Right off the bat, the best piece of advice that I can give you is not to have lunch right before you hang yourself upside down from a silk rope.

Aerial yoga is the most original workout in the city. Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan, but you don’t need to be a trapeze artist or celeb to master this form of yoga. The aerial silks actually make some poses easier than traditional floor yoga.

The silk rests (or digs) into your hips at first, but it’s like a new pair of shoes — eventually, your body relaxes and gets used to it. The instructor and studio co-owner, Marlene Sammy, makes climbing up the silks and taking the postures look easy, but it is a bit confusing at first. Luckily, today’s class is filled with newbies like me, and Sammy is a very good teacher.

Sammy’s background is in dance. She travelled and worked abroad for some time before deciding to teach yoga, eventually discovering this aerial form. 

“I love the dynamism and play of this practice. It’s fun, new, exhilarating, a little scary and deeply relaxing all at the same time,” says Sammy. “I also appreciate the almost primal movements of pulling, climbing and hanging that I just can’t access through my mat practice.”

It’s much like a regular yoga class, some stretching at first and light core work, then downward dog (often the first inversion), more challenging postures and inversions in the middle, and finally savasana (relaxation). 

The difference is that you’re doing almost all of these in the air. Savasana, or cocoon, was especially funny because you feel like Dracula suspended in the air in a death pose.

The hardest part is trusting that the silk rope will hold you.

Looking around I didn’t see any one else who was six-feet-two- inches tall or heavier than a buck 20. This was my biggest concern as it would be most embarrassing for me to land splat on the floor. But the rope held me up, and it was the most fun I’ve had working out in a long time even though I was a little apprehensive due to a recent back injury. 

I was afraid to try anything at first, but then realized the yoga was helping my back immensely. 

The inversion aspect of the postures relaxes and elongates the spine. The practice is designed this way, to relax and realign the body, help circulation, centre the mind and uplift the spirit.

Sammy says that hanging upside down decompresses and lengthens the spine, increases circulation (and therefore oxygen and nutrients) to our tissues and organs, and encourages movement of the lymph system, which has detoxifying effects.

“Using the silk, we can take the shapes we find in yoga to new heights and access deeper supported stretches and joint openings,” says Sammy.  

In the end, my back felt amazing, my lunch stayed down and all of my chakras were aligned.