Why Won't My Heels Touch The Floor in Downdog?
Firstly, while your heels not touching the floor in downdog can really seem like it's a problem when cues like "Place your heels on the floor." seem to imply that is, or should be, a "goal" of downward facing dog pose; however, the reality is, it's not actually a problem at all. You could have your heels on the floor and be doing zero work or you could have your heels nowhere near the floor and be doing so much work and unless you hike steep hills regularly, squat instead of sitting to watch tv or eat the 45 degrees of ankle dorsiflexion (Need a refresher on dorsiflexion? click here!) needed for heels down in downdog is more range of motion for your ankles than almost anything required in our normal daily life.
Factors that can play a role in whether your heels reach the floor now or ever.
Tight calves and or hamstrings - as a side note, reaching the heels towards the floor in downdog can help stretch out tight calves.
Tight hips - Tight hips are usually an indication of held patterns of stress and binding fascia especially at the heads of the femurs and around the sacrum. An imbalance causing the hamstrings to rigidly counterstretch at a constant, low-grade level can be caused by a tight psoas muscle which connects from the inner trochanter of the femur (leg bone) all the way up to the thoracic spine, where it meshes with the diaphragm. This is probably the most common reason for the inability to lower the heels in this posture. (3)
Soft tissue limitations - i.e. the length of your Achilles for example. The definition of soft tissue includes fascia, tendons, and muscles.
Anatomy!! aka Bony limitations - Your anatomy could literally just not be designed in a way that will allow for the heels to touch the floor! To restate: your anatomy may cause the foot and ankle to compress at a wider angle that 45 degrees, preventing the top of the foot from moving closer to the shin. (3) This means that no amount of physical effort or meditation will change your bones if this is the case for you!
While it doesn't matter if your heels touch the floor or not, there are benefits to heels reaching toward the floor in downdog when done with awareness, one of those being stretch for the calf mentioned above - this is particularly important for runners and hikers that have perpetually tight calves that may become problematic. In contrast when the reaching is done without awareness, you risk flattening the inner arches of the feet and dropping the inner ankles, a position called pronation, which contributes to problems like plantar fasciitis and bunions. Additionally, you could lose your neutral spine by rounding your low back because reaching through the heels pulls on the ischial tuberosities [sitting bones], moving them toward the heels, which, in turn, will cause the pelvis to move into a posterior pelvic tilt and force the lower back to round.” (2)
In conclusion, there may be some other actions to prioritize in downdog that may be more beneficial than reaching your heels to the floor. Consider for a moment that downdog is a pose with 4 points of contact with the floor making it among other things a quadruped pose. Why is it then that often the arms are doing 90% of the work while the legs do 10%? Leading to an inquiry opportunity of "What would it feel like to place equal weight in each hand and each foot?" The action of moving weight into the legs can bring about the primary action of lengthening the spine which is one of the key reasons downdog is such an important and all around beneficial pose, but effort and attention is required to step into the legs without sacrificing your neutral spine and the integrity of your shoulders and ribcage.
Sidenote: With a neutral spine mentioned so often above you might begin to ask "Why care about a neutral spine in downdog?" and that is a conversation I'll save for a different newsletter, but one that's important to have when using the physical yoga practice to move yourself towards wellness.
Want to put your heels on the floor? Here's some tips and tricks:
Do asanas that stretch the metatarsals and feet: Balancing postures such as toe stand, natarajasana, garland posture (malasana) and more help to stretch the toes and indirectly stretch the calves and achilles tendon area. Work on spreading your toes in these postures. (3)
Engage the quadriceps: The hamstrings are a group of muscles that flex the leg, primarily in opposition to th equadriceps. Through reciprocal innervation, if you strongly engage the quadriceps your hamstrings will have to release accordingly. (3)
Lengthen Your Calves: To get heels to the floor, the main muscle group to lengthen is the calf. Rolling on tennis balls, lacrosse balls or a foam roller releases calf knots from over-exertion or habitual ways of moving.
Train Mobility: Gastroc crosses both the ankle and the knee. This muscle looses elasticity and length with life in general. Athletes and active people will often get restrictions in gastroc if mobility is not a meaningful part of their training.
Consciously avoiding hyper extension at the knee (both on and off the mat): For one, it will tighten and shorten your Soleus! Soleus, which crosses the ankle but not the knee, tends to shorten in particular in those with knee hyperextension (sometimes called double-jointed). If, when you straighten your knees, your leg bows backwards (when seen from the side), this will shorten soleus in a chronic way…anytime you are standing with legs “straight”. (1)
Avoid Wearing High Heels - another common contributor to soleus tightness is wearing high heels. While walking in heels, your knees straighten somewhat, but your ankles are chronically in Barbie-foot position. High heels are not the only culprit: most shoes have somewhat of a heel, including sneakers. All may contribute to a shorter soleus and general restrictions in your Achilles. Examine your shoewear and spend some time each day walking barefoot (1)
Contract the front shin muscles –anterior tibialis and the toe extensors — even if nothing moves, it will create a signal to relax the tone of the calves
For Yoga Teachers cue substitutions for "Put Your Heels on the Floor" to consider:
"Press down through your heels only as much as you can while keeping your inner arches and inner ankles lifted."
"shift weight to the back of your toe mounds/balls of feet and reach forward with all ten toes."
"Cultivate the action of reaching your shins to your feel while folding the tops of your feet to your shins."
"Reach down through your heels as you lift up through your sit bones (or hips)." (2)
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