Everyone knows Downward Facing Dog – it’s one of the first asanas you learn in yoga class and is probably one of the most widely known, widely used postures. It opens up the backs of the legs and the chest and shoulders. It brings strength to the upper body and you can’t help but draw in the abdomen while you’re there. It is an inversion so it can help to calm the brain and reduce stress and some women (me included) find it very helpful for period pain.
However it can also bring a whole heap of stress into the rotator cuff muscles in the shoulders and many people (Lisa I’m looking at you!) really don’t like it.
I love it myself, but I didn’t used to. It wasn’t until I made some major changes to the posture that I learned to love just hanging there.
Warning: I am about to break one of the big “alignment rules” – I don’t care, but Iyengar enthusiasts might want to avert their eyes now! 
The shoulder is a complicated joint and everybody’s work in slightly different ways. Some people have one shoulder that works one way and one that works another.
Traditionally, Downward Dog is taught with the hands about shoulder width apart and the index fingers pointing forward. That never really did it for me. My shoulders felt tight, my rotator cuffs horribly contracted, my shoulderblades sticking out.
And so I moved my hands to mat width apart and turned them outwards…
…and suddenly my shoulders opened, my chest moved further towards my thighs and my calves released. Wow!
It doesn’t work for everyone, but give it a go, see what happens, play around with the posititions of your hands and feet.
Yoga can become too restricted sometimes, too alignment focussed, too concerned with getting things “right”, but to me it’s just a ton of beautiful bodies doing their many varied beautiful things and every asana should feel playful, and only right in that it is right for you.
Thanks for the tip! I often wonder if i am doing it “correctly,” as in getting the most out of it. MY hamstrings are sooooo tight sometimes, i often wonder if i will ever loosen up. Cannot wait until YTT.
And this is exactly what I mean by “playful exploration”. We all have such different bodies and we need to find what allows us to open, not continue on in stuffy old constricted but “text book perfect” asana!
No worries about drawing Iyengar-wrath, Rachel! That is a variation I’ve seen many, many times over the years from senior teachers (and use myself in teaching) for those of tight shoulders. And sometimes not for tight shoulders, but just for the purpose of exploration to then lend itself to an experience of more opening in other poses. Try the feet mat width apart, too! It’s wonderful! I think the only hard and fast rule I’ve ever run across in the Iyengar world is ‘if you do headstand, you must follow it with shoulder stand later in your sequence.” The world of play is alive and well in Iyengar yoga! Where do people get such stodgy ideas about this method?
I, too, rock Down Dog with mat-width hands (and sometimes feet). It feel great to give the body some space!
I love Down Dog, although for the longest time I hated it. Now I can really relax into it and feel that space opening up. I do have a question, though: is it ever “okay” to tilt the hips backward? I know it causes the lower spine to curve inwards, but oh my, does it ever stretch my hamstrings in the most delicious way!
I hate Down Dog, absolutely hate it, while a friend loves it. My main problem is that you have to be upside-down, and I hate being upside-down; so uncomfortable! Anyway, I’m going to try this out – maybe I can be convinced yet! Thanks