AcroYoga

I’ve been saying I was going to try this for about 6 months. It’s offered to me free as a part of my annual membership at the climbing gym. And tonight was the night.

It wasn’t too hot in the gym. And being my third day in a row, I took a nice long 30-45 minute, very relaxed warm up trying to loosen up my forearms. I would stop to get water, to watch climbers crush a problem, and just do anything to make sure I was going slow. I asked at the front desk when yoga started and a girl who was signing in looks at me and says “now! Follow me!” she and her partner led me upstairs and they began doing exercises you’d expect to see in Cirque De Soleil. AcroYoga, in a very simplified explanation is one person laying on the floor (the base) holds the other person in the air (flyer) with their feet. They were doing some moves that were a lot more advanced than what I was doing.

Finally more people arrived. I was introduced to several and was instructed on how to do the beginning base work. It’s… interesting. The girls kept asking me if I needed breaks. But I didn’t feel like my muscles were wearing out. I was just getting a deep constant stretch in my hamstrings.

Next, I was introduced to the flyer position by the instructor. She taught me the bent leaf, which is the start of therapeutic stretching. This would be extremely awkward if had a personal bubble. Because at one point I was upside down hanging in the air, sitting somewhat like a frog with my head between a strangers legs. Her thighs also seemed to be putting just enough pressure across the arteries in my neck to prevent a blood rush/blackout. Cool thing, I probably could have passed out and she would have still kept me balanced.

So the first minute or so of this video demonstrates pretty close to what I was doing with the instructor. Except I was the upside down girl and the instructor was on the ground.

I can’t tell you how this felt. After an injury in my back several years ago, I’ve had chronic pain. Chiropractic care helps, but doesn’t fix it. Massage does almost nothing and physical therapy… well, doctors can’t get me sitting still long enough to get through PT. but the way this stretched and lengthened my spine was amazing. I immediately noticed an improvement in posture and a reduction in pain. I’ll probably continue AcroYoga for this reason alone.

Next was being a flying bird? Which, everytime they said this, all I could think about was Portlandia’s “Put a bird on it” sketch (This made things more difficult... it's hard to balance when you're fighting the urge to laugh.). Basically, it stopped being a stretch and became some work. It was similar to doing supermans on the stability ball. Biggest difference, the ball was a crazily coordinate woman with toes that moved me to wherever she wanted me to go.

As the place became more full, I moved to a bench, in awe. After a few minutes of this, I headed downstairs. I put in about 4 hours tonight. The AcroYoga really loosened me up and got me ready to tackle more routes on the wall. I plan to do it again next week if I’m free. It definitely wasn’t the yoga I was expecting though. But I’m always down for something new.

P.S. I was trying to do some press to handstands on the Olympic rings. That might make my list of to-do’s.

168 lbs before I ate Subway. :)

September has started; 30 days to pull a V7.