Yoga Warm-Up Sun Salutation A

11 Minutes, Intensity 2, Complexity 1, Full Body, Upper Body, Endurance, Strength.
Perhaps the most popular warm-up in all of yoga, Sun Salutation A is a staple in flow yoga, and one of the best ways to get your whole body prepped for movement. Learn the fundamentals of this classic yoga warm-up while getting your body ready for what comes next.

Transcript

Hi, Everyone. This is Carrick. This is a warm-up practice to do before game day before you practice, Before you get into your full workout, Just a nice easy way to ease your body into moving and to really using some of the big muscles to get going. Sun salutation A, One of the most common probably the most common way to warm up in yoga. So let's start in down dog. Turn to one side of your mat. Set your hands about outer shoulder width apart. Look back at your feet. Set your feet about hip width apart. If you want to know how long this spacing should be, If you're in a perfect push-up with your shoulders over your hands and your toes right under your heels, As I push back, This is roughly my dumb dog spacing. I'm gonna bend my knees to start, Because my hips are a little bit tight. This is my warmup too. Tilt your pelvis forward and lift your arms high, Press your chest low. Just a couple of breaths. So just down dog is a great warm-up pose. Already working the shoulders, Getting into a stretch in the backs of the legs, Working the hips a little bit, And lengthening the spine. Primarily, I think of down dog as lengthening the spine, But there's so much more that's going on, Right? The arms starting to work, Shoulders working, Hips working. Legs working. So great overall pose. Look forward and walk your feet to the front of the mat. You can just tiptoe forward for now. Set your feet about hip-width apart. At the front of the mat, Inhale and lengthen, Reach your heart forward. And then exhale to fold. Keep your feet really steady and then inhale, Sweep your arms up over your head. Exhale, Draw your hands to your heart. So here's the sun salutation. Inhale, Reach your arms up to the sky. Keep your knees a little soft, Fold, And touch the floor. If you can't touch the floor, You're welcome to put your hands on blocks. I'm assuming that most of you can. Inhale to lengthen, Reach your heart forward. Oh, By the way, You can bend your knees to touch the floor. Now plant your hands and step back to the top of a push-up. All right, Perfect push-up, Shoulders over the wrists, And then again, Heels over the toes. Lower to the bottom of the push-up. In yoga, The elbows do not flare out to the sides. They stay centered over the wrists, And the way that we come down to the bottom of the push-up is by leaning forward, And the shoulders move forward and lower to about the level of the elbows. Okay, Not too much lower, So it's not this. All right, So it's lifted here. And then inhale to cobra, Lower the knees, Point the toes back and draw the shoulders back. Curl the toes under, Lift your hips up and back to down dog. Pause and take a couple of breaths here. Just feel the body, Lift your arm bones up. Press your heart down. Bend your knees a little bit, Tip your pelvis forward, Get length in the lower back, Little curve in the lower back. And then push your legs as straight as they're gonna go. You don't have to take the legs all the way straight to get a stretch. So even with my knees slightly bent, I can already feel the hamstrings lengthening. Look forward and walk your feet to the front of the mat. Feet about hip width apart, Inhale to lengthen, Heart forward. Exhale to fold. Keep your legs steady. Inhale, Reach your arms up over your head. Exhale and draw your hands to your heart. I'll show you a couple of modifications as we go to make the to make the sun salutations more active, To make them a little more challenging. Inhale, Sweep your arms, Reach up. Exhale, Knees a little soft, Fold forward, Touch the ground. I'm going to repeat this because it's important. You can bend your knees as much as you need to to touch the ground. It's not cheating. You can also put your hands up on blocks if you're having a hard time reaching the floor. Okay, So. You can bend your knees as much as you need to touch the ground. All right, Inhale to lengthen, Heart forward. Exhale, Plant the hands. So you can step back and lower to the bottom of the push-up. OK, So again. The bottom of the pushup is shoulders a little bit higher than the block level, About as high as my elbows and my elbows over my wrist. My elbows are not back here. My shoulders are not down here. Okay, So almost there. Perfect 90 degree angle is what I'm shooting for. Then when I pull up to Cobra, Shoulders go back. Knees and feet release. Heart forward, Head back. On the exhale down dog. All right, Look forward. Step your feet up. Inhale to lengthen, Heart forward. Exhale to fold, Steady the feet. Inhale, Reach your arms up over your head. Exhale, Hands to the heart. Okay, Here's the modification. Inhale, Reach up. Exhale, Fold, Touch the ground. So instead of stepping back, I can jump back. Inhale, Halfway forward. Exhale, Plant the hands. When I jump back, My target is the bottom of the push-up. So I'm going to bend my elbows while I'm jumping my feet back. I'm going to land in the bottom of the push-up. Looks like this. In Haunted Cobra. Excel to dog. Just adds a little bit of a dynamic movement to. The sun salutation makes it a little more challenging, A little more energetic. When I come forward, I can also jump. So I look forward, I like to shift my shoulders a little bit forward, Like almost over my hands. I bend my knees and I can jump my feet. Up to my hands. In how to lengthen. Excel to fold. Keep your legs steady. Inhale, Sweep your arms up over your head. Exhale, Hands to the heart. One more modification to make it even a little more challenging, In-house sweep your arms up. Exhale, Fold, Touch the ground. So now this time, I'll not only hop my feet back, But I'm going to try to hop my legs back with my legs relatively straight. All right, Plant the hands. I'll have to lean forward so that my hips lift up and my heels lift up. So I'm leaning forward, Just gonna put. More of the weight into my hands, My shoulders activate to keep me stable so I don't fall on my head. Then I lift, I'm gonna keep my legs as straight as possible. And I'm just going to. . . I always feel like I'm a jackknife. Unfolding, Okay? So I'm gonna keep the legs straight, I lean forward, And then here's the lift back. Inhale to cobra. Exhale to dog. And then when I jump forward. I'm refolding the jackknife. I need to bend my knees to jump, Okay? That's where the spring comes from. But I'm going to do my best to land with my legs straight. I'll have to lift my hips really high. And engage my low belly. I'll have to use my core to lift up high enough to land with straight legs. Let's see how this goes. Okay, Straight legs-ish. In Helsinki. Exhale, Fold. Inhale, Reach the arms up over the head. Exhale, Hands to the heart. Inhale again, Sweep the arms. Exhale, Fold, Touch the ground. So you can leave out those jumps, And you can leave out trying to jump with straight legs, Just giving you options to make the sun salutation a little more energetic. Inhale to lengthen. Exhale to fold. You could even, I'm gonna move these out of my way. As you jump back. You could jump up. Into. I wanted to do a handstand, But that wasn't happening. So you could jump up. So there's all kinds of ways that you can. Make the. Sun salutation more active. By jumping and trying to hold. Various positions so I can try, As I jump forward, I can try to jump to something that looks kind of like a handstand. I don't think I'm going to stick this. Endowed. In her lengthen. Exhale, Fold. Steady feet. Inhale, Arms overhead. Exhale, Hands to the heart. So there's all different ways to modify. The simple sun salutation. The great thing about the sun salutation is We're working. Most of the major muscle groups in this sequence. Let me jump back. Cobra. John Dogg. You can always pause in the down dog. Just sort of feel the differences. In the body from one sun salutation to the next. Okay, Arm bones lifted high, Heart soft. I like to keep my head in neutral. You could drop your head to the ground. Or towards the ground. You could look up. I like the head in neutral, So I'll try to keep my ears right between my arms. And I'm looking straight down. I'm trying to keep my hips in relatively neutral. I'm trying to avoid rounding the back here. Like this. I want more length in my back. And that feels better to me. Which means I can't straighten my legs all the way. You might be able to straighten your legs. All the way. Okay, Look forward. Bend your knees, Step or hop in. In Hudson Langton. Exhale to fold. Steady your feet, Inhale, Reach your arms up. Exhale, Hands to the heart. Inhale again, Sweep the arms. Exhale, Fold, Touch the ground. Inhale halfway forward. Exhale, Plant the hands, Step or jump back. In Alta Cobra. Exhale, Down dog. And then just come down to your knees. So what I like about the sun salutations is in a short period of time. 10 minutes or so. I can warm up the body. I'm already a little warm. I'm ready to go and lift or run or do whatever it is I need to do next. And I'm not super tired. I'm not burnt out. I'm ready to go into the next thing. Very common way to warm up in yoga classes, And I think that sun salutations are a great way to warm up for other activities as well, Sports, Working out. Practice, Whatever. Okay, Thanks for joining with me.