Here Comes the Sun

The Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskar) is one of the best ways to warm up or begin your yoga practice. I like to do a few to get my heart rate up and my muscles warm before heading into any deeper poses. Moving through each posture either on an inhalation or exhalation, heats your muscles from the inside out and the repetitive cycle is a great way to quiet the mind--sort of an active meditation. The act of bowing to the sun (the source of all light) symbolizes our own consciousness.

The sequence above is one sun salutation. Repeat as many times as you want to loosen up and work up a sweat. There are also numerous variations to the sun salutation, one being to modify by bringing the knee(s) to the mat through crescent and chaturanga for a less strenuous cycle. The second is to jump back into chaturanga from forward fold to add a little more heat.

I often begin with the modified knees to mat version and work up to a full jump-back version as my muscles begin to heat up.