Let's get down to Vinyasa

Here are two vinyasas to start you out. Go to yogajournal.com to look up the poses and put them into a visual sequence (vinyasa).

First is the Sun Salutation. I do this three times a day, usually after my run, yes or yes! I'll explain in layman's terms:

1. Mountain pose
2. breath in-arms overhead
3. exhale-swan dive down to forward bend
4. breath in-right leg back to lunge, extend arms in air
5. exhale-plank
6. hold breath-touch knees, chest and chin
7. breath in-cobra
8. exhale-downward dog
9. inhale-right leg forward to lunge, extend arms in air
10.exhale-step feet together, forward bend
11.inhale-sweep up to arms overhead
12. exhale-prayer pose

repeat coming down the same side you just went up...so after forward bend (3) you'd step the left leg back to lunge. Repeat this up to 6 times always sweeping up one side of the body and back down that same side.

Here's another take on the Sun Salutation with a couple of modifications (and some notes I wrote to myself):

Integration Series

1. Child’s Pose (Balasana)
a. Spread knees apart to edges of mat
2. Downward Facing Dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana)
3. Ragdoll (Uttanasana)
a. Forward bend with legs hip width and grasping arms

Sun Salutation A

1. Samasthiti
a. “standing at attention”, arms at side
2. Mountain Pose-inhale
a. Arms over head
3. Standing forward bend-exhale
a. Hands on mat beside feet
4. Halfway lift (Urdhva Mukha Uttanasana)-inhale
a. Keep finger tips on floor, raise chest
b. JUMP BACK-exhale
5. Plank/High pushup (Dandasana)-inhale
6. Low Pushup (chaturanga dandasana)-exhale
7. Upward facing Dog (Urdhva Mukha Svanasana)-inhale
8. Repeat Downward Facing Dog-exhale 5 times
9. Jump Forward-hold exhale
10. Halfway lift-inhale
11. standing forward bend-exhale
12. mountain pose-inhale
13. Samasthiti-exhale

Sun Salutation B

1. Thunderbolt (Utkatasana)
a. powerful pose
2. Go though steps 3-8 of SSA
3. Warrior I
After warrior I place hands on mat and step back into High Push-Up. Then Low push-up, Upward facing dog, downward facing dog, warrior I on other side, high to low push-up, upward facing dog, downward facing dog—5 breathes, on last breath, exhale completely and Jump forward. Inhale to halfway lift, forward bend, back to thunderbolt—hold for 5 breaths, standing forward bend and begin again SSB. Repeat SSB two times, on the third round add Warrior II after Warrior I and end in Samasthiti.

**More excellent vinyasas to come!