Surya Namaskar Yoga for Wellness

The first thing about wellness that you need to have a good beginning of the day. A fresh morning is what it takes to achieve this. Sleep puts our bulk muscles to rest and devoid of oxygen. They need to be re-supplied with oxygen to give us an invigorated feeling. Surya Namaskar Yoga is a wholesome body stretching exercise which lends flexibility to almost all the body muscles.

This body stretching exercise is a proven technique from the past. Yoga practitioners recommend this stretch exercise before moving on to other stretching or breathing exercises. This is great exercise for anyone who wants to keep fit and keep their form. It helps one to keep the vigor throughout the day.

This exercise is embedded deeply in Indian way of living and a must recommend for all millennial. This has been my secret to maintain my health and form for the last couple of years and into middle years.

Ideal Settings

Surya Namaskar Yoga is purported to connect with the Sun. The core of this yoga is to pay obeisance to the Guru.Here the Sun or Surya is treated as Guru. This is a stretch exercise involving the maximum muscles in our body.

As it also holds a spiritual significance, the setting is important. It should be performed with the face in the direction of sun. This translates to east direction for the morning sun. Care must be taken that the place chosen be such that the morning sun-rays touches the body, specially the solar plexus.

A proper setting has relevant significance in this whole body stretching practice. Hence, this must be followed to achieve maximum benefits leading to a life full of wellness.

The 12 Poses

The Surya Namaskar Yoga is a set of twelve poses and performed cyclically. One set consists of performing these twelve poses in order. It should be done continuously in sets without a break.

The twelve steps are:

1. Step 1 – Prayer Pose
2. Step 2 – Raised Arm Pose
3. Step 3 – Hand to Foot Pose
4. Step 4 – Equestrian Pose
5. Step 5 – Stick Pose
6. Step 6 – Salute with eight parts or points
7. Step 7 – Cobra Pose
8. Step 8 – Mountain Pose
9. Step 9 – Equestrian Pose
10. Step 10 – Hand to Foot Pose
11. Step 11 – Raised Arm Pose
12. Step 12 – Standing Mountain Pose

One set completes with the 12-pose cycle and then continued. At the end of the sets one should relax lying down concentrating on breath intake and exhalation.

The above steps on how to perform them visually can be found on videos and online channels. Describing them in words is not appropriate here hence leaving it at this.

Health Benefits

The health benefits of Surya Namaskar Yoga are multi-fold. Since I was associated with corporate life, I can vouch for it and strongly recommend to the millennials to incorporate  it into their everyday lives.

Controlling weight is the first obvious benefit. I have been successful in keeping out a pot-belly even with extended hours of work by practicing this exercise. It is claimed to keep thyroid under control which is a major factor in weight gains for working professionals. A consolidated stretch of bulk muscles invigorates them with good blood flow and thereby oxygen in the morning hours. Thereby reducing the accumulation of lipids in key fat build-up areas like belly, thighs and hips.

Moreover, it has a calming effect on the body. Sun-rays touching the solar plexus in the morning does wonders. It works out both the intake and circulation of oxygen in the body.

Long hours, inconsistent food, lack of exercise contribute to stress in corporate life. This stress is compounded if our body muscles are not kept flexible. The first effect of stress is high blood pressure. High blood pressure leads to many complications and lifestyle diseases. Hence, it is important to keep the muscles flexible as an everyday habit. This wholesome stretch of the majority of bulk muscles achieves this. Hence, it is claimed to be a sustainable cure for controlling your blood pressure.

The experts in the field of Yoga state that this exercise balances the body fluid- the basis of all treatments in the Ancient Indian Wellness Treatise – Ayurveda.

The 21-Day Challenge

Understanding the wholesome and simple Yoga exercise brings us to the question of how to incorporate this in our daily lives. I therefore encourage you to try the 21-day challenge all by yourself.

Why 21 Days?

It is said that you need to practice something for 21 days before it becomes a habit. I am simply re-iterating this hypothesis in helping you take first steps to achieve wellness.

I can tell you from my personal experience that completing even ten sets is challenging in the first week. So, if you are determined enough, start with a target of just 5 cycles in the first week and then increase it to ten in the next. Once you are comfortable doing ten cycles everyday without fail, move to twenty cycles for the third week. If you have doing twenty cycles on the 21st day after beginning the cycle and have done that for a week, I am sure you will continue with it for your entire life.

I would love to hear from you on Day 21 and see if you can vouch for others to take up this amazing exercise.

Is Surya Namaskar Enough Yoga?

Surya Namaskar Yoga covers all aspects of strength, cardio and stretch exercises and therefore enough if you just do this.

The twelve steps are carefully thought to include all aspects of getting your entire body in motion. Practicing just 21 reps per day would be good enough to keep you healthy!

Conclusion

Surya Namasakar Yoga is a complete exercise package as we can well see. It consists of 12-step process and covers stretching, strength and cardio exercises.

This Yoga has many benefits including,

• Strengthens muscles
• Improves stamina
• Reduces Belly Fat
• Helps in Losing Weight ( Read my other article Lose Weight with Yoga at Home here)
• -Keeps limbs flexible

Take up the 21 day Challenge to observe the benefits yourself.

Here is a link to the video Step by Step Suryasana to help you understand the process visually. I am sure this will complete your learning about this powerful Yoga.

The first think I had in mind when writing this Wellness blog was to share with you what worked well for me. This is the first one in the series where I would love you readers and specially the action takers among you to become Wellness Evangelists. Sharing with your connections what really worked for you. Let us build a society built on the foundations of health and wellness. Let us bring to light some of the aspects which might not be know by some yet by sharing information.

In any case, do not forget to leave your comment below!