Yoga 101: Breaking Down Downward-Facing Dog

Several years ago, long before becoming a yoga teacher — and spending MANY weekend hours in training — I thought that the object of yoga was to make yourself look like the picture of the pose. If you could do that, then you could say you’d mastered the pose. Boy, was I wrong …

You see, yoga isn’t really about what your expression of the pose looks like and how closely it resembles the picture of the pose. Yoga is about the experience of being in the pose — something that can’t be gained or felt by simply comparing how your body looks in pose to someone else. As soon as I learned how to experience a pose, rather than force it to look “textbook,” my yoga practice (and life) began to change dramatically.

It’s time we stop looking at all the super bendy bodies expressing poses so beautifully and wondering if we’ll ever be able to make it look so pretty and effortless. It’s time to stop caring how it looks and start focusing on how it feels to be in our own skin.

The truth is that yoga is for everyone, not just for the super flexible or super strong. So we’ve decided to break it down and bring it to the masses in another Yoga 101 video.

Breaking Down Downward-Facing Dog

In this video, we’re breaking down one of the most recognized but often misunderstood yoga poses: Downward-Facing Dog (or Adho Mukha Svanasana in Sanskrit).

Give it a try and tell us about your experience! —Alison