Incorporating yoga into your daily or weekly workout routine can provide you with an excellent low-impact workout. While yoga is an increasingly popular exercise to improve strength and flexibility, many niche types of yoga skate under the radar. To learn more about these types of yoga you never knew existed, continue reading the article below.
Aerial Yoga
If you’ve reached a plateau in your yoga exercise, aerial yoga could be a refreshing twist to your workout routine. Aerial yoga practices similar poses to traditional yoga. However, participants hang three feet off the ground in fabric hammocks while posing.
The soft, nylon fabric used during aerial yoga allows the body to stretch more deeply than standard floor stretches. Aerial yoga significantly improves flexibility, core strength, and balance.
Goat Yoga
Goat yoga is a yoga class in which you exercise in the company of—that’s right; you guessed it—goats. This odd idea for yoga originated in Albany, Oregon, when yoga instructor Lainey Morse decided to host a yoga session inside her barn. During this session, she realized that letting goats roam free to jump on people’s backs during meditation time was highly effective at reducing anxiety. With the help of social media, goat yoga has expanded outside Oregon but is still less common among typical yoga classes. However, for those in need of challenging outdoor summer workouts, goat yoga could be a viable option.
Yoga Raves
One of the most surprising types of yoga you probably never knew existed is yoga raving. While yoga and raves often serve two entirely different purposes, this exercise combines these two worlds into one.
Many nonprofits host yoga raves to invite a large gathering of people to sit, meditate, and perform yoga together. So what makes these yoga classes a rave? These events include breaks for dancing and socializing, featuring typical rave music. However, yoga raves are also drug- and alcohol-free. The guided meditation during these raves encourages people to use the community around them to reduce stress and improve mental focus.
While these less popular yoga exercises are peculiar, they are also highly effective at building strength, flexibility, and focus—similar to the mind and body benefits of standard yoga. The next time you feel yourself hitting an exercise burnout and need something new to shake up your routine, consider trying these unusual workouts.
