Aerial Yoga – I can fly!

After watching an episode of Australia’s next top model where the girls took a class an Aerial yoga class in Sydney I’ve wanted to give it a go. Aerial (or anti-gravity) yoga classes can be found quite easily in Australia however it’s a harder task in Auckland in fact I only know of two places that offer the service, Vimana Yoga in Ponsonby & Soulspace in Highland Park.

Highland Park may as well be Hamilton for a Westie like me, so that left Vimana as my only viable option unfortunately the class times (Friday at noon or 8pm) don’t really suit my regular schedule as I’m at work at noon and asleep at 8pm. 😉 

Earlier this week I happened to see a post on Facebook that Vimana were holding a lunchtime class on Waitangi Day so I jumped at the chance to finally give Aerial a go and contacted Connie the founder of Vimana to reserve myself a hammock.

I arrived at the studio to find a dozen aerial hammocks set up and tucked myself into the corner to await the start of the class. Before Connie entered I watched the other attendees to work out how to get myself seated in the hammock without falling out, it was more awkward than I thought it would be and I became slightly worried that this might be harder than I’ve imagined it to be.

Thankfully once Connie came into the room to start our practice it wasn’t quite as tricky as I had made it seem on my first attempt to get in the hammock. Connie worked along side us and led the class from a hammock in the front row and as the room was fully mirrored it was easy to watch her lead and follow along.

The first part of the class were more “traditional” yoga poses either using the hammock to transition from one pose to another, as a prop or at times not at all. In fact even the dreaded low lunge (not pictured) was rather delicious when the hammock takes some of the weight for you.

While the hammock was used as an aid in some postures it was also be used as a tool to add resistance when performing core work and I certainly worked up a sweat, in fact since we were set up in a Bikram Studio at first I wondered if the heat had been turned on.

The latter half of the class moved into what I imagine to be “traditional” aerial movements which included flying through the air. It was the most fun I’ve ever had and it’s definitely one (if not the) most accessible form of yoga that I’ve ever come across, I’m confident even James would enjoy it and he’s as anti yoga as it comes. 😉

Although the regular class time is not “ideal”, I’ve already reserved a hammock for next weeks 8pm class because I enjoyed it so much, who knows James may even want to come on a Friday night date. If he does I’ll let you know what he goes, I bet he’s less of a fidget than I appear to be!

Till next time

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