Surya Namaskara-The Perfect Yoga Practice

While I am an advocate for the merits of a daily yoga practice, I would be lying if I said that my own practice was all that consistent. Depending on a variety of factors, my own practice varies from about 10 minutes to 1 hour on any given day. That being said, there is one thing that I manage to do everyday and that is a few rounds of Surya Namaskara-Sun Salutation. When time is a factor Surya Namaskara is one way to get a quick yoga fix and the benefits of this full body practice are enumerable.  Here is a video of the modified version of the practice: Surya Namaksara Modified Version.

Through the years,  friends and acquaintances have often told me how much would like to practice yoga more often but they had difficulty making time for a class with their already overbooked schedules.  Knowing time management is often a factor when choosing a workout or any kind of extra-curricular physical activity, this gave me an idea for a topic for my graduate thesis which I completed a few year ago. The results showed that for beginner yoga practitioners applying a 10 minute, twice-a-day yoga practice four (4) times per week for six (6) weeks actually significantly improved their upper body strength and hamstring flexibility.  A pretty good "bang for your buck" as one of my professors would say! if you are interested in learning more about the benefits of Surya Namaskara  I suggest "Surya Namaskara: A Technique of Solar Vitalization"by Paramahamsa Satyananda Saraswati.