Aerial Yoga and Its Amazing Benefits
What is Aerial Yoga?
Aerial yoga is just like yoga but utilises a hammock or yoga swing (suspended from the ceiling) to allow you to perform a diverse range of poses you can’t normally do on a traditional yoga mat. It is a mixture between yoga and pilates, aerial arts, and acrobatics.
For many people aerial yoga is more accessible than traditional yoga, and has a number of benefits that will make you want to try this easier version of becoming a trapeze artist as soon as possible:
Health benefits
Improving blood circulation
Aerial yoga helps rotate and move ‘stagnant’ blood that is staggered in the body. By encouraging healthy blood circulation, aerial yoga can help fight heart disease and additionally, lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. Aerial yoga inversions temporarily improve circulation and in the long term, can provide you with more energy and focus.
Stimulating digestion
Your body experiencing all kinds of movements and stretches which assist in stimulating the digestive system. Aerial yoga can help rid you of digestion-related issues like constipation and indigestion. Some yogis consider that the stretching can relax their abdomen and provide relief for irritable bowel syndrome as well.
Spine decompression
Another health benefit that aerial yoga provides is spine decompression; the inverting associated with aerial yoga realigns your body, and most specifically, your spine. When you are standing your spine tends to get both compressed and squashed, while hanging upside down allows the body and spine to restore to its original and natural position alignment. Hanging freely allows your spine to lengthen and the reduced strain on your back while doing these exercises eases tension in the hip joint as well. No more back pain after your gym classes!
Detoxifying your body
Aerial yoga helps detoxify the circulatory and lymphatic systems, reducing the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Yoga is known for its ability to detoxify body, mind and soul; the circulatory and lymphatic systems collaborate better to eliminate pollutants, and this puts your body back into a healthy state whenever you are feeling heavy and bloated.
Improving balance
Exercising against gravity improves your balance and stability during daily activities. This is very important especially at an older age, when you become more prone to accidents and your recovery time from injuries is vastly longer.
Rejuvenating the body
Improving the functioning of the circulatory, respiratory, and digestive systems helps combat aging and its symptoms.
Mental benefits
Improving brain function
Inversions (being upside down) increases blood flow to the brain providing it with more oxygen which: makes it work faster and more effectively, boosts mental focus, increases memory, improves mental focus, and increases clarity of thoughts. Sport fortifies your neural connections and boosts your memory power – aerial yoga will make your smarter and enable you to maintain your brain capacity unaltered for a longer time.
Reducing stress
The meditative state promoted by yoga helps you to combat stress throughout the day, thus allowing you to rebuild your emotional system and increase your creativity. Practicing aerial yoga regularly enhances your mood and simply allows you to enjoy life more. Anxiety, depression, and mood swings will be a thing of the past once you start exercising upside down at your aerial yoga class.
Assisting with insomnia
Inverting reduces muscle tension, which assists with better sleep. Aerial yoga, like many other body workouts, encourages your body to release happy hormones such as endorphins and serotonin, making you to feel more energetic during the day, and calm at night.
Improving focus
When you try a new type of exercise, your mind learns something new. With aerial yoga, focus is improved because you are probably not used to the yoga exercises you will be completing. This way, you become more aware of your body posture and even gain a new perspective on other aspects of life.
Having fun
Everyone should try the experience of hanging upside down at least once in their lifetime. Children find the idea of inverse aerial poses very fun, and adults should give it a try as well.
Fitness benefits
Developing new body skills
It’s amazing what our bodies can do. If you find some traditional yoga poses too difficult to perform, you will discover they are no longer impossible when suspended against gravity; in aerial yoga, your stretches are more effective and you have fewer restrictions.
Strengthens and tones core muscles
Aerial yoga is recommended to anyone, including people who practice other sports, because the core workout represents excellent cross-training. It’s the core muscles that you use a lot when balancing yourself during aerial yoga sessions and you become stronger overall.
This allows you to improve your skills with other sports, too. For instance, runners who practice aerial yoga have noticed increased stamina and the ability to recover faster.
Increase flexibility
The practice of aerial yoga lengthens your ligaments and relaxes your muscles, as being suspended in the air releases tension in your body and allows you to perform new moves at a range you did not know you were capable of. Spinal and shoulder flexibility are increased the most, and you become able to move more freely and with less effort.
Full body workout
When performing aerial yoga, you are forced to use every muscle which allows movements for everything including ligaments and joints. With most sports and physical disciplines, there is always the problem of switching between upper and lower body workouts, but with aerial yoga, you utilize them both at the same time. You will be able to tone and work muscles in your upper and lower body as well, and your entire body will move and stretch.
Curious?
Aerial Yoga Academy is the perfect place to get introduced to this new amazing experience and learn how to become an Aerial Yoga teacher today. With the help of certified and experienced instructors, Aerial Yoga Academy is 100% online, and your certification is accredited by a Yoga Alliance. Contact us today at [email protected] and drop any question you might have about aerial yoga and our courses!