Some people are naturally flexible, easily able to touch their toes (with legs straight) or do those cool backbends that scream “Look at me! I’m young and supple!” Not me. Sitting cross-legged is a, um, stretch for me. My usual state of being is tense and knotted up. Although I exercise regularly and enjoy doing things like long day hikes or bike rides, I am not good at stretching my poor muscles. However, I am very open to doing yoga/stretching and thought that if I could find a Groupon special or some other deal for yoga, then maybe I could use that to start incorporating more stretching in my life. So, I went online and found a local yoga studio that is currently offering 30 days of yoga for $30.

My first class was this past Monday and I chose to try an aerial yoga class. First, let me say that this blog post will not have any pictures of me and YOU ALL SHOULD BE VERY GRATEFUL.

OK, what is aerial yoga? Essentially, it’s a yoga class conducted in hammocks. The instructor leads you through the same yoga poses as a mat class (i.e. yoga done on a mat), except that you’re in a hammock. Practitioners claim that some benefits of aerial yoga include greater range of mobility (because you can hang onto the sides of the hammock, which enables you to stretch further) and a better ab/core workout (because you have to use those muscles more to balance yourself). The online pictures of aerial yoga do look really cool, somewhat similar to what you see in any Cirque du Soleil show. For example:

My conclusions? Aerial yoga is not for me. When my aerial yoga class started, the first thing we were told to do is to get into the hammock. That took me several minutes. After I maneuvered my old, stiff body into that swinging piece of suspended nylon, I immediately started feeling dizzy and nauseous. My next thought: “This is going to be a LONG 60 minutes.” (Note: I was correct.)

The instructor was encouraging and helped me in and out of the hammock several times, probably feeling sorry for the girl whose limbs kept getting in her way. She said that “most people need 3-4 sessions to get the hang of getting in and out.” As for the dizziness? She was sympathetic and said that the more I practiced aerial yoga, the less I’d experience dizziness. Hmm. How about I don’t do aerial yoga again and not feel dizzy (because of it) again?

More fun poses followed the actual getting into the hammock, like tree pose (standing on one leg with the other leg leaning against the standing leg), butterfly (sitting position with the feet touching and knees bent out), and my personal favourite, the “floss,” which required you to straddle the hammock, grip both ends of the hammock in one hand and pull up while sticking one foot in front into the hammock. (Use your imagination to picture the “floss” part of the pose. Aren’t you glad I don’t have pictures for this blog?)

Strangely enough, my least favorite part of the class was the last 10 minutes, which was in corpse pose, a.k.a. the easiest pose. All we had to do was lie on our back in the hammock. We were told to relax and to breathe. All I remember thinking is “why is my hammock still moving??” and “please please don’t throw up.” The dizziness lasted well into the next day!

Am I glad I tried aerial yoga? Yes. Will I try it again? No (read above blog post). However, I’m all for the “conventional mat” yoga and I already feel the benefits of doing that this past week. Hooray for trying new things. 🙂

Yesterday was Backpacker magazine’s 2nd annual “National Summit Day.” Last year, my friend Crystal and I hiked Arizona’s Humphrey’s Peak on what was the 1st annual National Summit Day. It was a beautiful day and despite no training, we made it to the top. I didn’t know we peaked AZ’s highest point on such an auspicious day, but it was a happy surprise.

This year, I thought it would be fun to hike Humphrey’s again on National Summit Day (hmm, perhaps an annual tradition?), so I got a few friends to join me. Humphrey’s is just outside of Flagstaff, which is generally about 30 degrees cooler than Phoenix due to its higher elevation. Here in Phoenix, the highs right now are averaging 110F/42C. My friends were more than happy to join me and escape the heat.

We left Phoenix at 5:30am and arrived at the trailhead by about 8:25am, hitting the trail a few minutes later. The park rangers warned us to get off the summit by 11am because of impending thunderstorms. We decided to play it by ear and turn around if necessary.

It was a refreshing, cool day with loads of wildflowers in the meadow and tons of lovely tree coverage. When we got to the saddle, 2 gals decided to turn around, while Jodey and I decided to press on to the top and risk the storm.

However, my legs decided that they didn’t want to face the storm and cramped up about 25 minutes from the summit. The cramp in my right leg was so bad that I literally fell to my knees. I may have uttered a bad word or two….in any case, I thought that was my cue to turn around because I had to get back down to the car! I told Jodey to go ahead and “get to the top for all of us.” She did! I waited for her back at the saddle and after a little lunch break, we made our way down in pretty good time (my legs didn’t cramp up again). We did get caught in some pretty heavy rain and hail and heard a lot of thunder. (We later learned that the temperature at the top was 58F/14C and the high in Phoenix was 110F….that’s more than a 50 degree difference!) Each time I heard thunder, that made me pick up the pace a little bit more.

We made it back to the car around 3:15pm and after changing our shirts and shoes, drove back to Flagstaff for some really great burgers and fries. Seriously folks, the food is probably the best part of any big outdoor adventure! Wishing you all happy adventures!

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