Monday, December 30, 2013

How to: Sun & Moon Salutations

Prepare for the day with Sun Salutations.
Prepare for bed with Moon Salutations.

In case you're unfamiliar with these yoga sequences, I thought I'd break them down for you a little.

Sun Salutations
This sequence is meant to create heat and warm you up for the day. Each pose syncs with your breathing - inhale to extend and exhale to bend. This flow focuses more on forward and backward bends, and can be a great warm-up for your regular workout or probably towards the end of the month a workout on its own.

Here's what it looks like.

Yoga Outlet does a good job of breaking down each pose - How to Do Sun Salutation A in Yoga.

If you prefer video, I know I do! here is a link to my favorite. Esther from Ekhart Yoga really walks you through the sequence and goes slow enough in the beginning, so you can get a real feel for the flow. She repeats the salutation 10x, which is helpful for me because I tend to lose count.

Moon Salutations
Unlike the sun salutation, the moon salutation is a cooling and quieting flow. It's used to calm your mind and draw your awareness inward. Instead of forward and backward bends, it focuses more on side-to-side motions.

Here's what it looks like.

moon salutations yoga
Though for the full sequence, this should be repeated by starting with a left side bend.

Again, Yoga Outlet breaks it down well - How to Do a Moon Salutation in Yoga.

Ekhart Yoga has a video for the moon salutation as well. This time she only goes through it once, and it's a bit slower than her video for the sun salutation, but it's great for a beginner.

And here's another video I found that flows a bit faster.

The faster flowing video takes about 3 min for the full sequence.

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