Urdhva Muhka Svanasana

Translation:

Upward Facing Dog. In Sanskrit, urdhva means upward, mukha means face and svana translates to dog.

Pronunciation:

(URD-vah MOO-kah svan-AHS-ahnuh)
This is foundational backbend.  It is a very popular asana as it provides a safe base in which to work on many of the essential elements of more advanced back bending poses.

Technique:

Lie face downward. Extend your legs back with your big toes together. With bent elbows, spread the palms wide on the floor with the middle fingers parallel with your fingertips at chest level. 

Push evenly down through your hands as you lift your chest up. Your hips lift up off the floor. Extend the gluteal muscles back towards the knees without clenching the buttocks together.  Activate the leg muscles.  Lift your hips and thighs off the floor as you balance on the tops of your feet which support you. Straighten your arms.  Relax your shoulders down from your ears and roll the shoulders back.

Lift your sternum.  Keep your arms fully extended so the weight of the upper body is transmitted through the arm muscles down into the floor below.  The arms should be kept perpendicular to the floor.  Keeping the shoulders relaxed down from the ears, extend the chest forward through the straight arms so that it pulls your legs forward and opens in front of your straight arms.  Extend the cervical vertebrae in your neck as you arch your head backwards as far as possible without any “crunching” of the neck’s vertebrae.

Throughout the pose it is very important to protect the vertebrae of the lower back. 

This is accomplished by rotating your coccyx through your legs towards your pubic bone while simultaneously lifting the bottom ribs up from the pelvis.  If this movement is unfamiliar to you and you have access to a knowledgeable teacher, please have them teach it to you.  It helps create distance between the lumbar vertebrae in the lower back so that the backbend is a more healthy movement.  It helps avoid having the lower back’s vertebrae squeeze down on the inter-vertebral cartilage which can create lower back pains or even “slipped disks” in the lower back.

Feel the lift in your chest. Look skyward with a relaxed and happy face. Feel pressure of your energy pushing into all fingers and thumbs with straight, perpendicular arms. Stay in the pose for 5 to 10 relaxed breaths. You may want to gently come out of the posture, and move into child’s pose (balasana). Otherwise rest prone, facedown on the floor.

This pose is often included a part of a vinyasa (flowing) sequence of poses. In this case The next pose in the sequence is often Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana).

Beginners Tip:

Keep arms strong and straight in the full pose and don’t let the elbows bend and move out and away from the body.

Variation:

Place two blocks flat on the floor underneath you hands. This will give you more lift in the pose.

Benefits:

Strengthens the spine, arms, wrists, shoulders, lungs and abdomen.
Increases the flexibility of the spine giving a fresh blood supply.
Encourages the creation of spinal space between vertebrae
Nerves and muscles of the back are stimulated
Tones the buttocks
Tones the abdominal organs
Rejuvenates and lifts the spirits
Helps relieve sciatica if not severe
Energizing to the body
Good for those with asthma because of the effect on the lungs
Heart opener

Caution:

Avoid crunching of the lower back by spreading your extension throughout the length of the front and back of the body. The body is curved and extended for the length of the spine, not just bending at a single place like a hinge. Lift your knees off the floor in the pose with the strength of the tops of the feet to avoid crunching.

Don’t do the pose if you have any of the following conditions:

Back injury
Carpal tunnel syndrome
Headache
Pregnancy

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