Acroyoga helps you learn to ‘fly like superman’

Acroyoga teaches you confidence and trust; otherwise how else would you manage to fly like superman and carry a partner on your toes without dropping them.

This kind of yoga, which incorporates acrobatics, is not your normal breathing and stretching exercise.

One requires a partner when doing acroyoga. Besides a partner, you go into the class armed with trust, wisdom and compassion. One person becomes a base and the other a flyer. The position is usually determined by the size of the person.

Bone muscles

The base is the person lying on the ground. The arms and legs are then used to balance the flyer on air who can transition from one position to another doing a ‘‘circle ceremony.’’

Cheloti Ken, an acroyoga instructor, says a flyer needs balance confidence and strength. One must also to have strong bone muscle.

‘‘A lot of gymnastics is involved. It may look difficult to a beginner, but I always tell my students to have an open mind,” he says.

Participants are usually advised to stay the length of three breaths during a pose, so as not to exert themselves too much on one position.

Acroyoga provides physical, mental health benefits and the balancing improves concentration, says the trainer.

“It enhances the feeling of trust and builds a deep connection between partners besides building stronger bodies,’’ says Ken.

Acroyoga is not only for a gymnast; a beginner can always start with the basics to increase bone flexibility.

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26 poses, 2 breathing exercises in a hot room

In a bikram yoga class, which entails doing 26 postures and two breathing exercises done in a hot room, many participants have signed up for different reasons.

For some, they aim to master their bodies and weight, learn to control their breathing which helps them to calm down when angry or stressed out and others for self therapy.

‘‘We have clients who not only come in for yoga to lose weight, but they may be having trouble sleeping, they are dealing with pressure, anxiety, high blood pressure, diabetes,

eating disorder and yoga helps to calm them,’’ said Karim Nathoo of Bikram Nairobi.

Of importance is that being able to stretch into these many postures in a hot and humid room and breathe normally really brings one’s emotions out, because these are micro stressors. Since they started bikram yoga four years ago, Karim says he has learnt that Kenyans are always ready to try new things that would benefit them.

No age

‘‘We have yoga teachers coming from all over the world who say Nairobi is one of their favourite spots, because Kenyans are open to learning something new,’’ he said.

Melissa Alwood, the Bikram studio manager says yoga is for everyone, it does not matter how flexible one is or how old or their ethnicity.

‘‘You will find athletes who are in very good shape doing yoga, even old people,” she said, adding that her 77-year-old father does yoga two or three times a week despite having two knee replacements and battling arthritis.

Flush toxins

The humidity in a bikram yoga class encourages blood flow to different areas of the body flushing out toxins. The overall effect is a thorough cardio workout.

‘‘Whether we like it or not we live in a toxic world, we breathe in toxic air, when we are in a rush we eat fast food which are rich in chemicals, in the modern society very few people experience optimal health. One of the amazing component of bikram yoga is the heat which helps in flushing away the toxins as you sweat it out,’’ Karim says.
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Stretching in darkness is the new sport

Under neon lights and darkness, yogis and followers stretch with electric music in the background.

It’s in the first-ever glowga party in Nairobi organised by seasoned yogis Karim Nathoo and Melissa Alwood.

The setting is in the dark where participants are painted in luminous colours.

Glowga, which loosely translates to practising yoga while glowing in the night, is the new sport in town.

Melissa, the organiser, came to Kenya from the US a year ago. She had come to teach yoga at Bikram studio in Nairobi’s Lavington area, but fell in love with Kenya and its people. She is known to add a twist to yoga.

“We teach yoga as a physical and mental well-being, so we thought of why not take our students to a different setting and let them enjoy themselves in a healthy way. That is why we organised glowga in a private club where they could have this electric music at the background,” says Karim.

Calm down in darkness

Many revellers joined the party as beginners were taught yoga postures in the high-energy class.

The body movements in near darkness allows one to be aware of themselves and the surrounding. The brain has to rely on senses other than vision for one to balance, control the breathing and calm down.

“At Glowga, we wanted people to be a little silly, drop their boundaries, paint themselves with glow in the dark paint. It was a fine way to bring out different personalities,” says Melissa.