Aerial Yoga Teacher Training - Day 3

When I finished writing my last update I could barely move my body was so stiff, so I hobbled upstairs and had a really hot soak in the bath and it made a real difference so when I awoke the next morning I felt much much better.

Estelle is my fellow student and owns a Bikram studio in Liverpool and we meet up in the studio before class in order to practise and develop the sequences which will be assessed on the final day. So by the time Devi arrives for our morning aerial class we have managed to stretch out the stiffness a little before the real work of the day begins.

Aerial yoga has several sequences using a combination of the mat and the hammock and we spend the rest of the day breaking down the moves and understanding what the common problems may be and how to address them with students and keep them safe.

Devi, our teacher has been practising yoga for 20 years having discovered it when she was an unfit, stressed mother in her twenties with two young children with back and hip problems.  She started off with Hatha yoga and found the gentle class really hard and just kept going for Savasana at the end which she found to be her sanctuary. She was a student for about 3/4 year but it was after having a breakdown and subsequently practising everyday that she discovered the power of yoga and slowly rebuilt herself. It was then that she decided that the yogic life was for her and trained to be a teacher and shared her passion with others. In 2009 she was drawn to the concept of aerial yoga but could not find anything about it in the UK so studied in the USA, returning back to Carlisle with hammocks in her suitcase as the first aerial yoga teacher in the UK. She is amazing to watch in the hammock and we lesser mortals can only grunt and groan as we try to slide our bodies around the fabric, trying to ignore the fact that our circulation is being cut off in the legs as the hammock digs into my skin, whereas she slides effortlessly into beautiful shapes with a serene smile on her face!

We finished off the day with a two hour restorative yoga session using the hammocks and by the time we had finished I was relaxed but exhausted. Pizza Express was on the menu with the men in my life and we had such a great evening, catching up the week's event's and I even treated myself to a piece of chocolate fudge cake ... yum yum!

I can't believe how quickly the course is going and how much has been fitted in. The raw ache in my limbs has eased and I am looking forward to the tricks and flips tomorrow!