Yoga Teacher's Companion #40: 5 Ways to Improve Your Downward Facing Dog

Practicing--and teaching--Down Dog the same way every time leads to diminishing returns and stale cues. This episode breaks down 5 ways to improve Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) to focus on opening your shoulders, opening your hips, stretching your hamstrings, stretching your calves and more. Perfect for yoga students and yoga teachers alike.
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Highlights:
:30 5 Ways to Improve Your Down Dog
1:17 Jason's credentials and online courses
2:00 Technique 1: Use Hip Flexors More
3:20 Technique 2: Get More Calf Stretch
4:47 Technique 3: Strengthen & Stretch Hips
6:31 Technique 4: Get More Arm Rotation
9:07 Technique 5: Open Your Shoulders
ABOUT JASON:
Jason Crandell is a natural teacher and author with more than 20 years of experience. Named “one of the teachers shaping the future of yoga,” by Yoga Journal, Jason has been an in-demand teacher at conferences around the world for more than two decades.
For the past 10 years, Jason has honed his approach by looking to peers outside of the yoga community, in the fields of physical therapy, orthopedics, and sports medicine. These collaborative partnerships have enabled Jason to offer the most up-to-date to asana technique, cueing, injury management, and hands-on adjustments. Jason’s goal is to blend the timeless wisdom of yoga philosophy with evidence-based information to create yoga curriculum that helps modern practitioners grow and evolve.

[@stephkinneyyoga2988]

i truly love your videos!! thank you for sharing so many years of learning and teaching with us all!!

[@giddyglow9646]

Excellence as always Jason. Love the refinements for Down Dog and active stretching. Thank you!!

[@JasonCrandellYoga]

Glad you like them!

[@deetullis5134]

Appreciate that you explain how each technique affects specific areas

[@JasonCrandellYoga]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching!

[@yogawithsyl]

Thank you! Love these examples !

[@JasonCrandellYoga]

Glad you like them!

[@shubhayale900]

amazing content! thank you for sharing your knowledge so generously

[@JasonCrandellYoga]

My pleasure!

[@pambell4546]

Thanks Jason! Love to experiment/play with postures to find what works best for my body. Good reminder that what works for me, doesn't always great work for others

[@JasonCrandellYoga]

Absolutely!

[@simplyyogaom-yogawithmary1075]

Thank you so much for providing detailed information on how to experiment with DWD! I so appreciate it and your willingness to share!

[@JasonCrandellYoga]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jeremiahmcenerney5339]

Very nice! thank you.😊

[@JasonCrandellYoga]

You're welcome, Jeremiah!

[@Anya.Sirichenko]

Thank you for the incredibly useful tips🩷

[@JasonCrandellYoga]

You're so welcome!

[@CCB249]

I think all yoga teachers should teach this to their students. It is a basic pose, yet fundamental to yoga and gets so overlooked by instructors, but should not. Thank you for this video. Actually when a teacher teaches the fundamentals of downward facing dog like this, then I rate the teacher as good, otherwise not good.

[@chloek.5076]

100% agree. Good teachers value the basic alignments the most

[@JasonCrandellYoga]

You're welcome!