Adho Mukho Svanasana: Try this asana to shoo away your back pain

This yoga pose will help you de-stress while toning your back and spine.

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Written By: Aishwarya Iyer | Updated : July 24, 2018 7:54 AM IST

Yoga has gained the prominence of becoming one of the most revered forms of exercise. Bollywood actors, experts, fitness trainers swear by yoga for fitness and rightly so. One of the foremost exercises that your yoga trainer would teach you is the adho mukho svanasana or the downward facing dog pose. The downward facing dog pose stretches your entire body besides stretching and strengthening the muscles of your back. It is an easy to do asana that helps optimise the functioning of the lower back.

Adhi Mukho Svasana or the downward facing dog pose is a great yoga asana for your all-round health. This yoga pose is deservedly, one of the most recognized. It offers you the ultimate rejuvenating stretch with loads of health benefits.

downward facing dog pose

How to perform the adho mukha savasana?

  • Come onto the floor on your hands and knees.
  • Place your knees and hands in a way that it touches the ground.
  • Your hands should be kept perpendicular to the knees and shoulders.
  • Now straighten your legs by pushing the hips out and stand on your toes.
  • Push the floor with your palms and straighten your spine.
  • In this position, you form a triangle like structure by making the ground as your base. Basically, you will look like an inverted 'V'.
  • Now, pull your hips down slowly and come back to the starting position.

Tip to improve: Try to hold onto the pose for a minute or so. Also, you could try inhaling and exhaling once you are back to the standing position. It will be of great help in relieving stress.

Don't perform this if:

  • You are in the final term of your pregnancy.
  • You are suffering from a back injury
  • You suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome
  • You are suffering from diarrhoea

Benefits

This is an excellent asana to relieve stress and energise the body. It stretches your shoulders, arches and hands while strengthening your arms and legs. The asana is also therapeutic for flat feet, sciatica and sinusitis.The pose has various health benefits, here are a few of them:

1) Helps in relieving stress and mild depression.

2) Excellent for shoulders, calves, arches, spine, hands and hamstrings.

3) Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause.

4) Relieves menstrual discomfort.

5) Improves digestion.

6) Relieves headaches, insomnia and fatigue.

7) Boosts stamina.

8) Prevents osteoporosis.

9) Strengthens arms and legs.

10) Since it is an inverted position, it helps in increasing the blood flow to the top of the body, thus improving cognitive functions.

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