question about downward dog

[Guest guest]

When I am in downward dog, I don't feel any stretch at all in the back of my thighs. Is this

normal? Could I be doing the posture incorrectly? I do feel an intense stretch in my calves

and my heels do not touch the ground.

[Guest guest]

Hi Byunrf,

 

I'm not a teacher but would attempt to share with you my experience on

downward dog.

 

Without looking at your practice, one can't possibly indicate where

the 'problem' is. I would guess you might be over-emphasising on

trying to get your feet flat on the ground, and without engaging your

thigh muscles, or that you have not kept a straight back.

 

You could try breaking this posture down into two sections. Firstly,

free your lower limbs by bending your knees. This will lift your heels

off the ground consciously and free your hamstrings. Concentrate on

straightening and lengthening your spine, with proper breath works

Awareness is created with each inhalation, which helps to lengthen

your spine.

 

You may even experience the upward lift of the lower spine further by

tilting your lower pelvis upwards, but at all times, you need to

prevent from either collapsing your upper and/or lower back.

 

Once you get a straight back, gradually straighten your knees, either

at where you are standing, or walk your feet slightly backwards.

Engage your quads. You should feel the lengthening on your hamstrings.

Provided if your hamstrings are not over-stretched, ground your heels,

without loosing that straight back.

 

Hope this would help.

 

Happy pracitce!

 

Zonkie

 

 

 

ashtanga yoga, "byunrf" <byunrf wrote:

>

> When I am in downward dog, I don't feel any stretch at all in the

back of my thighs. Is this

> normal? Could I be doing the posture incorrectly? I do feel an

intense stretch in my calves

> and my heels do not touch the ground.

>

[Guest guest]

The limiting factor in your down-dog may be your calves and so that is where

you will feel it first. You may not feel it in your hamstrings until the

calves change.

However, try slightly internally rotating your upper thighs allowing the

sits bones to spread. This will usually give a more concentrated stretch on

the hamstrings.

 

Namaste

CJ

[Guest guest]

Hi, Byunrf--

 

Without seeing your DWFD, I can only guess about a

couple of things so take these suggestions with a

grain of salt. If you're not getting any stretch in

your hamstrings, I suspect that you might be rounding

your back (either the lower or middle back) or that

you're not fully opening the shoulders and as a

result, more of your weight stays in your hands.

 

For the rounding of the back, ask someone to look at

your DWFD from the side and see whether you are

rounding anywhere in the back or whether your

vertebrae are poking out (stegasaurus back). Tilting

the sitting bones up toward the ceiling (or more

specifically, the line where the ceiling meets the

wall behind you) will help a lot as long as you are

also pushing more weight into the legs (as opposed to

the hands). To get a sense of this, try doing the cat

/ cow stretch and maintain that exaggerated lift of

the hips as you go slowly into a DWFD. Try it with

bent legs first and then slowly straighten the legs

while maintaining that straight back.

 

As for your arms, ask someone to look at your DWFD

(again from the side) and tell you whether there's a

straight line from your wrist all the way to your

hips. If you're leaning too much weight into your

hands, there will most likely be a bend at the

shoulders. Push the floor away from you with your

hands and try to bring more weight into your feet than

into your hands (try for a 60:40 ratio). You can

practice this with bent knees at first to get the

upper body really straight before trying to straighten

the legs.

 

And for maximum stretch, activate your quadriceps and

flex your feet (this often helps the heels to move

naturally toward the floor). Even if the heels don't

reach the floor yet, you'll probably feel more of a

stretch in the back of the legs if your flexing the

feet at the same time that you're tilting your sitting

bones upward. Try to create as much length as you can

between the right heel and right sitting bone and the

left heel and left sitting bone.

 

I recommend the book "Cool Yoga Tricks" which has a

lot of fun preparatory stretches you can do with props

and / or a partner to help you find your fullesty

expression of the DWFD.

 

Hope this helps and enjoy exploring DWFD!

 

Namaste,

Yamilee

 

The Buddha taught we shouldn't shun the world any more than we should cling to it. Instead, we should seek to greet each moment with an awake and compassionate heart. (A. Cushman)

 

Respond to every call that excites your spirit... and dance along the way. You are protected. (J. Rumi)

[Guest guest]

I had a similar experience with downward dog; only my

problem was keeping too much weight in the wrist &

arms without having my legs do their share of the work

too. One thing my teacher had me do, which has really

helped me, is to bend the knees in downward dog and

take the inner thighs out and apart (yup, it feels

like you're exaggerating sticking your butt in the

air). Then keeping this activation in the thighs,

slowly start to straighten the legs. This was a

helpful measure for me to help integrate my thigh

muscles into the pose--hope it might be helpful for

you as well.

 

Namaste,

 

Megan