Let’s break down the poses in Surya Namaskar A, sun salutation A
What is a sun salutation?
It’s a short sequence of poses that easily transition from one to the next. If you’ve practiced any kind of flow yoga before, I am confident that you will have practiced one variant of Surya Namaskar or another. It’s a way of warming up the muscles at the start of a practice and targets so many parts of the body from forward folds to back bends.
The purpose of this post is to give you some extra information on each of the poses in the Ashtanga tradition, so you can develop your home practice. I have marked the breaths and the dristis, the gaze points for you, as sun salutations should be dynamic and move with the breath. One movement, one breath. Slow, steady and deep inhales; slow, steady and deep exhales.
Control your breath and you will control your life.
Let’s begin
Don’t forget to warm up your wrists first! Click here for to find out how.
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Samasthiti – standing at the top of your mat
Feet together or hip-width apart if the latter is more comfortable for your body. Close your eyes and lift your toes up. Feel how your legs suddenly come into action there! More engagement and activity all the way from the arch of the foot to the abdomen. Try to feel for where your foot grounds down, getting your strong, standing foundation. Press your big toes down and rest the little toes. Pull the belly button in towards the spine and engage the pelvic floor. Shoulders back, shoulder blades together. Arms energised all the way down to the fingertips. Palms facing towards the body and gaze to the tip of the nose.
Inhale.
Lift the arms up and gaze to the fingertips. Straight like a pencil. Urdhva Hastasana (arms up)
Palms can touch if this movement isn’t squashing your ears.
Exhale.
Active Forward Fold, Uttanasana A. Trying to keep the spine as straight as when you were reaching your arms up in the previous pose. Micro bend your knees to protect the hamstrings and bring the weight into the balls of your feet. Gaze towards the knees. Pull the belly button in towards the spine and engage the pelvic floor.
Inhale.
Flat Back, Uttanasana B. Halfway lift with straight legs. For the flexi yogis out there, the fingertips will still be on the mat, they’re only really lifting the gaze, but for most of us we’re gonna lift about half way to get to our flat back with the hands lightly on the shins. Try to lengthen your spine from your tailbone to your skull. Gaze to the third eye, between the eyebrows, or to the tip of your nose.
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Exhale.
Plant the palms shoulder-width apart on your mat and step or hop back to High Plank.
Belly in, pelvic floor engaged and hinge forwards from your elbows to create a 90 degree angle with the arms. Squeeze the elbows in towards your sides as you either land the knees first or lower the whole body halfway, straight as a ruler, into Chaturanga Dandasana.
This is a tough pose! It takes a load of strength across the whole shoulder girdle, you are all good to lower the knees first to take some of the weight while you build strength. Better do it modified and accurate to prevent putting unnecessary strain on the lower back. Pelvis pulls under towards the chin.
Inhale.
Palms press into the mat as you shoot your chest forwards into Upwards Facing Dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana). The tops of your feet should be flat with the soles of the feet facing up. Point your toes, squeeze your glutes and engage your kneecaps. Pull the belly to the spine and engage the pelvic floor (these two cues are 100% my most frequently used! They are fundamental!). Look up or forwards but not so intensely that you strain your neck. There should be a straight line from your hands to your shoulders. Feet hip-width apart on the mat.
In this pose, the hips should be off the mat and if it’s not accessible to you right now, that’s cool, go for cobra instead. In cobra, hands are under the shoulders and hips and legs on the mat. Feet, glutes, etc. are as before in Up Dog. Start to straighten your arms to wherever feels right for you. No need to have totally straight arms and there should be a micro-bend there anyway!
Learn to be aware of your body and what it needs or doesn’t need on each day and in each practice.
Exhale.
Tuck your toes, press the hands and send the hips and back into Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana). Use your core to help push yourself up and back, and if that’s not available just yet, put your knees down and make your way up that way. Try to do it in one exhale!
5 breaths.
We stay in Down Dog for five breaths, so there’s much more time to think about what you’re doing. Hands are shoulder-width apart and feet are hip-width. The thing here is to keep your arms and spine straight and push your hands – and fingers! – into the mat.
You can start by straightening one leg then the other, paddling the heels up and down. If the legs can straighten, cool, if not, all good keep them bent. We have different hamstrings, calves and everything else.
Find your way to peace in down dog.
Take a baby step forward if your calves are particularly tight and see how that feels. Take a baby step back if your hamstrings are tighter for you and assess how that feels. Experiment with yoga blocks or sturdy books under your hands too, it’s a great modification that can be in place throughout the sun salutation from Active Forward Fold (Uttanasana A) all the way to Down Dog.
Gaze to the toes, knees or navel.
Inhale.
Step or hop forwards to the top of your mat. Flat back, Uttanasana B.
Exhale.
Active forward fold, Uttanasana A.
Inhale.
Press into the feet as you rise up, straight arms, spine, and legs, Urdhva Hastasana.
Exhale.
Hands along your sides, Samasthiti.
Amazing, you’ve completed Surya Namaskar A!
Repeat for as many rounds as you like in the morning or whenever you need a bit more energy or movement in your day. At the start of the Ashtanga practice, we’ll do this anywhere between 3 and 5 times, depending on how much time we have to play.
How did you find these poses and their descriptions? Comment blow and check out the free video where I take you step by step through each posture, first slowly and then building speed and moving with the breath.
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