🐶 Workshop: Wiggle Your Inner Doggies!

MEMBERS PRIVILEGE: Limited & Unlimited members of Mahé entitles to 20% off. 

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Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana) is probably the most commonly used pose, but is still often misunderstood. It demands much of the body, and often causes students to "muscle through" rather than refining the appropriate actions of the body. 

In this alignment-based class we will warm up the hamstrings, feel the correct placement of the pelvis, work on strong, planted hands and play with the healthy rotation of the shoulders.

This practice will work your mind and body, and refine and deepen Downward Dog so that you can approach an old pose in new ways. 

IN THIS DOWNWARD-FACING DOG WORKSHOP, YOU’LL LEARN HOW TO:

✔️ Place your hands, wrists, shoulders correctly.

✔️ Find the strength of the legs to lengthen the hamstrings and the spine.

✔️ Work the shoulder blades optimally to keep the rotator cuff muscles safe and relieve neck issues.

✔️ Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana).  

This commonly-practiced yoga pose is ripe with benefits. It strengthens the upper body, elongates the spine, strengthens hands, wrists and fingers, both opens and strengthens the legs as well as strengthening the arms while releasing the upper back. It strengthens the ankles. It expands the lungs. It stimulates the immune, circulatory, digestive, and endocrine systems. It relieves tension and stress. It’s an inversion. It’s both a warm-up and a resting pose. 

It might be a basic pose, but that doesn’t mean it’s simple or easy to do. From the hands to the hips to the hamstrings to the heels, there’s a lot to work on. 

This workshop is for you if you are:

• always avoiding downward facing dogs.

• feeling weak to hold downward facing dogs longer than 3 long breaths. 

• not sure what to do in downward facing dog.

• trying to build total-body strength. 

Take this opportunity with Pritha to investigate your version of Downward Facing Dog and figure out which version is best for you - since we all have different body types.  

We look at growing the pose from scratch, gradually refining and adding playful variations. We'll introduce modifications for newer yoga students and/or those with injury or vulnerability in wrists/shoulders/low back so that everyone has access to the pose and its effects on the whole body mind experience. We'll experience the different ways Downward Facing Dog can appear in a yoga class, as a stand alone pose with and without props to support and refine, and as part of a "vinyasa" (placing poses in a special sequential relationship and flowing from one to another with the timing of the breath). 

Our aspiration is to cultivate a genuine friendship with and appreciation of this posture so that it can loyally serve us as we walk our yoga path together. 

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What to bring: - a yoga mat if you have one.