Sun salutations are everywhere in modern yoga, and quietly painful for the people they don't fit. Wrists ache after a few rounds. Knees protest in down dog. The forward fold feels nothing like the picture. The chaturanga collapses, or skips, or hurts. None of that means you're doing it wrong — it means the unmodified version was built for a narrow band of bodies and the rest of us need a different shape.

This guide walks through a complete modified Surya Namaskar A that works for true beginners, anyone with wrist or shoulder pain, pregnant practitioners, larger bodies, and people coming back from injury. Every position has at least one alternative, and a few have three or four. You can mix and match — there's no such thing as too many modifications.

The premise is simple: the modified pose is the real pose for your body today. It is not a lesser version of a better thing. It is the version that lets you breathe, build strength, and come back to the mat tomorrow.

What You Need

  • A yoga mat
  • 2 yoga blocks (foam or cork)
  • Optional: a sturdy chair without arms
  • Optional: a wall with a few feet of clear floor in front of it
  • Optional: a folded blanket for the knees
  • Optional: a wedge or rolled towel for the wrists

Before You Start

No yoga experience required. If you are pregnant, working around an injury, or managing a chronic condition, check with your provider before starting and let any in-person teacher know what you're working with. Warm up first — at minimum, a few minutes of slow neck rolls, shoulder circles, wrist circles in both directions, and a few cat-cows on hands and knees (or seated).

Steps

  1. 1
    Step 01

    Start in Tadasana (Mountain Pose)

    Stand at the top of your mat with feet hip-width apart — wider than the traditional toes-touching version is fine and often more stable. Press evenly through both feet, soften the knees, lengthen the tailbone down, and let the arms hang at your sides. Breathe naturally for three breaths. Tadasana needs no modification — it is the home base everything else returns to.

    Tip: If standing for long stretches is hard, do this entire sequence with your back a few inches from a wall so you can lean back when you need to.
  2. 2
    Step 02

    Inhale to Urdhva Hastasana (Upward Salute)

    Sweep your arms out to the sides and up overhead, palms facing each other. If your shoulders are tight or sore, stop the arms wherever they want to stop — at shoulder height, in a low V, or in cactus arms with elbows bent. Reaching the hands all the way overhead is not the goal. The goal is a long side body and an open chest.

    Tip: Shoulder pain on the way up usually means the arms are going past their honest range. Lower them until the pain stops, then breathe there.
  3. 3
    Step 03

    Exhale to Uttanasana (Standing Forward Fold)

    Hinge from the hips and fold forward with deeply bent knees — bend them more than feels necessary. Let the hands land on the shins, on blocks set at their tallest height, or on the floor. If folding forward is hard on the back or feels like nothing reaches, set a chair seat in front of you and fold to rest your forearms or forehead on the chair. The fold counts the same.

    Tip: Bent knees are not cheating. Bent knees are how the hamstrings let go. Keep the bend through the entire fold.
  4. 4
    Step 04

    Inhale to Half Lift (Ardha Uttanasana)

    Lift the chest halfway and lengthen the front body. Hands rest on the shins, the thighs, or on blocks — wherever lets you flatten the back without straining. If you're folded over a chair, just slide the forearms forward and lift the head. The half lift is about length, not height.

    Tip: Looking forward and up cranks the neck. Look down and slightly forward, with the back of the neck long.
  5. 5
    Step 05

    Step or walk back into a modified Plank

    Step one foot back at a time into a plank position — knees down on the mat. Stack shoulders over wrists, press the floor away, and lengthen from the crown of the head to the knees. If wrists hurt: come down to forearms (forearm plank), or make fists and balance on the knuckles, or place a wedge or rolled towel under the heel of the hand. If wrists are injured or any version still hurts, skip plank entirely and lower straight to the belly.

    Tip: Knees-down plank is a real pose with real benefits. It builds the same shoulder stability as full plank without the wrist load.
  6. 6
    Step 06

    Exhale through a modified Chaturanga (or skip it)

    Three options, in order of difficulty: (1) Knees-down chaturanga — keep the knees on the mat, bend the elbows straight back along the rib cage, lower halfway down with the elbows tracking over the wrists. (2) Plank-to-belly — keep the body in one line and lower all the way to the belly without trying to hover. (3) Skip it — from knees-down plank, just lie down. Pregnant practitioners should always skip belly-down work after the first trimester and use the table-top variation in the next step.

    Tip: Chaturanga is the most-injured shape in modern yoga. There is no shame in skipping it for the rest of your life.
  7. 7
    Step 07

    Inhale to a modified back-bend

    From your belly, place the hands under the shoulders and lift the chest into a low cobra — elbows stay deeply bent, shoulders pull away from the ears, low back stays soft. If cobra hurts the low back, lower onto the forearms into Sphinx pose instead, which gives the same chest opening with no low-back compression. Pregnant or skipping belly poses: come up to all fours and do bird-dog instead — extend the right arm and left leg, then switch.

    Tip: Up Dog (full Urdhva Mukha Svanasana) is rarely the right shape for new practitioners. Cobra and sphinx do the same job with less risk.
  8. 8
    Step 08

    Exhale to a modified Down Dog

    Tuck the toes and press up to a downward-facing dog with bent knees and lifted heels. Walk the feet wider than usual, push the floor away with the hands, and let the heels stay high — they do not need to touch the ground. For wrist relief, set blocks under the hands at medium height. For shoulder relief, take the hands wider. If down dog is too much today, drop the knees to the floor for child's pose or table top instead. Wall down dog also works: stand a few feet from a wall, walk the hands flat onto the wall at hip height, and step the feet back until the body forms an L.

    Tip: The shape is not the goal. The goal is length through the spine. Any version that lengthens the spine counts as down dog.
  9. 9
    Step 09

    Walk or step the feet forward to the Half Lift

    Walk the feet up to meet the hands at the front of the mat (walking is much easier on the body than jumping or stepping in one shot). Repeat the Half Lift from step 4 — long spine, flat back, hands on shins, thighs, or blocks.

    Tip: If walking forward feels hard, drop to the knees first, then crawl the hands back toward the knees, then come to standing.
  10. 10
    Step 10

    Exhale to fold, inhale to rise, exhale back to Tadasana

    Fold over the legs again with bent knees (back to step 3). Then inhale and rise all the way up — for low back protection, come up with a flat back hinging at the hips, or roll up vertebra by vertebra with knees bent and hands on the thighs to support the back. Sweep the arms overhead one more time if your shoulders feel good, then exhale the hands down to your sides. You are back where you started. That is one round of modified Surya Namaskar.

    Tip: Two or three slow rounds of this is a complete sun salutation practice. You do not need to chase 10 or 20 rounds to get the benefit.

Expected Results

After two or three slow rounds, expect a warm body, deeper breath, and a quiet mind. Modified sun salutations build the same things the unmodified version builds — full-body warmth, breath-movement coordination, shoulder stability, hip mobility, and a settled nervous system — without the joint cost. Practiced three to five times a week for a month, most people notice better posture, easier breathing, and a working relationship with their own body. The modifications are not training wheels you grow out of. Many advanced practitioners come back to them after years away or after an injury, and find them more useful than the version in the photos.

Common Mistakes

  • Pushing through pain because the modified pose feels 'too easy' — pain is data, not a phase to power through.
  • Ignoring early wrist warning signs — tingling, burning, or weakness after a few rounds means stop loading the wrists today.
  • Treating the modified pose as a lesser version of the 'real' pose — the modified pose IS the real pose for your body today.
  • Skipping the warm-up because the sequence is short — wrists, shoulders, and hips need a few minutes of slow movement before any sun salutation.
  • Doing too many rounds too soon — two or three slow modified rounds beat ten rushed ones, every time.

Troubleshooting

My wrists still hurt even with modifications
Try a wedge or rolled towel under the heel of the hand to reduce the wrist extension angle. If that doesn't help, switch to fists or knuckles for any weight-bearing pose. If wrists still hurt, skip plank, chaturanga, up dog, and down dog entirely and do a standing-only sun salutation: Tadasana, arms up, fold, half lift, fold, rise, repeat. You will still get the breath-movement benefit.
My shoulders fatigue or burn after one round
Slow down by half. Take three full breaths in each shape instead of one. Drop the number of rounds to two. Build shoulder stability with knees-down plank held for 10 to 20 seconds outside of the sequence. Most shoulder fatigue comes from rushing through positions the muscles aren't ready for yet.
My knees ache in down dog or on the floor
In down dog, bend the knees more — really more, almost a 90-degree bend at the hip — and let the heels lift. For any all-fours position, fold a blanket under the knees or double the mat. If knees still ache, switch to wall down dog (hands flat on a wall, body in an L) for the rest of the sequence.

Variations

Chair Sun Salutation: Do the entire sequence seated in a sturdy chair without arms. Sit tall (Tadasana), arms up (Urdhva Hastasana), fold over the legs (Uttanasana), half lift (hands on knees), fold, rise, repeat. This version is excellent for office breaks, recovery days, and anyone who can't be on the floor. Wall Sun Salutation: Stand three to four feet from a wall and use the wall in place of the floor for plank, chaturanga, and down dog. Hands press flat into the wall instead of bearing body weight on the wrists. Prenatal Sun Salutation: Skip all belly-down poses (chaturanga, cobra, up dog) and substitute table top with bird dog for the inhale-back-bend step. Take a wider stance throughout to make room for the belly. Restorative Slow Version: Take five to eight breaths in each position instead of one, drop to one or two rounds total, and treat it as a moving meditation rather than a workout.

Connections

This guide builds on the foundations covered in the yoga library and pairs with How to Do Surya Namaskar A, the unmodified version of the same sequence. For breakdowns of the individual shapes, browse the pose library.

Further Reading