Surya Namaskar Counts

Counts for Surya Namaskar

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Step 0: Starting position

Before you start: Do some loosening exercises such as neck movements, arms, wrist, waist, knee and ankle rotations. Use a soft Yoga mat of at least 4mm thickness.

Posture: Move to the front of the mat and stand comfortably with feet about 2 inches apart. Roll back your shoulders with both your arms by the side of your body. Stand straight with your spine erect.

Breathing: Breathe at a natural rhythm.

Step 1: Pranamasan

Pranam is a gesture made for greeting somebody.
Transition: Breathe in and out as you bring your palms together in namaskar mudra in front of your chest.

Posture: Stand with spine erect with thumbs at the centre of the chest. Fill yourself with gratitude towards the nature.

Breathing: Breathe at a natural rhythm after reaching the final posture.

Step 2: Hastauthanasan

Hasta means hands and uthan means raised.
Transition: As you breathe in, stretch both your hands forward and raise them and stretch your entire body. Now bend slightly backwards (from your lower back) and look upwards such that your arms touch your ears.

Posture: In the final position your arms would be touching your ears and you will feel stretch in your complete body. Take care not to bend too much backwards as it may cause you to loose balance and feeling of giddiness.

Breathing: Breathe at a natural rhythm after reaching the final posture.

Step 3: Padahastasan

Pada means feet and hasta means hands.
Transition: As you breathe out, maintaining the stretch in your body bend forward from your hip to point both your hands forward. You may now bend further by curving your back. Try to place your palms by the side of legs.

Posture: Try to maintain the tension in your back as you try to place your palms besides your feet. If you can easily place your palms on the floor, then bend your elbows and push further down.

Breathing: Breathe at a natural rhythm after reaching the final posture.

Step 4: Ashwasanchalanasan

Ashwa means horse and sanchalan means control.
Transition: Place both hands on the floor besides your feet. As you breathe in, move your right leg (during odd numbered suryanamaskar) or left leg (during even numbered suryanamaskar) as much back as possible and place your knee and toe on the floor. The other leg in front is almost perpendicular to the floor with the foot sole completely resting on the floor. The app on this page says right when you need to move the right leg backward and left when you need to move left leg backward.

Posture: In the final posture you will be looking upwards constantly pushing your hip towards the floor.

Breathing: Breathe at a natural rhythm after reaching the final posture.

Step 5: Hastadandasan

Hasta means hand and dand means wooden pole.
Transition: Holding you breath inside, move the leg from forward to the back and place it besides the other leg. Raise both knees off the floor.

Posture: Try to maintain your complete body in a straight line as shown in the picture.

Breathing: Hold your breath for some time if you can before transitioning to the next posture.

Step 6: Ashtanga namaskar

Asta means eight, anga means body and namaskar means salutation: Eight parts of the body touching the floor for salutation.
Transition: Very slowly as you breathe out, lower you body to place your knees, chest and chin on the floor raising your abdomen off the floor.

Posture: Only eight parts of your body should be touching the floor, namely: chin, chest, two hands, two knees and two toes. The abdomen should be kept as away from the floor as possible.

Breathing: Breathe at a natural rhythm after reaching the final posture.

Step 7: Bhujangasan

Bhujang means snake (hence also known as cobra posture).
Transition: As you breathe in, slide further placing your abdomen on the floor and raising your chin and chest off the floor.

Posture: In this posture, try to look up and try to keep your shoulders away from the ears without locking your elbows. Do not use lot of hand strength, instead try to use your back muscles to raise your chin higher.

Breathing: Breathe at a natural rhythm after reaching the final posture.

Step 8: Adhomukhaswanasan or Parvatasan

Adhomukha means downward facing and swan means dog. Parvat means mountain.
Transition: As you breathe out, raise you back and knees to form an inverted V-shape of the body.

Posture: In this posture, try to push your heels to touch the floor creating a tension in calf muscles. Also, try to push your head downwards, hence stretching your back.

Breathing: Breathe at a natural rhythm after reaching the final posture.

Step 9: Ashwasanchalanasan

Transition: As you breathe in, bring your right leg or left leg (depending on odd or even numbered Suryanamaskar) forward and place in-between your hands. The app on this page says right or left depending on the current suryanamaskar number, hence alternating between left and right leg. Place the knee of the other leg (the one behind) on the floor.

Posture: In the final posture, look upwards and push your hip towards the floor.

Breathing: Breathe at a natural rhythm after reaching the final posture.

Step 10: Padahastasan

Transition: As you breathe out, move the behind leg forward to place it besides the other leg. Try to place your palms besides your feet.

Posture: Try to maintain the tension in your back as you try to place your palms besides your feet. If you can easily place your palms on the floor, then bend your elbows and push further down.

Breathing: Breathe at a natural rhythm after reaching the final posture.

Step 11: Hastauthanasan

Transition: As you breathe in, stretch both your hands forward and raise them above your head and stretch your entire body. Now bend slightly backwards (from your lower back) and look upwards such that your arms touch your ears.

Posture: In the final position your arms would be touching your ears and you will feel stretch in your complete body. Take care not to bend too much backwards as it may cause you to loose balance and feeling of giddiness.

Breathing: Breathe at a natural rhythm after reaching the final posture.

Step 12: Relaxation posture

Transition: Without bending your hands as you breathe out, swing your hands from sideways to place them beside your body. Keep your spine erect and relax as you get ready for the next suryanamaskar.

Posture: Relax your body.

Breathing: Breathe at a natural rhythm and relax your body.

Comments

Note: Comments will appear after review, which may take upto 24 hrs.

Athira: 10 Mar 2024

Excellent app. I use it daily.

Sourabh Bhat: 10 Mar 2024

Thank you for using the app!

Anonymous: 22 Nov 2023

I have been using your count for many years and in between I discontinued. I see now there is no voice guidance. It was quite useful as I don't need to keep phone display on for 30 min.

Sourabh Bhat: 28 Nov 2023

Thank you for using the app and informing me about the issue you are facing with this app. Your feedback means a lot to me!
The voice instructions should play even when the phone display is off. At least this is the behavior in Chrome & Firefox web-browsers on Android phones & laptops. Please ensure that the tab is not muted by mistake.
Can you please specify the details of your device / web-browser. I will try to test on a friend's device having your configuration.
Enjoy a healthy body & mind with daily workout & meditation!

Anonymous: 13 March 2023

Hi,
If we take the right leg behind in step 4 and keep the left in the front, which leg comes to the front in step 9 first; right or left?

Sourabh Bhat: 13 March 2023

If right leg is moved back in step 4, then right leg comes forward in step 9. That way each Suryanamaskar is symmetric and a complete workout. The instructions on the page may be useful! 😉

Anonymous: 12 March 2023

do you have it in hindi?

Sourabh Bhat: 13 March 2023

Sorry! I was plannig to add more voices / languages. But then got busy with other stuff. Maybe some time in near future. 🤞

Phani: 04 Sept 2020

hello sir, i am facing a few difficulties mainly due to obesity(abdominal) and lack of stretch. This is preventing me from touching the ground with palms/fingers in padahastasan. Also while coming back to ashwasanchalanasan from mountain pose, the leg is not coming fully forward in one swing. I am starting exercises for the first time. How can i correct it? Do you suggest to first concentrate more on bending asanas and try to improve stretching and hopefully reduce my tummy before attempting suryanamaskar or go with this at slow place first with secondary corrections in posture during transitions? Is it ok to bend the front leg during ashwasanchala asana?

Sourabh Bhat: 05 Sept 2020

Hello. Please do not over stretch in any posture, you know your body the best.
The most important thing is consistency. Every day you can improve a little bit. Prepare a calendar and mark it daily for stretching and Surya namaskar. I would suggest to start at a very slow pace at just 4 Surya namaskars a day, for at least one week. Then you can increase slowly.
In Padahastasan it is not important to touch the feet/ground, just observe the stretch in your hamstrings and calf muscles. Concentrate and enjoy the stretch. It is absolutely fine if you bend the front leg during Ashwasanchalanasan. Do as per your comfort at the beginning. Meditate for some time after Surya namaskar practice, before starting any other activity. You will see that you can slowly but steadily transform your body and stay healthy. My best wishes!

Mayur: 03 July 2020

Hi, thank you for this excellent tool. Can you please make it so the time can be adjusted more accurately? If the page reloads it's near impossible to get it back to the desired time duration.

Sourabh Bhat: 26 July 2020

Thank you Mayur, for your appreciation and the excellent suggestion. I am planning to implement your suggestion, so that your personal settings will be preserved during subsequent usage. Thank you and stay healthy through daily Suryanamaskar practice.

Laksh: 16 April 2020

Nice idea; I was considering making this myself this morning until I found this online! You could consider removing the right/left directions as well.

Sourabh Bhat: 16 April 2020

Thank you Laksh, for your appreciation and suggestion. I can probably add a switch to enable/disable the left-right directions. Nevertheless, I find it very useful during my personal practice. I am very glad that the tool is discoverable and helpful.

Tarun Kumar: 04 April 2020

Excellent app, can we have mantras also in beginning?

Sourabh Bhat: 07 April 2020

Thank you Tarun, for your appreciation and suggestion. I will add it to the list of future improvements.