Take Your Yoga Practice To The Board

Want to up the ante with your yoga practice? Take your yoga to the board, to the water, to the SUP. Traveling to Greece and Malta not only blessed me with the opportunity to see the gorgeous countries, but also push my yoga practice to the next level by practicing on the stand up paddle board. In Greece I had the opportunity to help out at Sporades SUP where I really test out my yoga skills and balance. In Malta I visited a yogi friend who is an instructor at SUP Yoga & Fitness Malta. She and I challenged our skills with some partner yoga on the board.

Taking your yoga practice to the board deepens your practice of the basics, makes you face a new challenge, it is one hell of a work out, introduces you to a new connection with nature, and all in all is empowering and fun.

Deepens the Basics

SUP yoga brings you back to the basics and gives you a new appreciation for the simple asanas. If yoga has been a love of your life as long as it has been for me you got the basics down pat. You practice the postures but you simply flow through them instead of taking the time to concentrate on each. Like me, your concentration and effort is geared more towards that challenging pose or flow that will impress the masses and brings the “wow” factor. There is nothing wrong with that, but we should never neglect our foundation. Bringing our practice off our mat and onto the board forces us to concentrate on breath, weight distribution, posture, and body positioning of each pose.  SUP make the basics a challenge once again.

Challenge

I have been practicing yoga for about eight years now on my mat but SUP yoga made the most basic pose a challenge. On the board on the move and groove of the living ocean, forces you to really concentrate on the level one asana. If you are unevenly distributing your weight or putting extra pressure in one area in the slightest bit the board will make it known. Not only is there a challenge to hold the pose but the slight fear that if you don’t hold your will fall. Though the fall will just be in the refreshing water it is still a fall to the brain.

A Hell of a Workout

With the board dancing to the waves beneath you, you really have to stress every muscle in your body to hold the pose. Through my years of practice and now teaching I have noticed that many students don’t understand that with the practice of yoga your entire body is working with each posture. SUP forces the body to use every muscle (including the heart and mind) through each flow of asanas without your brain even realizing it. Then once stepping off the board you feel the tired energy rushing through your body, almost like you just walked out of the gym.

New Connection with Nature

I have always had a deep personal relationship with the ocean, but when I took my practice to the board I could feel that connection blossom. Yoga has always been known to bring a yogi in tune with nature. Yoga on the mat can make you feel connected to the earth, wind, and ether, but SUP bridges the gap to truly embrace water. The board bobs with the ocean becoming one with the water and in turn you become one with the water. You feel and embrace every up and down every push and pull as the water guides you through your yoga practice. (Next we just need to figure out how to become one with fire without burning ourselves.)

Empowering and Fun

Flat out, SUP yoga is a lot of fun. Being out on the water, facing an semi-unknown challenge, and seeing that you are capable of it is fun. I know for me anything that has to do with being out on the water brings a smile to my face and unless you are terrified of the ocean it will so the same for you. SUP is something fairly new and different to try that isn’t too drastically challenging, anyone can do it. Then when the lesson is over and you make your way back to solid ground you have a rush of empowerment leak through your body and soul. You have just accomplished something that many people never dreamed they would be able to do. You feel your muscles being energized and your mind relaxed. It is a feeling you are going to crave from that moment on.