Pose Breakdown: Upward Facing Dog
If you’ve taken a Vinyasa class, chances are you’ve been offered Upward Facing Dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana) before. It’s a key element of Sun Salutation A, central to many Vinyasa classes and the Ashtanga Primary Series, and typically part of the repetitive Vinyasa flow threaded through many yoga classes.
In the rush of the flow, it’s possible you haven’t stopped to really take in the pose, which sometimes gets swapped with Cobra Pose. It’s a beautiful lower-body stretch complemented perfectly by its sibling, Downward Facing Dog, and a serious strength-builder.
Getting into a full, deliberate Upward Facing Dog involves firing a lot of muscles in your thighs and core while bringing a deep, deep stretch to your spine. It can feel like a lot to juggle, but once you get the hang of it, all the moving parts click into place.
Benefits of Upward Facing Dog Pose
Improves your posture
Strengthens your spine, wrists, and arms
Stretches your chest, shoulders, and core
Energizes your body
Helps relieve sciatica
Contraindications
Work with your doctor or avoid this pose if you have any kind of spinal injury, and save this pose for when you’re feeling better if you’re experiencing back pain.
How to Do Upward Facing Dog Pose
1. Start on your belly in a prone position.
2. Bring your hands underneath your elbows, squeeze your elbows together, and draw your shoulders back.
3. Press down into the tops of your feet and curl your chest up.
4. Straighten your arms and lift your thighs up off the ground.
5. Activate your legs, engage your glutes, and squeeze your inner thighs together.
6. Draw your shoulders back and pull your shoulder blades together.
7. Elevate up through the crown of your head to lengthen your neck, and bring your gaze forward.
Follow Up Poses for Upward Facing Dog
Downward Facing Dog
Child’s Pose
Your Vinyasa flow of choice
What Does Urdhva Mukha Svanasana Mean?
“Urdhva” means “upward,” “mukha” means “mouth,” and together they mean “having one’s mouth upwards.” “Svana” means “dog,” and “asana” means “pose” or “seat.” It’s essentially just “upward-facing dog.” This is also how Downward Facing Dog, or Adho Mukha Svanasana, is structured: “Adho Mukha” means “having one’s mouth downwards.” The poses are named because they look like dogs stretching.
It’s hard to tell exactly which lineage brought us Downward and Upward Facing Dogs. Similar poses appear next to one another in the 19th-century text Sritattvanidhi, but called Elephant Pose and Fish Pose, respectively.
Both postures are central to the Sun Salutation described in the 1928 book The Ten-Point Way to Health: Surya Namaskars by Bhawanrao Shriniwasrao Pant Pratinidhi. Sun Salutations are a much older practice (possibly even this sequence), but this text standardized the Sun Salutation A that we practice today. No dog names though: Each pose is numbered, not named.
They appear with their modern shapes and names in the 1934 text Yoga Makaranda, written by yogi Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, whose students would go on to heavily influence yoga in the West: Indra Devi (who popularized yoga in 1950s Hollywood), Patthabi Jois, and BKS Iyengar. Jois developed Ashtanga Yoga, and Upward Facing Dog is part of his strict sequence that yogis still practice today (you can take classes on Alo Moves!). Iyengar’s own style, Iyengar Yoga, also includes the dogs — and his 1966 book and pose library Light on Yoga contains many yoga postures you’re probably familiar with.
Get to the heart of Sun Salutations with Briohny Smyth’s detailed Sun Salutation A breakdown, available for free with a 14-day trial to Alo Moves.
