Surya Namaskar is the practice of twelve asanas performed together in a sequence where each of the asanas work on different organs, muscles and systems in our bodies. The sequence stimulates the immune system, making it stronger. The Sanskrit name Surya here refers to the Sun and Namaskar means Salutations. Surya Namaskar, as is practiced today, is a set of asanas done with breath coordination, the sequence involves the forward and backbends of the spine and engages the upper, lower, and more importantly the core of the body.
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Surya Namaskara is one of the best practices to create warmth in the body, opens up all the joints, and also help us connect with the breath. We have seen many other versions of Surya Namaskara in the past videos, in this video, we will look at something called warm-up Surya Namaskara which has its origin from ancient Indian wrestlers. Let's look at it.
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We will do three sets of this warm-up Surya Namaskara. Each set involves three rounds. Since we are doing this practice at the beginning of the class, so we will avoid in fact recommended to avoid deep forward bends or intense stretches. One thing you need to remember is to practice it back to back without taking breaks.
You can take a break after every set, a short break. Let's get with the first set. Get to the front of the mat, feet slightly apart, hands by the side, inhale roll shoulders back, exhale hands by the side. Now raise your arms up, lengthen, bend forward jump back, go down, scoop forward, knees off the floor, toes flat now as you move back bending me so that it helps you to jump to the front and immediately come up lengthen, bend forward with the knees bend to help you jump back, go down, raise your chest up, flat ankles, knees off, hips back to help you in jumping and coming up, last round to go, bend forward, immediately jump, scoop up, hips back. As you move your hips back, knees deeply bent, jump to the front coming up and release.
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That was the first set of our Surya Namaskara warm-up. In the second set, we will add the breath. We're gonna have only three breaths, so you need to keep your mouth closed. It will be little intense initial days, so keep your mouth closed try to breathe only through the nose, but follow the breath including the body moments.
Let's do the second set, feet slightly apart, inhale roll shoulders back, exhale samastithi. Inhale arms up lengthen, as you exhale bend forward, jump back go down. Inhale scoop up, and as you exhale bend your knees and jump to the front. Inhale coming up, exhale, jump go down. Inhale scoop up and jump, exhale.
Inhale, come up and exhale.
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That was the second set with the breath. In the third set if you have seen some of the movements are a little challenging right, so how about modifying those asanas.
I will show you the third set with a few modifications which you can use when you feel too tired or even you find some of these postures challenging. Let's look at that.
Feet slightly apart, inhale roll shoulders back, exhale samastithi. Inhale, arms to the ceiling lengthen as you exhale jump back, here instead of completely going down you can gently bend your knees, go down with the chest, inhale scoop up, as you exhale, hip up. You can also simply step forward instead of jumping and you come up. Inhale lengthen, exhale, go down, step back knees down, chest and chin down, Inhale scoop up, exhale hip up, step to the front.
Inhale coming up breath is not changing only the moments, exhale go down, step back even this is challenging you can simply lie down on your stomach, inhale raise your chest up, exhale hip up. Step forward; Inhale, arms from the side lengthen and you exhale, release.
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That was the end of all the three sets, after that, you can squat down to Malasana; toe slightly pointing out, hands inside, palms to the chest. You will find your breath a little fast erratic, it's absolutely normal. All you have to do keep your mouth closed, and focus on breathing through the nose to catch your breath.
We have just seen the warm-up Surya Namaskara, there are three rounds of Surya Namaskara in each set, you can practice three to five sets and keep on adding one more set based on your requirement. Keep practicing, see you around, thank you.
