By Sejal Shah
Doing these must-do key things before and after Surya Namaskar will deepen your Sun Salutation practice dramatically and make it even more enjoyable!
Do you practice Sun Salutation (Surya Namaskar) regularly? Want to brighten up your experience even more? I would like to share some simple and practical tips that can help you not only go deeper while you do your Surya Namaskara but also what are the best practices to do before and after Surya Namaskar to help make your Sun Salutation experience complete and blissful. Warming up helps reduce muscle soreness and lessen your risk of injury. Cooling down allows for a gradual recovery of pre-exercise heart rate and blood pressure. Happy Sun Saluting!
You could choose this yoga sequence - As Warm-Up or as Stand-Alone Exercise. The latter works best for those who are pressed for time. A few rounds of Sun Salutation can provide a comprehensive body workout in a span of 10-15 minutes! As a routine practice, 6 rounds or 12 sets of Sun Salutation are sufficient.
Before Surya Namaskar: Warm-up and prepare well
Tip 1: Warm up your body
It is a good idea to do some gentle warm-up stretches before you start with the Surya Namaskar rounds. This helps remove inertia and stiffness in the body and prepares you for Surya Namaskar yoga postures. This also helps to prevent any muscle injury as the body gets nicely ready for stretching into Surya Namaskar. If you are a beginner, these preparatory warm-ups or Sukshma Vyayama are highly recommended.
You can use Sun Salutation itself as a warm-up exercise for advanced yoga postures practice. If you are practicing Surya Namaskars as part of your warm-up, you can do them at a somewhat faster speed. But when you practice them as part of the yoga asana practice, you can keep slow to medium speed. After a few rounds, the body feels light and flexible and the stretches in the active yoga postures become deeper. If you have backache, avoid practicing Sun Salutations at a fast pace.
Tip 2: Choose the correct direction
Does it make any difference to have the correct direction to face while doing Surya Namaskar practice? Yes, it does. Starting with the namaskar pose (prayer position) and doing the full sequence facing the beautiful rising or setting sun, definitely enhances your experience, you actually feel that you are saluting the sun. Do it facing the East direction if you are doing Sun Salutation in the morning and the West direction if you are doing it in the evening.
During Surya Namaskar
Tip 3: Make Yamas and Niyamas part of your Surya Namaskar practice
The practice of Sun Salutations like any other asana practice gives you a beautiful opportunity to integrate the 5 yamas and niyamas while you move from one pose to another in this sequence. This can bring so much depth to your practice with its rich benefits. Read here on suggestions and recommendations to imbibe yamas and niyama into your practice.
Tip 4: Do Your Surya Namaskar gracefully, with gratitude and a smile
This is the essence of Surya Namaskara! And anything done with a sense of gratefulness makes it even more enjoyable and nourishing. The smile can keep the energy going!
This becomes even more important when you strive to achieve a higher target of Surya Namaskar rounds. Even when you pick up the pace, don’t do the poses with a jerk or with force. Allow the postures to flow gently and gracefully one into the other.
Tip 5: Listen To your body and enjoy your journey
A daily practice of Sun Salutations gives us the perfect place to observe our body. It is a great way to know your body and its limits. We are different every day, and the practice should reflect this. Some days the body feels supple and capable, and on other days it may feel stiff and tired. Listen and respect your body every day as it is. Watch it grow with your daily practice, and modify the sequence as needed. Try not to let your ego or comparison dictate the practice-you don’t need to go faster or deeper, as there are no end goals or requirements in yoga. It’s just you and your body, slowly moving and enjoying the journey.
Tip 6: Do with awareness
This is a very essential element in the entire practice. Surya Namaskara could be very energizing (believe it or not!) if done with gratitude, grace, at a slow pace, and with awareness of the breath. For example, in the Ashtanga Namaskara (6th pose), the solar plexus corresponding to the navel chakra, the reservoir of energy, gets activated, releasing a lot of energy in the body, making us feel very energetic. If done with proper awareness, one can feel the flow of energy starting from the navel chakra to the entire body.
Tip 7: Breathe naturally
While doing Sun Salutation, breathe normally (or in easy Ujjayi) through your nose. Also, breathing should not be forceful. Breathe slowly, gently, and effortlessly, with awareness on each breath that you inhale and exhale. Try and keep the breath in harmony with every change in the posture.
Tip 8: Best to do with mantra chanting
Through their power of vibration, the Sun Salutation Surya Namaskar mantras have a subtle yet powerful and penetrating effect on the mind and body. Each of the 12 Surya Namaskara poses has 12 corresponding mantras recited in honor of the Sun. Further, as you do each posture, take your attention to the particular chakra as detailed in the chart. Doing your Sun Salutations with mantra and awareness on chakras, adding a feeling of gratitude, adds a profound spiritual and meditative aspect to your practice.
Tip 9: Make It more challenging and deeper
If you wish to make it more challenging, you can zing it up with some push-ups after the 5th pose (Phalakasana - Plank pose) or some variations (Veerbhadrasana - Warrior poses) after the 4th and 8th pose (Ashwasanchalan Sanchalanasana- Equestrian pose). You could add many other variations.
Make each posture of the sequence much deeper by holding each pose for a longer time. Say initially you hold the pose for a breath count of 2 or 4 and you could gradually increase the duration.
After Surya Namaskar practice: Cooldown
Tip 10: Relax after finishing Surya Namaskar
As you finish your last round of Surya Namaskar, lie down and relax your entire body. For best results, it is advisable to lie down in Yoga Nidra, giving the body enough time to assimilate the effects of the stretches. However, if you are short on time, you can relax for a few minutes in Corpse Pose, giving complete rest to the mind and body. Sometimes lying down in Shavasana (Corpse Pose) after Surya Namaskar becomes next to impossible due to so much energy in the body, but yet it is important to have a short relaxation especially if you have done 12 or more rounds of sun salutation.
Tip 11: The secret is in putting effort and then letting go
Last, but surely not least, this is the most important tip to enhance your Surya Namaskara experience. Like every yoga posture, when you start doing Surya Namaskaras in the beginning, you will need to put in a little effort. That effort is required, as it helps channelize the inertia (tamas) or restlessness (rajas) in the body and then what remains is simple harmony or sattva that leads you to a meditative state - the feeling of letting go.
Tip 12: Be regular and committed to your practice
To achieve the best results, ensure that you practice Sun Salutation regularly. Only then would you be able to experience its deeper and greater benefits. It is better to practice daily for 20 minutes than to practice for an hour occasionally.
Create a wellness routine
Sun Salutation followed by some breathing techniques (pranayama) and meditation is a complete package for your everyday wellness. Now that you have learned how to do Sun Salutation, would you like to know about SKY Breath Meditation and how to meditate daily? Join Beyond Breath - free online breathing and meditation session with a live instructor.
New to yoga? Explore Yoga 101: A Simple Guide to Practice and Philosophy to Help A Beginner.
Want to master the Sun Salutation practice? Download a free e-book here for step by step systematic guidance.
Sejal Shah, E-RYT 500 Sri Sri Yoga Teacher, YACEP, C-IAYT, Meditation Teacher, SKY Instructor, NYU Post Graduate Medical School approved Yoga-CME retreat facilitator, Mind-Body Wellness Writer, Homeopath. She can be followed on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
