At Om Factory Yoga, my favorite antigravity yoga studio in the city

When things get crazy and hectic, one of my favorite ways to unwind and recenter myself is through yoga. While I thoroughly enjoy my usual yoga classes, I like to mix things up every now and then with an anti-gravity yoga session.

What it is: Anti-gravity yoga (also called aerial yoga) is a fitness technique that draws influence from yoga and aerial dance. The yoga hammock (shown above) serves as the tool to teach students how to align their bodies by applying a variety of yoga postures, including inversions, without any compression on the spine. A very good friend of mine introduced me to anti-gravity yoga half a year ago and since then, I've been hooked!

What I love: Anti-gravity yoga is a great way to realign your back and get a deep stretch in your muscles. It's not a high-intensity workout. Rather, it's a calm and soothing exercise, one that I do to balance out my other cardio-heavy workouts. I always come out feeling refreshed, especially after doing inversions (as shown below). What's great is that  you don't need any experience in yoga, acrobatics, or aerial dance to reap the benefits of this class. Anyone can do it!

What I don't love: There's that initial moment of uncertainty and fear that you have to let go off when you do inversions and other balancing postures for the first time. But it's a right of passage - once you successfully do them, there's no turning back. Trust the hammock to support you, and you will be fine!

Here's a picture of me doing an inversion (one of my favorite poses) from just this afternoon...The perfect way to start a Sunday and end the week!