SUP Paddleboard Yoga is a real thing, and you can find it in Grand Junction. Here are my top five reasons why you should participate.

Barely 24 hours ago I had never hears of such a thing. After looking into it, this seems to be a craze making its way across the nation. According to the HuffPost, the Stand Up Paddleboard Yoga Community is bigger than you might expect. As it turns out, you can take classes right here in Grand Junction.

According to rei.com, doing Yoga on a paddleboard is not nearly as hard as it looks. Personally, looking at the video, this appears pretty difficult. Then again, I find regular yoga, the kind you perform on solid ground, to be extremely challenging.

Here are my top five reasons why you should look into taking a SUP Yoga class in Grand Junction:

  • Doing yoga on a SUP engages muscles that you may neglect during your on-land practice. (thanks to rei.com for this one)
  • The added challenge of doing yoga on a wobbly board will force you to be very present and intentional with all your movements.
  • If you're already experienced with Yoga, SUP yoga is a great way to work on maintaining a beginner’s mindset because it introduces new challenge to your yoga routine. (this one, to me at least, is a biggie)
  • The sensation of floating helps to alleviate the heaviness that life sometimes throws on our shoulders.
  • Since the platform is unstable, you have to engage your core more for better balance.

Classes are available at Las Colonias Park throughout the month of August 2020. Classes include a dry land SUP demo that will review the equipment and basic paddling technique. Then you hit the water to warm up with a 10 min paddle. Then, says gjsup.com, SUP yogis bring their yoga poses to a new level while floating and enjoying the elements around them.

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Classes run an hour and a half. In August, evening classes will be held on Sundays at 6:30, and morning classes will be held on Mondays at 9. If you already have your own gear, the cost per class is $10. If you need to rent equipment, the cost per class is $17.

I need to spend more time doing yoga. For that matter, I need to spend more time outdoors and on the water. Here's a chance to do both while taking a new approach to building some core strength. Care to join me? I'll be the guy falling off the board into the water.

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