Angelica GovaertOwner/Founder, Yogalebrity · Online Yoga Empire Builder

Become a Certified Yoga Teacher Online at www.yogateachertraining.yoga

20 Jan 2023 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:00

In this instructional segment, the speaker identifies frequent errors beginners make when performing Upward Facing Dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana) and provides a step‑by‑step guide to the correct alignment. The pose begins with hands spread wide, fingertips grounded, and the feet on the tops of the toes as one leg steps back then the other. The chest is lifted through the arms, thighs are lifted off the mat, shoulders are rolled back, and the gaze is upward if comfortable. The speaker highlights typical mistakes—thighs resting on the floor, bent elbows, curled toes, and rounded shoulders—and suggests specific adjustments to remedy each issue.

Chapters

Yoga poses you're probably doing wrong. I only know this because so many beginner yoga students do this. Upward Facing Dog. If your Upward Facing Dog looks like any of these variants that I just did, you're not doing it right. Upward Facing Dog is known as Urdhva Mukha Svanasana. Urdhva means upward, mukha means face, sava means dog, and asana means pose. In Urdhva Mukha Svanasana, you're spreading your fingertips wide as you ground your hands down into the mat. Take one leg back and then the other, coming onto the tops of your feet. From here, you're going to let the chest come through the arms. The tops of the thighs are off of the ground, and roll the shoulders back as you look up if that feels comfortable. Some common mistakes I see are thighs on the ground, elbows bent. Toes curled under, shoulders crunched. Try out the adjustments that I