Yoga Sun Salutation Part 1

Video Transcript

"In any Vinyasa flow, you will do Sun Citations. And I'm going to break this down actually into two parts. And this is the first part of the Sun Citation. If you haven't watched the previous clip, I highly recommend you go back and it will break down each of these postures that I'm about to refer to. So what you'll do is you start in Tadasana or Mountain Pose with your feet about hip width apart, one foot ten toes if you're a little more advanced. If you find the easier balance if hip width apart, lift those toes up and figure out where your weight is. You can either start with your hands out in regular Mountain Pose or in Anjali Mudra which is prayer position in your heart center. Then on an inhale, you slowly scoop your arms up in towards the ceiling. You can touch your hands or just keep them about shoulder width apart, just depends where your range of motion is in your shoulder joints. On an inhale you come up, on an exhale you'll slowly fall to forward. If you can't touch the ground, you can keep your hands on your shins or on your knees, taking care not to lock back through those knees, really relaxing down. And on an exhale, come into your forward bend. On an inhale, you're going to slowly arch up and on an exhale; you'll slowly going to fall forward. On your next inhale, you're going to bend those knees if you can?t touch your hands down and push your feet back into a plank position or high push up position. The important thing to remember about this is that your toes aren?t too high in the air and that you're actually in an even position. If you feel too much pressure in the hands, make sure to push weight out through the backs of your heels to give you that nice, even weighted position. Also notice where your hands are. Are they sun busted apart? Is your fingertips suctioned cup towards the ground? And hold this position for just a moment. And this you'll come to an inhale, open the shoulder blades, let the shoulder blades melt down the back. Now the next part of the Sun Citation, there's two possibilities. If you're just starting out, I recommend doing the first one. This actually goes knees and slightly drops the pelvis down, keep that core engaged. As you start to bring your chest towards the mat, pull your elbows in towards the ribs and push your heart forward and touch your chest towards the mat. Your butt will be in the air. And then you almost touch your chin, and then you scoop everything forward, scoop the heart, for keep those elbows hugged in and come to Bhujangasana or Cobra. Your fingers are still on the ground and keep your chin slightly tucks. Feet are resting on the floor. The important point to remember about this is you don't want to look up towards the ceiling; you actually want to look more in front of you. There's a really strong connection between the higher bone in your neck and your navel connection. So if you break that connection, it will be harder to hold this position. So now you're in Cobra. Coming back for more advanced students, when you're in that high push up or plank position, feet pushed out, hands pushed out, you want to have your hands about just in line like you did in table, in line with your shoulders. Find the even part of the weight in your fingers, hug your elbows in, and bring your body towards the earth, hugging the elbows in. And then slowly push yourself up, into Upward Dog. The important part about this, nothing's touching on your legs. You're not crunching into your lower back, you're pulling out of your shoulders and you're pushing your heart forward. And you can look a little more towards the ceiling on this one. So that is the first part of the Sun Citation broken down. And on the next clip I'll explain the second part."