Sunday, May 31, 2020

Surya namaskar

Since I already wrote about Burpees, I also thought of writing about Surya-namaskars (Sun-salutations) as a wonderful full-body exercise to be done everyday in the morning.

Rather than randomly stretching my body and being lethargic till I get my first shot of caffeine, I find the sun-salutations as a very good form of stretching that wakes me up and recharges me. I typically target to do 12. Why 12? Well, I don't know - I just associate 12 with the Sun and doing anything less seems too little and any more, I get too tired and sweaty. 12 sun-salutations takes me approximately 6 minutes or less, just enough to not procrastinate and get my stretching done.

Now, it is an ancient yogic exercise. That means there are several variations and if you search for videos on YouTube, you can get lost in the wonder world of sun-salutations. I personally follow the method shown in the video below, but if you have a yoga instructor, I suppose it's best you follow that method.




And if you adopt the fast method of doing salutations as demonstrated by Baba Ramdev below, I am sure you can squeeze in 100 over (108?) Surya Namaskars like Burpees and get your cardio exercise done right in the morning!




2 comments:

  1. This is one of the best Yogasana which helps your entire body. In Vedas and Purana there are 12 Adityas i.e. 12 Suns which we need to worship through Sun Salutations. Hence, it should be always 12 or multiples of 12. We have to take name of each Sun at the beginning of each iteration.

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    1. Thank you for informing us about this Nishad. I vaguely remembered it had to be a multiple of 12. Thank you for letting us know why it actually is!

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