Surya Namaskara A

Just like what I wrote in my previous post, I started practicing Yoga. It's been around 3-4 months now.

I never knew before that Yoga was very challenging and addicting! I used to stare at Yoga class from the glass door entrance and wondering what they were doing in there. I was only a starer until my stepper fellow, Lily, asked me to join a session just to have a taste of it, I decided to give it a try.

I still remember my first yoga session. It was hard! the moves that I always thought can be done easily were surprisingly difficult! The moves themselves were simple but we must do it right. The posture must be right, the breathing needed to be done with Ujay breathing – breathing from the throat, usually done when we wanted to clean our glasses or sunglasses using the humidity of the breath, please note that we can hear a hissing sound coming from our throat as we breath out – and some movement needed a full concentration as they need some internal rotation. By the end of the class, I felt like I've been worn out ! The mattress and the floor surrounding me was wet. I was wet as if I was poured by a rain. I swore that I sweat more than a cycling or pumping session. Besides a good workout, the other benefit that I felt after each Yoga session was a peace of mind. The savasana - corpse pose that was done at the end of session was a total relaxation pose when we inhaled a positive energy into the body and exhaled the negative one out.

By the way, this post actually about series of movement that is a must be done when we practice Yoga. It's called Surya Namaskara A or Sun Salutation A. The series that I usually done is shown in picture below, oh I get the picture from here

The flow of a sun salutation A are in order of :

1. Mountain pose or upward tree position - Standing with arms position up over the head.

2. Uttanasana A - Bending and reaching the knee, glut stretch

3. Uttanasana B - Flat back

4. Jump backward and straight into plank position

5. Chaturanga Dandasana - similar like push up

6. Upward facing dog or Cobra

7. Adho Mukha Shavanasana - Downward facing dong.

8. Jump back forward and straight to Uttasana B

9. Breath in as we do Uttasana A again

10. Samasthitih with a breath out.

I usually do the sun salutation A three or four time. But I read on someone blog that they can do this series movement for 54 sets. Crazy! hehehe... Well, I am still learning, and will write about other movement later.

Julian, Off to Yoga Class..