Unlearning & Re-learning Proper Form in Downward-facing Dog
As a long-time Yoga teacher, dancer and lover of my body, I am always learning more effective ways of doing things so that I can take my practice to the next level and have much higher quality methods to teach to my students. For YEARS, I was teaching and practicing downward-facing dog the way I was taught in my teacher trainings and the way everyone else was practicing; I simply had not found another way. Arm-balances, handstands, and other advanced inversions continued to remain a mystery and my progress therein was always "almost there". THAT IS, until I learned and further developed a MUCH better, more effective and productive approach!
Image 1 - This form is commonly what is taught in nearly every Yoga studio, the world over, and certainly the way I was teaching for many years.
Image 2 - This form is what has taken my inversion practice from mediocre to ADVANCED in a matter of months.
In all of my video classes I publish here, I intruct downward dog in a way that is supportive of injury recovery and prevention as well as helping YOU to build raw strength in your shoulders and undo years of inproper form taught in modern Yoga classes. Approach downdog like you would a pull-up - You would not hyper extend your arms to do a pull-up, otherwise you will throw your arma out of socket and never truly builld the strength you desire. No matter what is being taught in your Yoga classes outside of here (if you attend any that is), resist head-diving, "shrugging" your shoulders in a futile, injury prone effort to bring your head to the floor. Rather, "unshrug" your shoulder, pull scapula DOWN, and keep your head relatively in line or about your arms. This will help you to ADVANCE rather than digress, build raw strength in your upper body, and assist in the many mobility movements we will practice in the coming videos! Mobility is something that is NOT taught in most modern Yoga classes, as the bulk of it is flexibility focused and therefore incomplete. Personally, I have had to undo years of improper training methods and the damage done to my body because of them, this being one of them. You can expect many upcoming blogs, classes and workshops that cover all of this including specific poses and the more effective ways of approaching them that will lend to a much more functional way of moving in our every day lives.
Thank you all for your support and for your dedication to your health!
As always, I encourage questions, comments, feedback, etc. Feel free to leave me a comment below and let me know how this is working for you. Expect a video explaination of this sometime this week along with some all new mobility training drills that you surely have NEVER done before! Stay tuned...
Love, Breath & Bliss
-Melissa