5 Tips to Rock Your First Aerial Yoga Class

Thinking of trying aerial yoga? Nervous about it? Don't be. Check out my tips for a great first class.

Image: Jennifer Duke Dodd via Flickr

Even though my arm is healed, it hurts like fire when it has to support my body weight. Although I'm mostly fine skipping push ups, it makes it really difficult to do yoga, which is one of my favorite things. I've really been missing my weekly yoga classes. So, I was very excited to try aerial yoga and see my favorite poses in a different way.

What is aerial yoga?

Aerial yoga takes traditional yoga poses and puts them in the air with the use of a trapeze or "silk," which is essentially a huge baby sling hanging from the ceiling. Some poses, like Scorpion, that you normally do on the floor would be done upside down on the silk. It gives you a new perspective and lets gravity help align your body and get into the pose.

What are the benefits?

1. The silk makes it much easier to do inversions and with less stress on your back, neck and joints.
2. Many poses that are difficult to do on the ground are easier in the air and you can get into a deeper expression of the pose.
3. It's a great gentle strength workout. Nearly every pose uses your core and transitioning between poses builds upper body strength.
4. It helps flexibility. The use the silk helps you stretch deeper into the poses. So, in addition to helping with balance, aerial yoga helps with flexibility.
5. You are hanging upside down, which allows your spine to lengthen and decompress.
6. It will push you outside of your comfort zone and it's fun!

The class:

I was a little nervous because I don't have a lot of upper body strength and I've never really been called graceful. I had visions of me somehow falling out of the sling and being carried off in a stretcher. Thankfully, that didn't happen.

It was a small class and the instructor was amazing. We started out with some simple standing warm ups and then moved onto poses, building on difficulty.

I've done yoga for years, but flipping the poses upside down made me look at them in a new way. Familiar poses feel very unfamiliar on the silk. For example, Cobbler pose, which is one of my favorites, feels just like Spiderman sliding down his web when you flip it upside down.

I think this is where a good instructor makes all the difference. The instructor walked me through the poses, showing me where we were going and how to get in and out of them before we started. Several times, she even got out of her silk to help me figure out what I was doing – more times than I should probably admit.

That helped a lot because being upside down is really disorienting. Simple instructions like "move your right arm forward" become confusing when I have to think about where my right hand is and what direction would be "forward." That was an expected challenge, which made me laugh more than once.

When the instructor flipped around her silk, the poses were beautiful and graceful. When, I did it, there was definitely more panic involved, but I did manage to hit the poses. What seemed impossible when the instructor did it, became possible when we broke it down into steps.

She seemed genuinely happy when I was able to get myself in and out of the poses, which was cool. I did clutch the silk for dear life several times, but I didn't fall out even once. Whew! Sometimes, you just have to close your eyes and have faith that you won't let yourself fall. Then, amazing things happen.

I see this picture and I almost can't believe I was able to do this. (Keeping it real in my son's trampoline park socks.)

Overall, it was a great experience, and I can't wait to do it again. My back felt amazing when I left and the next morning, muscles I didn't know I had were screaming at me.

Thinking of trying a class? Here are my tips for your first class.

5 Tips for your First Aerial Yoga Class:

1. This isn't the kind of class you can walk in, hang out in the back and fake your way through. Tell the instructor it's your first class and let him/her help you.
2. Dress for class. Don't wear jewelry that could snag the silk. You want a shirt that covers your armpits and that's not going to ride up, as well as pants that cover your knees. I wore my glasses and wished I hadn't. They were really annoying and almost fell off several times. So, I would also recommend wearing contacts or leaving your glasses off.
3. When you stand in front of it, the silk should come across your hip bones. Ask the instructor to help you get set up. If it's not the right height for you, you will have trouble doing the poses.
4. If you are uncomfortable falling forward or backwards, take it slow. Every pose has modifications. Work in your comfort zone.
5. Everybody is different so don't look at the person next to you. You know your body. Only do what you feel you can safely do. If you don't want to take your hands off the floor, don't.

Of course, you should always speak with a doctor before doing any new exercise program if you have any health concerns.