A modified Sun Salutation A breaks down the foundational yoga flow step by step. The instructor shows options for each pose, like bending your knees in the forward fold or stepping back into a low lunge, so you can meet the sequence where your body is.
Today we're going to be modifying Sun Salutation A. Sun Salutation A is part of the Ashtanga primary series. It's one of the first flows that you're going to learn in vinyasa or Ashtanga yoga. First, we want to step to the front of the mat. You can bring your feet in line with your hips if you'd like. Bring your hands to the heart center. This is called Samasthiti. Inhale, reach your arms up to the sky. Exhale, bring your hands through your heart center as you fold forward. Now, if your hands do not touch the ground, that's okay. Bring your hands onto your shins, look up and lengthen. Exhale, you might need to bend the knees here as you bring your hands onto the ground. You're going to step back one leg and then the other leg. Then from here, look forward, drop your knees and point the toes back as you slowly, with control, lower down, hugging the arms into your chest. Then inhale up to a cobra pose. If you'd like, bring your hands a little bit further back, press into the tops of the feet, come all the way up into an upward facing dog. We call this urdhva mukha svanasana. Curl under the toes and then bring it back into a downward facing dog. In downward dog, you want your energy to go backward not forward onto the forearms, but backward. So pressing the heels towards the ground, even if they don't touch, and letting the hips ride high towards the sky. Let the head come toward your mat. Now you have an option here. If you want to, you can bring your hands a little bit closer in, and we'll step one foot and then the other foot on the outside of your mat. Inhale, look up and lengthen. Exhale and fold. Inhale, reach your arms up to the sky. And exhale back to Samasthiti where we started. Light up that follow button for more yoga tips.
