yoga salt: hatha sun salutes

In every class I teach and in every practice, I have what I call my yoga salt.  Those poses or sequences that I always do no matter what the focus is or the theme is.

My biggest yoga salt are hatha sun salutations.  This is the version of sun salutations that I learned during my teacher training and I love it!  It is so gentle and low impact.  It is perfect for every level.  It gets to the spots I always want to get to during a practice.  It is a great warm up.  It is a great cool down.  It can be an entire practice.  You can add endless variety.  And, I really feel that the slow, languid nature of these sun salutes teach you awareness in movement and a lot about your body.

Hatha Sun Salutes.  Enjoy!

• tadasana
• inhale arms up
• exhale swan dive 
• uttanasana
• inhale half way up, extend spine
• exhale uttanasana
• inhale right foot back to high lunge (usually five breaths)
• step to plank (hold, tighten core)
• drop the knees
• exhale bhaktasana (devotional pose or child's pose)
• inhale nose, chin & chest
• baby bhujangasana (I always start by using just the strength of the back before I bring in the arms.  I do baby cobra for a few rounds.)
• exhale release
• inhale table
• exhale down dog  (three to five breaths)
• inhale extend the right foot up and back (three legged dog)
• exhale right foot between the hands to high lunge
• step forward uttanasana
• inhale, pull belly button to spine and roll up
• exhale hands to heart center

What do your sun salutations look like?

Comments

[EcoYogini]

hmmm- these sound lovely! I also do a lot of cobra (baby) first, my lower back needs the warm up or it's painful.

my sun sals look an awful lot like this, just sans the child's pose in the middle. I really like doing lunges in between- a nice easy warm up stretch.

I also like crescents in there :)

[Rachel (suburban yogini)]

Mine aren't too disimilar, but no knees chest chin because of all my shoulder issues :(

Tadasana
Exhale hands into Namaster
Inhale arms up
Exhale swan diver to Uttanasana
Inhale right leg back to crescent moon
Exhale down dog
Inhale lower knees to upward cat
Exhale down dog
Inhale left foot between the hands to crescent moon
Exhale Uttanasana
Inhale raising up lifting the arms
Exhale prayer
Inhale Tadasana

And so on :)

[Babs]

I love how many variations you can get out of sun salutations!

Eco--I did a class with lots of crescents in it last night and it made me think of you!

Rachel--thanks for sharing your sequence. I love it!