Neck Safety in Urdhva Mukha Svanasana

Enjoy the moment – don’t rush through the pose 🙂 !
Upward Facing Dog is a pose we do dozens of times in our daily yoga practice. It feels great to open the front of the body and engage the back of the body, ahhh.  
In this video I’m trying to explain that unfortunately a lot of us don’t realize that we are over using the ‘back bend’ of the neck and under using the ‘back bend’ of the mid back and even sometimes the lower back (especially those who sit in chairs a lot in poor posture).  Let’s ‘share the work’ along the entire length of the spine to avoid long term wear and tear on the vertebra of the neck!

Average Range of Spinal Movements:


Extension – aka back bending
Cervical
75 °
Thoracic
25 °
Lumbar
35 °
TOTAL
135 °