Christina Rosso from Yoga Alignment offering you a powerful yoga sequence that you can practice everyday if you’re busy or short on time!
In the previous email, we discussed how yoga is much more beneficial than just flexibility, relaxation and balance. In the studies and meta-analyses we reviewed, we found that practicing yoga can scientifically help with: working memory, inflammation and back pain, habitual posture and spinal curvature, respiratory function, sleep and preventing heart disease.
Since I started practicing yoga 12 years ago, I’ve personally noticed a difference in my body once I customized my practice to my own direct needs. To name a few benefits I have personally felt: my breathing is much stronger and the length of my inhales and exhales is much longer, I suffer from minimal body aches and pains (no back pain!) and my posture has improved significantly.
But before I became an instructor almost 6 years ago, I had a really hard time implementing yoga into my daily life because I didn’t really know how to, other than taking classes. And now, even with over 1000 hours teaching and 12 years of practicing, I sometimes have a hard time staying motivated to practice everyday. Thankfully, I have a go-to sequence I can practice at any time of day that I still haven’t gotten sick of and that I will share with you!
Let me tell you about Stephanie* who first contacted me about private yoga classes 3 years ago (at 40 years old). She told me she had never done yoga before and considered herself a beginner. She told me that she had an incredibly busy life but wanted to learn how to practice yoga. She specifically wanted me to teach her a sequence she could do a few times per week for 5-15 minutes when she had a bit of downtime either between meetings, in the morning or anytime throughout the day.
While I could have provided her with any combination of 100s of poses to form a sequence, I told her that the best sequence for her to learn would be Sun Salutations. This is a sequence that has been practiced for many years within the tradition of yoga. It is a great way to learn and practice many foundational poses and is a staple in most yoga classes. Also, if she ever forgets the sequence, she could easily find it with a simple google search!
Once I taught Stephanie this sequence (more on that another time), she was able to practice it on her own time and utilize our private yoga classes for whatever her direct needs were on that day- whether focusing on a specific area of the body, learning new poses, etc.
I have since taught the same sequence to almost all of my current students because I find it so powerful and that it acts as a really strong base for any yoga practice. The poses in this sequence help to mobilize many of our joints including spine, shoulders, ankles and hips. It helps us connect to the present moment and focus on the synchronicity of the movements and the breath. And so much more!
*name changed due to privacy
How to do Sun Salutations: The 12 Pose Sequence
Because there are different variations of Sun Salutations depending on the style of yoga and lineage, we have chosen the Classical (Hatha) Sun Salutations, sometimes known as Sun Salutations C (which can have many slight variations depending on the instructor). Here is a visual of this sequence:
1. Mountain Pose
2. Standing Backbend Pose
3. Standing Forward Fold Pose
4. Low Lunge Pose
5. Plank Pose
6. Knees-Chest-Chin Pose
7. Cobra Pose
8. Downward Facing Dog Pose
9. Low Lunge Pose
10. Standing Forward Fold Pose
11. Standing Backbend Pose
12. Mountain Pose
Now that you’ve learned the poses of Classical Sun Salutations, you can start implementing this sequence into your daily life!
but When is the best TIME to practice this sequence?
Find out here!
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE SUN SALUTATIONS SEQUENCE? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS!