How To Do The Upward Facing Dog Pose Video

Work the endocrine system with the Upward Facing Dog Pose. Learn how to do the Upward Facing Dog Pose in this fitness video.

Take Action

Lie on abs
Hands next to chest
Press up
Can lift knees

About this Author

Cindy Mastry has practiced yoga since the age of eight, and also has a background in Jazz and Ballet. Active in the fitness industry for nearly twenty years, she teaches aerobics, kickboxing, and yoga at many fitness centers in the Tampa Bay area. Cindy trained with 84 year-old Master Yogi Monk, Baba Hari Dass at the Mt. Madonna Center in California and owns/operates "Yoga Etc Studio" in St. Petersburg, Florida. Cindy teaches yoga to people of all ages and experience levels and at very competitive rates.

CINDY MASTRY: Namaste. The upward facing dog pose works your entire spine, open your chest and works the endocrine system. So [PH] Faith is going to demonstrate that for us. She is going to come lying on her abs. She is going to lengthen out through her feet, good, and feel like her legs are lengthening back through her waist, good. Her hands are next to her chest underneath her shoulders. She is going to inhale in and take her head forward to lengthen out of her waist first making the sides of her body long and then as she exhales she is going to press herself up, good, opening up her heart. Notice how she pulls her shoulders back. We do not want to pull our shoulders up near our ears, we want to keep them down and back and open the heart, good. If you want to come into a more advanced upward facing dog, you can actually lift your knees off the ground pressing into the tops of your feet and feel how that stretches all the way down into the hip flexor. So you have the option to look forward. If it is okay for your neck, you can look up but as a general rule if you are not sure just look forward and then it keeps that length of the spine. Now if you have any compression in your lower spine whatsoever you want to lower down to cobra as Faith is demonstrating now. So we want to make sure we have no compression in that lower spine drawing your belly button in but if you have no trouble lifting up, good, opening your heart, opening yourself up to something new, squeezing your shoulder blades together, good, working your entire spine and your endocrine system.

How to Do the Upward Facing Dog Pose Video

Take Action

About this Author

Member Comments