was neither considered an asana nor a part of traditional Yoga. Practicing
Suryanamaskar before beginning routine activities vitalizes the
practitioner and gives a completely energized day. Starting from the Raja
of Aundh who first introduced surya namaskar, there is a line of eminent
people who popularized this dynamic group of asanas including T
Krishnamacharya, Swami Sivananda, Swami Satyananda from Bihar school of
Yoga, so on and so forth. Their contributions resulted in this excellent
series of Asanas being introduced to the practitioners. Such a miraculous
group of postures also involves dynamic breathing patterns at each posture
and gives a form of complete practice involving asanas and pranayama.
There are a total of 12 postures in Suryanamaskar practice and 24 steps in
one round. This is in the form of salutation to the “Sun” along with
chanting the twelve names of the sun god. In this review, we accentuate the
importance of Suryanamaskar highlighting its effects on physical,
psychological and physiological aspects of the body based on published
research. In addition, the usefulness of surya namaskar as one complete
sadhana for the whole body is emphasized.
Highlights
•Surya Namaskar is a yogic practice for Total body health.
•It has direct and indirect impacts on various glands.
•It works from physical level to intellectual levels.
•Complete health capsule for women throughout all stages of life.
•Surya namaskar is total coordination of body, breath and mind.
