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Hang upside down from the ceiling: This is the most uplifting workout we’ve done this year

Just before the rockets started, we were invited to a yoga hammock workshop in the desert.

The initial instinct was to roll our eyes and raise an eyebrow, but the need to break a routine prevailed, and what luck we drove because you would not believe how it ended

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• yoga

• Training

Strider Schleider Putschnik

Wednesday, 26 May 2021, 08:02 Updated: 09:04

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Break a routine in the most unexpected and fun way.

Hela socks on the hammock (Photo: courtesy of those photographed)

Sometime, in one moment, the view from the car windows on the way south turns from green to yellow. After crossing the fence, it is difficult not to notice that the route of the road becomes much less crowded and urban, between settlements more agricultural areas, green plantations, groves here and there are separated. But the Negev is sneaking in with greater efficiency and speed. From the moment we crossed an invisible line, everything was suddenly yellow. Beautiful, but yellow.

We did this way a little before all the hustle and bustle that today gathers under the heading 'Operation Wall Guard' began. The sky was blue and free of smoke fungi of interceptions and no rocket crossed them in the steep flight of the runway.

We drove on the narrow roads that lead from the Dvira junction to Kibbutz Dvir, and wind inside it around the old construction and to the new and nice houses of the extension, which were pretty deserted in the late morning of the middle of the week.

The last house at the end of the new neighborhood faces the kibbutz's system road, and its yellowing fields.

There are no names for the streets here, and the houses are not numbered but on the lower floor of the house there is a wide rectangular window, and beyond it - inside the space, swinging in the dry wind 6 turquoise hammocks, hanging from the ceiling.

This must be the place.

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While less than two hours lie within them horizontally, mummified as in a pupa (or as corpses, depending on your inner world of concepts), swaying back and forth.

And these will be our most pleasant and relaxing minutes that week (a close draw with a picnic of pizza and beer in the Dvir Forest that arrived right after the workshop).

But another vision for the date.

First we will explain how we got here.

We came 3 women from the center (flexible demarcation boundaries), to participate in

a "Yoga Hammocks" workshop for

which all our early associations have slipped into the spiritual realms of raising eyebrows.

But the curiosity and temptation to break a routine overwhelmed the spoon, so we came.

What luck, sometimes you do not have to think too much.

Mummified as in a pupa.

Completion of the practice (Photo: courtesy of the photographers, yoga hammocks)

"Hammock practice can be suitable as fitness, strengthening and shaping practice, can be an additional tool or accessory in Pilates and yoga exercises, or separately. It is also used as a therapeutic tool as it is enveloping and containing and because it allows detachment from the ground (similar to water and hydrotherapy) - elements that also allow emotional therapy And release, "explains Hela Garbi, who has ambitions - a yoga studio, and who invited us here. According to her, the use of a hammock can be suitable as a regular and continuous practice or weekly lesson, in one-time or ongoing treatments and also as a one-time workshop for families or small groups.

The first minutes of the workshop are devoted to the technical explanations and also to getting acquainted with this piece of fabric that hangs from fixed ceilings and we need to trust it to carry our weight and frustrate the physical inclination of each body on earth, but in this case - our 3 specific bodies - to crash to the ground.

Hela assures us that there is nothing to fear, the hammocks, she says, are very strong and can also carry people of high weight who can enjoy thanks to them a feeling of levitation and relief from weightlessness.

"Be like Tinkerbell"

The exercises in the workshop develop gradually, the trust is built slowly.

At first you just hang for a second with your hands, and your feet detach from the ground for just a moment.

"Try to be fairies, like Tinkerbell," Hela begs us to land softly, to no avail.

Then one leg enters the hammock, which allows some of the body weight to be transferred to it and helps to perform stretches and yoga poses known as "warrior" (a pose that Hela is careful to rightly call "warrior". We loved and adopted).

Then she already asks us to step on the foot in the cloth and pull the body up - here we are in the air.

No mouths, no softness, but in the air.

Everything works, even the core muscles and the pelvic floor.

Mature women stretch (Photo: Courtesy of the photographed)

The hands work very hard here - all along.

The arms and shoulders are constantly trying to pull the body up, stabilizing it.

The palms grip the strips of cloth on both sides, the fingers locked on top of each other.

Some of these muscles are not mobilized in our daily activities, so 20 minutes into the workshop you will already start to feel them.

The knuckles will also hurt.

The fitness part here is not lip service, everything works, even the core muscles and the pelvic floor.

We felt the arms and shoulders well in the following days as well.

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Defeat gravity and also yourself

The challenge here is not just physical - some of the exercises are scary and also include inversions with an acrobatic vibe, sometimes hanging upside down. Coaching also requires dealing with fears and going against this natural instinct of keeping your head off the floor - you know, as a matter of survival policy. If successful, the gain is twofold: both the physical enjoyment of staying in these unconventional poses and the victory over yourself, breaking another boundary of body and mind.

Hela, who is also an occupational therapist who works with children, explains that "precisely for these reasons the hammock is suitable as a therapeutic accessory for children and adults who have difficulty organizing, sensory regulation and have a weak physical infrastructure. In addition, the hammock is used as an acrobatics and fun exercise."

However, she clarifies that practicing in a hammock is not necessarily suitable for everyone.

The detachment from the ground and the inverted positions in which the head is down and the legs up, are not suitable for everyone and should be taken into account before practicing, especially those who suffer from conditions such as high blood pressure, headaches, frequent nausea and the like.

From the age of 7 to the age of 70. Children in a hammock workshop with Hela Garbi (Photo: courtesy of the photographers)

"Practicing in a high hammock is suitable until the age of 60 without a doctor's approval and over the age of 60 must be approved by a doctor. Over the age of 70, only a low hammock, close to the ground, will be used. The same applies to pregnant women.

The other end of the age range is 7 when it comes to group or family workshops, "mainly due to the frequent need for mediation and explanation for young children. But in individual work there is no age limit, as long as the practice is done with a qualified instructor or therapist."

It is difficult to define this workshop in one sentence - it is also strenuous physical activity, also your mental challenge in front of yourself, it has an acrobatic game element that most of us adult life has forgotten about most of us and it ends with a few meditative minutes of relaxing lying in the hammock, quietly and with eyes closed.

It's not "just" anything, it's a lot of things together - and they all left us feeling very good and fulfilling.

For more details on hammock yoga workshops with Hela Socks

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