Yoga & CrossFit: Sun Salutations as Dynamic Warmup
Want to know a secret?
I start out every single one of my yoga classes with a dynamic warmup, just like how we start a CrossFit class at Balance Gym.
Around my parts, we call the warmup “sun salutations,” and there are as many different varieties of sun salutations from tradition to tradition as there are accents from location to location.
A ”dynamic warmup” implies that the warmup changes based on neccesity. It would seem to me that this is why you find different salutations– making sure that everything is primed that’ll be used, and not wasting time on what won’t.
Ask any lifter who has trouble opening up their chest what its like to do an overhead press, cold: not so easy/safe. How about getting a yogi to place their forehead on their shins, immediately after starting practice? Oft-times, not likely. This is why we heat the body up and acquaint ourselves with correlated movements. I mean, c’mon! It’s called a WARM UP!
One of the most common sequences that you see in salutations also happen to be two of the more common movements you see at the start of a CrossFit class: Urdhva Mukha Svanasana and Adho Mukha Svanasana. You probably know them as upward facing dog and downward facing dog, respectively.
Why so popular? These two little movements work to create a flexible, strong back, improves posture, firms the buttocks, stimulates your abdominal organs, improves sciatica, and can be therapeutic for asthma. Getting movement back into your chest, shoulders, improving grip/wrist strength, aaaaaaaand improved breathing? That’s a lot of bang for your buck.
Knowing how to come into and to exit this posture, though, is important to receive maximum benefits. So how do we do this warmup effectively?
Lets start with Updog:
Step 1:
Start out lying on the floor, flat on your belly. Walk the legs back, making them as long as possible). The feet should be hips distance wide, lining up the center of the foot with the frontal hip bones. Place the hands on the floor next to your chest, keeping the middle fingers pointing straight ahead, in line with the deltoids.
Step 2:
-With an inhalation press the tops of the feet and the palms into the floor. Raise the head and chest.
Step 3:
-Straighten the arms and lift the waist, hips, and knees a few inches above the floor. Pull the trunk and legs forward.
-Turn the arms out, widening the collarbones, and curve the trunk back between them. Bring the coccyx, sacrum, and lumbar forward.
-Avoid firmly contracting the glutes– instead, firm the quads and lift the kneecaps. Stretch the front of the body from the pubis, feeling as though your frontal hip bones were reaching for the backs of your wrists. Raise the sternum and top ribs. Take the shoulders back and press the shoulder blades (and the muscles around them) in.
-Take the head back, without constricting the neck or straining the throat. Gaze back to intensify the curve of the trunk.
What else should I know?
First and foremost: keep your low belly drawing in and up. This will help keep you safe!
Sometimes, there’s a tendency in this pose to “hang” on the shoulders, which lifts them up toward the ears and “turtles” the neck. Actively draw the shoulders away from the ears by lengthening down along the back armpits, pulling the shoulder blades toward the tailbone, and puffing the side ribs forward.
Your legs should do the work, not your back. To increase the strength and lightness of this pose, push from the backs of your knees along thecalves and out through the heels. The tops of your feet will press more firmly against the floor; as they do, lift the top sternum up and forward.
Be aware here: Keep the elbows and knees locked.
It is also important to allow the abs to relax during any backward bending pose. The back muscles are what flex here and a relaxed forward side of the body helps allow for this backbend to happen.
So– what now?
To transiton into “downdog“:
-first engage the legs, then the tailbone, then the sacrum. Try to feel as though you were moving from the pelvis. Let your thighs pull back and your hips reach up, rolling over five or ten toes at a go.
-Pull in the head and neck last. The gaze is at the belly button, and the ribs tuck. This is the way to synch the postures without putting stress on your neck and shoulders.
Try it. Legs first, then tailbone, then sacrum, then the relaxed, dangling neck and head.
Need more help?
Hands and Feet:
A high plank hold, an upward facing dog, and a downward facing dog all have the same hand and foot placement. Keep the hands in line with each other and the feet hip distance wide. You needn’t fidget.
The Transition:
As you move from updog, tuck the toes under (either by rolling over the toes or by flipping each foot), raise the head and trunk; bend the legs to raise the hips. Straighten the arms.
Finding Down Dog:
-Press the palm heels into the floor, stretch the fingers and clutch at the earth as though it were a globe. Wrap the back of your armpits down towards the mat as you roll the inner arm up. The inner armpit should feel hollow.
-Lift the pelvis nice and high. Keep the coccyx and the bottom of the pubis pointing up, pulling the pubis between the legs.
-Without losing the height of the hips, stretch the heels down. Move the thighs and shins back to bring the weight onto the backs of the legs and the heels. You’ll really want to feel the thigh bone pressing into the back of the leg. Spread the toes.
-Continue moving the trunk towards the legs. Keep the ribs anchored in, and let the collarbones widen. Relax the head and neck. If possible, rest the head on the floor (with active, unbent arms).
For Further Reading: