Sun salutation videos
Many of us centre our physical yoga practice around sun salutations, and it’s not hard to work out why.
The series of poses allows us to focus on breathing fully, stretch and strengthen the whole body, and connect with the earth and the sky. If you only have five minutes free for exercise, I’d definitely advise you to spend it working through a set of sun salutations - and if you spend five minutes every day doing sun salutations, you’ll quickly get stronger!
Below are the various sun salutation video that I shared on Facebook at the start of lockdown. Let me know which one you like best, and which poses or transitions you would like to workshop in our classes. There are so many ways to vary the sequence, so there WILL be a version out there that works for your body!
1) Seated sun salutations
Here’s a 10 minute sun salutation practice from Sleepy Santosha, who specializes in yoga for chronic illness.
This is a lovely full body practice for those of you who are recovering from arm/leg injuries, or who don’t feel confident doing standing sun salutations without a teacher present.
It’s also a fantastic opportunity for all of us to move through the sun salutation shapes whilst focusing on core strength and balance: notice the habits of your feet, knees, hips and shoulders during this practice, and how you can use your core muscles to maintain good alignment in each of the postures.
Rachel reminds us to choose a suitable chair for this relatively strong chair yoga practice. If your feet don’t reach the ground comfortably, use blocks or books to bring the floor closer. Rachel begins with great tips for alignment as you sit and move into a calm breathing pattern. She then guides you slowly through the sequence, holding each posture, before repeating at a pace that moves with the breath.
2) Standing sun salutations with the chair
This is a 6-minute sun salutation practice from Steve Yoga & Meditation from Awase Publishing. This is a great sequence to use as a post-run or post-walk stretch, or as a practice in its own right.
You’ll need a dining chair or similar, placed on a non-slip surface. Have a clear space about five feet behind the chair, and then three feet either side of you.
If you haven’t done chair yoga before, you may want to watch a bit of the video to get a feel for the shapes being made in each pose. For this sequence, my main tip is to keep the knees bent as much as is comfy for you. Additionally, if the up dog pose looks a bit daunting (lots of you haven’t done this on the mat yet), then either stay in downward facing dog or come up to a standing mountain pose, lifting the arms above the head.
3) Standing sun salutations with blocks
Here’s a 5-minute sun salutation practice from https://www.instagram.com/yoga_jeanne/. This standing practice has lots of tips to increase accessibility.
The adaptations include using blocks to ease the transition from standing to kneeling, and modifying both plank and downward dog. There’s also an option to take ‘public toilet’ pose at one point!
Jeanne tweaks the traditional sun salutation A, making this a great option if you’ve started practising sun salutations in our classes but are a bit nervous about trying them in your individual practice.
4) Standing sun salutations with blocks
Finally, this 7-minute video from Dianne Bondy Yoga takes us through two rounds of standing sun salutations with some fantastic ‘tweaks’ to make the traditional sequence more accessible.
I suggest you do this practice after warming up. This flow moves quite quickly, but with very clearly verbalized transitions. Dianne encourages you to use blocks in this practice (Yes! Bring the floor closer!) and she gives great cues to help you move confidently into downward dog and plank.
If you liked one of these teachers, please follow them on social media or sign up for their newsletters. It’s great to learn from others who are committed to making yoga accessible.
Finally, if you’re interested in yoga history and philosophy, here are two articles discussing the origin of sun salutations:
https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/the-origin-of-sun-salutations
https://www.elephantjournal.com/2016/06/the-meaning-history-behind-the-sun-salutation/
Enjoy bringing the sun into your day!
Alison