Why Aerial Yoga?

Why Aerial Yoga?
Aerial Yoga Benefits
​It’s for everyone! It’s beginner friendly. With few exceptions,
it is for all age groups and levels of fitness

• It relieves compression in the spine and hip joints
• Aerial yoga challenges your central nervous system, mental capacity and proprioception (sense of body position)
• It increases pulling strength
• It increases core strength
• Aerial yoga improves flexibility
• It is a well rounded exercise because it engages all of your muscles
• It improves blood circulation
• It creates focus, centers your mind, and lifts your spirits
• It’s fun

1. No skill required
You can take a Basic Aerial Yoga Class with no prior experience and still get the hang of things. Firefly Yoga Center offers Aerial Yoga Basics classes for first-timers, for anyone feeling apprehensive about aerial yoga, and for those just starting out on their yoga journey.

2. It's one of the best ab workouts around
A benefit of taking your routine off the ground is that you lose your point of stability; you'll start to engage your core muscles immediately without even realizing it. It is one of the most effective ab workouts.

3. You'll flip for the thrill of it
Imagine how much fun it is getting to play for an hour? The fun factor is what gets our students to stick with the classes. And you don't need research to tell you that if you enjoy your exercise, you'll probably do it more often.

4. Mat poses become easier to master
Are you looking for better alignment and muscle engagement in you poses. Are you working on your headstand or forearm stand in yoga? Forget kicking up against a wall and consider this: The silk wraps around your body and supports you in poses like down dog, triangle pose and revolved side angle, and in certain challenging poses like inversions, giving you the experience of how a pose should feel. In other words, taking a few aerial classes can lead to increased awareness around proper alignment in your regular yoga classes as well.

5. It counts as cardio too
Students with a regular aerial yoga practice increase muscle mass and decrease fat mass all over, because aerial yoga provides strength-building benefits. Studies have found that the calorie burn—320 calories in one 60 minute aerial yoga session—is in fact comparable to that of power walking.
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6. It's low impact
Whether or not you have knee problems, or back problems adding some low- or no-impact workouts is great for you, and aerial classes can be easy on your knees and back. Our teachers offer modifications to accommodate students’ needs.

7. You'll walk away feeling Zen
​Research shows that mind-body activities can reduce stress, and aerial yoga is no exception. Classes end with you lying in savasana, cocooned in a hammock as you gently swing from side to side or laying still, depending on what you want. Either moving or still, students routinely say savasana in a hammock is more relaxing and feels better. Talk about blissing out!
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Suspension from the hammock eases pressure on your body, creates space in your joints, decompresses your spine, and makes you more mobile. Now, this is an ideal situation where you get to practice all the asanas that you may have found difficult practicing unsupported. Inversions like headstand and shoulderstand become much easier in the air. There will be no pressure on your head and spine, thus preventing neck and back pain. You will be able to flow through a series of traditional yoga poses with support and, as you advance, with the added fun of doing it suspended in the air.

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