Sun salutations, or surya namaskar, are common in many physical yoga practices. There are a wide range of variations, both in what movements are included and how those movements and body positions are adapted for different bodies.
That wide range of variations means lots of options to find and create a sequence of movements that fits for you. Once you find a sequence you like, you can easily repeat it or change it up, to fit how you are feeling and to challenge your body awareness.
If you find it hard to do yoga at home, doing a few sun salutations can be an easy way to start your yoga home practice. There a number of benefits and reasons to do a sun salutation, either on its own or as part of a longer yoga practice:
- It can help with mobility and strength in the major joints of the body, the shoulders and hips. As well as other joint complexes including the wrists, elbows, knees and ankles.
- It helps with mobility and releasing of tension in the spine, offering both extension (back bending) and flexion (forward bending).
- It can help stretch the front of the hips or hip flexor muscles (lunge) and the buttocks and back of hips and legs, or hip extensor muscles (down dog and forward fold). These two groups of muscles are often chronically tight if you spend a lot of time sitting.
- It can help warm-up the body.
- It can provide full body movement as a counter to sitting or standing for an extended period of time.
- It can act as a reset for the spine by gently moving the spine through back and forth movements to balance out over-stretching or over-tightness from either not moving, or demanding physical activity.
To get started on creating your own version of a sun salutation for your body check out some of my previous posts and videos:
- Guide on how to do a basic sun salutation in yoga
- Alternatives to sun salutations that take the weight off your hands and wrists
- Sun salutations at the wall
- Options for child’s pose when you’re skipping sun salutations
- Mini sun salutation sequence to move the spine
While sun salutations offer great movement for the spine, they don’t offer the full range of movement for the spine. So when you are ready to start adding on to that home practice, throw in a few spinal twists and side-bending movements.
