Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutation)

Hello everyone, welcome to Yoga & You. I am Sanjana Prasad, a passionate yoga practitioner and teacher from India, sharing simple and meaningful practices with the world. Today's video is about Surya Namaskara, Sun Salutations, a very popular practice. I am sure a lot of you must have seen it, heard about it, or even practiced some variation of Surya Namaskara.

In Surya Namaskara there are 12 steps and each step has a breath cue. So in the practice we are trying to synchronize the movement with the breath, and the practice itself becomes like a moving meditation. It is an energizing practice because we are saluting the sun, which is the source of energy, prana and strength. And it is best done in the mornings because it can be quite stimulating.

If you are a beginner to the practice, you can start off with about three to four rounds. It's an excellent way to begin your practice with, because it warms up the entire body. It wakes up your spine, it gives you that energy boost, it can also help in boosting your metabolism. And if you are trying to manage your weight, it improves your focus. But most importantly, with respect to your practice, it helps with creating that strength, the coordination, the stability in your practice, which you can carry into the rest of the practice.

So let's get into Surya Namaskara today. I am going to be practicing the classical Surya Namaskara. I am going to be showing you the right side and the left side as a full flow once. And then we will go into breaking down every posture, how you can modify it, what are the common mistakes, and what you should watch out for. Let's begin.

We are going to start off by stepping to the top of the mat. On the right side I am going to mention the breath cue for every movement. When we do the left, I will also add the name of the posture so that we can combine the two when we break down. So start with your feet together, roll the shoulders back, your pelvis is neutral, stand tall.

Tadasana or Samasthiti. Inhale, exhale, palms to the heart center. Inhale, bend the knees, tuck the tailbone, arch your back. Exhale, full forward fold. Inhale, step the right foot back, place the knee down, relax the toes, and look forward. Exhale, take your left foot back.

Hold your breath after the exhale. Drop the knees down, chest chin down to the mat. You can also drop the forehead down. Inhale, slide forward and lift the chest up. Exhale, tuck the toes, push the hips up and back, feet together.

Inhale, step the right foot forward, place the left knee down, relax the toes. Exhale, left foot forward, join the feet, full forward fold. Inhale, take your arms forward and come up, tuck the tailbone, arch back. Exhale, palms back to heart center. Release the hands, Samasthiti.

Now we are going to do the left side. In addition to the breath, you are also going to name the asanas. Inhale, exhale, palms to the heart center. Pranamasana. Inhale, tuck the tailbone, arch the back. Hasta Uttanasana. Exhale, full forward fold. Padahastasana.

Inhale, step the left foot back, left knee down. Look forward, Ashwa Sanchalanasana. Exhale and take the right foot back. Kumbhakasana. Keep going, plank. Hold the breath after exhale, drop the knees down, chest chin down. Ashtanga Namaskara.

Inhale, slide forward, point the toes, lift the chest up. Bhujangasana. Tuck the toes, exhale, hips up and back. Parvatasana. Inhale, step the left foot forward, knee down. Relax the toes, Ashwa Sanchalanasana. Exhale, right foot forward, join the feet, full forward fold. Padahastasana.

Inhale, arms up, tuck the tailbone, arch back. Hasta Uttanasana. Exhale, palms to heart center. Pranamasana. Release the hands, relax.

So that was the full flow of the practice with the breath cue and name of the posture. We did the right and left. We're moving into breaking down each posture so you can understand how to practice it better, with modifications, safely and in a way that suits your body. We're going to do just one side of this breakdown.

So you start at the top of the mat. Right here itself, keeping the feet together is challenging. You can separate your feet, start with your feet hip-width apart. We're going to bring the palms to the heart center. When you're arching back, you soften the knees a bit. You're not going to push the hip back and arch. Instead, you slightly tuck the tailbone, push the navel forward, and try to lift the chest up and arch back.

Now in this position, sometimes the elbows start to bend and you're not able to keep the arms straight. In case you're feeling any restriction around the neck, feel free to open up the hands. Inhale, tuck the tailbone, arch back, palms together or open hands, lift the chest up. Exhale, full forward fold, can place the palms down. Now if this is challenging, feel free to bend your knees and place the fingertips down. Try to get your chest as close as you can to the thighs. So try and relax the legs as much as you can here, and allow the neck to relax.

Inhale, step the right foot back, place the right knee down. Here, you want your fingertips and your toes to be in one line, and you relax the toes at the back. Try to keep the hip down and you're not collapsing here. You're trying to lift the chest up. Now exhale, and you're going to take the legs back into plank position.

Now in your plank, the first thing you want to think about, keep the shoulder right over your wrist. So let's go back to the previous posture. Here in Ashwa Sanchalanasana, if your hands are somewhere here, when you go back to plank, your palms are going to remain there and you're going to be in a wide plank position like this, which will be difficult, because it makes the following posture also challenging.

So in your Surya Namaskara, every posture is linked to the next one. So we're going to try to maintain the alignment and the breath in such a way that they can flow through the practice without much adjustment. So in Ashwa Sanchalanasana itself, ensure your fingertips are in line with your toes. Now you'll see the shoulder is already over the wrist. You're just going to tuck the toes, take the left foot back, and get into plank.

Now in plank, we are not sinking the hips, neither are we lifting the hips up. From the shoulder to your heel is one straight line. Your knees are straight, belly drawn in. If you find this plank challenging, you take the left foot back and go to a knee-down variation of the plank. Toes are tucked, you're still leaning forward. You're in a supported plank position; from there, your knees are already down. We're going to bring your chest down, forehead down to the floor. Some people do chest chin down, some of us do chest forehead down. It depends on what is comfortable for you, also your teacher and which edition you're following.

Now from here, we're going to slide forward to Bhujangasana. But before we get here, most of us get stuck with the knees-chest-chin-down phase because you find it hard to bend the elbows and lower the chest. I'm going to share a quick tip for that.

Once you come into plank, when you drop the knees, ensure you're not dropping the knees too far forward or too much at the back. Like I said, every posture is interlinked to the next one. From plank, drop the knees exactly where they are. Now, you can move your hips back slightly. Look ahead to where you're going to place your chin. You're going to dive diagonally down to the floor; think of a scooping action. Watch me once — you're going to push the hips back and you're going to scoop to the floor. From here, I'm not going straight down, but I'm bringing the chest diagonally down in a scoop. It will just make it a little easier. Once this gets comfortable, you won't have to think about it as much.

So drop the knees down, slightly move the hips back, scoop down to bring the chest down, so head down. Now from here, you use your toes to guide yourself forward and lift the chest up. Now, this gliding forward is also important because it automatically adjusts your hand position for you to go back into Parvatasana.

So from plank: knees, hips back, scoop down. Chest comes between the hands here for head down. I'm using my feet now to push myself forward slightly and lift the chest up. In Bhujangasana, we don't want to squeeze the shoulders or straighten up fully. Minimal support from the hands, try to lift the chest, neck relaxed.

Now tuck the toes, exhale, hips up. Try to drop the heels down as much as you can. Here, we don't want to be stuck here. If this is happening, bend the knees and push the hips back. It's okay if the heels don't reach the floor. You want to think more about creating space through the spine, and then think about bringing the heels down. So feel free to modify this, keep the shoulder and neck free.

From your Parvatasana here, step the right foot forward. This — I find this happening a lot through my teaching — people get stuck here. You're not able to bring the foot all the way to the top. If you continue in this flow, you will end up coming back on the mat. So as the rounds keep going, you will keep going back towards the back of your mat. So for you to step the foot forward fully, we definitely need to work a little bit more on the mobility of your hip.

But to keep this practice going, what you can do is from Parvatasana, you bend the knee, step the right foot forward. Now if you're feeling a little stuck here, you can hold your right ankle, okay, drop the left knee down, hold, and step it forward. Help yourself to bring the foot forward. So the fingertips are in line with the toes. Relax the left toes, drop the hip down as you are centered. Press into the palms and you're going to step the left foot forward.

Join your feet at the top of the mat. Again, feel free to bend the knees for the full forward fold. When you're coming up, join the hands or separate the palms, but we're going to lengthen forward. We're not coming up this way or swinging up. Extend the hands forward. Come up, tuck the tailbone, arch back; exhale, palms back to heart center. Release the hands and legs.

In your Ashtanga Namaskara, if you have any shoulder or neck issues, you might want to avoid that movement of bringing the chest down. In that case, you can also replace this Ashtanga Namaskara with a child's pose. From your plank, you can just drop the knees down, sit back into a child's pose. From child's pose to continue, instead of the Bhujangasana back bend, you can do a cat-camel here. Arch the back, and then tuck the toes and get into your Parvatasana. You still have the component of doing the back bend by doing your cat-camel there, and then you can progress into your Parvatasana. This is just an option if you are having any kind of injury, aches, or pains around your shoulders, and this is a great option to use.

So that was your breakdown of the classical Surya Namaskara. If you are a complete beginner, new to the practice, you might find a few hiccups here and there, especially with taking the leg back or forward, for which I have given you modifications. But if you keep practicing, the body will fall into a rhythm and you will notice how fluid the Surya Namaskara will become. And the practice can go very, very deep because we also have Mantra Surya Namaskara. Every posture has a mantra for it, and you can chant the mantra mentally, so it really becomes a deeper form of meditation.

We also have another video which is all about the common mistakes that you could be doing in the Surya Namaskara. And if you are learning the Surya Namaskara, that is also a very helpful video to check out before you start practicing.

I hope this video was useful, and you start practicing Surya Namaskara and start enjoying it.