectly.
That goes for all of us; beginners and experienced yogis.
Please visit YogaWithAdriene.com to read more about this posture.
I'm going to talk about weight distribution a little
more in detail in the blog.
Please check out the blog and give the pose a try.
Let me know how it goes.
Thank you and Namaste.