Pose Tutorial: High Trapeze Seat and Supported Shoulder Stand

Hello Aerial Yogis!

This beginner HIGH SWING Aerial Yoga tutorial covers two basic ways to get into trapeze seat a gentle shoulder stand from a high swing. These are great poses for learning the aerial basics and a gentle way for an inversion. Visit upliftactive.com for more videos and for your aerial yoga needs.

To start off, go over the most basic way to get into your trapeze seat. Stand with your back to your hammock and grip the fabric behind you with an overhand grip on either side of your waist. You should be able to climb on your tiptoes and lean back into a gentle seat so that the fabric is coming across the backs of your gluts.

From here you can rest, you can enjoy the nice massage on your hips and move into a lot of poses. However, if this was difficult for you or if the fabric was too high that you couldn't very easily get into the hammock without jumping, the second option is highly recommended. Stand behind your fabric, grab the hammock so that you have about a foot of space and then place the bottom of your foot on top of the fabric and reach up with your arms so that you can easily pull yourself into a standing or scorning position.

Pull up with your arms and bring your other foot to meet your dominant leg and lower yourself into a squat. From here it should be very easy for you to let go one foot at a time to bring the hammock around the bottom into your trapeze seat.

Now, this is a great pose, either just to sit and enjoy the gentle massage on your hips or go into a variation of supported shoulder stand. Start by leaning backward and allowing the fabric to come up your legs into the bottom of your knees.

You can rest here for a moment and enjoy the nice little massage on your knees and when you're ready, walk your hands one at a time down to the bottom of the hammock so that your body is really close to the ground, you’ll be able to touch it with your head. Then, let go one hand at a time. Press your palms into the mat engaging your core and feel a nice inversion in your back and into the gently supported shoulder stand. In this pose you're going to want to keep your head facing straight up to protect your neck and when you're ready you can come out of this pose very easily by lifting your legs one at a time and bringing them onto the ground with bent knees you can just rest here and feel the difference that your back may feel from that inversion.