Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog): How to Do It Step by Step

Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog) is a yoga pose in which you stand on your hands and feet with your hips lifted high, so the body forms an upside-down V. It stretches the backs of the legs and lengthens the spine while the arms and shoulders carry part of your weight. It is one of the most practised poses in modern yoga and a fixed part of the Sun Salutation, where it often serves as a place to catch your breath between harder poses.

Pose type: standing forward bend, mild inversion, arm support. Level: beginner, with a lot to refine for years. Props: optional blocks under the hands, a folded blanket under the heels.

What Adho Mukha Svanasana means

The name is built from four Sanskrit words: adho, downward, mukha, face, svana, dog, and asana, posture. A dog stretching its front legs with its hips in the air makes the same shape. Say it roughly as AH-doh MOO-kah shvah-NAHS-uh-nuh.

The pose is younger than its Sanskrit name suggests. It does not appear in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika or the other classic hatha texts. It turns up in the 20th century, in the teaching of T. Krishnamacharya in Mysore and in the work of his students B.K.S. Iyengar (Light on Yoga, 1966) and K. Pattabhi Jois, where it became the link between poses in the Sun Salutation. Historians such as Mark Singleton have pointed out how close these sequences are to the Indian physical culture of the time, including the dand push-ups of Indian wrestlers. That takes nothing away from the pose. It only means the word "ancient" does not fit it.

How to do Downward-Facing Dog, step by step

1. Come onto your hands and knees. Place your hands a little in front of your shoulders, shoulder-width apart, and your knees under your hips.
2. Spread your fingers wide, with the middle fingers pointing forward. Press down through the knuckles at the base of the index finger and thumb so the weight does not roll to the outer edge of the hands.
3. Tuck your toes under. On an exhale, lift your knees off the floor and send your hips up and back.
4. Keep your knees bent at first. Use the bend to tip your pelvis forward and lengthen your spine, so your back is long from the tailbone to the back of the head.
5. Press the floor away with your hands. Turn your upper arms outward so the shoulder blades widen across the back and the space between your shoulders and ears opens.
6. Let your head hang between your upper arms, in line with your spine. Your ears sit roughly level with your upper arms. Do not let the head drop all the way down, and do not crane it up to look forward.
7. Now straighten your legs as far as you can without the lower back rounding. Let the heels move toward the floor. They do not have to reach it.
8. Stay for five slow breaths through the nose to begin with. To come out, bend your knees and lower them to the floor, then rest in Balasana (Child's Pose).

A long spine comes first. Straight legs come second. If you have to choose, bend the knees.

Finding the right length

From Plank Pose, push your hips back without moving your hands or feet. That is a good distance for most people. If your heels lift far off the floor and your wrists feel crowded, step the feet back a little. If your back rounds and your shoulders hunch, step them in.

Benefits of Downward-Facing Dog

Most of what Down Dog does is easy to feel in the body:

• Back of the legs: it stretches the hamstrings and the calves, especially as the heels move toward the floor. Our guide to hamstrings and yoga explains why these muscles take their time.
• Shoulders and arms: you hold part of your body weight on straight arms overhead, which builds strength in the shoulders, the triceps and the muscles around the shoulder blades.
• Spine: with the hips high and the arms pressing, the back lengthens in the opposite direction to hours of sitting.

Down Dog is also a useful place to pause in a flowing class. Your breath can settle there without stopping the practice. Claims that the pose protects you against colds, clears the sinuses or improves digestion come from wellness copy, not from studies, and we have left them out. The head is lower than the heart, so pressure in the head and eyes rises a little. That is a reason for care, not a benefit.

Who should skip or modify Down Dog

• Wrist pain or carpal tunnel syndrome: put your forearms down instead (Dolphin Pose), or press your hands against a wall or the seat of a chair.
• Shoulder injuries: a torn rotator cuff or an unstable shoulder does not like weight on straight arms overhead. Use the wall version and ask your physiotherapist.
• Glaucoma or retinal problems: small studies have measured higher pressure in the eye during Down Dog and other head-down poses. Talk to your eye doctor, and keep the head above the heart with your hands on a chair.
• High blood pressure that is not under control: stay briefly or choose the chair version.
• Late pregnancy: many people practise a short Down Dog with the feet wide. Skip it if you feel dizzy or have been told to avoid head-down positions.
• Dizziness when you come up: bend your knees, come down to all fours, and stand up slowly.

Common mistakes

• Straight legs, round back. Forcing the heels down pulls the pelvis under and rounds the lower back. Bend the knees and tip the sitting bones up.
• Weight in the wrists. When the hips drop forward, the wrists take the load. Send the hips back and press through the knuckles.
• Shoulders around the ears. Turn the upper arms out and widen the shoulder blades.
• Chest sinking to the floor. In flexible shoulders the chest collapses and the joints hang. Firm the arms and draw the ribs a little toward the thighs.
• Feet too close or too far. Both change the load on the hands. Measure from Plank.
• Holding the breath. Breathe slowly through the nose. Five full breaths count for more than a long hold with a tight jaw.

Preparatory poses

• Cat and Cow on all fours: moves the spine through rounding and arching before you lift the hips.
• Plank Pose: teaches the arms and shoulders to carry weight.
• Tadasana (Mountain Pose): the same straight arms overhead and long spine, standing up.
• A standing forward fold with bent knees: stretches the hamstrings gently before you ask them to work in Down Dog.

If your shoulders are the limit, our short video post on the arm position in Downward-Facing Dog shows the difference between turning the upper arms in and turning them out.

Follow-up poses

• Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward-Facing Dog): the backbend that comes before Down Dog in the Sun Salutation.
• Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose): the low push-up position between Plank and Upward Dog.
• Balasana (Child's Pose): rest with the forehead down after holding Down Dog.
• Sirsasana (Headstand) and Adho Mukha Vrksasana (Handstand): inversions that grow out of the shoulder work you do in Down Dog.

Down Dog is the pose you return to again and again in Surya Namaskar A, and in Ashtanga it is where you hold for five breaths with the gaze toward the navel. Our guide to drishti, the yoga gaze, explains that part.

Down Dog variations

• Bent knees, heels up: the version most beginners should start with. It gives the spine its length.
• Hands on blocks or a chair: less weight on the wrists and less stretch in the hamstrings.
• Blanket under the heels: something to press into when the heels are far from the floor.
• Eka Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana (Three-Legged Dog): lift one leg behind you, hips level. Harder work for the standing leg and the arms.
• Prasarita Pada Adho Mukha Svanasana: feet wide apart, which frees the lower back and suits many people in pregnancy.
• Parivrtta Adho Mukha Svanasana (Revolved Dog): one hand reaches for the opposite ankle or shin, and the spine twists.
• Breathing dog: on the inhale, lengthen the spine and let the belly soften. On the exhale, round a little and draw the lower belly in. Some teachers use this to find Mula Bandha, the lift of the pelvic floor at the end of an exhale.

For the shoulders behind a strong Down Dog, take the 20-minute class Find Your Downward Dog Shoulders, level 1-2.

Frequently asked questions

What is Downward Dog good for?

Downward-Facing Dog stretches the hamstrings and calves, lengthens the spine and builds strength in the shoulders and arms, because you carry part of your weight on straight arms. In a flowing class it is also a place to steady your breath between harder poses.

How do I do Downward Dog correctly?

Start on hands and knees, spread your fingers and tuck your toes. Lift your hips up and back with your knees bent, lengthen your spine, then straighten your legs only as far as your back stays long. Press the floor away, turn your upper arms out and let your head hang in line with your spine.

Who should not do Downward Dog?

Take care or choose a modification if you have wrist pain or carpal tunnel syndrome, a shoulder injury, glaucoma, uncontrolled high blood pressure or dizziness in head-down positions. Dolphin Pose on the forearms, or Down Dog with the hands on a wall or chair, are gentler options.

Why can't I get my heels to the floor in Downward Dog?

Usually because the calves and hamstrings are tight, and sometimes because of the length of your Achilles tendon or the shape of your ankles. Heels on the floor are not the goal of the pose. Keep the spine long with bent knees, and let the heels move down over time.

How long should you hold Downward Dog?

Five breaths is a good start and is the hold used in Ashtanga yoga. Iyengar teachers often hold for one to three minutes. Come down to Child's Pose when your wrists or shoulders start to ache, or when you can no longer breathe calmly.

Is Downward Dog a resting pose?

In flowing yoga it is used as one, because the breath can slow down there. For beginners it rarely feels restful, since the arms and shoulders are working and the legs are stretching. It gets easier as your shoulders grow stronger and your hamstrings lengthen.

Is Downward Dog an inversion?

It is a mild one. Your head is below your heart, but your feet stay on the floor. That is why people with glaucoma or uncontrolled high blood pressure are advised to keep it short or use the chair version.