Aerial Yoga

For the past two weeks I've been taking an aerial yoga class. It's been really awesome. I love doing inversions but when I'm on my own all I can really manage is a shoulder stand or a really sad sort of handstand against a wall:

As you can see, I'm not good at it and I need a spotter to make sure that I don't go tilting off to the side or come crashing down and break things (like me). But aerial yoga, now THAT is something else.

Aerial yoga uses a silk (think giant hammock) that hangs from the ceiling and lets you do all sorts of really cool stuff. Like the stuff in the picture above. We did that tonight. Or, something really, really a lot like it. Now, that's not me in that class but I was hanging out like that tonight.

I was a bit nervous about going to class. Not because of the class itself but more because I hurt my back yesterday trying to shovel snow. Shoveling isn't something well-tolerated by my back and this snow was heavy and wet. I tried to move a small shovel full and ended up yanking something. I babied it but wasn't sure how class was going to go. I was a bit nervous and then we went upside down. 

After tilting upside down, I feel about three inches taller, nicely stretched out spine-wise, and a lot dizzier. In fact, I tend to enjoy being upside down enough that I stay like that for too long and end up with a head rush. Its a great feeling after but I ended up feeling a bit queasy tonight.

I'm halfway through a four week session and I'm planning on continuing if the class is still available next month (its a temporary location that the classes are being held in). I'm already looking forward to next week.