Surya Namaskar, For perfect Body…

Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutation is one of the most important components of Yoga practice and it is mainly geared at warming your body before you started the Aasan practice. we’ll start with defining What Surya Namaskar is — “Surya is Sun and Namaskara is salutation, so Surya Namaskara is started as the prayer to the Sun”.

Surya Namaskar is the series of 12 steps alternating forward and backward bending thereby flexes & stretches the spinal columns and your limbs in which 7 steps are different and independent to each other and rest 5 steps are the repetition of starting 5 steps in reverse order. Each of the steps has different benefits. The main Surya Namaskar benefits are- It gives a phenomenal stretch to the whole body that no other exercise can compare that kind of the stretch. Surya Namaskar is ideally done at the empty stomach and best done at early in the morning or late evening just before the dinner. Surya Namaskar can be done either fast or slow or medium pace. The faster pace one is more as a cardiac exercise and the slower pace one is helping to tone the muscles and the body. so whatever your speed do as much as you can do, do not force yourself as Patanjali says- “siththiram sukham asanam” so do as much as you can. Here are the 12 steps involved in Surya Namaskar in brief-

1. Salutation Position- Normal restful breathing
2. Raised arm position- Inhale
3. Hand to foot position- Exhale
4. Equestrian Position- Inhale
5. Mountain Position- Exhale
6. Eight limbs position- No breathing then
7. Cobra position-Inhale
8. Mountain Position- Exhale
9. Equestrian Position- Inhale
10. Hand to foot position- Exhale
11. Raised arm position- Inhale
12. Salutation Position- Normal restful breathing