I’ve been feeling pretty bored with my exercise routine lately. Fitness wise my life is physio, aquafit, Zwift, TRX, dog walks and personal training. Did I mention physio? I’ve been itching to try something new.
Next door to the personal training room at Movati is a group fitness studio and sometimes I see people doing these beautiful looking movements in purple silk hammocks hanging from the ceiling. I checked the schedule and the classes are antigravity classes.
And there was one last night. I decided at the last minute to go. Often the Movati classes are full at the last minute but this one had some open spots. Fate!
They have a few variations. The one I tried was called Antigravity Fitness.
The instructor was great. It’s not about perfection, it’s about fun, she began by saying. But safety before before fun. No jewelry is allowed and it’s done in bare feet.
She told us that the hammocks hold up to 1000 lbs. No one need be nervous about their weight as an obstacle. Phew.
There was a lot of laughing as people got in and out of the hammocks and in the right position. I liked that.
I loved that I could do a lot of lower body movements with some of the weight off my joints because I was hanging from the ceiling. Like aquayoga it allowed me to practice some yoga moves without putting too much pressure on my new knees.
I especially loved swinging in a variety of positions. There were lots of smiles. I think we all felt like little kids.
In some ways it played to my strengths. I have good upper body strength and like moving myself around in the hospital bed (odd comparison, I know!) I can easily move around in the hammock.
Other people were taking selfies but I couldn’t imagine risking my expensive university property phone doing that. I had visions of it crashing to the ground. Besides I felt like I needed all my attention on the moves. Maybe later?
I couldn’t do the full inversions. First, I was ruled out by one of the exclusion criteria. I’d had surgery in the last year and didn’t have surgeon’s permission to hang around upside down. But also, even with permission, I get the sense it’s going to take me awhile.
I couldn’t do this! And don’t be mislead by everyone in the class in the photo doing this pose. In my class, it was more like 50-50, could and couldn’t, do the full pose.
I liked that a lot of the poses had easier and more difficult options. I liked Vampire Pose at about 3 minutes in, in the video below.
I felt like I ought to be able to do the fancy inversions because we were just inches off the ground. A friend who does very advanced circus techniques reminded me though that “the secret is that fancy inversions are just as difficult inches off the ground as they are meters above the floor :-)” Thanks Renee!
My favorite was the end of the class, cocoon pose, with lights dimmed and gentle music.