If we asked 100 people to name a yoga pose, Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) would surely be the best answer. With its application as both a standalone pose and as a useful link within a fluid sequence, Downward Facing Dog will almost certainly appear in every active yoga class. Multi-purpose as a forward bend and gentle inversion, it offers the ultimate in rejuvenating stretching for the entire body. However, his likeability factor is a bit more controversial. Some students love it and take the shape easily. Others moan and groan (or maybe howl!) at the mere suggestion of becoming a downward dog.
Whatever camp students find themselves in, there is always more to love and learn about any pose. Experiencing appropriate adjustment at the hands of a caring and safe teacher can help students do both.
The Reasons for the Adjustment
Adjustments are used to help yoga students find better alignment, ease, stability, understanding, and extension in a variety of postures. They can use props or be a hands-on experience, sometimes both.
Now, let’s explore 6 tweaks that are sure to turn all of your students into passionate dog lovers!
1 – Give the ground a hand
Many students put too much weight on their wrists and the outside of their hands when down dog, which can cause pain and misalignment. This grounding guide highlights the stabilizing role of the hand and finger joint and helps strengthen the muscles of the fingers, hands and arms.
Adjustment: Gently press your partner’s hands toward the floor with yours.
2 – Stretch your shoulders
Wrinkling your shoulders around your ears is a common problem, on and off the yoga mat. This adjustment gives the shoulders a well-deserved width and allows the neck to be lengthened.
Adjustment: Place your hands on the student’s upper arms and turn their armpits toward each other.
3 – Support high heels
Students with tight hamstrings will likely take a downward facing dog with their heels off the ground. Those with a tight Achilles tendon may even feel tremors in their legs! Create a soft, supportive landing platform for your heels with a rolled mat or blanket. This gives the student a focus on the desired direction of the heels (back and on the floor) and also frees up the entire body.
Adjustment: Place the accessory under your heels and ask your student to sink into it.
4 – Lift and rinse
With weight distributed between hands and feet, there is a temptation to feel heavy in this pose. This fit provides a pleasant feeling of lightness, height and pleasant spinal traction.
Setup: Stand with one foot between the student’s hands and the other staggering back. Align your palms with your sacrum, spread your hands apart, and lean your weight toward the student while directing your sacrum upward.
5 – Power your legs
Downward Facing Dog requires a lot of leg strength! The combination of pressure and direction of the belt in this configuration reminds the student to activate the front of the legs and move them toward the back of the legs. This fit encourages even weight distribution between arms and legs and lengthens the spine.
Adjustment: Standing as above, loop a belt around the top of your thighs; Gently holding the ends of the belt, lean back to lengthen your spine. Make sure the student can comfortably maintain contact with the ground throughout the adjustment.
6 – Keep your mind calm
As a stand-alone pose that links sequences, Downward Facing Dog is generally not considered calm or relaxing. But with the addition of a soft cushion under the forehead, the pose can be transformed into a relaxing calm for the body and mind. This light pressure against the forehead is also helpful in relieving headaches.
Adjustment: Place the short edge of the cushion under the posture on which to rest your head. Be sure to adjust the height (use 2 bolsters) if necessary so that the accessories are easily attached to the body, and not the other way around.
Adjustment rules
Before offering adjustments to students, keep the following adjustment rules in mind:
- Consent: Physical adjustments are intimate and require a high level of trust and respect between teacher and student. Always ask students if they are okay with being adjusted before continuing.
- Expectations: Make sure students know what an accommodation entails before you offer it, either through verbal instructions or by demonstrating it to yourself or another yoga mate.
- Rationale: Emphasize that adjustments are usually made so they can better understand and use the posture, to correct alignment, or to make a certain aspect of the posture more obvious. Adjustments to not indicate that the student is doing the “wrong” pose.
You can also demonstrate the adaptation first so students know why they are doing it, what it looks like, and what it will feel like.
- Communicate: During the adjustment, both parties must communicate with each other: more, less, ask the student where he feels it, ask him to direct his attention and/or her breathing to a certain place.
- Self-Care: First, take care of yourself when making an adjustment. As a teacher conducting the tests, make sure you stay focused on yourself and let the props do the work for you.
Practice Makes Perfect
Offering adjustments in your class will help you, as a teacher, learn much more about postures and your students. Mastering a few adjustments with one of yoga’s most recognized poses, downward facing dog, is a great starting point.
Best of all, your students will be able to experience progression and “lightbulb moments” in their practice, making them fall in love with even the most challenging poses.
A quality yoga mat that has excellent grip is a great asset to your yoga asana practice, especially one like Downward Facing Dog; Check out the Earth Fusion mat on our website.