(credit: Lilledeshan Bose)

(credit: Lilledeshan Bose)

For a sport that only began in 2005, stand-up paddleboard (SUP for short) is experiencing a huge boom these days. And its offshoot, paddleboard yoga, is one of the more popular movements the fitness practice has experienced.

Erin Nealy, owner of Sunset Stand Up Paddle in Mission Viejo, first got involved in SUP yoga four years ago. Already a yoga instructor, she became an ambassador for yoga clothing company Lululemon in Irvine and thought doing yoga poses on her dads newly acquired paddleboard would look really cool. She got hooked, and after connecting with industry pioneers at BOGA yoga, Nealy got certified as a SUP yoga instructor one of the first in the burgeoning sport.

(credit: Lilledeshan Bose)

During a class, students get on a paddleboard, paddle to the middle of a lake (where Sunset Stand Up Paddle holds classes) or a cove in the ocean (as in Bliss Paddle Yogas case), anchor the boards down, and start practicing yoga.

Most SUP yoga classes incorporate basic poses, such as downward dog and warrior two, for example, because balancing on a paddleboard while holding a pose is usually enough of a challenge. Learning how to hold your balance in basic poses is usually a challenge even for longtime yoga practitioners.

Most beginner classes teach students how to paddle proficiently before bringing them out into deeper water as well; for many, the hour-and-a-half class is a perfect fusion of the sport of paddleboarding and the mind-body connection of yoga.

(credit: Lilledeshan Bose)

SUP yoga improves on in-studio yoga practice because it gives you more of an awareness of your body and what actions need to take place to build a solid pose, Nealy says. Taking people on the water for their first time is incredible, she adds. [Regular students] always come of the water with a big smile and what feels like a lightness in their heart, theres nothing better. (Im living proof of that: The day I had my first paddleboard yoga class, I spent the whole day grinning so hard my face hurt by the afternoon.)

See the original post here:
Guide To Paddleboard Yoga In OC