Dinacharya Pt 3: Morning Movement (Sun Salutations)

One of the key components to any dinacharya practice (click for Part 1 and Part 2) is a regular asana, or movement in the form of physical yoga poses. Like with our pranayama and meditation, this can be adjusted for time and personal preference, so this will look different for each person. You may find that one day your dinacharya movement is simply lying in savasana for a few minutes, then on other days you may wake up and work through an entire 45 minutes of vinyasa flow with lots of energy. As long as you're practicing asana in some way, that's the main idea here.

One of my favorite ways to get my asana in each and every day, whether I practice more yoga later on or not, is to start out early with a few rounds of Sun Salutations. When I was a yoga newbie, I honestly hated them...mainly because they were hard! While Sun Sals are totally accessible to all levels, they're meant to kick up your heart rate and get your entire body working, which can feel intense. At the time, I was not a fan of moving much, so the initial results rang alarm bells in my brain. Thinking about that now is a little silly. From genuine hatred of Sun Salutations to an entire blog post singing their praises. It's good stuff!

Anyway, Sun Salutations kick butt for lots of reasons. You can practice them anywhere, and choose based on your schedule, mood, etc how many rounds you'd like to do that day. There are countless modifications and variations, sequences accessible to everyone, so you really can practice them at any level. Any they're amazing for you...not only do Sun Salutations tone and stretch literally your entire body, but they aid in digestion, increase overall energy, improve sleep, and can relieve symptoms of anxiety. 

Today I'll be sharing two basic modifications of Sun Salutation C. These modifications include a low lunge, with one modifiation practiced with the back knee raised (ball of back foot pressed into the mat) and another modification practiced with the back knee (and top of the back food) lowered to the mat. In the video, I practiced one modification on each side for demo purposes, but feel free to practice one or both variations on either side, making sure to balance your salutations out regardless. What I mean by this is that if you start by lunging back your right leg, make sure you even it out with a left lunge as well before moving on. You can practice as many "full rounds" (lunging back on each side) as you'd like.

Some notes that I didn't mention in the video:

*Sun Salutations, depending on how they are practiced, are often used as part of the initial limbering in a yoga practice, but I'd recommend some basic stretches like neck, shoulder and wrist rolls beforehand. 

*You can practice your low lunge using blocks on either side of your front foot if you have trouble reaching your palms to the mat. Blocks help "raise the floor" if needed during poses where mobility or flexibility is limited.

*While I practiced my Sun Salutations at the pace of one pose per inhale and one pose per exhale, you can certainly take your time in any one or all of the poses if you'd like to take slower rounds. Sometimes I only work through one or two rounds of Sun Salutations, but hold each component for anywhere from 3-5 breaths a pop.

*When taking your standing forward fold (the pose you first see on the initial exhale, repeated many times throughout), feel free to bend your knees as much as possible in order to fully relax your spine and upper body. The idea is to create space between each vertebrae as the top of the head releases towards the floor, so bending the knees really helps encourage this type of stretch while also avoiding overstretch in the backs of the hamstrings from happening if flexibility there is limited. Experiment and see what feels good in the space of your own body.

*When working through the vinyasa sequence (from plank through to downward dog), I demonstrated this part of the sequence by simply lowering the body gradually on the exhale after my plank, then lifted to cobra pose. There are more intermediate and advanced variations of this sequence, and this goes in general, so if you're interested in any of those I'd recommend clicking around on YouTube. There are so many examples and because Sun Sal variations are literally limitless, it's honestly more fun to just start checking out what different teachers are practicing. Play around and see which sequences you enjoy best...you can even combine variations and create a hybrid.

I think that's everything...I tried not to ramble in the video, but made up for that a little just now, but I definitely want to make sure it's clear that there's no exact science concerning your Sun Salutations--or honestly, yoga in general. I hope this theme is clear tomorrow as well, when we cover our final element of a well-rounded dinacharya: daily meditation.

What are our thoughts so far? Let me know in the comments below! I'd love to hear what your daily routines look like and how they're going. 

XO

Jess