Get back in the swing of yoga

Hot from the US, anti-gravity yoga can help to stretch muscles from all angles

WOULD YOU swing upside down in a hammock to tone up and increase your fitness levels? Celebrities in the US have been doing it for the past few years, where it is called anti-gravity yoga. If you caught this year’s Grammy awards in which the singer Pink stole the show as she sang while swinging from the ceiling in a silk hammock, then you will have seen it in action.

As classes are starting in Ireland soon, I went along to see what it is like. I had done yoga before, but this was unlike anything I had experienced.

It is all done with the use of a hammock, which is bolted to and suspended from the ceiling of the fitness studio. I felt nervous as I watched Christopher Harrison, the creator of this new fitness activity, twist and turn himself into seemingly impossible manoeuvres without any effort.

Lean and lithe from practising and teaching these moves for the past 14 years, he moved back, forth and upside down in the hammock with ease.

I quietly called him aside and explained that as a curvy size 12 with a mummy tummy after three babies, I was not sure I would be able to do what he was doing.

His response was overwhelmingly positive. He assured me he was 100 per cent confident I would manage all the moves in his class. There was no backing out. I was sceptical, but I need not have been.

During the class, he explained everything step by step and, within a few minutes, I was swinging back and forth, feeling quite proud of myself.

On hand at the Drogheda studio to help was Laura Armada, the first qualified instructor in anti-gravity yoga in Ireland.

Whenever a member of the class had difficulty or reservations about a move, the instructors stepped in to coach us. As we progressed with the lesson, most of us got to grips with what we needed to do to achieve the various “yoga” positions. Even ones that looked impossible initially were quite manageable.

Harrison taught singer Mariah Carey and other musicians and dancers the art of performing yoga in a hammock. His clients said it helped them to tone up and feel rejuvenated, as well as improving back problems and posture.This feedback inspired him to turn it into a form of exercise for everyone – which he did about three years ago.

He had came from New York to Ireland to teach launch classes and to train instructors who will run classes across the country after he returns to the US.

The class was by no means easy but it was fun, enjoyable and worked the muscles in my body in a very definite way. As I stretched vertically, hung upside down, did handstands, curled up like a bat and rocked back and forth in the hammock with my arms outstretched in the sky diver pose, I felt invigorated.

There was a sense of achievement too, when each of the participants attained the positions demanded.

It may not be everyone’s idea of a good workout but, after taking a class, I can understand why this could be the “next big thing” in the world of fitness.

I fully intend to go back for more and most of the other participants in my class seemed keen too. I slept well afterwards and woke up the next day feeling refreshed and somehow a little taller from all the stretching.

Anti-Gravity Yoga comes to Ireland this month at Lab Fitness studios in Drogheda. There has been an interest in setting up other classes from Athlone to Dublin and Wexford.

antigravityyogaireland.com