Half Sun Salutations are a terrific way to move the spine through all directions as a warm up to a longer sequence or as a brief break throughout the day. Half Sun Salutations are a particularly terrific was to start your day!

Stand at the top of your mat in Tadasana to begin. Your feet are hips width apart, knees are soft, tailbone tucked slightly in order to activate the core. Feel the shoulders move back a nd down and the chest, chin and forehead are level. Take three ujjayi breaths here, preparing to move through 1/2 sun salutations.

INHALE, leading the movement with the breath, bring the arms overhead.

EXHALE, folding forward. Remember to keep your knees soft. The aim is to bring the spine into flexion rather than brin ging the hands to your toes. You can bring the hands to your lower thighs, to your shins or to a block rather than all of the way to the floor.

INHALE, lifting the torso to halfway - to the height of the hips. Keep the neck in line with the rest of the spine, trying to to lift the chin. Remember, the knees are soft to support the lumbar spine. The lift is in the legs.

EXHALE, folding forward. Remember to keep your knees soft. The aim is to bring the spine into flexion rather than bringing the hands to your toes. You can bring the hands to your lower thighs, to your shins or to a block rather than all of the way to the floor.

INHALE, bringing the arms back over head. It is important to protect the lower spine as you come all of the way up, out of the forward fold. Protecting the lower spine means moving by the strength of the legs
with softly bent knees. If you experience any pain in the spine during this movement, simply bend the knees more and round the spine up rather than coming up with a flat spine.

Here you can simply return to Tadasana or insert one of the spinal movements we've discussed in
class: side bending, twisting or gentle back bending/shoulder opening. After returning to Tadasana or adding a spinal movement, repeat the 1/2 Sun Salutation 2-4 more times.

Movements shown to the left are as follows : (repeat on the right where applicable)

Side Bending: Inhaling at center, exhaling to bend to the side

Twisting: Inhaling at center, exhaling to twist to one side

Twisting: empty coat sleeves - let the arms swing at the torso
rotates from left to right

Gentle back bending: hands are interlaced behind the back; shoulder blades coming towards each other. If the shoulders are not comfortable with the hands interlaced, simple hold a strap or a towel with the hands further apart.

NOTES:
The forward fold is spinal flexion, so there is no need to add more of this movement
here.Remember to practice to the left and to the right when side bending and twisting