Ask a Yoga Teacher: Upward Facing Dog pose/Urdhva Mukha Svanasana

I’ve written many times about spinal extension and its importance as we age. I’ve included a few of those posts below.

Ask a Yoga Teacher: Save Your Spine with Backbending

The Secrets to Youth include Your Flexible Spine

3 Ways that Yoga can Improve Your Lower Back Pain

This month’s Ask a Yoga Teacher post is about Upward Facing Dog pose/Urdhva Mukha Svanasana. It’s a powerful backbending pose but can cause a lot of pain when repeatedly done incorrectly. I love this pose and I don’t think it gets enough attention overall.

The Foundation

Upward Dog is a backbending pose, but the backbend needs to happen in the Thoracic spine, not the Lumbar spine. Every vertebra that has a rib attached is your Thoracic spine and it typically curves toward the front of your body. This is why it’s easy to slouch, your body naturally curves that way. The Lumbar spine naturally curves in the other direction. Increasing that curvature can cause pain and compression in those Lumbar vertebrae. Not good.

Figuring out how to backbend in the Thoracic spine is critical to practicing Upward Dog safely and without discomfort. I like to start with a simpler pose: Cobra pose/Bhujangasana. Click the link to read more about Cobra.

Cobra pose has the pelvis on the floor and the backbend is found using the muscles along the spine, the Erector Spinae Group. When you press your hands into the mat, press them backward and downward so as to move your rib cage forward and upward. You want to create length in your spine, not compression. Your elbows should stay bent.

Upward Dog basics

Upward Facing Dog pose is basically Cobra taken off the floor. The shape of your spine is the same. The difference is that in Upward Dog, your arms are straight and the only things touching the floor are your hands and feet. In Cobra, the arms are bent and most of your body is on the floor.

Start lying face down on the floor. Place your hands by your lower ribs, underneath your elbows. Press the tops of your feet firmly into the floor and engage your quads. Your knees should hover off the floor. As you inhale, press your palms backward and downward and lengthen your spine forward and upward. This is Cobra pose.

From here, press your hands and feet into the floor to straighten your arms, lifting yourself off the floor. Imagine pressing your thighs toward the ceiling while lengthening your tailbone toward the floor. Press your chest forward through your arms, keeping your shoulder blades pressing downward toward your palms. Stay and breath 5 breaths, then lower back to Cobra. Relax your arms along side your body and turn your head to one side to rest. At some point, turn your head to the other side as well.

Things to think about

Because this is a backbending pose, the heart is open and lifted. I like to think of the center of my chest rising toward the ceiling. Make sure your head is in line with your spine. You might be looking forward, slightly upward, or upward, depending on the amount of backbend you have.

Keep your shoulders directly over your wrists with your palms flat on your mat. If your shoulders are too far forward it will hurt your wrists and you’ll lose connection with your legs. Press your shoulder blades downward toward your hands so that you don’t shrug your shoulders. This keeps you connected to your upper back muscles.

Actively press the tops of your feet into the mat (the toenail side). This helps you engage your legs so that the arms don’t have to do all the work. This also helps you stay out of your lower back.

Troubleshooting and tips

If you feel Upward Dog in your lower back, you may be pressing yourself backward rather than pulling yourself forward. Think about lengthening your tailbone toward the floor to keep the lower back long. Be sure to use your glutes, quads, and inner thighs for stability in this pose.

I find it helpful to place a block between my thighs to feel the legs activate. They can make a big difference in the feel of this pose. If you still can’t get out of your lower back, you may rest your knees on the floor. This doesn’t give you permission, however, to stop using your legs. Press downward through your knees and feet to keep the glutes and thighs active.

Upward Dog isn’t for everyone. There is nothing wrong with practicing Cobra instead of Upward Dog. You get the same backbending and leg activity in both poses. If you have moderate to significant Osteoporosis, please practice Cobra instead. With Osteopenia, you can still safely practice Upward Dog as long as you don’t have pain.

Practicing Upward Facing Dog

Please check out the video below where I guide you into Cobra then Upward Facing Dog.

Do you have a yoga related questions? Ask in the comments below! I’m happy answer your questions in my monthly series Ask a Yoga Teacher, which comes out the first Saturday of each month!

Thank you so much for reading Yoga Living 50 and Beyond. Aging isn’t easy, and all the messages out there say we shouldn’t. I disagree. I write about embracing aging through the lens of yoga, and how to apply your yoga practice to your life. What you practice on the mat you take with you off the mat. Please tap the 💜 and become a free or paid subscriber. I appreciate your support, whatever it looks like. ~Janine

I don’t always remember put this graphic in, but it’s always true. All of my essays are 100% written by me, not AI. They are my thoughts, my words, and my experiences from over 30 years of practicing and teaching yoga. Thanks for reading! 💜 Janine