What are the Benefits of a Yoga Trapeze Class?

What drew me initially to a Yoga Trapeze Class was the idea of flying or hanging upside down as evidenced in any picture you can find on the internet as the standard promo pose to feature the class. This may very well be the same reason why others don't venture into it.

Little did I know that the Yoga Trapeze Class isn't just all about the funky and fancy poses, but it is in fact great for people who aren't that great with balance. How many of you have attended a yoga class and can't barely keep up with standing on one leg, or let alone attempt to do a headstand pose and lift one leg up at least? Because you have the trapeze, it fixes your alignment to do the poses correctly. Because you have the trapeze, you are supported to lift that one leg up and attempt a headstand pose. Pretty neat right?

Similar to my certification on Gravity Yoga, the teaching certification I've gone through for Yoga Trapeze also involved a practice of 12 days straight that involves hours of practice of specific yoga poses you can do using the trapeze targeting strength, flexibility and balance. The days were alternating on specific targeted poses that aimed to increase one's strength, flexibility and balance.

So how do I feel at the end of the 12 days, practicing Yoga Trapeze on a regular basis?

I did gain more strength.

Day 1 is always a shock to your body, you may find it impossible to do these poses. When I first started out, I can barely lift my upper body to do a "superman" pose on the trapeze, now I do it effortlessly. I can barely lift a leg for a headstand preparation, I can barely do one push up while on a "plank" pose. I couldn't do crunches hanging upside down.

I did gain more balance.

There's this one specific move on the trapeze where you have to do a "flying crescent lunge". So imagine one leg is over the trapeze lunged forward, you are on your toes with the back leg and you are supposed to raise your hand to the sky and stay there for atleast a minute. Let's just say, I almost gave up, and at times didn't even attempt to do this pose. Surprisingly one day, I said fork it, let me just do it once, and violah! I was able to do it for atleast 5 seconds with my hands up. So I did it again, and again... and the rest is history.

I did gain more flexibility.

Splits? What splits? And now I have to do flying splits? I still cannot do a Jean Claude Van Damme split, but comparing what I can't barely do in the past and having one leg stretched forward hanging on the trapeze and the other leg firmly planted on the ground. I have to say, it's a start. And with continuous practice, who knows, maybe just one day I just might do that famous split in between two moving buses.

So what I am trying is, Yoga Trapeze may be a daunting class. But in fact it's one of the easiest to do compared to other mat-based yoga classes. Give it a go, you'll be surprised with what you can do on the trapeze through regular practice.

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