Deconstructing Down Dog Part 7 of 10- The Hamstrings

Part 7 of the Down Dog series is about the hamstrings, calves and this shitty little muscle right behind the knee.
Several reasons why people want their legs straight in down dog:
-they feel a stretch and it may feel good
-they think their legs are suppose to be straight b:c everyone else has their legs straight and so does the instructor.
- they don’t remember how the instructor set them up b/c this takes practice
I encourage my classes to move around in down dog to get some of these superficial tightnesses out of the way.
When it come time to be “still” in the pose I’m a bit more adamant about length through the spine, which does mean for a lot of people that the knees are bent. It doesn’t mean the pose is wrong if they are bent. The spine, neck, shoulder, wrists are far more important than a stretch in the hamstrings.
While it feels like a nice release you’re not doing anything productive.
If the legs are straight but the back is rounded the load transfer through spine is not ideal and most of the load (stress) that the legs are suppose to be taking will be taken up by the wrists and shoulders and neck.
Students either want to put the effort in for how the pose should look for them or they don’t. The instructor either knows or they don’t. Down dog and chaturangas don’t damage the body it’s the person not knowing how to perform strength movements and the instructor doesn’t know either. Now some ppl are coming in with pre-existing issues in the wrist and shoulders. They need to tell us. I can usually sort that out teaching proper strength position or in addition doing some Pdtr. Sometimes the pose is out!