Why do you do Sun Salutes

Alice, who is just starting to practice yoga, asked me the other day “Why do we do so many Sun Salutes in an Ashtanga yoga class?” She also asked “Why are there two types of Sun Salutes?”

She said that doing all of those Sun Salutes was really challenging and that sometimes she needed to take a break because she was running out of energy.

What Are Sun Salutes

The Sanskrit name for Sun Salute is Surya Namaskar. Surya is Sanskrit for Sun and Namaskar is Sanskrit for Salutation. So literally Surya Namaskar is a Sun Salutation.  You are greeting the rising sun with a series of yoga postures.

There are two versions of the Sun Salute that are widely practiced.  There are 9 postures in Surya Namaskar A and 17 postures in Surya Namaskar B.

Each of the postures in a Sun Salute series (A or B) is done to the breath. You synchronize your breath to the movement of the body.  As you breathe in you do one posture in the series and as you breathe out you do the next posture.  The Sun Salute series is made up of an alternating sequence of back bends and forward bends.  You move through the sequence of postures one breath at a time until you get to the Downward facing dog.  This posture you hold for 5 breaths.

When Do You Do Sun Salutes

Surya Namaskars are traditionally performed in the morning to greet the new day.  You do the Sun Salutes outside just as the sun is rising.  You face east and start doing your Sun Salutes just as the sun is rising above the horizon.

In the Ashtanga practice Sun Salutes are performed at the beginning of each practice.  You complete 5 sets of Surya Namaskar A and 3 sets of Surya Namaskar B and then you continue on with the rest of your yoga practice.

Why Do You Do Sun Salutes

Recall that each posture in the Sun Salute series is done to the breath. When you breathe in you are expanding the front of the body in a back bend and stretching the front of the body.  When you breathe out you are compressing the front of the body in a forward fold and expanding the back of the body.

This alternating stretching and  contracting of the muscles builds, strength, stamina and flexibility.

Practicing a series of Sun Salutes will also

• increase your circulation and energy  levels,
• calm your nervous system, and
• increase your range of motion and the mobility within your joints.

Your muscles aren’t static tissues. They move, they expand, they contract. The more flexible they are, the better range of motion you have and the less stress you’ll put on your joints during normal activities.

Using the breath, with every movement you can bring both the body and the mind into a balanced state. You are completely focused on the movement and breath as you move through each Sun Salute series.  There is no room in your mind to think about anything else.  The focus of your mind on the body and the breath will help you to reduce the amount of stress in your body and bring calmness to your mind.

By the time you have completed a series of Sun Salutes you will have:

• Established the pace of the practice. The Sun Salute series of postures are done to the breath.  By the time you have completed 5 Surya Namaskar A and 3 Surya Namaskar B you have established a rhythm of movement with your breath that you will maintain throughout the rest of your practice.
• The heart is beating at a more rapid pace. There is a cardiovascular component to the Sun Salutes.  Moving your body through all of the postures that make up a Sun Salute requires a lot of energy and your heart needs to beat at a significantly faster rate to provide that energy to the rest of your body.
• The body is now quite warm.  Your muscles are warm and have been stretched moderately.  As well the joints, ligaments and tendons have been stretched.  The combination of your breathing, which is bring lots of oxygen into the body, and the movement of your body through the postures that make up the Sun Salutes generates a lot of heat in your body.  This oxygen and muscle energy generates lots of heat within your body.  The body is being heated from the inside out.  The muscle and joints, once they are warmed up from the inside out can now be safely stretched during the rest of your yoga practice.

Doing several Sun Salutes every day works most of your muscle groups in one flowing routine.  The Sun Salutes can be considered a complete yoga practice.

Why Are There Two Types of Sun Salutes

Surya Namaskar A is the first Sun Salute to be performed.  This Sun Salute starts the warm up process of the muscles.  It works on the muscles of your arms, shoulders, back and legs. Once these muscles have been warmed up by several repetitions of Sun Salute A then you move on to Sun Salute B.

Surya Namaskar B incorporates all of the postures from Sun Salute A and adds on several new postures.  In addition to continuing to warm up your arms, shoulders, back and legs, this version starts to warm up the muscles of the hips.

The lunging positions which are new in “B” require the muscles in your hips to become involved and get active.  With the legs to the front and back,  you turn your hips towards the front and lower them down towards the floor working against the tendency to turn your hips to the side.  This turning and lowering of your hips starts to stretch the muscles in the front and back of your hips and continues the warm up process.

Sun Salutes are Challenging

If you are just starting yoga, you can find the Sun Salutes quite challenging.  There are three things you can do to help to manage this challenge.

1. Take a break.  If you find your energy flagging, if your muscles are getting fatigued or if you are starting to have negative thoughts about your yoga practice then it is time to take a break.  Rest in Child’s pose (Child’s pose was introduced in the Fundamentals of Yoga report) until you have recovered your energy and you feel ready to resume your practice.
2. Modify the postures. You should talk to your teacher about appropriate modifications that you can do if you have these problems:
   1. You have tight shoulders, hips, or hamstrings.  This will reduce your range of motion and prevent you from getting into the proper alignment for the various postures that make up the Sun Salute.  This limited range of motion could result in you injuring yourself.
   2. Your muscles are weak. You are finding it difficult to do some of the postures of the Sun Salute becuase of your weak shoulders, abdomen, or quadriceps muscles.  These weak muscles could become over stressed and result in injury to them or other muscles or joints.
3. Challenge the body just enough.  In the article Goldilocks & three bears find the edge, I talked about finding that comfortable but challenging amount of stretching in a yoga pose.  Use this approach with each of the postures in the Sun Salute.

Using these three techniques your experience of the Sun Salute should be more enjoyable.  Over time, your range of motion and strength will improve and you will find the Sun Salutes fun, relaxing and invigorating.