Sun Salutation: Adding on!
April 28, 2010 
Carrisa 
- Let the chest shine forward
Hopefully, you had a chance to practice the first couple of Sun Salutation postures that were introduced in the last post. So let’s recap and move on: Starting in Down Dog, as we inhale moving into Plank, and as we breath out sinking into our Crocodile. From Crocodile, lower the hips down to the floor and bring the tops of the feet to the mat. Now roll the shoulders back then down so we are really engaging the back muscles. Welcome to Cobra. Keeping the elbows tucked in close to the ribs, try lifting both hands just for a moment. If we can’t lift the hands then we are too deep into this posture and relying on the arms instead. Since our focus on strengthening the back here, we may want to lower the upper body a bit using only the back muscles to create our Cobra. As we come back to our Down Dog, press up to hands-and-knees, curl the toes under, then lift the hips to that upside down ‘V’. Now we have a couple of options.
If we wanna get the heart pumping we can throw in a Lunge or two. If not, skip this paragraph. From Down Dog, lunge the right foot forward. Make sure the ankle is directly under the knee!! We don’t want to leave the knee unsupported. We can hold here, just enjoying the stretch, or if we would like to reach both hands up to the sky as we breath in, we can. Exhale, bring the hands back down to the mat. Step the right foot back and into our Down Dog. Now lunge the left foot forward, again, keep the hands low or inhale the arms up, exhale arms down. Return to Down Dog by stepping the left foot back. How’d that feel?
Guess what! Now we do it all over again…. into Plank, etc etc etc. In class we usually enjoy about four or six Sun Salutations. There are a bunch of different ways to create our own Salutation… so this is just a starting point. Continue practicing this series, we’ll add another posture or two next time.
Namaste’
Carrisa
Cobra ~ Bhujangasana
Each Yogi assumes responsibility for their own practice. Yoga Untwisted will not be held responsible for any injury obtained while practicing these postures. Always honor your ability & limitations.
Tags: 
Pingback: Tweets that mention Yoga Untwisted » Blog Archive » Sun Salutation: Adding on!, Yoga Untwisted -- Topsy.com