Aarti
Surya Namaskar Side Effects – Mistakes To Avoid
Different people need different yoga body techniques because they all lead different kinds of lives. However, these are the common faults that all newcomers to Surya Namaskar make.
1. Inadequate Warm-Up
The full-body stretches and strengthens with Surya Namaskar. Both are often lacking in beginners, and rushing into the more advanced Surya Namaskar poses can have negative consequences including muscle cramping and injury. Before commencing Surya Namaskar, make sure you’ve warmed up properly by stretching and rotating your head, shoulders, wrists, knees, and hips.
2. Improper Breath Syncing
The full-body stretches and strengthens with Surya Namaskar. Both are often lacking in beginners, and rushing into the more advanced Surya Namaskar poses can have negative consequences including muscle cramping and injury. Before commencing Surya Namaskar, make sure you’ve warmed up properly by stretching and rotating your head, shoulders, wrists, knees, and hips.
3. Ignoring Spinal Lift
Some beginners to the Surya Namaskar routine may skip over or omit the intermediate poses. One common error is when people attempt to lift their torso from Uttanasana without first performing Ardha Uttanasana. This not only causes stress on the neck from a lack of oxygen and a sudden change, but it also hinders the practitioner from properly stretching the spine and reaping all the benefits.
4. Losing Spinal Integrity
Maintaining spinal health while performing the Surya Namaskar sequence is impossible without a full spinal engagement. In contrast, novices tend to sink their lower spine to the floor in positions like the plank, resulting in poor spinal alignment. Incorrectly positioning one’s spine to perform a plank might lead to discomfort in the lower back.
5. Unable to discriminate between the Cobra and Equestrian Pose
This is a standard mistake made by practitioners of all skill levels. Many people, in an attempt to combine the benefits of the cobra and the upward dog, instead end up with an ineffective hybrid.
6. Extending the knees beyond the toes
In order to transition from downward-facing dog to low lunge without hyperextending the knees, it is challenging to slide the foot forward between the hands. The hip flexors are the muscles worked least in a lunge, and they gain nothing from the position of the knees being hyperextended. On the other hand, doing so will place unnecessary strain on the knees.
7. Focusing on the number
Quality above quantity is the norm that must be followed here as well. So, don’t feel pressured to quickly increase the number of Surya Namaskar cycles you perform. If you’re just starting out, two rounds of sun salutations with proper form will yield noticeable results.
8. Leaving the cycle incomplete
With each round of Surya Namaskar, you begin and end with prayer. However, novices may misunderstand its relevance and pass over basic poses like the Raised Arms Pose because they think they are unnecessary. The first Surya Namaskar cycle must be completed before moving on to the second, as an incomplete cycle is considered useless.
