Acro-Yoga Full- Guide beginner-advance
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Owner
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Owner
Introduction to Acro yoga
It’s a form of partner yoga but a more advanced, deeper dimension of it. It brings in the playful, powerful, and technical influences of acrobatics, so there’s lots of lifting your partner, and the healing qualities of the massage. The philosophy of yoga embedded in it takes it beyond just a physical practice, it’s more than that, as we know with our regular yoga practice. (Acro-Yoga Full- Guide beginner-advance-2021)
It was started in 2003 in the States by Jenny Sauer-Klein and Jason Nemer, a dancer and a yogi
Acro yoga has become popular for obvious reasons. In addition to calming the senses and having meditative effects, the various postures enhance strength, balance, and endurance. Acro yoga has therapeutic benefits as well. Many practitioners combine acro yoga with different forms of massage and dance. It must be noted here that acro yoga is much more challenging than usual yoga or conventional acrobatics. Hence, it is not for beginners.
The three key elements of acro yoga are base, flyer, and spotter. These are also called roles. The base is an individual who is firmly laid or positioned on the ground. The individual is the foundation for the flyer who would try the acrobatic form or posture. A flyer is the individual with little or no contact with the ground but uses the foundation or the base to attain the posture. The spotter is an individual who doesn’t partake in the posture attained by the base and flyer but keeps an astute watch if the form attained is perfect.
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Benefits of Acro Yoga(Acro-Yoga Full- Guide beginner-advance-2021)
- It improves your concentration.
To work closely with your partner or partners, you must consciously focus on maintaining presence without distraction. Your partner’s safety, as well as your own, depends on your ability and willingness to read each other’s physical, verbal, and visual cues without much discussion.
Practice the following meditations to help you confidently embody your role in the posture.
Base: Plant your roots, stay strong yet flexible, and see yourself as a pillar of support, knowing you have all the abundance you need from above and below.
Flyer: Visualize yourself as light as a feather, spread your wings, and fly free, enveloped in a loving and supportive embrace.
- It encourages you to find your core.
The core muscles can often elude us during static postures when practicing individually.
However, AcroYoga utilizes your whole body in varying planes of motion and points of balance. By the sheer dynamic nature of these movements, you have no choice but to depend on one solid center of gravity—by simultaneously engaging Mula and uddiyana bandha.
No doubt, your ability to float and not feel like a “deadweight” comes from staying connected from deep within your core.
- It helps build relationships.
Finding unity within partnership promotes deep self-love, and increased empathy for others, and shared respect for one another's boundaries. Intuitive communication experienced as "knowing" leads to mutually enhancing relationships.4. It lets you confront conflict head-on.
Whenever tension arises within a relationship, we usually circumvent it and hope it will go away. Whatever we ignore tends to fester and take on a life of its own, however, leading to needlessly explosive arguments.AcroYoga shows you that through opposing forces (i.e. push vs pull) you can achieve power through counterbalance, which allows for differing opinions as well as peaceful resolution.
5. It teaches you to make quick decisions.
Proprioception, or the awareness of your body moving through space, takes practice. AcroYoga trains you to master self-control without rigidly attaching to external circumstances because anything can shift and knock you off your center.
You will fine-tune your ability to skillfully adapt to change as it arises while maintaining serenity and not losing your cool, which is what causes you to bail too quickly. You will walk that fine line between perseverance and non-attachment.
If you tend to take flight in your personal life (i.e. whimsical, impulsive, and indecisive), AcroYoga may initially appeal to your free spirit. However, the responsibility and extreme partner work here compels you to make decisions to keep yourself and your partner safe while exploring new territories together.
6.It allows you to overcome your fear of falling.
A huge part of climbing to amazing heights is making your way back down again, and AcroYoga teaches you how to defy gravity gracefully through mindful deceleration.
In addition to having the helping hand (or leg) of your partner or partners, which keeps you from panicking, you will learn that skillful landing matters just as much as a powerful liftoff, and through this process find peace amidst your fears.
- It brings you to surrender.
When was the last time you paused to receive gratitude in your life? Often, life requires us to stay on a continuum of giving, doing and providing support to others. To practice therapeutic AcroYoga, one person does not shoulder all of the responsibility all of the time.
You must allow yourself to give and receive in equal proportions. For instance, offering “leg love” to the base (a loving touch in the form of a gentle massage) makes gratitude for yourself and your partner a living and active part of the sequence.
Most AcroYoga classes do not require that you bring a partner, so feel free to just show up and see what happens next!
If you want to intensify your practice with some supported high-flying, circus-style poses, need some fresh inspiration for your yoga routines, or just crave some helpful hands-on assists, AcroYoga will not disappoint.
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Tips for beginners(Acro-Yoga Full- Guide beginner-advance-2021)
Find an Acro Yoga group (or at least a partner, since Acro Yoga is for two!). A community will motivate you, help you keep up your practice, and share the group knowledge. Besides, it’s more fun!
Build a trust relationship with your partner, get to know each other, open up, there’s no lying when practicing.
Start from the beginning, even if you are a yogi or an acrobat, be humble and go step by step.
It is a good practice to start the session with a sharing circle (if you are in a group), which promotes openness.
Start with a gentle full-body warm-up: simply explore all muscle and joints of your body and perform some easy stretching and of each part (elongate, rotate, move freely).
Switch to a more dynamic warm-up, a few sun salutations, or any other asana flow of your preference and some partner yoga.
Get started with your partner: from a standing position the flyer leans on the base placing the feet on the groin or using a handgrip.
The base receives the weight of the flyer who leaves the balance point leaning forward, trusting completely their base, who will support the flyer. The base will gently push the flyer away back to a standing position. Repeat this many times to find a good contact spot and get familiar with each other.
Begin with some basic poses (see our list below) and progress to more advanced ones only when both of you feel confident.
Pay attention to your balance, notice that sweet spot that keeps you in balance effortlessly. At the beginning it will be just a few seconds, then it will increase.
Pace yourself and take breaks.
Switching roles might help you understand positions and movements from both perspectives.
Have a spotter available for extra safety and to get some suggestions from the outside.
Be patient and kind to yourself, it takes time to get a good balance, connection with your partner, and a solid technique
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