How to Do Upward Dog in Yoga to Relieve Tight, Tense Shoulders

One of the most common poses you're sure to see in a yoga class is upward-facing dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana). That's because it's a foundational part of Vinyasa yoga, a style of yoga that involves stringing together poses and syncing that movement with your breath.

Upward dog provides a full extension of your entire spine. It also stretches the front of your body, including your shoulders and chest. And, because it's practiced so commonly in Vinyasa yoga classes, it's important to get it right to avoid injury.

Read on to learn more about upward dog and how to get the benefits of this yoga pose that requires full-body activation and coordination.

• ‌What is upward dog?‌ In addition to being a type of backbend that comes between chaturanga and downward facing dog in a sun salutation, it's also an arm-support pose. In upward dog, you use your arms to press not only your chest, but the rest of your body as well, away from the ground — your hands and feet should be your only body parts touching the floor.
• ‌Who can do upward dog?‌ In general, anyone with a healthy back can do this pose. "Upward dog is good for your back if you can do it without pain," says Storme Sundberg, a Phoenix-based certified yoga teacher with more than 20 years of experience. It might be uncomfortable to start, she says, but you should never feel any sharp, sudden pains. That's an indication to back off and work a modification, like cobra pose (Bhujangasana) instead.
• ‌What muscles does upward dog work?‌ This pose stretches the front of your body, including your hips, rectus abdominis (the top layer of your abdominal muscles), chest and shoulders. It requires activation in your shoulders, arms, psoas (a muscle that stretches from your lumbar spine to your hip and upper thigh area), hamstrings and transverse abdominis (the deepest ab muscle). The transverse abdominal activation is critical for supporting and protecting your lumbar spine.
• ‌Is upward dog good for your back?‌ Upward dog strengthens your back muscles and lengthens your spine. However, most yoga injuries occur in the spine and are a result of extreme flexion (bending forward) or extension (bending backward) of the spine, according to a February 2019 editorial in ‌Mayo Clinic Proceedings‌. So it's important to take this pose slowly and be mindful of how you're moving. If you have a history of back pain, this pose may aggravate your backside, so you may want to skip it.
• ‌Upward dog versus cobra pose: What's the difference?‌ In cobra pose, your torso remains on the floor, and your deep intrinsic back muscles do the work of lifting your chest away from the floor. With upward dog, you use your hands and feet to lift and suspend your body off of the floor. "Cobra creates more of an arch in the upper back, while upward dog actively extends the entire spine," Sundberg says.
• ‌How long should you hold upward dog?‌ Because upward dog is most often practiced as a transition posture in a Vinyasa practice, people usually only hold it for a single inhale before moving on with an exhale to downward dog. However, holding upward for a few rounds of breath might help facilitate greater extension through your mid-back (thoracic spine) on your inhales, while your exhales facilitate greater stability in your lumbar spine.

If you spend a lot of time sitting at your desk looking at a computer or on the couch scrolling on your phone, there's a good chance your shoulders are hunched forward and your neck is tilted down most of the day.

Adding upward dog to your yoga practice can help open up your neck, shoulders and chest, which helps improve your overall posture. Plus, it feels good to stretch your upper body like this to relieve tightness and tension in your muscles.

This yoga pose also activates the muscles in your back. The more you work these muscles, the less chance you have at experiencing back pain.

This common misalignment is usually an indication that your shoulder muscles aren't actively engaged. Collapsing your shoulders inward can also cause strain in your neck and shoulders.

This is usually an indicator of a disengaged core. However, your core is an important part of supporting your spine through the upward dog extension. Failing to engage your core could result in compression and injury to your lumbar spine, like lower back pain.

In backbends, people tend to want to toss their head back and lift their chin. This action might feel like additional extension, but it compresses the back of your neck and inhibits the last bit of spinal extension.

Resting your legs on the mat turns upward dog into cobra pose. If your legs are somewhere in between where they should be in either of those two poses, you may increase your risk of injury due to poor alignment.