50 years ago nobody in America had heard of or done yoga, but fast forward to today and it’s hard to find a person who hasn’t attended a yoga class at least once. Yoga is massively popular because it encourages physical and mental health through relaxation. It’s exercise yet it’s not technically exercise as it is actually an ancient technology for wellbeing and ultimate liberation. In other words, yoga is different from traditional exercise as it has rejuvenating and therapeutic effects. Now, there’s a new twist to yoga that I’m sure some of you pool owners will want to try out – water yoga.
Benefits
Water yoga is low impact and helps you develop strength, static balance, and increase in range of motion. The water environment allows a release from gravity which in return allows optimum stretching while simultaneously relieving body tension. Water yoga has been used greatly in healing stiffness and muscle pain post-surgery and also in relieving pain as well as anxiety and stress. The benefits of water yoga seem to be endless, but overall there’s no doubt that the simple addition of water makes the practice much easier and beneficial to those struggling with regular yoga.
Exercise Sequence
The following is a 6 pose sequence that we discovered via yogajournal.com. There are a large number of exercises that can be easily found online; however, we just found that this 6 pose sequence is a good, easy introduction. Another great resource is positivehealthwellness.com.
1) North Star Pose
“Water and its wisdom comes to us from the stars so we start in North Star Pose with an inhale. Stand with your feet greater than hip-width apart; bring your hands together in prayer over your head.”
2) Warrior II Pose
“Exhale and land in Warrior II by bending into your right leg and stretching your arms open wide. Connect to the earth by grounding through your feet. Feel the earth beneath the water, plant yourself.”
3) Flowing Warrior Pose
“Keep your lower body planted while you let your upper body and arms flow like seaweed. Feel the watery nature of your spine.”
4) Sugarcane Pose
“Breathe deeply and shift your weight into your front foot. Stand to balance letting your back leg float effortlessly in the water coming into Half Moon Pose. Reach back and take your lifted foot into your hand and discover the connection between the moon and water that flows through your spine.”
5) Floating Savasana (Noodles required)
“Release the pose and come to rest on the surface of the water in a floating Savasana.”
6) Namaste
“To seal your practice, give gratitude through your heart to water.”
Go ahead and give this sequence a try and let us know how it goes. Like we said, the number of water yoga poses are seemingly endless, so if you find yourself interested then Google water yoga and a number of poses will pop up. If you’re a fan of water yoga, then email us back with your favorite poses and we’ll be sure to share them with our other subscribers. Another great health positive resource is positivehealthwellness.com.
If you’re feeling really adventurous you can try stand up paddle board yoga. This new form of yoga takes it to a whole new level as the need to balance makes it much more difficult. Bliss Paddle Yoga is a stand up paddle board yoga company located right in Newport Beach if you want to give it a try.
[…] spoken a lot in the past about the health benefits of a pool and various pool exercises, such as water yoga. Swimming laps and doing water yoga will give you a great workout, but these activities can get old […]