Everything About Aqua Yoga/ Water Yoga

Everything About Aqua Yoga/ Water Yoga

What Is Water Yoga? Here's What an Aqua Yoga Class Is Like

Water Yoga I had seen the ladies of a certain age doing stretches with noodles in the pool at my local Y, so I thought I knew what water yoga was all about: Your standard yoga poses fanaticized, probably super gentle, maybe a little boring. Still, I was planning an article on aqua yoga so I trotted over to that very same YMCA for a class. And boy, was I surprised.
I've done quite a bit of yoga and a fair amount of swimming in my day, but neither really prepared me for what it's like to do yoga in the water. The water envelopes and supports you while up-ending your relationship with gravity. Most of us have probably tried doing a handstand on the bottom of the pool. Kicking up is no problem, unlike on land, but once you're there, everything goes light and wobbly because the water supports your body in a completely different way than air. In the pool, some yoga poses become easier while others seem harder.

Aqua Yoga For Reducing Stress and Anxiety

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Aqua Yoga

Aqua Yoga Background

Like most forms of water exercise (besides swimming), aqua yoga is super low impact, making it an ideal way for people with joint pain to improve their strength, flexibility, and range of motion. As Katherine Winge, who is trained in Aqua Kriya Yoga and teaches in Austin, Texas, explains, "The buoyant effect of the water takes the pressure of a person's weight off the joints, alleviating pain or discomfort people may feel when exercising. Since the body bears less weight in the water, the muscles are relaxed and therefore can be stretched and strengthened with less incidence of injury.

4 Water Yoga Poses For a Tight Core

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Many land poses are adaptable to the pool, especially when you use the wall as if it were the floor. (This approach will be familiar to anyone who has done yoga in late pregnancy.) Plank, chataranga, and cobra are all done on the wall. Props like kickboards and those noodles can also come into play. Turns out, floating in savasana while supported by two noodles is pretty blissful.
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About Aqua Yoga

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To examine how water affects a familiar yoga pose, let's take a look at warrior III. On land, a lot of effort usually goes into keeping your leg up. In the water, the leg floats, freeing you to focus on other things, like the alignment of your hips. Staying upright in a pose like a pyramid is not particularly hard for an experienced yoga student on land, but in the water, I found I had to engage my core and bandhas in a much stronger way (plus tread water with my hands) to avoid tipping over to one side.