"What's with all these styles of yoga???
Isn't it just stretching???"
Let me start by saying anything mentioned on this site is a representation of my personal perspective.
I will make an effort to credit anyone specific for anything specific. That being said, let me tell you a little story......
A long time ago in a land far away little men sat still in meditation for hours, days, weeks... you get the drift. So, when those guys decided to move around again they found their bodies atrophied, tight, even bordering on injury. Picture how you feel when you sit on a plane or in a movie theater for too long and then try to get up... Anyway, these guys started finding themselves in postures to open the body before and after meditation. Eventually they found these postures could create a moving meditation. The sanskrit word yoga can be translated to mean union or yolk. This refers to the union of breath and movement or some say that union is in reference to reuniting with the self. Yoga was taught by fathers to sons and eventually women were invited to practice as well. Yoga made its way to the west and became known a "fitness routine" and seems to have incorporated dutch acrobatics. Why do I practice/teach Yoga????? You can lie to yourself all day long but once you are on the mat, you have an opportunity face the truth.
What's a Sun Salutation????
In sanskrit, we call it Surya Namaskar. Surya is the sun god but maybe you're a little touchy about gods and stuff. In that case it's a great simple way to move the spine trough simple forward and back bends while warming up the muscles and ligaments from head to toe.
Click here to download a guide to Surya Namaskar A and B
