Adho Mukha Svanasana  
  • Beginner's Tip:
    • If you have difficulty releasing and opening your shoulders in this pose, raise your hands off the floor on a pair of blocks or the seat of a metal folding chair.
  • Modifications and props:
    • To get a feel for the work of the outer arms, loop and secure a strap around your arms just above your elbows. Imagine that the strap is tightening inward, pressing the outer arms in against the bones. Against this resistance, push the inner shoulder blades outward.
  • Deepen the pose:
    • To increase the stretch in the backs of your legs, lift slightly up onto the balls of your feet, pulling your heels a half-inch or so away from the floor. Then draw your inner groins deep into the pelvis, lifting actively from the inner heels. Finally, from the height of the groins, lengthen the heels back onto the floor, moving the outer heels faster than the inner.
  • Partnering:
    • A partner can help you learn how to work the top thighs in this pose. First perform Adho Mukha Svanasana. Have your partner stand behind and loop a strap around your front groins, snuggling the strap into the crease between your top thighs and front pelvis. Your partner can pull on the strap parallel to the line of your spine (remind him/her to extend the arms fully, and keep the knees bent and chest lifted). Release the heads of your thigh bones deeper into your pelvis and lengthen your front torso away from the strap.
  • Info
    • One of seven legendary seers, credited with composing the hymns collected in the Vedas.
  • Benefits:
    • Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression.
    • Energizes the body.
    • Stretches the shoulders, hamstrings, calves, arches, and hands
    • Strengthens the arms and legs.
    • Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause.
    • Relieves menstrual discomfort when done with head supported.
    • Helps prevent osteoporosis.
    • Improves digestion.
    • Relieves headache, insomnia, back pain, and fatigue.
    • Therapeutic for high blood pressure, asthma, flat feet, sciatica, sinusitis.
  • Therapeutic Applications:
    • Sinusitis.
  • Contraindications and Cautions:
    • Carpal tunnel syndrome .
    • Diarrhea.
    • Pregnancy: Do not do this pose late-term.
    • High blood pressure or headache: Support your head on a bolster or block, ears level between the arms.
                   
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