Have you noticed that lately there is much talk of Air Yoga or Aerial yoga? from the outside, it seems another fashion, but the truth is that, although it is spreading much more now, yoga techniques and exercises in suspension were used many years ago.
Without going any further BKS Iyengar himself, one of the best known and influential yoga masters of our times, used swings and harnesses to benefit his yoga practice.
What is aerial yoga?
Aeroyoga is inspired by ancient traditions such as Natha Yoga, Mallakhmab Rope, Ayurveda and the Pilates method. Its main objective is to achieve body strength, muscle definition and tone, general rejuvenation, digestive, cardiac and respiratory improvement and complete relaxation.
It consists of performing aerial Yoga postures using a soft fabric hammock or swing hung from the ceiling that can support up to 300 kg of weight. This technique allows increasing flexibility, range of movements and muscular strength using the body’s own weight as the main tool.
The benefits of practising aerial yoga:
1. Work the muscles intensely
with aerial yoga, you perform postures that tone the general muscles of the body. To keep you on the swing you need muscle control and strength, especially of the abdomen and arms.
Therefore, when you have been practising swinging for a while, you feel stronger and with more control of your body.
2. Improve Flexibility
The fabrics allow you to make bending and extension postures that on the floor would cost you much more. By being in the air and not having the burden of our body weight everything becomes more fluid and flexibility can be worked on better.
3. Improves circulation
One of the great advantages of being able to do aerial yoga is that we easily adopt inverted postures. These postures significantly improve the functioning of our circulation.
4. Help a good metabolism
Like the inverted postures are recommended for a good circulatory function, they are for good metabolism.
5. Reduce stress
This is one of the things that you will most notice the day that you want to try an aerial yoga swing! That feeling of flying is so great that it gives you a“rush” of endorphins! So if you need a break and take away the stress I encourage you to fly, it will help you enormously.
6. Improves Self-esteem
Aerial yoga has the great ability to adapt to our physical level, our needs and needs. But at the same time, by practicing yoga on the swing, we can always do more things than we thought we were capable of.
This new experience of movement gives us a feeling of well-being so great that it is reflected beyond our physical plane.
Mentally we feel strong and capable, and this will always improve our view of ourselves.
7. Improve the balance
the aerial yoga swings are the best tool to work the balance, both when we are completely in the air, or when we have part of the body on the ground.
8. Improves concentration and body awareness
When you do aerial yoga you adopt postures in which you have to do a great job of concentration to follow the steps that lead to the final position. Of these steps depends that you do not fall (but calm, the teachers always are pending). There will also be times when you have to make a mental effort to know “where is your right foot” for example. This happens because being upside down is more difficult for us to get an idea of the exact disposition of each part of the body.
9. Helps to mould the body
Although it is very fun and time literally “flying”, all you are doing during an aerial yoga class is to work intensely every muscle of your body, so when you have been going to regular classes for a few months you will notice that your body It has become more stylized and strong.
10. Improve your mood and your outlook on life
In my first aerial yoga class, the muscles of the face also worked, and I could not stop smiling!! She really looked like a little girl with a new toy.
Everything was completely different in the air. Everything was new, and flying made me immensely happy.
Trying something new and being “upside-down” helps us look at things with other points of view. Both the world and ourselves.
Therefore, an aerial yoga class can learn many lessons to apply to our daily lives.
My first time doing aerial yoga
I really wanted and at the same time, I felt nervous. I did not know if I would be able to stay on the swing and I was afraid of falling (and of course making a fool of myself), but once I got on the web, the fear subsided and with it the fear of “being judged”. Because once everything is up there is concentration and fluidity. You have to move correctly and there is no time to compare with the one next to you (which sometimes happens in normal yoga classes).
Another thing that I loved was being able to make so many inverted posturesthat, without the help of the canvas, I could not have done.
When I practice yoga I usually avoid the inverted and the postures that require the strength of arms because they are my weak point, but with the swing, I lost the fear of being face down and I could enjoy those moments of investment so beneficial for body and mind.
My first aerial yoga class was not enough, it was almost two hours and we all wanted to continue. Undoubtedly, the teacher influences a lot when evaluating the first experience, and since mine is a wonderful woman there was no doubt that it would be a success.
