Poses of Surya Namaskar

Pose 1:

Stand with both your legs touching each other. Keep both hands near the chest in the pose of a Namaskara.

Pose 2:

Breathe in deeply. Raise both hands in the Namaskara pose to the top of the head. Stretch your hands as far as possible towards the sky and then slowly bend the head and the hands on the backwards side. Always bend the hands first and then the head. Or else you might be imbalanced.

Pose 3:

With both hands in the Namaskara position bend forwards next. Start releasing your breath in this motion. Try and stretch your self as far as possible while bending forward and then slowly move your hands towards the ground. You will eventually touch the ground with your hands. This pose is not easy to master and might take a while for you to be able to stretch well. Try as much as possible, but take care not to overdo things. Do not bend your legs at any point of time while performing this pose.

Pose 4:

Breathe in. Pull the right leg and stretch it backwards as if you are taking a stride backwards. Let the right knee touch the ground. Pull the left knee near to your chest and your head should be between your two hands, stretched towards the sky.

Pose 5:

Next, lift the left leg and put it alongside the right. Straighten both knees. Your body weight should be on your hands and the paws of your feet. Hold your body in a single straight line and hold your breath too.

Pose 6:

Next touch your knees and your chest to the ground and exhale. Keep both hands on both sides of the body and exhale.

Pose 7:

Breathe deeply. Share the weight of the body on both your hands and raise your forehead, chest and head up to the navel. Keep your hands placed on the ground and parallel to each other.

Pose 8:

Exhale. Share your weight on both the palms and the paws of your legs and raise your knees, back, buttocks and chest. Try creating a beautiful triangle with the ground using your body.

Pose 9:

The poses 9,10,11 and 12 now onwards are a repetition of the earlier poses 4,3,2 and 1 respectively. In the 4th pose we had drawn the right leg backwards. This time around allow the right leg to remain in the same position and bring the left leg between two knees.

Pose 10:

Exhale. Bring the right leg in line with the left and assume the pose as in pose 3. Knees should be staright and both hands should be on both sides of the body.

Pose 11:

Inhale slowly. Raise both the arms straight upwards keeping both the hands joined together. and head in between the arms. Assume standing position with head and leg in straight line. Then bend behind and take care to see that the knees and elbows do not bend.

Pose 12:

Exhale. Keep both the hands in front of the chest in the pose of Namaskar. This whole cycle constitutes of one Suryanamaskar.

Initially start by performing Suryanamsakars 2, 4 6, 8 times. Remember to perform Shavasana.