10 Minute Aerial Yoga Flow

This Aerial Yoga tutorial will stretch and wake up all the muscles in your body. Visit https://upliftactive.com to get your own aerial yoga hammock and stand to stretch the hips, hamstrings, shoulders, and back.

Quick and easy ten-minute flow to help start your day!

Start off with a simple forward fold. Start with the fabric in front of you at your pelvic touch point and hinge forward at the waist. The fabric should be at the point where your legs

meet your upper body. Take a few deep breaths and walk from here into a downward facing dog position. Slowly walk your hands forward and your feet backward. Depending on the height of your hammock your feet might be coming off the ground slightly and that's okay.

Move into a floating dog, one leg at a time lift your foot from the floor into the air behind you. If you feel like you're sliding or if you want to open up your hips, bring your legs into a straddle and make sure that you're actively pushing away from the mat with your hands. You should feel that great stretch across your shoulders and your upper back.

From here, move into a different variation of inverted buddha konasana or butterfly pose by bringing the soles of your feet together.  A great inversion you can do in the morning is called a cannonball pose. You can release your legs and bring them into a folded position. Then one arm at a time you can release yourself from the ground so that you're floating from your hammock. This is a really safe and gentle inversion.

When you're ready you can walk your hands back and bring your feet down into your downward dog. Hang out there and in your forward fold for just a few moments before coming up to make sure that your body is used to standing upright again. Walk yourself back into your downward or your forward fold and take a few breaths here.

When you're ready, slowly bring yourself up into a standing position. Roll your shoulders back and take a deep breath to release. You can do some variations to stretch out your hips and your hamstrings. Behind your fabric fan it out and gather about four to five handfuls of the hammock. Put your right foot into the fabric entirely, the fabric should stretch out all the way up to your leg to your mid-thigh. Make sure that you are centered, underneath the center line so that's where your hammock is ripped from. This is to make sure you don't get pulled one direction or the other.

From there you can bring your leg inwards and outwards to loosen up that right hip. If you're not centered you might feel yourself getting pulled forward or backward. If you feel unstable try taking a couple of hops forward. Move into an extension in order to stretch out your groin. Put the weight into that right leg that is being supported by the fabric. Put your left hand onto your thigh to stabilize yourself. If you want to challenge you can let go with that left hand. Challenge your balance, you're gonna feel this across your groin region. 

Then we're gonna stretch in the other direction. Take the fabrics off of your extended foot so that you'll have that fabric bunched on the back of your thigh. Then lean forward following the weight into your right leg that's being supported by the hammock.

Now that your foot is fully on the ground you can also feel a nice cat stretch on your left side. Move into a hamstring stretch and then a monkey pose. Bring the fabric all the way up to your leg, this is very important. It is all the way up onto your glute and then you can reach forward and for that foot that's inside your fabric. Try to bend with a straight back to get a little bit of a backstretch as well as a hamstring stretch. Just reach as far as you can.

Be in the center of, make sure that fabric is on your butt and you can bend your right leg that, so it should be parallel to your hips. See that you have the two sides of your fabric. Bring your upper body through the middle of the two sides of your hammock. With your right arm, you can reach up and grab the hammock and if you feel secure you can lift up with your left leg and pull it behind you into a quad stretch. If you want to have some fun, you can give yourself a little push.

For another variation, you can bring that left leg on top of your right. This is a great way to open up your hips. If you're ready bring your left leg down slowly, stabilize yourself. Bring your body out from inside the fabric. Straighten your right leg and then you can bend your leg and pull the fabric off of your upper leg. Pull it off of your foot gently, make sure you can grab on to the hammock to help stabilize yourself.

Now, do the same thing on the other side. Span out your fabric, wrap a few handfuls of it and then put your left leg into the hammock. Start off by opening that hip, bring that fabric forward and to the side. Make sure you're centered. Bring the fabric, the hammock to the side.

If you're ready, pour the weight into that left leg to stretch out your groin. Remember to breathe and remember to make sure that you are centered here. If you feel yourself being pulled, extend your right arm so you feel the challenge of meeting the balance. After a few breaths here, bring your leg forward and then pull the fabric back behind your thigh into that groin. Stretch so you can pour the weight into your left leg leaning forward keeping your right foot on the ground. You feel that calf stretch as well as the groin stretch.

Move into our hamstring stretch and our monkey post. Extend the fabric all the way across your leg, make sure your foot is in the fabric and make sure that fabric is all the way up to the middle of your glute. Reach upwards and bend forward at the waist. Keep your back straight if you want to elongate the spine as well as get that hamstring stretch.

When you're ready, you can stand up and bend your left leg so that your calf is parallel to your hips again. Make sure that fabric is up on your glute, that'll make sure that you're supported if you choose to let go off the ground. Pull yourself forward in front of the two sides of the fabric make sure that your shoulders aren't bunched up. If you need to do a shoulder roll backward go ahead and do that.

You can let go with your right leg and you can grab it with your right arm behind you. For that quad stretch, you may want to give yourself a little push. Bring your right leg on top of your left bent leg. Just take a few breaths here and enjoy the gentle movement.

When you're ready to come down just bring that right foot down and slowly bring yourself out of the fabric. Straighten your left leg, pull the fabric off of your leg and bring yourself into a standing position. For our final stretch let's just do one quick shoulder stretch. Grab the fabric with both hands and forward from your waist so that your body is in an L position. Then you can sway from side to side. When you're finished roll yourself up one vertebra at a time. Roll your shoulders and take a deep breath.

Namaste! Thank you for watching. I hope you feel refreshed and ready to start your day!