“Here comes the Sun and I say it’s alright!” – The Beatles

The Sun Salutation is not as old as I thought. It was thought the innovative work of KV Iyer and T Krishnamacharya in the 1930s that they began to become a staple of a yoga practice.

There are many benefits for doing Surya Namaskara:

• helps group classes breath and move in unison.
• warms up the body
• softens and lengthens the muscles
• opens joints
• links breath to motion
• stimulates the nervous system

With the right planning and an open mind they can become the foundation for a variety of creative sequences that can incorporate most of the asanas.

The 12 asanas in the surya namaskara family are:

• Tadasana (Mountain Pose)
• Urdhva Hastasana (Upward Hand Pose)
• Uttanasana (deep forward fold)
• Ardha Uttanasana (half way standing forward bend)
• Anjaneyasana (low lunge)
• Phalakasana (plank pose)
• Chaturanga Dandasana (four limbed staff pose/low plank)
• Salabhasana (Cobra Pose)
• Utkatasana (Chair Pose)
• Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward Dog)
• Ardha Mukha Svanasana (Downward Dog)
• Virabhadrasana 1 (Warrior 1 Pose)

There can be dozens of variations of the Surya Namaskara but for the purpose of this blog I will only look at the Classical, A and B in the series.

Next – The Classical Surya Namaskara….