MOULTONBOROUGH, N.H. — If you're anything LIKE me, going to the gym can seem so daunting, especially when you're one of those people who has no idea what you're doing except that the elliptical helps round out the back end. So I reached out to my friend and colleague, Peggy Keyser, and basically said, "What are you doing Friday? Want to try out this new workout with me?" And when she said she'd pass, I dragged her along anyway.
That's how we ended up at Yoga Jaya in Moultonborough, New Hampshire - deemed "Little Alaska" by our instructors Kale Poland and Christina Alexa - because there isn't much to do around town. That's also what made the pair nervous when they first decided to open a workout studio in "Little Alaska" just under a year ago.
You can take spin classes and yoga classes at Yoga Jaya, but Peggy and I took the road trip for something different... we wanted to hang upside down in aerial hammocks.
"I didn't love it at first until I realized that we can really use this as a prop to open the body," says Alexa about the hammocks that hang in their studio. "Some people who can't even get on the mat and do movements can get on the hammock and do movements... it's a different relationship to gravity so any pose you can do on the mat you can do in the hammock and more."
Peggy and I learned quickly that the hammock does actually help support certain moves, and while the hammock takes away some of the heavy lifting, don't worry, you still get a serious workout from this class.
"I may be the poster boy for ugly yoga," jokes Poland. "I can't touch my toes. I'm strong, but supremely immobile and that was the selling tool for me: if I can do a lot of the stuff then I know there's a benefit for other people."
The end of class was the start of a new love for yoga, and a new series in which Peggy and I try alternative workouts. We're calling it, "Working Out-side of the box".
To learn more about Yoga Jaya, click here.