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.