What action is described for Exhale Downward Facing Dog?

What action is described for Exhale Downward Facing Dog?

• A. Press heels down
• B. Hunch shoulders
• C. Lift your hips
• D. Curl your toes and send your hips up and back

Answer: (D)

Curling your toes under and sending your hips up and back on the exhale is how you enter Downward-Facing Dog. This cue creates the inverted-V shape, lengthens the spine, and anchors your weight through the hands as the hips lift. Curling the toes gives you the leverage to lift efficiently and helps protect the lower back by allowing a safer, more extended spine. Pressing the heels down is a helpful alignment refinement once you’re in the pose, but it’s not the primary exhale cue described here. Hunching the shoulders would collapse the chest and shorten the spine, which isn’t desirable. Lifting the hips happens as part of the pose, but the key exhale action that defines this entry is curling the toes and lifting the hips up and back.

Curling your toes under and sending your hips up and back on the exhale is how you enter Downward-Facing Dog. This cue creates the inverted-V shape, lengthens the spine, and anchors your weight through the hands as the hips lift. Curling the toes gives you the leverage to lift efficiently and helps protect the lower back by allowing a safer, more extended spine.

Pressing the heels down is a helpful alignment refinement once you’re in the pose, but it’s not the primary exhale cue described here. Hunching the shoulders would collapse the chest and shorten the spine, which isn’t desirable. Lifting the hips happens as part of the pose, but the key exhale action that defines this entry is curling the toes and lifting the hips up and back.