Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Dog, Baby, Dog

For starters, I'm going to revise that 5 minute nonsense. Anne-Marie was right when she commented, "ha ha ha ha." If you can hold these babies for 2-3 minutes, you're in the club (which means, I'm barely in the club). Whatever. Five minutes is an awfully long time to do anything except Supta (Reclined) poses. Even BKS Iyengar agrees...he suggests one-and-a-half, to two minutes for most standing asana.

So, Down Dog. Adho Mukha Svanasana. I've got to say, it's still my favorite. Everything get stretched; arms lengthen, shoulders rotate, chest opens, calfs/hamstring stretch, lower back gets released.

After about a minute or so, my arms start to get a bit tired and I find myself constantly having to remind my elbows and neck to lengthen. But they do, and the pose gets renewed energy and I can stay up.

How's your Dog doing?

(Here are some other Dog posts--I'm going to refrain from posting my Dog picture...I've obviously recycled it many times, already)
Ode to a Dog
Dog, Plank, Dog, Plank
Learning to Love the Dog (the toddler in this post is now 4 yr.s old, btw)
The Magnificent Wrist

5 comments:

Iyengar Yoga São Paulo said...

Fun way of sensing and staing in Adho Mukka svanasana, greetings from Brazil, Analu

Anonymous said...

I just happened across your blog and must thank you for posting that Yoga Font link. I love fonts anyway. This is a treasure.

Also, will mention that in the first yoga class I ever took the instructor had us do the downward-facing-dog pose, saying that some people found it very difficult in the beginning. It was the one pose I did not find difficult and also is my favorite.

Adele

Jen said...

I couldn't stay past 2-3 minutes either. One thing that helps me stay longer is to think of the muscles that are supporting me from beneath - quads, triceps and abdominals.

When I first practiced yoga this one was on my least favorite. Although my heels could reach the floor, I couldn't find the strenth in the arms and shoulders to send weight back into the feet.

Well, I could go on and on. There's just so much to say about down dog...

Anne-Marie said...

In today's yoga class, my teacher was all about the downward dog. So I got to practise it again and again and again ... I was really glad, for the sake of this blog!!

Have to say, adho mukha svanasana isn't my favourite pose.

I have tiny wrists [as small as my seven-year-old niece's], so this pose is pretty hard on them, because they're not strong. Then it really burns in to my shoulders after a while.

As Jen said, no matter what I do I can't shift some of the weight back on to the hips and legs [which don't suffer at all].

Any advice for downward dog with weak wrists? Or may be it's just a beginner thing, and will improve with time.

Rangimarie,
Anne-Marie

Brenda P. said...

Analu--thanks for visiting!

Adele--I use the Yoga font when planning classes...I type up my sequence and refer to it while I teach.

Jen-check out 10/22's post...I'll talk about modifications.