This Week’s Pose: Adho Mukha Svanasana

Emily on 3:07 pm September 29th, 2009 / Be the first to comment! »

Doris, a recent graduate of the boundless teacher training program, first taught this class over the summer. In fact, it was her teaching of adho mukha svanasana that inspired the One-Pose-At-a-Time series. Doris breaks down dog into its component actions in the legs, arms and torso in order to enhance student understanding of this complex pose. I highly recommend this class!

I’ve struggled with adho mukha svanasana since I first practiced yoga in 2000. I’d get so nervous in the pose that my palms and feet would sweat, and I’d find myself slipping and sliding all over my mat. More recently, I’ve been working on bringing weight out of my arms to distribute it more evenly through my body.

In my drawing I show down dog the way I like to experience it—with weight balanced between hands and feet, a long torso, and a relaxed neck—so that the practitioner experiences the calm energy of this pose.

Adho Mukha Svanasana by Emily Sloat Shaw

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2009 at 3:07 pm and is filed under Tags: Asana, down dog, drawing, One-Pose-At a-Time, sketch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.