I have been practicing the sun salutation for a week now. I still find it hard to hold and lift my body weight, as I do not have much strength on my arms, in order to improve that I started doing a series of exercises to strengthen my upper body.

These exercises involve practicing the cobra position for five breaths and relax, repeating for five times. It also includes five sessions of plank, holding the body up with the hands breathing freely for five times and then resting, repeating for five times to start with and then increasing it gradually.

It is important to keep the breath flowing while holding the postures in order to avoid the build up of lactic acid, which causes more pain, due to the lack of oxygen supply into the muscles.

In yoga there is more than one type of the sun salutation, the first consists of ten movements, I have also learnt a more complete version of the sun salutation, which has 17 movements. This second version includes the standing cat posture, the plank, the cobra, the dog and the warrior posture. As it is more demanding than the first one, I am doing it in stages rather than the whole sequence together.