Chances are that if you’ve been to a regular Vinyasa yoga class or taken one online, you’ve done a Sun Salutation. They are perhaps the most common sequence of poses within all forms of yoga asana. You may have heard your teacher say “Surya Namaskar” before going into the sweaty flow that is the sun salute. As your heartbeat quickens, and your body warms, you go through the familiar movements of Surya Namaskar A or B before you proceed with any other movements in your class. But why are they called Sun Salutations? And what is so important about them?
Sun Salutations link yoga to the Hindu deity of the sun, Surya, although its sequencing dates earlier than the actual title of the series. Since yoga originated in India, a lot of its practices were crossed with those of the local religions and spirituality. Saluting the sun was a part of ensuring good health and prosperity. By positioning oneself in front of the sun, they are surrendering to a higher power, acknowledging that life is much bigger than humanity. Traditionally, there are also various mantras practiced with the Sun Salutations in India, many of which are still practiced today. Here in the west, we haven’t brought those mantras into our physical yoga sequences, but in many ways we still reap the benefits of the series.
Sun Salutations in our more physically based yoga practice provide a way to warm up the body for further yoga work in strengthening and stretching muscles. You’ve probably heard this before, but its a good idea to warm up the body before starting any type of physical exercise. Our muscles need to be warmed up, much like warming up the engine of a car before running it, to get the best outcomes. If we just go straight into intense stretches before warming up the body we risk pulling our muscles and increasing recovery time between practices, not to mention that if the stiffer and less “warmed” our muscles are, the less they want to move and, erm, stretch. Remember those jumping jacks that you did in grade school before starting gym class? Yes, your gym teachers knew what they were doing. Even something like light jogging is enough to get your heart racing and blood flowing in and out of your muscles to make them more malleable and ready for working out. A Sun Salutation is much like those jumping jacks or that light jog– they prepare our bodies for the yoga movements ahead.
A Sun Salutation is like a gratitude to the sun, to a higher power. It is typically done in the morning on an empty stomach, but can be done at any time during the day. Sun Salutations combine light stretching and cardio for the entire body. Each pose in the sequence is completed on an inhale followed by an exhale, allowing us to sync our movements to our breath. Inhaling to expand and stretch your muscles, exhaling to contract and flex them. They give us a space to feel presence and connect our minds to our bodies– as in all physical asanas. Each pose in the sequence targets a different body part– standing and reclining back bends, forward folds, hip opening lunges, plank core warm ups; each pose engages a different part of our bodies.
The beauty of Sun Salutations is that they incorporate so much of the physical yoga practice into one. They are one of the most basic series of yoga movements that can be done anywhere at anytime. Don’t have enough time to fit in an hour long yoga sequence? Do some sun salutations. Get some sun salutations in every single day, even just for five minutes, (or just one salutation!) and you will reap the benefits. Increased levels of gratitude (which equals more feelings of happiness), light cardiovascular work, calmed breathing, more presence and stress relief are just a few benefits of the sequence. And after your done the Sun Salutations you can either be inspired to do more yoga or get on with your busy day. By showing up for the 5 minutes you open up the doors to practice more and more each day.
Could you commit to Saluting the Sun for 5 minutes a day?
Stay Present,
xo Sara Lou
saralouyoga.wordpress.com 