SUP Yoga

I had debated trying a SUP Yoga class but I figured I know enough about yoga and enough about SUP that I could just figure it out.  Luckily, it worked out!  I had a beautifully still, calm day with practically no people at the beach so that made it a lot easier.  I discovered that because a paddleboard is such an unsteady surface, there was an inherent balancing quality to every single move.  It certainly made even basic poses a lot more challenging.  I’ve put together a few of the moves I explored over the weekend for you to try the next time you hop on a board.  Don’t be scared!  Just give it a go!

I started with a simple mountain pose because, let’s face it, it is basically just standing on the board.  But in all seriousness, I took a minute to center myself and focus my mind on my practice.

I then took a seat on the board to practice a few rounds of inhaling and exhaling before moving onto my hands and knees for cat/cow.

While on my hands and knees, I thought it would be a good time to activate my core since this helps with balance so I did a few rounds of knee to nose on each side.

I then decided it was time to really work and started a few rounds of sun salutations.  I modified a little by going plank, chattarunga, upward dog, downward dog and then child’s pose rather than coming all the way up to mountain pose.  This got me nice and warm!

I made a little video of to get the idea of the flow:

On my last sun salutation, I stepped my right leg forward into a low lunge feeling a nice stretch through my hamstring and taking my arms overhead for a bit of balancing work.

I then tucked my back toes, dropped my back heel and stood in a Warrior I, my first standing pose!

Once here, I figured best not rock the board, so I extended out to a Warrior II.

Reverse Warrior

Side Angle

I then repeated the entire warrior sequence on the other side before moving onto some serious balance moves.  First a chair pose–always best to start with two feet!

Followed by a tree pose.  Not gonna lie, this took a few attempts!

More invigorating poses including boat pose, which is awesome for working the core, which helps a ton with balance!

Then I flipped over to do some back extensions just lying on the board and lifting my head, neck and shoulders and my legs off the board to strengthen my back core muscles.

Followed by bow pose to really get into backbending.

Bridge pose was actually quite relaxing on the paddleboard.

Wheel was not nearly as scary as I thought!

I gave myself a break in child’s pose before heading on to camel.

And then pigeon and king pigeon for a nice stretch.

Finally, some relaxation!  Child’s pose!

And a sweet savasana.

My muscles were shaking and quaking from all of the work they were doing to keep me in the poses on such an unsteady surface.  It was a pretty intense workout despite being much slower and more deliberate than my normal yoga practice.  So fun!

Readers, what’s the most challenging yoga pose you’ve ever tried? Have you ever tried SUP yoga?  What’s your favorite yoga pose?  How many times does it take you to balance in a difficult pose? 

Check out more workouts and tons of other great information on my blog!