By Steffanie Jensen
Wondering what’s new in yoga? Looking to increase your agility while still feeling graceful and centered? Loving your yoga practice but open to trying something new? Well, you might just flip (literally) for one of the newest trends in yoga…or save a lot of money on yoga clothes with another.
Anti-gravity yoga, also known as aerial yoga, is the next craze sweeping the nation. The Gravity Center in Phoenix offers 75-minute anti-gravity yoga classes in which students get a full-body workout using hammocks and various suspensions to further enrich core strength and overall flexibility. This new and innovative form of yoga initially came about to help injured athletes, but today classes are available for beginners to advanced yoga goers.
The new trend was started by Christopher Harrison, world-renowned founder and creator of the entertainment and fitness brand AntiGravity. The headquarters of AntiGravity yoga is in Manhattan, but certified instructors can be found around the world. It is practiced by stars such as Madonna, Pink and Gwyneth Paltrow, the latter of whom attributes this new yoga style as an integral part of her overall health and fitness program. Beginners use the hammocks as a soft form of support while learning simple inversions. Anti-Gravity yoga may be a little more difficult for those who are new to yoga in general. However, classes are designed to encompass teaching those at all levels. Over time, students advance and master these inversions that build up their core strength—never being higher than a few inches off the ground.
NAKED YOGA
If you are not sure you want to try anti-gravity yoga but are still looking for a new way to switch up your routine, you are in luck. At its core, yoga is about finding peace and contentment within the self. It’s about inner focus on who you are and who you want to be—it’s about exposing yourself on every level. You can expose yourself much faster with another new (and seemingly more daring) yoga craze—naked yoga. That’s right, zero clothes allowed. Student and teacher Jayme Davis explains some of the benefits of doing yoga sans clothing. “Since baggy clothes are out of the equation, it makes it much easier for me as a teacher to see exactly what’s happening in a client’s body.”
Being stark naked in yoga poses in a room full of strangers isn’t for everyone, but if you can overcome the fear, Davis believes there are great benefits. “There’s a huge stigma put on nudity in the U.S.—much more so than any other country in the world. We’re taught to judge one another’s bodies harshly instead of embrace them, which is actually what makes naked yoga the perfect situation. It teaches you to find comfort in the uncomfortable.” Davis says naked yoga is attracting many new students who are reaping the rewards of baring all in the classroom—they are learning to reserve self-judgment and accept and love their own bodies, and building inner strength as they take a huge leap out of their comfort zones.
So whether you’re new to yoga, or your yoga resume is overflowing, you just might find that inner peace you’ve been looking for while hanging upside down or doing the child’s pose wearing nothing but your birthday suit. Just remember to breathe. Namaste.
Photo Credit:
Photo courtesy of The Ra Yoga Studio
