November 9, 2015 - With the opening of the new Charles C. Matthews Foundation Student Center, Panola College now offers classes in aerial yoga. A dedicated yoga room in the new Fitness Center includes the suspended fabric hammocks used in this newest form of yoga.
Imagine floating weightless in space. That’s the sensation people describe when they have mastered aerial yoga, according to Dr. Barbara Cordell, Dean of Health Sciences and Chair of the Associate Degree Nursing program.
Cordell and Amanda Bickham are aerial yoga instructors. Beginning in the spring 2016 semester, the classes will be offered Mondays and Wednesdays from 4 to 5:15 p.m., and on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. Bickham is an LVN instructor at Panola in addition to teaching the yoga class.
Aerial yoga combines traditional yoga poses with aerial moves suspended in soft fabric hammocks. In her book, The Aerial Yoga Manual, author and yoga expert Rebekah Leachsays this form of yoga has been practiced for about 10 years. She says aerial yoga can improve upper body strength, allow for deeper stretches, develop a stronger core, improve balance, and reinforce proper body alignment.
She says, however, that hanging upside down in the hammock may not be advisable for people with certain medical conditions including glaucoma and high blood pressure. Students interested in taking the class must consult with the instructors before beginning this fitness program.
Aerial yoga includes four main categories of movement: grounded, when some part of the body is touching the floor with other parts of the body suspended by the fabric hammock; flying, when feet are off the floor; inverted, when the person is hanging upside down; and floating or hammock poses, when the fabric is completely spread out.
Aerial yoga includes not only the warrior and downward dog poses from traditional yoga, but other interesting names including cat cow, hip hang, flying big toe-grab, flying tree, flying chair, flying coffin, inverted frog, inverted crocheted legs, inverted pigeon, flying happy baby, flying diaper wrap, flying swordfish and manta ray, waterfall, and floating corpse. (If “floating corpse” sounds a bit morbid, think back to swimming lessons with the “dead man float.”)
Cordell and Bickham are both certified yoga instructors, who have been trained in aerial yoga, as well. Terrie King, who teaches in the Occupational Therapy Assistant program at Panola College has earned a pediatric therapeutic certification in aerial yoga. Additional hammocks are in use in the OTA lab to teach students how to use the hammocks in working with children who are going through occupational therapy.
Cordell said she has practiced yoga for 30 years, and has taught traditional yoga at Panola since she joined the faculty. “Yoga is a form of exercise that involves body, mind and spirit. Yoga is a more gentle exercise than aerobics, and aerial yoga provides additional physical support for people as they work through the stretches and poses,” she said. Cordell noted that although yoga originated in the East, the yoga classes at Panola College tap into the body, mind and spirit through breathing, stretching, soothing music, and quiet contemplation through meditation or prayer
While aerial yoga provides a novel way to improve flexibility and strength, the Panola College Fitness Center offers traditional yoga and a wide range of other exercise classes that are available to the public, either for academic credit or as co-enrollment for non-credit participation. The complete list is included in the course schedule under Kinesiology, available on the Panola College website homepage under Popular Destinations.
