Yoga Question - downward dog

[sellendie]

I am new to any kind of yoga and not flexible. I am unable to to a proper downward dog and was wondering if anyone has a suggestion on how to modify this position. From what I understand, the line of the spine is very important, and I am not sure whether to bend my legs to help with that, or to raise my arms up onto a chair or something. I am not practicing yoga in a studio, it is a part of a video fitness program that I am doing.

[BettinaAuSucre]

I can't either as i am shorter and a bit fat. I have heard of bending your knees...but i cant do that..LOL

ETA: http://www.marchellerdc.com/pro_reso...d_down_dog.pdf


heres a PDF to help you get into the position.

[paakbaak]

the idea is NOT to bend your knees. i´m not flexible either...it i keep my knees straight my heels won´t touch the floor, so i do it on my toes! it´s important to keep your legs straight. scoot your arms up front, that way your back stretches

[mandica]

I have been taught to not worry so much about having my feet flat on the floor. The important part is to make sure your body from your hands to your tail bone are in a straight line.

[tracymom1]

You can start with doing downward dog at the wall - that way you can keep the correct alignment in your upper body but only extend your hips back as far as you can.

http://www.ehow.com/video_4944898_yo...-dog-wall.html

Good luck and happy yoga!!

[sellendie]

I tried a couple different ways and found one that has worked out well..I just place yoga blocks beneath my heels and stretch my hands forward a bit further to get the straight lines. I think I was not really utilizing hand and finger position properly at first, because the downward dog position has definitely become a lot more doable since I tried really focusing on that. Thanks so much for everyone's help, I'll have my heels to the floor in no time!

[zoebird]

as a teacher of 14 years, the correct modification is to begin by bending the knees and putting the weight into the thighs.

eventually, when the flexibility comes, you will have straight legs, and then eventually heels will touch the floor and so on.

common mistakes with downward dog are to keep the legs straight, rounding the back; keeping the hands too close to the feet (you want to try to use your whole mat, so hands up by the very tip top of the mat, and heels close to the very bottom of the mat. say, 2-3 inches in from the edges of the mat); and splaying out the arms/elbows.

so, begin by placing your hands at the top of the mat, and the feet near the back. or, start by going into a proper push-up position. then, press back to downward dog, bending your knees as you go to keep the back flat. some people have to bend their knees a lot--and to get that feeling of the back being flat, it might be helpful to bend the knees until they are ankle height off the mat (about 2-3 inches), and then arch the back a bit to get it to flat, and then only straighten the legs as much as you can while keeping that flat back. most will have very bent knees and that's ok.