If you are messing with a hectic lifestyle and stressed working environment. It’s obvious that you don’t have much time to work out. Sun salutation is a good alternative to exercise routines.
Even if you don’t have time for daily yoga or workout hours, Sun Salutation is a great way to achieve all the major benefits and goodness of yoga in less time.
Consistency is key, and it’s better to do 20 minutes of daily exercise than irregular exercise once or twice a week, even if they are long.
Furthermore, Sun salutation does not need any type of equipment, so you can perform it anywhere.
Although yoga can bring tremendous physical benefits and powerful mental clarity and calmness,
It can still leave you a lot to wrap your head around when it comes to mastering the fundamentals. So we are here to help you out by breaking down one of the key fundamentals.
What Is Sun Salutation?
It is a series of yoga postures known as Sun Salutations. This set sequence of yoga postures dates back more than 2,500 years to a time when ancient cultures revered the sun.
The salutation is believed to be a literal salute to sunrise and is believed to prepare the body for everything that happens during daylight hours.
Sun Salutation is a set of 12 intense yoga poses that have an extraordinary effect on both your mental and physical health.
It is a full-body workout that forms the foundation of Power Yoga and promotes weight loss. If you do sun salutation regularly then you will definitely get many health benefits from it.
Health Benefits Of Sun Salutation
There are many health benefits of doing sun salutation on a regular basis. Its health benefits are ranging from physical to mental health. Some of them are listed below:-
- Keeps you disease-free and healthy
- Strengthens the heart
- Balances the body and mind
- Improves blood circulation
- Enhances the digestive system
- It helps to cure insomnia
- Helps with skin and hair-related problems
- Effectively reduce stress levels
- Tone the muscles in the spine, neck, shoulder, arms, hands, wrist, back, and legs, resulting in increased flexibility and strength
- From a psychological perspective, It regulates the connection of body, breath, and mind
- It boosts your energy levels, improves the consciousness, and makes you calm
- Stimulates the abs muscles, respiratory system, lymphatic system, spinal cord, and many other internal organs
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Sun Salutation greatly helps in weight loss. It is a high-intensity activity that works on each part of the body.
You may gradually increase the number of repetitions and watch the pounds magically disappear.
The stretches and bends associated with this yoga greatly assist you in losing fat rapidly and evenly throughout the body.
Sun Salutation increases blood circulation to the scalp and hair follicles, which helps to prevent hair loss and premature graying of hair.
It enhances blood circulation which nourishes the scalp and enables healthy hair growth. Also, various yoga postures help you a lot in preventing graying of hair.
Sun Salutation enhances energy and vigor, making your face glow with radiance. It stimulates blood circulation to every part of the body, keeping your skin healthy and youthful,
Which contributes to the skin’s firmness retention. Sun Salutation prevents the formation of wrinkles by reducing stress in the body and mind.
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How To Do Sun Salutation
Sun Salutation is a series of 12 continuous yoga poses. These 12 yoga poses take you through all sorts of stretches, forward folds, and backward bends that create heat and take place in a rhythmic rhythm that aligns with your breath.
You should prefer to perform sun salutation in an open and green environment because it is also associated with deep inhaling. So if your surrounding is full of fresh air, you will benefit more from it.
Here are all the 12 poses associated with sun salutation yoga.
Prayer Pose
Stand on the edge of your mat, keep your feet together and balance your weight equally on both feet. Expand your chest and relax your shoulders.
As you inhale, raise both the hands from side to side, and while exhaling bring your palms in front of the chest in a prayer position.
Upward Salute
While inhaling, lift the arms up and back, keeping the biceps close to the ears. In this pose, the aim is to stretch the entire body from the heels to the tips of the fingers.
To get the most benefit, you can pull the pelvis forward and make sure to reach up with your fingers instead of going backward.
Standing Forward Bend
Exhale and bend forward at your hips, bringing your chest up to your thighs. Keep your legs strong by pulling your knees toward your hips.
Relax your shoulders and neck. In Standing Forward Bend, your hands can rest on your calves, ankles, or blocks.
As you exhale completely, bring your hands to the floor next to your feet.
Equestrian Pose
Equestrian Pose is a low lunge pose that forms the fourth part of the Sun Salutation sequence.
One foot is behind, on the floor with hands on either side of the front foot. The back knee usually rests on the ground and the head and gaze are raised.
Some people say that in this posture the eyes should be turned upwards. Equestrian Pose requires flexibility and openness in the hip flexor of the hind leg. It helps to build strength and flexibility in the legs.
Stand with your feet together and place your hand next to your feet. Step your right leg back toward the mat’s edge.
Bend your knees and point your toes back. Hips are sunk near the floor. As you gaze up, lengthen your spine. Stay for 5 breaths and then switch sides.
Plank Pose
Exhale and return to Plank Pose, which is similar to the top of a push-up. Adjust your posture so that your shoulders are squarely above your wrists, your hands are flat on the mat, and your feet are hip-distance apart.
Note:-If you have pain in your low back, shoulders, or arms, lower your knees to the mat.
Maintain a downward and slightly forward gaze while keeping the back of your neck long. Inhale deeply and lengthen your back.
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Salute With Eight Limbs
Exhale and bend your elbows as you slowly lower your entire body, keeping yourself straight like a plank of wood.
Hug your elbows toward your sides and stop when you find a right angle between your upper and lower arms.
Look down and go a little further. As you hold this challenging pose, you will find yourself producing heat.
Cobra Pose
Slide forward lift the chest and bring it into the serpent posture. You can keep your shoulders away from the ears by bending your elbows in this pose.
When you inhale, gently push your chest forward; when you exhale, gently press your navel down. Lower the toes. Make sure you are stretching as much as you can; do not force.
Mountain Pose
In an ‘inverted V’ (/\) posture, exhale and lift the hips and tailbone up, chest downwards.
If possible, try to maintain your heels on the ground and gently pull your tailbone up to move further into the stretch.
Equestrian Pose
While inhaling, bring the right leg between both the hands, bring the left knee down to the floor,
look down at the hips and keep the right leg between both the hands and the right calf straight from the floor.
In this position, to deepen the stretch, make a gentle effort to push the hips down toward the floor.
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Standing Forward Bend
Exhale and step forward with your left foot. Keep your palms on the floor. You may need to bend your knees if required.
Gently straighten your knees and, if possible, try to touch your nose to your knees. Continue to breathe.
Upward Salute
Breathe in, roll the spine up, raise the hands, and bend backward slightly, pushing the hips slightly outward.
Make sure your biceps are near your ears. The goal is to extend upwards rather than pull backward.
Prayer Pose
This is the final pose of sun salutation. Exhale by straightening your torso first, then lowering your arms. Relax in this position and pay attention to the sensations in your body.
The Bottom Line
There are many proven physical and mental health benefits of practicing yoga and sun salutation.
But if you are never tried yoga before, You should consult a certified yoga trainer and start it slowly with easy yoga poses.
Different yoga postures focus on different parts of your body so performing different types of yoga poses will be beneficial for your overall health.
For more benefits, You may consider getting yoga classes to learn the proper details of various yoga postures.
