Sunday, July 19, 2009

Airplane Yoga


AIRPLANE YOGA


A few weeks before a trip to Indonesia I happened to run into an article on jet lag. A fortunate co incidence, since I was not relishing the thought of sitting crunched up in a metal tube for 16 hrs while hurtling through ten time zones at 2.000 miles an hour. As I read further I came across a section on airplane yoga. Perfect. If I was going to be brain dead at the end of the trip at least I’d be able to walk again. So, for any of you Yoga practitioners planning a long plane trip anytime soon, here’s a synopsis what I read.

Fortunately, most of these stretches cam be done in your seat which minimizes the risk of looking like some kind of exercise nut or accidentally whacking an flight attendant carrying a coffee pot.

First are the basic breathing exercises or pranayama. I picked the less intense ones ( those involving heavy panting might single you out as some sort of deviant) and you can be re assured as you slowly fill your lungs with everyone else’s recycled air, you’re probably cutting your chances of death by stroke or other fatal circulatory disorder by at least half. ( which pretty much cancels out your risk of contracting some gruesome air borne virus )

This is followed by neck rolls ( delicious!), a serving of gomukasana ( a bit picante for my taste.), assorted arm stretches served with a helping of good hearty side bends (yum) . Round this off with ankle rolls and a few knee hugs and your blood will no longer be pooling in your boots but whooshing along your arterioles at a pretty fair clip.

The second phase of the airplane yoga experience is the standing poses. Timing is everything here A few minutes off and you could be spending an entire hour standing outside the toilets waiting for the drinks trolley to inch its way up the isle before you can get anywhere near your seat. Not wanting to look conspicuous I used the bathroom crowd for camouflage, well not crowd exactly but a motley group of jetlagged Chinese people was the best I could do.

The first exercise was inclining the body towards the side of the plane while reaching the arms up overhead and resting the hands on the wall. Here it’s probably best not to grab that bar that says “ Emergency Exit” Otherwise you may well end up literally going to that Yoga class in the sky, probably dragging a few reluctant participants with you. Anyway, this stretch combined with a few standing forward bends and numerous toe rises was at least enough to alleviate the restless leg syndrome ,keep brain death at bay and prevent me from being reduced to a hobbling invalid.

I would highly recommend airplane yoga. In fact given Yoga’s current surge in popularity I would go so far as to suggest that a section of the planes be cordoned off for this purpose. Why not? It could catch on. It would combat boredom and be a lot more beneficial than watching a movie you’ve already seen with head phones that usually only work on one side. Besides that it beats furtively sideling around the plane trying to avoid flight attendants and lunch trolleys.

Until then I exhort you to join the movement for the advancement of airplane yoga. ( MADAY) and next time you’re traveling give it a try.

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