This Yoga Moon Salutation can be used as a gentle warm up or wind down for an evening’s yoga practice.
How to practice a Moon Salutation:
- Start in Table position on the hands and knees, knees about hip width apart and hands below the shoulders.
- Come up onto the finger tips and step the left foot forward between the hands into a lunge (if you are newer to yoga you may have to lift your hand or assist your foot into position).
- Come into a ‘square lunge’ and get your balance.
- Inhale, raise your arms up overhead, hands in prayer position.
- Exhale, lean back gently (avoid this move if you have any back injuries)
- Inhale, release the backbend.
- Exhale, lower arms to shoulder level.
- Inhale, lengthen spine,
- Exhale, twist to the left.
- Inhale back to centre,
- Exhale, twist to the right.
- Inhale back to the centre.
- Exhale lower the right hand to the floor and raise the left arm.
- Inhale back to the centre.
- Exhale lower the left hand to the floor and raise the right arm.
- Inhale back to centre.
- Exhale return to Table position.
- Inhaling sit back to heels
- Exhaling reach arms forward and rest in Hare posture.
- Return to Table posture and practice the same, this time with the left foot forward in the lunge position.
If you feel energetic you can add a Dog Head Down between the sides and do a number of repetitions of the Moon Salutation.
Another, more challenging variation is to move deep into the lunge at the beginning. You can also make the Moon Salutation more challenging by lifting the back knee off the floor when you practice the side stretches.
(Please note, this sequence is not suitable after the first trimester of pregnancy).
Follow the video below for a slightly more challenging version for your own home practice (and a new way to open doors, haha):
