What a great way to start a brand new segment you will see once a week on my blog, The Asana Lab.

Inspired by a class I attended at Wanderlust Festival, this regular addition will help you explore asana's or yoga postures a little differently or maybe it will inspire you to try something new.

So I thought I would start with the phenomenon that is Downward Facing Dog. This asana or posture has to be the most popular and well known yoga posture in the world, and that's potentially because it is a very attainable pose with a HUGE range of benefits.

Ever heard a yoga teacher say "breathe in as you lift your hips to the sky, adho mukha svanasana" and wondered what they are talking about? Well Adho Mukha Svanasana is the sanskrit translation of the pose and literally translates to down-face-dog-pose.

The benefits of this pose are endless, everything from a subtle strengthening of the shoulder and wrist joints, a beautiful stretch through the spine, backs and insides of the legs, a gentle toe and foot stretch, an inversion combined with abdominal strengthening and more...

But for all it's benefits and promotion across the world I too often see a downward facing dog where the pressure is uneven between hands or feet or all of the above, and I myself am no stranger to needing some gentle cues to adjust my 'dog' in order to come to a pose that is most beneficial for my body and my mind.

So here are a few of the cues, starting from your base that you need to know to perfect your Adho Mukha Svanasana:

Spread your fingers wide, place your hands shoulder distance apart, make sure your middle fingers are parallel to each other and facing directly ahead
Press the ground away from you, straighten your arms and pull your humerus into your shoulder sockets (pull your arms into the shoulder joint), create room between your neck and your ears
Keep your ears in line with your arms, don't extend your neck too far
Pull your naval into your spine, allow your pelvis room to tilt
Stretch and extend through your legs, activate your heels and push them to the floor (ps. it doesn't matter if they don't touch the ground)
Try to place even weight between your hands and your feet, adjust the distance between them to find your very own sweet spot