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She said it offers several health benefits over regular yoga, including spinal decompression, release of brain fluids, detoxifying and improved stretching.

“Your body stretches like it’s never stretched before,” she said. “Gravity does all the work for you. Pregnant people can do it, children can do it. It’s easy.”

She said even people with a fear of heights shouldn’t worry, because the exercises are done about six inches off the floor.

The hammocks, which can hold up to 2,000 pounds, can be worn like climbing gear or used by someone nestled inside. Popoff said she will begin offering workshops for beginners in November and then expand classes.

The studio already offers a full schedule of pilates, Zumba, yoga, power yoga, boot camp and TRX classes from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Popoff said she wanted her studio to help get people out of the big gym mind-set and into a smaller group training experience. People can enroll per class, per month or an assortment of other options.

Studio V, which Popoff said stands for “victory over your body,” will have a public open house Oct. 12. Free classes will be held from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Drawings and other promotions will be going on throughout the day.

For more, visit Studio V Pilates and Fitness at 4345 Spyres Way, Suite 201 or call (209) 526-2664. Find the studio online at www.studiovwellness.com.

Elsewhere around the Business Beat:

The downtown Modesto boutique Bonnie J has moved, but not very far.

The shop moved four blocks down on J Street to a larger location with an expanded product line. It has gone from just carrying women’s shoes to carrying a full line of women’s clothing, shoes, handbags, jewelry and accessories.

Owner Susan Johnston said customers had been asking for more merchandise, and the larger location at 1020 J St., between Dewz and Intimo Skin Care, allows her to do that while staying downtown.

“We had outgrown our space down there and we decided it was time to move,” she said.

The shop had been in its previous location on J Street between 11th and 10th streets for four years.

Bonnie J is open noon to 5 p.m. Mondays, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. For more, call (209) 521-2700 or visit www.shopbonniej.com.

Have an item for Business Beat? Contact Marijke Rowland at The Modesto Bee, P.O. Box 5256, Modesto 95352; (209) 578-2284 or mrowland@modbee.com.

Article source: http://www.modbee.com/2011/10/05/1890092/aerial-yoga-is-coming-to-town.html

My ankles wrapped in purple silk, I dangle upside down, involuntarily swaying back and forth. Hovering inches above a green yoga mat, I smile — also involuntarily. I suspect it’s from the blood rushing to my head.

There are seven of us here at Tribe Body, a dance and exercise studio in Ramsey. The class we are taking is aerial yoga — a novelty act here in New Jersey, but an act hoping to shed that label.

The concept of aerial fitness is not exactly new. Heather Hammond, the artistic director of Helium Aerial Dance, has been working with silks in Manhattan and Brooklyn for 12 years. Crunch Fitness offers antigravity classes at its East 58th Street location in Manhattan.

“With Cirque du Soleil being so popular, people are clamoring for classes,” Hammond said. “It’s especially popular for women 20-35. I get a ton of people in that age range.”

Here on the Jersey side, Toni Chianetta — my instructor on this Thursday morning in Ramsey — teaches four adult aerial classes a week at Tribe. Each class can accommodate up to 12 people. She takes walk-ins, but prefers it when people register. These classes draw crowds.

“I think people are just trying to find new ways to make working out pleasurable,” Chianetta said. “I think everybody is pretty much sold on the health benefits of working out. But monotony sets in. People are trying to reach out and try for new and different things.”

And that is where aerial yoga enters the fray. She rattled off a list of its benefits: flexibility, agility, strength…

“A lot of things that people find hard to do on their own,” Chianetta said. “It’s not really a self-motivating thing. So you get them in this group atmosphere, and it all of a sudden makes stretching fun.”

Six silks drop from the ceiling. They look a little like fancy window dressing, a little like high-end scarves. I sit inside the cradle of one and begin pumping my legs. Chianetta adjusts the height of the silks so that they hang near waist level. And then class starts.

After opening with a traditional Dharma talk, Chianetta turns on some music. We switch back and forth, spending about a minute on the silks, then a minute on the yoga mats. Chianetta puts us in the King Dancer pose, then the Dhanurasana. She tries to structure her class so that the poses we do on the silks mirror the poses we do on the mats.

“It kind of reinforces what you’ve done,” Chianetta said. “It also works different muscles. So there are poses that when you’re in the hammock are more difficult. And then when you do the same pose on the mat, it may be easier. And vice versa.”

The silk is more forgiving, according to Chianetta. But I learn that “forgiving” is a relative term. I rely on the compassion of two classmates: Annette Adams, the 58-year-old woman on my left, and Kate Kellish, the 23-year-old woman on my right. When I get tangled — and this happens at least three times during the 55-minute class — Adams, Kellish and Chianetta take turns rushing over to help.

“The first couple of times I did it, I felt really uncoordinated, a little spazzy,” Kellish said. “When you start coming for a while and you get the hang of it, it’s a little bit more smooth. There’s a little bit more of a flow to it.”

Hammond’s classes are not limited to yoga poses. According to her website, her sessions incorporate “the physical disciplines of ballet, modern dance, aerial arts, gymnastics, yoga, traditional gym training, Pilates and spiritual practices.”

“One thing we do borrow from yoga: Yoga is really about being present in the moment,” Hammond said. “And in aerial you have to be present in the moment. If you’re thinking about what happened at work today, you’re going to fall [out of the silk].”

I do not fall, but leave the studio feeling the same way Kellish felt her first time attempting this. Really uncoordinated. A little spazzy.

E-mail: kerwick@northjersey.com

Article source: http://www.northjersey.com/news/131121268_Aerial_yoga_enthusiasts_find_new_home_in_Ramsey.html

Yoga – Google News wrote an interesting post today on
Here’s a quick excerpt

Metro

The latest is, yoga in cocoonsTimes of IndiaJust when we thought yoga exercise couldn't get any more bizarre (remember hot yoga, naked yoga and floating yoga?), they went ahead and introduced the upside down yoga. Upside down yoga, or officially AntiGravity yoga, is the latest fitness craze from …Upside-Down Yoga Isn't as Weird as It Looks (VIDEO)The StirUpside-down yoga coming to UK after its huge success in AmericaMetroall 11 news articles »

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Yoga – Yahoo! News Search Results wrote an interesting post today on
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Aerial acrobatics and the attainment of spiritual tranquility may seem unlikely bedfellows [...]

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New Kerala wrote an interesting post today on
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Aerial acrobatics and the attainment of spiritual tranquility may seem unlikely bedfellows. Yet the two disciplines have been combined to create the latest craze sweeping fitness studios across America – upside down yoga. AntiGravity Yoga, the brainchild …

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