Are you looking to experience something new? To spend time outside, feel like a kid again, or overcome your fear of water?
SUP yoga is a playful sport that requires no prior experience or particular strength, skill or flexibility. A sport for everyone that is fun 100% of the time, it’s a combination of two sports: yoga and stand-up paddleboarding, which consists of navigating upright on a surfboard with a paddle. The level of difficulty varies with the type of yoga you practice and the complexity of the positions you attempt.
Practicing yoga outdoors and on the water makes the experience much more relaxing than in a traditional classroom setting. You won’t take yourself too seriously: you’ll fall into the water, make each other laugh and have loads of fun. As the classes take place outside, you’ll breathe more easily, leave the real world behind and live fully in the moment. Finishing the class lying on your back in the Shavasana position with both hands in the water is particularly therapeutic!
SUP yoga is a full-body workout that targets each of your muscles with deep-burn exercises while engaging your stabilizers. Participants can practice at their desired level of intensity, depending on whether they want to make the experience relaxing—or very intense!
SUP yoga is a fun way to introduce beginners to yoga, to test your balance and to learn to do classic yoga poses in proper alignment right from the start. Your board sends very clear signals—like tumbling you into the water—if you do not execute your poses correctly.
SUP yoga can help experienced yogis bring their practice to another level, push their limits, improve their poses and teach them to execute their flow in a less stable environment. It’s an awesome challenge.
You don’t need any particular experience or special preparation to attend an SUP yoga class. All you need is to want to try something new and to throw yourself into it with enthusiasm!
Don’t let your lack of flexibility or strength or your fear of water stop you. In fact, SUP yoga can help you improve all this. If you’ve never tried it before, simply opt for a beginner’s class!
Marie-Claude tried SUP yoga at the Yoga Beach Club in Pointe-Calumet, near Oka, with Patricia Leduc. A number of other businesses offer classes, and you can go on SUP yoga retreats throughout the province.
Here is a list of places where you can easily be initiated:
You can practice SUP yoga in a bathing suit or quick-drying sportswear (avoid cotton). SUP yoga teachers usually recommend sportswear so as to avoid constantly realigning bathing suits during practice, but the decision is up to you. On cooler days, you can also rent a wet suit.
Products wore by Marie-Claude Perron may have become unavailable.
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