Your Step-by-Step Guide to Flowing Through Sun Salutations

It’s been said that “Movement without awareness is exercise. Movement with awareness is yoga.”

It’s easy to aspire to the latter. (Don’t we all?) It’s not always easy to achieve it, though. Especially when you’re taking yourself through your practice without a teacher cueing a sequence. Or when you’re desperately trying to cram 10 minutes of your practice in as your weekday meeting marathon looms.

There’s actually an ancient yogic antidote specifically designed for those mornings. It’s a series of yoga postures known as Surya Namaskar A, more commonly known as Sun Salutations. This sequence of postures dates back more than 2,500 years to a time when ancient cultures revered the Sun. Salutations are believed to have been regarded as a literal salute to sunrise and were perceived to ready the body for all that would happen during daylight.

This sequence of postures is essentially a series of prescribed motions that begins and ends with Mountain Pose (Tadasana). The poses take you through all manner of stretches, forward folds, and backbends that build heat and happen in a rhythmic cadence that is aligned with your breath. The start of an inhalation initiates your transition from one pose to the next. The beginning of an exhalation acts as a cue for your next transition. Breath, movement, and stillness fall into a rhythm. The trajectory of the sequence, like the Sun itself, has a predictable arc and is cyclical, making it easy to become quietly absorbed in the repeated motions. Consider it a moving meditation.

You may already be vaguely or intimately familiar with Surya Namaskar A but haven’t committed the poses and their order to memory. That’s okay! Below is a list of each pose in a Sun Salutation sequence so you can do less thinking and more flowing.

Should You Warm Up Before Sun Salutations?

Yes, you’ll benefit from stretching before you do Sun Salutations—especially if you’re practicing the sequence in the morning. Surya Namaskar was once considered the warm-up for the practice of yoga. Most vinyasa teachers still introduce Sun Salutations as a precursor to more challenging sequences, but only after cueing students through several stretches beforehand.

Try this warm-up before starting Sun Salutations:

1. Start in Child’s Pose (Balasana) for several breaths.
2. Do a few rounds of Cat-Cow (Marjaryasana and Bitilasana).
3. Come into Downward-Facing Dog Pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana).
4. Spend a few breaths in Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana) to warm up your lower back.

How to Flow Through Surya Namaskar A

Settle into your own rhythm, your own individual synchronization of movement and stillness. If you’re able to flow in a manner that lets each breath align with one movement of your body, then do so. You can take more time and linger in any pose that feels particularly good. This is your practice. Own that.

And if you find yourself moving from pose to pose and lose track of whether you’re supposed to be inhaling or exhaling, rest assured, it’s okay if you switch it up. (A quick cheat: In yoga, as you inhale, you typically lift or expand your body in some way; as you exhale, you lower or release your body.)

This sequence of postures can be a complete practice in itself or it can prepare you for a longer practice. Sun Salutations are often led by teachers in sets of five, but if you’re new to the practice, start with fewer than that. Maybe even just one.

Variations You Can Take During Sun Salutations

If you are tending to tight shoulders or wrists, omit Chaturanga and transition straight from Plank to Downward-Facing Dog. For tight hamstrings, bend your knees during Downward-Facing Dog and give yourself a little extra time to step forward into a lunge. For tight hip flexors, instead of transitioning from Down Dog to Low Lunge in a single step, take as many steps forward as you need. You can also come to hands and knees instead and take a step forward from there.

Step-by-Step Surya Namaskar A

Although there may be a tendency to rush through this sequence, try to intentionally move more slowly. Allow your movement to follow the pace of your breath. Perhaps you remain longer in a pose than a single breath and let yourself settle into the stretch. Transition with intention from one posture to another. Try not to rush through the in-between-poses parts.

1. Mountain Pose (Tadasana)

Stand with your feet together and your arms at your side in Mountain Pose. Distribute your weight evenly between your feet and turn your palms to face forward. Let yourself find a slow, steady breath. Bring your palms together at the center of your chest in prayer position (anjali mudra).

2. Upward Salute (Urdhva Hastasana)

Inhale and sweep your arms straight out to the sides and up alongside your ears in Upward Salute. Your palms should face one another, and you can bring them to touch if desired. Reach your sternum and arms toward the Sun. If you like, you can gaze slightly upward and even take a small backbend here by lifting your chest and leaning your upper body slightly back.

3. Standing Forward Bend (Uttanasana)

Exhale and bend forward at your hips, bringing your chest toward your thighs. Press your feet into the mat. Let your shoulders and neck relax. Your hands can rest on your mat,  shins, ankles, or blocks.

4. Standing Half Forward Bend (Ardha Uttanasana)

Inhale as you lift your chest parallel to the mat in Standing Half Forward Bend. Draw your shoulder blades away from your ears and lengthen through your back as you reach the top of your head toward the wall in front of you. You can keep your palms or fingertips on the floor or bring them to your shins or blocks.

5. Plank

Exhale and step your feet back into Plank, which is essentially the top of a push-up. Align your body so your shoulders are directly over your wrists, your palms are flat on the mat, and your feet are hip-distance apart. (Lower your knees to the mat if Plank is uncomfortable for your low back, shoulders, or arms.) Gaze down and slightly forward, keeping the back of your neck long. Inhale and lengthen through your back by pushing through your heels.

6. Four-Limbed Staff Pose (Chaturanga Dandasana)

Exhale and bend your elbows as you slowly lower your entire body, keeping yourself as straight as a plank of wood. Hug your elbows in toward your sides and pause when you find a right angle between your upper and lower arms. Gaze down and slightly forward in Four-Limbed Staff Pose. You’ll find yourself building heat as you hold this challenging posture. (If your knees were on the mat in Plank Pose, simply keep them there and lower your upper body.)

7. Upward-Facing Dog Pose (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana)

Inhale and draw your chest forward and up as you roll forward over your toes onto the tops of your feet into Upward-Facing Dog Pose. Press the tops of your feet into the mat and keep your legs strong but relax your glutes. Pull your shoulders back and broaden acros your collarbones. Gaze straight ahead or slightly up. (Instead of rolling over your toes, you can lift and place your feet, one at a time, on the mat. If this backbend feels too intense, instead come into Cobra Pose.)

8. Downward-Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)

Exhale as you lift your hips up and back to come into Downward-Facing Dog. Press down through your knuckles, lengthen through your back, and release your heels toward the mat. (Don’t worry if your heels don’t touch the mat. Just let your heels feel heavy. Bend your knees as much as needed.) Remain here for several breaths.

9. Low Lunge (Anjaneyasana)

At the end of your exhalation and just before your inhalation, step your left foot forward between your hands in Low Lunge. Bring your right foot forward next to your left. If you’re doing more than a single round of Surya Namaskar A, alternate which foot you step forward first with each round.

10. Standing Half Forward Bend 

Inhale and lift your chest halfway to come into Standing Half Forward Bend again.

11. Standing Forward Bend 

Exhale and bend forward at your hips for Standing Forward Bend once again.

12. Upward Salute 

Inhale and reach your arms out to the sides and overhead into Upward Salute.

13. Mountain Pose

Exhale and return to Mountain Pose with your hands in prayer at your heart or at your sides. Continue with another Sun Salutation or remain here for a few breaths, feeling and experiencing.4

This article has been updated. Originally published August 13, 2021.