I love the water– I love the feeling of floating and being free and light. Being in the water allows me to both escape my body and come in very fine balance with it at the same time. For that reason, pool yoga provides me a way to play with buoyancy and balance in a way that a land-based mat yoga class does not.
Let’s dive right in and think about it.
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Land Yoga vs. Pool Yoga
When on land, balancing postures are some of the most physically challenging parts of yoga. They require a strong muscular foundation, which may make them inaccessible for people from the outset.
Furthermore, balancing postures require that we must feel confident that we aren’t going to fall.
Scary! I am so worried about falling that I can’t keep my hips stacked or raise my leg to full extension.
We must trust that we have the strength in our legs to hold our weight. If we’re worried that we’re not strong enough, the pose collapses before it’s ever even established. The brain wants to protect the body!
Once we have the confidence in our muscular strength, the posture becomes a possibility.
If we’re really good, we even try to concentrate of getting the alignment of the body correct so we can breathe deeply and experience the full expression of the asana. But let’s be honest– most of us are working so hard just to hold the pose in whatever way we can that we are cutting short the experience we’re trying to achieve.
This Dancer looks pretty graceful, but I cannot hold this alignment for very long…and I’m certainly concentrating more on the physical work of the pose than the breath moving through me.
Pool Yoga means Buoyancy is Your Friend
When doing pool yoga, the water helps to alleviate much of the risk of balancing postures.
First of all, who cares if you fall? Rather than risking an injury, you just get wet!
With a little support from a noodle, I can feel confident in this more complete expression of Half Moon.
Not only does the soft landing in water eliminate the fear of falling, but the water itself carries about 75% of your bodyweight when you are standing in chest-deep water. This is the beauty of buoyancy!
Bouyancy means there is less weight loading on your joints when you practice pool yoga. With less joint compression, you feel greater ease and can focus on the correct alignment of each body part.
And when you have greater ease and correct alignment, you’ll also find that you have the ability to hold postures for much longer than on land.
All of this together means that when doing pool yoga you can hold a well-aligned pose long enough that you can breathe deeply and enjoy the full expression of the posture. Without all of the gripping in the muscles due to lack of confidence and/or physical stamina, the ease of breath while in water flows freely.
Pool Yoga is an inclusive experience
Experimenting with balancing postures in the water is available to a wide population, especially to those people who lack the strength or confidence to try them on land.
Whether you are obese with joint pain or pregnant and have a fear of falling, practicing pool yoga balancing postures is fantastic for their strength-building potential. This is an inclusive, easily modifiable pool workout.
An aqua yogi at eight-months pregnant, able to find Full Moon with the support of the water.
So, is pool yoga easy?
Now, don’t go thinking this means that balancing postures in the pool is easy! Like any pool workout, the play of buoyancy and balance adds a new layer of challenge.
Because you are buoyant and gravity isn’t doing its thing to keep you on the floor of the pool, you are forced to concentrate on the rooting down in the base leg of the posture. By bringing your focus to your foot, you can begin to think of how the posture is stabilized, then trace the alignment of the body up from that base.
Again, because you are not working so hard just. to.get.in.the.pose. you can turn your attention to alignment and breath. This deeper level of inner focus that can be achieved in pool yoga will translate to a mat practice, too.
Three first-time aqua yogis playing with breath, buoyancy and balance in Graceful Dancer.
Grab some noodles and dive on in. Pool Yoga can help you find your balance, both mentally and physically. And you can even be a Goddess in the pool, too.
Wish you could do pool yoga (and feel like you’re being guided and supported)?
If you haven’t had the chance to practice aqua yoga with me, or don’t have a teacher near you, Christa Fairbrother, a fellow Aqua Yoga Specialist, and ER-RYT200/RYT500 has created the internet’s first online course for aqua yoga.
Students have described it as: “The best four weeks! This course is thoughtfully designed, and provides all the materials needed to begin a practice of aqua yoga. There is something for everyone whether you are a student or a teacher. Love, love, love what Christa has put together and can’t wait for more courses!” – E. Sampson
The course is designed as a starter course and offers you tons of support and resources. Long distance health coaching has been shown to be as effective as in person work, so the twice weekly Facebook live sessions, exclusive Facebook group, weekly emails, and the course discussion board give you lots of opportunities for connection and transformation.
Give the intro to aqua yoga course a try, and take your yoga into the pool with confidence!
Karen Shopoff Rooff is an ACE certified health coach and personal trainer. She also holds Aqua Yoga Level I & II instructor certifications. The Well Balanced Women blog is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please discuss your health issues with a licensed medical practitioner.
