Chapter 4: Sun Salutations –
Begin Your Day by Saluting The Sun
Just like the name suggests, sun salutations are a salute to the sun and a beautiful way to begin the day. I can guarantee you that already after the first sun salutation you will find some sort of inner peace. Sun salutations have been used for thousands of years to strengthen, warm up, and purify the body and mind. The sun salutations appear in some of the world’s oldest scriptures, the Yajur Veda and the Rg Veda. You can practice the sun salutations every day to warm up, soften, and prepare the body for the day ahead. The early morning is the best time to practice yoga, while the sun is rising and the stomach and the mind are empty. No matter what poses you choose to do from this book, you can always begin your practice with the sun salutations. You can do as many as you like, but in ashtanga vinyasa yoga you usually do five sun salutations A and five sun salutations B.
Sun salutations as shown by yoga teacher
Viveka Blom Nygren, 41 years old
“I began practicing prenatal yoga in 1990, then I had a big break from it before I took up ashtanga vinyasa yoga in 2000. I saw the transformation in my good friends who had just begun practicing yoga and it made me want to start as well. Yoga has changed my life. You can actually divide my life into “before” and “after” sections. Since I started practicing yoga, I feel connected to myself, and in turn I am living the life I want to live. To me yoga is like a guiding star that I can turn to for energy for both my career and for my everyday life. Yoga makes me happier, calmer, and more balanced.”
Sun Salutation A Surya namaskar A
The starting point for all standing poses and the sun salutations is Samastitihi. Stand upright with both feet firmly on the ground with arms hanging by your sides and the back straight – this is perhaps the hardest of all poses. Feel how you are standing. Are you using the entire foot, or are you leaning to one side of the foot? Maybe you are leaning to one hip when you stand “straight up.” Are you letting go of the stomach and over-arching the lumbar? When you begin practicing yoga you will become more conscious of your body. How you are standing. How you walk. How you use your body. Instead of taking the body for granted you will ask yourself: How does this feel? Why do I have a headache or a backache? How do you use your feet, your roots, your foundation? Think about how it feels. Yoga is all about listening to your body.
1 Pranamasana
Bring palms together in front of your chest and collect yourself.
3 Utthita Tadasana
On the inhale: Reach your arms up above the head without lifting your shoulders. Feel as if you are extending up to lengthen the spine. Your gaze follows the hand. Bring palms together over your head.
2 Samasthiti
Release the hands by your sides.
4 Uttanasana
On the exhale: Fold your torso over your legs, the bend happens at the hips. Place the palms by your feet. Relax your neck and press the tip of your nose against your legs. If you can’t reach the floor with your hands, bend your knees and lean your chest against your thighs. Set it as a goal to eventually straighten your legs.
5 Lengthen Your Spine
On the inhale: Lengthen the spine, draw your shoulders back. Imagine that you are stretching out the spine from the tailbone all the way to the head. Place the hands as far down as possible.
6 Chaturanga Dandasana
On the exhale: Press the palms against the ground and jump back. Place the feet hip-distance apart and lower your entire body until your arms are at a 90 degree angle. Keep the elbows as close to your body as possible.
7 Urdhva Mukha Svanasana
On the inhale: Come up into upward facing dog by shifting your body forward and pressing the palms down, while the toes un-tuck. Press the tops of the feet into the ground, stretch the arms and open up your chest and try to extend your back into a backbend. Move shoulders back and down.
8 Adho Mukha Svanasana
On the exhale: Come into downward facing dog and stay here for five breaths. Press the palms into the ground and spread the fingers. Hands are shoulder-width apart and the feet hip-distance apart. Try to reach the heels toward the ground. Lengthen the space between your shoulders and ears by imagining that you are lengthening the spine without arching your low back.
9 Lengthen the Spine
On the inhale: Press the palms down into the floor, jump the feet forward in between the hands, and lengthen your spine. Eventually you will be able to land on straight legs.
10 Uttanasana
On the exhale: Fold forward from the hips, press the tip of the nose against your legs, and relax the neck.
11 Samasthiti
Release the hands by your sides.
12 Pranamasana
Bring palms together in front of your chest and collect yourself.
Sun Salutation B Surya Namaskar B
Sun salutation B shown by yoga teacher
Cecilia Wikner, 39 years old
“I started practicing yoga over 10 years ago. I was very curious about yoga and what it was. I began by practicing a very calm style of yoga and then I practiced prenatal yoga during my first pregnancy, but it wasn’t until we moved abroad in 2000 that I began regular yoga practice. That’s when I tried ashtanga vinyasa yoga for the first time and it felt as if I had found home. Yoga makes me happy. It gives me an incredible energy and calms me simultaneously. It is a fantastic combination. Yoga is so much more than what you do on your mat. I try to cultivate it in my daily life by doing simple things such as to take a deep breath, relax, and roll my shoulders back – yes, that actually helps me during stressful moments.”
1 Samasthiti
Release the hands by your sides.
2 Utkatasana
On the inhale: Bend your knees and sink your hips low with heels pressing into the ground. Reach the arms up over your head, but sink your shoulders down. Follow the hands with your gaze. Bring palms together over your head.
3 Uttanasana
On the exhale: Fold torso forward, initiate the bend at the hips. Place the palms by your feet. If you don’t reach the floor, bend your knees and rest your chest on your thighs. Relax your neck and press the tip of the nose against the legs.
4 Lengthen the Spine
On the inhale: Open up the chest and pull shoulders back. Imagine that you are lengthening the spine from the tip of the tailbone all the way to the head. If possible, try to place your palms flat on the floor.
5 Chaturanga Dandasana
On the exhale: Press the palms down into the floor and jump your feet back. Keep the feet hip-distance apart and lower the entire body towards the ground until your elbows are at a 90 degree angle and you are in a low push-up position. Keep the elbows close to your body.
6 Urdhva Mukha Svanasana
On the inhale: Come into upward facing dog by shifting your body forward on your arms, and roll your toes over so that the tops of the feet are pressing into the floor. Stretch the arms straight, and open up the chest and try to backbend in your upper back. Draw shoulders back and down.
7 Adho Mukha Svanasana
On the exhale: Come into downward facing dog. Press your palms into the floor and spread your fingers wide. The hands are parallel and shoulder-width apart and the feet are hip-distance apart. Spin your left heel towards the right foot onto the ground. Step your right foot forward between your hands, closer to the right thumb.
8 Virabhadrasana
On the inhale: Bend your right knee into a 90 degree angle and reach arms up. Bring palms together over your head and look up at your thumbs.
9 Chaturanga Dandasana
On the exhale: Place hands by the sides of your right foot. Step the right foot back so that it is parallel with the left foot and hip distance apart. Lower down into a low plank position.
10 Urdhva Mukha Svanasana
On the inhale: Come into upward facing dog by shifting your body forward onto your arms, and roll over toes so that the tops of the feet are pressing into the ground. Straighten arms, open up the chest and create a backbend in your upper back. Draw the shoulders back and down.
11 Adho Mukha Svanasana
On the exhale: Come into downward facing dog and spin your right heel towards your left foot.
12 Virabhadrasana
On the inhale: The left foot steps forward in between your hands, closer to the left thumb. Bend left knee into a 90 degrees angle and reach your arms up. Bring palms together over your head and look up at your thumbs.
13 Chaturanga Dandasana
On the exhale: Place hands by the sides of the left foot. Step left foot back and lower down into a low push-up position.
14 Urdhva Mukha Svanasana
On the inhale: Come into upward facing dog by shifting body forward onto the arms. Roll over your toes so that the tops of the feet press down into the ground. Stretch the arms, open up the chest and try to bend your back backwards like a bow. Draw the shoulders back and down.
15 Adho Mukha Svanasana
On the exhale: Come into downward facing dog and stay here for five breaths. Press the palms into the floor and spread your fingers. Place the hands shoulder-width apart and the feet hip-distance apart. Work on trying to reach the heels towards the floor. Lengthen the space between your shoulders and your ears and imagine that you are stretching out your spine without overextending (curving) the lower back.
16 Lengthen the Spine
Press the palms down into the floor and jump your feet in between your hands on the inhale, and stretch your back. Eventually, you will be able to jump and land with legs straight as you press the palms down.
17 Uttanasana
On the exhale: Fold torso forward over your legs and press the tip of the nose against the legs and relax the neck.
18 Utkatasana
On the inhale: Bend the knees, stretch the arms up to the sky. Bring palms together and gaze at your thumbs.
19 Samasthiti
Let the hands fall to the sides of your body.
20 Pranamasana
Bring palms together in front of your chest and collect yourself.