05 Jun Aqua Firma Class
Adhittana means strong determination. I first encountered this word in 2009 when I did my first Vipassana Meditation. We held our sitting posture without moving any part of the body for an hour (total of 10 hours a day for 10 days = 100 hours) enduring the increasing discomfort while keeping the mind equanimous. I saw how I can incorporate this in Aquanimous Yoga.
In 2017, I developed Aqua Firma. It is an indoor practice that simulates SUP Yoga on land. Using my background in Sports Science, Yoga, Meditation, Pilates and Sports Conditioning, I created this class to complement our gentle yoga practice on the SUP.
First, because the Aqua Firma boards are more “stable” than the SUPs, it’s a more forgiving platform for developing balance. This means practitioners who are still hesitant to do SUP Yoga can develop their confidence on land first before trying it out on the water.
Second, because the boards are more forgiving balance-wise, I am able to make the program more intense. The practice is more dynamic and powerful. We work the body through mindful, repetitive movements and by holding postures up to the point of muscular fatigue. By doing these, we tone and lengthen the muscles, we burn fats and we build stamina, strength and stability.
The real challenge, however, is not only in working the body up to the point of fatigue – that’s a given. It’s about training the mind to be #equanimous even in severe discomfort. The habit pattern of the mind is to react blindly and automatically to discomfort with aversion, which only increases our suffering. So we are passing through this challenge with Adhittana in order to learn how to be equanimous – as a training to deal with the painful, difficult situations in life where we cannot do anything but face them with grace and gumption.
Aside from these, Aqua Firma has many other deeper benefits:
INCREASES MENTAL RESOLVE – it is a proven fact that when the mind gives up, the body follows. A strong mind supports the body in all its undertaking
BETTER FOUNDATION – allows longer time for the body to fully adjust itself into the pose
EQUANIMITY – we develop the habit of non-reactivity. This maintains our awareness to think about our exercisable options in times of crisis instead of going into auto-pilot with our reflex actions (blind reaction)
HEALING – because we give big emphasis on the breath, this practice activates the parasympathetic nervous system, allowing our body to relax itself when it’s not really a ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ situation, enabling the body to recover and heal itself.
PHYSICAL BENEFITS:
COORDINATION – Aquanimous Yoga & Aqua Firma promotes improved coordination and reflex responses. This will help your body to react to sudden changes in direction, improve agility and reduce the risk of accidental falls. Coordination should be an automatic reflexive response; with our classes you can improve your coordination and lower your reaction time.
STRENGTH – Balance/Stability training is challenging for your central nervous system. Doing Aquanimous Yoga and Aqua Firma to ignite your central nervous system (CNS) is the key to maximizing your performance. Our classes will allow your CNS to recruit and engage more muscle fibers compared to doing the same yoga poses on the mat. This will train your body to move with maximal velocity and force. This effect is known as post activation potentiation (PAP), which is the increase in muscle force and rate of force development as a result of the previous activation of the muscle.
BODY AWARENESS – Body awareness is the sense of how your own limbs are oriented and moving in space (also referred to as Proprioception). Aquanimous Yoga and Aqua Firma promotes increased body awareness, which makes movement more seamless, with less likelihood of injury.
JOINT STABILITY & MOBILITY – Aquanimous Yoga and Aqua Firma promotes stable ankles, knees, hips, spine, shoulders, and arms. Strengthening these joints will help to prevent numerous injuries such as rolled ankles or knee problems. You can also find benefit from increased range of motion in your joints.
REACTION TIME – If you slip or stumble when carrying out challenging balance exercises your body needs to stabilize itself immediately or you will fall. Aquanimous Yoga and Aqua Firma can improve your reaction time as you learn to quickly correct a mistake, but not over-correct.
FUN & CHALLENGE –Incorporating Aquanimous Yoga and Aqua Firma into your fitness routine adds a challenging and fun dimension to daily exercise. It is incredibly motivating when you notice improvements in the rest of your fitness regime as a result of adding balance training.
LONG TERM HEALTH – Incorporating Aquanimous Yoga and Aqua Firma into your routine helps to maintain and improve balance, which is needed to prevent falls and fractures. Good balance is extremely important as we grow older; it’s a skill that everyone will benefit from, young or old. One of the best parts of our pracrices is that it is never too late to start – all ages will see benefits from adding Aquanimous Yoga and Aqua Firma into their routine.
WEIGHT LOSS – Aquanimous Yoga and Aqua Firma dramatically increases weight loss over standard exercises. When you are training on an unstable platform your body will be forced to engage many more muscles than when doing the same exercises on the mat. Our practices not only strengthens your core and large muscle groups, it also engages the muscles used to stabilize your body. When these muscles are challenged, they will begin to create new muscle mass, which will increase your metabolism and you will have a long-lasting, meaningful weight loss.
Join us every Monday from 6pm-7pm (GMT+8) via Zoom for this class. DM us for more details.
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