11:00 PM
abhi
The word Adho means downward and Mukh means the face. Thus literally the meaning of Adho Mukh would be downward face. This posture is called Downward Dog Posture or Down Dog pose.You can repeat this posture as many times as you wish. But ensure that it should not result in fatigue or over stretching of any muscle.
How to Do Downward Dog Posture
- Sit in a positing where your knees are together and your buttocks are touching your hills. Keep the spine and head in a straight position. You can sit in the posture called Thunderbolt (Vajrasana)
- Arrange your hands as far as possible from your knees. Put the palms facing downward on your yoga mat, keeping your fingers wide.
- Come on to your knees and then lift the knees from the floor. Stretch your tailbone towards ceiling.
- Put your paws flat on the floor or yoga mat. At this moment your head should feel free and resting.
- Ensure that your paws are kept as wide as your hips and the palms are as wide as your shoulders.
Benefits of Doing Dog Posture
In general the act of doing yoga postures is an exercise in stretching muscles and to increase the circulation of blood in specific parts of our body. Here are some of the benefits of doing Dog Posture.
- When we are in this pose, our heart remains at rest. The flow of blood becomes regular. This is the situation wherein our heart gets some relief. Doing Downward Facing Dog pose would help in providing rest to our heart.
- This pose stretches the muscles, which are in on either side of the back of the knees. It makes the tendon or sinews of knees working.
- This posture would create a feel of awareness. A person would feel strength after doing the same.
- As all the yoga postures would make our limbs more flexible, Down Dog pose helps keeping our body fresh and all the parts flexible. The hands, arms and legs would be actively involved in doing it.
- If we look at the curative side of this posture, a person doing it regularly might get some relief in headache and back pain.
If you feel pain in any muscle, while doing this pose, feel free to make yourself at ease. If your back is paining or hamstring is feeling uneasiness, keep you knees a little bit inside. It would ease the pain and the pressure.
Caution: Pregnant women should do this posture after taking proper instructions from a trained teacher. (Image courtesy By Joseph RENGER [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0 or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0], from Wikimedia Commons)
