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Is Aerial Yoga Really Healthy?

After Pilates and power yoga, the mantra to fitness is a special type of yoga called Aerial Yoga. This type of yoga is a combination of the principles of the Indian Yoga asanas with the aerial arts (like the trapeze games in circuses). The basic premise of Aerial yoga is to be suspended from the air and do all your exercises against gravity.

But is this type of yoga a really effective way to improve your fitness or is it just another passing fad? That is the dilemma we are discussing here.

Aerial Yoga

The Hammock:

We have all used the hammock to laze around on a lazy vacation just to relax and read books. In aerial yoga, the main equipment for workout is a hammock. You remain suspended from a hammock like cloth hanging and perform your anti-gravity exercises.

So the basic difference between normal yoga and aerial yoga is the use of hammock.

Are There Any Health Benefits?

  • Doesn't going against gravity make the blood rush to your brain? At least that is what we have studied in school. However, this rush of blood may not be such a bad thing. In fact anti-gravity exercise helps to improve blood circulation in the body and re-energises your brain.
  • When people are paralysed and bed-ridden for months, they are sometimes made to hand upside down from chairs to make the blood circulate. The logic behind aerial yoga is exactly the same.
  • Experts like fitness guru Mickey Mehta believe that this kind of yoga provides a greater scope to stretch your body. As a result it improves the flexibility of your muscles.
  • Another huge benefit of this special kind of yoga is that it does not put pressure on your back. Being suspended from the air ensures that your spinal cord does not get pressurized at all. Severe and chronic lower back pain has become an epidemic now. Almost all office goers with a desk job have this problem. Aerial yoga is a blessing in disguise for such people.
  • On a lighter note, this weird way of exercising also kills boredom. Imagine yourself hanging in hammock instead of doing the same old stuff like running on a treadmill and doing push-ups!

Word Of Caution:

Please do not try this alone at home. Aerial yoga must be practised under the supervision of a trained instructor. The reliability of the hammock struck up to hold you very important. If you slip out of the hammock or the hammock itself collapses, you will be left with a broken spinal cord for life!

Story first published: Monday, September 17, 2012, 18:23 [IST]
Read more about: yoga fitness