I had never done aerial yoga before, but after my cousin mentioned her absolute love for it, I had to give it a try. On my drive back to Syracuse University from spring break at home yesterday, I texted my cousin letting her know I would be stopping in Boston from Maine, and could not wait for the yoga session to begin.
To preface, I have never tried yoga in my life. I have always had the desire to, but I guess I had just never come around to it. With my interest in trying yoga, I would have thought I might participate in a beginners yoga class first—but no. I guess with eight years of gymnastics under my belt I thought my first step into the world of yoga should begin with aerial yoga—and I was absolutely correct.
The session began with adjusting my silk to make sure it would fall at my hip length. This would allow me to exercise all of the yoga poses without the chance of scuffing my body against the ground—allowing my body to hang at the perfect length. After it was adjusted, we hopped right into the session, beginning with more simple steps.
These steps involved standing on the silk, leaning from side to side to balance our body weight on the silk, and leaning forward and backward while balancing on the silk. Each task was not too difficult but helped me maintain balance before entering the next exercise.
Things became very fun when the instructor taught us how to do poses upside-down on the silk. She also provided peppermint in the case anyone became dizzy, which did happen for some people. I absolutely loved the upside-down yoga experience, as it reminded me a lot of the flips I would do in gymnastics. I then learned that aerial yoga can be very acrobatic as well.
In the end, my body felt amazing like I had just left a chiropractic appointment, and I could not wait for the next session. As I do not have a next session planned yet, during my next school break I am sure I will find myself back at the yoga studio to embark on more aerial yoga.
All-in-all, this was a fabulous experience, and I highly suggest that you all try it. And as an added bonus, I walked into my session with a headache, and the healing remedies of yoga completely got rid of the headache I had. Amazing!
