- Learning How to Play
- AcroYoga: In It Together
- Trap Yoga: Shake it Out
- Aerial Yoga: Flying High
Real speak: If I don’t do yoga each day, I crumble. Maybe this sounds dramatic, however navigating a worldwide pandemic, financial turbulence, social injustice, a battle, and year-round wildfires in my residence state of Colorado is tough on the nervous system. I do know my psychological health is dependent upon the 25 minutes I spend on the mat every morning doing mild asana, 3 to five minutes of breathwork, and 10 minutes of meditation or chanting. Yet, most mornings, I nonetheless should power myself to do this, as an alternative of doomscrolling by the each day tragedies on social media.
Is this morning observe important? Yes. But, is it very enjoyable? Hmmm…not a lot. It’s like taking nutritional vitamins and going to mattress early. It’s the accountable factor to do. My yoga routine has develop into simply one other a part of adulting. But does staying properly actually have to be so severe on a regular basis?
Are you, like me, just a little burned out in your yoga routine? Just going by the motions, practising together with the identical YouTube video each day? Have you been flowing by the identical Vinyasa sequence since 2008? Maybe it’s time to shake issues up and have some enjoyable along with your (our!) observe once more.
Returning to Play
Remember how enjoyable it may be to simply be in your physique and play? No? Makes sense. As adults in a society that rewards hyperproductivity, playtime will not be actively inspired. But it ought to be. The cognitive and psychological health advantages can hold us wholesome, pleased, and mentally sharp.
But, what’s play anyway? According to a 2009 article in The American Journal of Play by analysis professor of psychology Peter Gray, play is exercise that’s self-chosen and self-directed, intrinsically motivated, imaginative, and executed in a non-stressed frame of mind. In quick, play is enjoyable for the sake of enjoyable. Just like yoga, it’s a way, not an finish.
And it’s good for the mind. Along with the plain advantages of play—decreasing stress, and rising happiness and normal well-being— enjoying boosts cognitive perform as properly. In a 2003 examine, play was proven to extend Brain-Derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF), a substance important for the expansion of mind cells. It’s additionally been proven to be instrumental within the growth of the world of the mind chargeable for performing govt duties, similar to planning, decision-making, problem-solving, and emotional regulation. It could be a option to hearth up dormant synapses in your mind. And play can decrease the chance of creating age-related situations similar to Alzheimer’s and dementia.
Finally, play conjures up novelty, shock, and originality, which results in inventive, versatile pondering, together with uncommon connections between concepts that may enhance problem-solving expertise and stimulate inventive expression.
So, with all that in thoughts, I attempted out some totally different types of yoga that took me method out of my consolation zone and into the realm of play.
(Photo: Dana Arnold)
AcroYoga: In it Together
Probably essentially the most playful yoga of all, AcroYoga is completed in pairs or teams and resembles the daring acrobatics you might need seen on the circus as a child. In quick, it’s not likely one thing a middle-aged, plus-size girl like me would assume to do.
But I present up on the Boulder Circus Center on a Wednesday night anyway, wearing leggings and a T-shirt, with butterflies in my abdomen. They know I’m coming. I known as forward to tell the teacher that I’m a whole newbie and I don’t have a lithe gymnast physique. Teacher Crystal Nardico assured me that I used to be welcome and can be tremendous.
AcroYoga will not be precisely new. Some sources say it began in Montreal, Canada within the late ‘90s and got here to the U.S. within the early 2000s. There’s a selected subculture that has sprouted up round it. Acro yogis journey round to hang around at festivals and weekly drop-in “Acro Jams” that occur throughout the nation. My Acro associate, for instance, was visiting Boulder from Southern California.
The studio on the Circus Center has mirrored partitions and thick health club mats on the ground. There are loads of males—greater than I’ve ever seen at any yoga class. Everyone’s match; everybody’s younger. Everyone on this group has been doing Acro for seven years or extra. And then there’s me. But, regardless of feeling “off-brand” for Acro, I discovered that the entire group embraced me immediately.
That generosity isn’t unusual in AcroYoga, in response to Nardico. “Traditional yoga is extra of an inner expertise,” she says. “But Acro is all about giving.”
Acro is a crew sport and utterly primarily based on mutual belief. Like cheerleading, there are “lifters” (additionally known as “bases”) and there are “flyers.” As a flyer, you’ve bought to belief the opposite particular person to not allow you to fall. As a base, it’s a must to belief your self to maintain your associate aloft. In quick, you’re making an intense bodily reference to individuals who, in my case, are full strangers. It’s uncomfortable at first, however, after I heat as much as it, I uncover it’s additionally loads of enjoyable…when you simply let go of your self-consciousness.
We begin out working across the room to heat up the physique, then we circle as much as introduce ourselves and stretch, particularly concentrating on our wrists and palms.
Next, we cut up up into pairs for warm-ups. For these people, that features Headstands. I make a failed try; my associate is ready to execute an ideal pose with none help. Eventually, we get into teams of three: lifter, flyer, and spotter. And though I’m fairly comfy with lifting, I really feel embarrassed about being lifted. My base assures me that he may elevate “4 of me,” so I permit myself to be pressed up into the traditional superman pose—known as a “chook” in Acro. I prolong my legs and arms, balancing with my associate’s toes on my hips. Then I do the identical for him. We’re each smiling.
We hold ramping up the poses, and I’m working up a sweat. This is de facto beginning to be a severe strength-building exercise. Eventually, it’s time for an inversion. We are going to attempt Star Pose, the place the lifter lies down with their toes up in Waterfall Pose, and the flyer strikes right into a model of a wide-legged Headstand, balancing on the lifter’s toes. I attempt to decline, however the group enthusiastically encourages me to attempt, so I oblige hesitantly. Getting into the place is horrifying and awkward—in Acro, your butt is gonna be in another person’s face on the common—however I let go and permit the lifter and the spotter to shift me into place. It takes a village, however I get there. And, to me, it appears like an unlimited bodily feat of energy and bravado.
After 90 minutes of lifting and flying, I depart feeling invigorated. Acro is an intimate and bodily difficult expertise. I loved it, however I’ll in all probability depart it to the younger people.
Aerial Yoga: Flying High
Also referred to as antigravity yoga, Aerial Yoga includes a cloth swing known as a silk, which serves as a supportive prop for all poses. I signed up for a category at Yoga Hive in downtown Louisville, Colorado, a studio that makes a speciality of this model of yoga.
Aerial Yoga was born within the early Nineties. Broadway choreographer Christopher Harrison is credited with creating the observe in his Antigravity Performance Company, which mixed aerial acrobatics with dance, Pilates, and yoga. Today, there are a number of totally different kinds and lineages. Yoga Hive teaches the Unnata Method, which was developed by dancer and motion artist Michelle Dortignac in 2006 and rooted in Hatha Yoga.
Our trainer, Alisha Klezmer, hangs a silk for me off of a metal assist on the ceiling, and I place my mat on the ground beneath it. Actually, silk is a misnomer. Our yoga swings, generally known as hammocks) are made out of nylon, and apparently they’ll maintain greater than 400 kilos. They’re generally additionally known as hammocks.
We begin off on our mats in Sukhasana (Easy Pose), taking some deep breaths to softly convey us into the observe. Then, we transfer into Tabletop Pose with our elbows within the swing above. The feeling of the stretch is deep and splendid. Doing this pose utilizing the silks feels very totally different from a standard Tabletop. My thoracic backbone squeals with delight. For the remainder of the category we transfer by a vinyasa circulation utilizing the swing, which deepens every pose and permits me to stretch muscle groups and fascia in a deep method that feels therapeutic. I additionally discover that utilizing the hammock for all the standard poses retains me grounded within the current second. It’s onerous to zone out whenever you’re doing Three-Legged Dog with one foot in a swing.
“I like to explain Aerial as yoga with a extremely cool prop,” says Yoga Hive proprietor Blaine Wilkes.
I’d additionally describe it as enjoyable, particularly after we get right into a place known as Back Hang the place we’re hanging the other way up with the silks wrapped round our hips and our legs splayed in a V-shape. The weightless inversion decompresses my backbone and invigorates my complete physique.
We finish in a heavenly antigravity Savasana (Corpse Pose), suspended in a hammock, gently swaying facet to facet. “The two causes folks come to our studio is to do again dangle [inversion] and Savasana within the cloth,” Wilkes says.
I can see why. When we end the category, it actually appears like I’ve been on a calming seaside trip. Aerial yoga is actually blissful. I can’t wait to do this once more.
Floating on Air: The Benefits of Aerial Meditation
If your meditation observe additionally wants a change, attempt wrapping your self in silk. Aerial meditation courses, similar to those supplied by Current Meditation, cocoon you within the silk hammocks, so you may instantly start to loosen up, feeling protected and guarded. Because the material contours to your physique and holds you suspended over the bottom, you keep away from aggravating strain factors or experiencing the opposite discomforts of mendacity on the ground. Plus, the mild swaying of the hammock is extremely calming, so you may sink right into a deeper meditative state.
(Photo: Courtesy of Britteny Floyd-Mayo)
Trap Yoga: Shake it Out
Trap yoga, because the title suggests, is yoga accompanied by a lure music soundtrack—a subgenre of hip hop that originated within the South. The bass is heavy and the lyrics can get raunchy. It’s undoubtedly social gathering music, and Trap Yoga is supposed to be high-energy and enjoyable.
Brandon Copeland of Khepera Wellness in Washington, D.C. started providing Trap Yoga in 2015 as a option to appeal to extra Black folks to the yoga studio. “I’d describe it as a faster-paced Ashtanga, with sequencing primarily based loosely on Rocket Yoga [a fast-paced cardio yoga],” he says. “My favourite factor about instructing is taking folks to their edge, their restrict, whereas nonetheless having enjoyable.”
Copeland, who found yoga when he was a scholar at Howard University, recurrently brings his model of Trap Yoga to native DC faculties to introduce children to a wholesome option to handle anxiousness and stress.
Trap Yoga is outlined extra by the music than by a selected instructing model. Yoga academics throughout the nation convey their very own taste to the observe. For instance, self-described Trap Yoga Bae, Britteny Floyd-Mayo, incorporates twerking and different dance strikes into her signature yoga model. She additionally has a DJ who spins reside throughout her courses. A star in her personal proper, Floyd-Mayo recurrently teaches packed courses throughout the nation.
I didn’t discover a lure yoga class in my Colorado city. (No shock there. Live Trap Yoga courses could be discovered in lots of bigger cities, although.) But I discovered a category on YouTube with Abiola Akanni of trapvinyasa.com.
I’m normally not an enormous fan of vinyasa, however Akanni’s class was really enjoyable because of bonus twerking and boxing strikes. She suggests that you simply play any high-energy hip-hop music you need as you circulation by the sequence, so I placed on a favourite 90s mixture of A Tribe Called Quest, Jungle Brothers, and De La Soul. We twerked our method from Downward-Facing Dog to Plank Pose and again once more, which made the entire circulation much less painful and much much less boring. I like to bop, so I can see myself doing this once more—ideally in a bunch class.
Jennifer Davis-Flynn is a Kundalini Yoga Teacher and common contributor to Yoga Journal. She’s presently writing a memoir about her time residing and singing in Russia within the early 2000s. Find out extra at jenniferdavisflynn.com