Vinyasa Six (Adho Mukha Shvanasana — Downward Facing Dog)

With the beginning of the exhalation, flex your feet and roll back onto the soles. Release the heels toward the floor. Raise your buttocks to the sky like a mountain as the hip flexors engage and the legs work toward straightening. At the same time, push the floor away with your hands to shift weight back toward the feet. Set your shoulders broad with the armpits facing downward. If the shoulders are hunched around the ears, the armpits will face out to the sides; performed this way the trapezius muscle is overcontracted and the posture will tighten the neck and the shoulders. The correct shoulder position needs to be learned here, as it builds upper-body strength and is needed later on in backbends and arm balances. If the armpits face out to the sides, the arm bones (humeri) need to be outwardly rotated until the desirable result is achieved.

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