How to Get Your Heels to the Floor in Downward Dog

A Practice to Get Your Heels to the Ground in Down Dog (36 min)

As always, this video is for educational purposes, and is NOT a replacement for medical advice. If you have pain anywhere in your body, please see a physical therapist (physiotherapist). For those who have seen a physical therapist before without much to show for it: try a different one and try for more than 3 sessions. Nothing will replace skillful, hands-on, individualized care for your long term health. I offer up this video as generally therapeutic practice. There is no intention that it will supplement or replace actual physical therapy / physiotherapy or other medical advice.

Please let me know if you try the video and I’d love if you share your comments on YouTube!

This post (#6) continues the series highlighting my YouTube channel “library” of rich videos. Today: How to Get Your Heels to the Floor in Down Dog — currently my 5th most viewed YouTube video, with 4.5k views.

I have already written about the subject of getting your heels to the floor in down dog fairly extensively over at YogaAnatomyAcademy.com, and you should definitely check out that blog post:

This post will focus more on why you should try this exact practice.

CLASS DESCRIPTION / WHAT TO EXPECT DURING THIS CLASS

You’ll learn ways to practice “Contract-relax” of the two main muscles of your calf. You’ll learn reciprocal inhibition in action for hamstrings and calf relaxation, you’ll hear me explain the potential reasons why your heels don’t touch the ground and you’ll get tons of ideas and perhaps a new relationship between the floor and your heels by the end of it.

And you’ll get it all in context. The testimonials in the comments section are happy. Try it.

OTHER POSES INCLUDE:

Uttanasana / forward standing fold
IT band stretch twist / Variation on Ganesha’s trunk
“Empty Coatsleeves”
Sidebends
Utkatasana / Chair pose
Virasana
Dandasana
Janu Sirsasana
Malasana
Calf and foot self massage using the block
Childs pose

PROPS YOU’LL WANT:

2 Blocks, a blanket

VIEWER TESTIMONIALS:

“This has helped me improve my down dog so much. Thank you for such great information!”

“this is the only video that Helps to understand how to improve the downward dog for real, in My opinion.”

Please let me know if YOU get your heels to the floor in down dog after practicing this class!

I post these videos for free, and your “LIKEs” and subscribes means a ton to me. Please leave any feedback, questions or comments below the video, and if you might like to watch more, let me know by hitting “Subscribe” on my channel. You’ll be notified when new content is uploaded so you never miss a video!

To learn more about yoga anatomy and what informs this kind of therapeutic teaching, please check out my 12 week, information-packed yoga anatomy mentorship by visiting https://www.yogaanatomyacademy.com.

Originally published- 08/21/2019

Categories: Yoga