Suryanamaskar: The Sacred Salutation

Surya Namaskar (SN) is an integral part of yoga. Its versatility and application make it one of the most useful practice for a healthy life and prepares one for spiritual awakening. The main objectives behind this study was to evaluate the immediate effect of slow rounds of SN (SSN) and fast rounds of SN (FSN) on Autonomic and Respiratory functions in healthy individuals. The results shows that FSN group showed highly significant increase in blood pressure, pulse rate, mean HR, VLF, LF, LF/HF and a significant decrease in mean RR, SDNN, RMSSD, NN50, pNN50 and HF, whereas there were no significant changes in respiratory rate when compared to SSN group. FSN has high sympathetic cardiac dominance when compared to SSN. Thus fast rounds of SN are contraindicated for cardiovascular disorders and in people with depressive symptoms.