Flying Bird Yoga or the Aerial Yoga is the latest innovation from Grandmaster Akshar. The 32-year-old is known for combining traditional techniques with innovation to customise yoga, utilising the ancient exercise form’s flexibility and versatility to provide absolute mind, body and soul experience. This innovation coupled with Coconut Yoga (while sipping coconut water) and Wheel Yoga (using a wheel) has taken the world of wellness by a storm. Akshar calls these innovations nothing but weaving together ancestral wisdom from the oldest form of Himalayan yoga with the most advanced types of fitness regimes. “We believe in structure, discipline and authenticity. We created something called Ariel Yoga, a make-in-India product, where we connect the hammock with the ceiling. It is practised for flexibility,” says the founder-chairman of Bengaluru-based Akshar Yoga.
Propounding the latest form of yoga as fun and challenging in equal measure, he says, “The Flying Bird Yoga repertoire consists of various asanas that have been selected based on their tattva and tactile properties to most adequately suit the aerial nature of this yogic practice. It’s quite a challenge as mastering the moves requires a combination of upper body strength and stamina.”
Apart from offering benefits of regular yoga, aerial yoga gives more freedom of movement, as one can move more freely, with less effort, by counteracting gravity. “It makes you stretch out your spine fully. When you sit or stand all day, the spine compresses and tension is built in the curves of the spine—either in the lumbar or the upper thoracic area. By hanging upside down on the aerial slings, one can decompress the spine, and elongate the space between the joints,” he says.
His yoga journey has been transcendental. “I’ve trained as a child in the Himalayas, and we often went up to higher altitudes of 18,000 ft and 22,000 ft and practised new asanas, pranayamas, mudras.” And it came as no surprise that he chose yoga as a career, and has devoted himself to creating a holistic and positive environment with the help of it. “I started the first Akshar Yoga School at Sadashivnagar, Bengaluru, in 2009. It was a challenging experience because people found it hard to practise yoga in an academy and it took them sometime to get used to the studio concept. Now we’ve grown to 20 schools and things have changed,” says the young guru, who has trained under 28 masters, and is credited with conceptualising Akshar Yoga.
His form of yoga is an intricate blend of traditional and new-age intense alternative workout styles precisely designed for the fitness lovers who are interested in goal-based, intense, holistic health and wellness solutions. “Yoga of today is different from yoga of yesterday. The beauty of yoga is that it can be adapted according to change in situations. Yoga is like water; it changes as it flows,” he says, adding, “The purpose of innovating is to connect with society and give people what they want—good health.”
Through Coconut Yoga, he wants to tell practitioners to use coconut water instead of wine and beer in yoga. “Coconut Yoga is not based on any deep philosophy. But if one has to use a prop, nothing could be more befitting than coconut. It is healthy and refreshing.”
For Wheel Yoga, he uses a 1.5-kg wheel with 12-inch diameter, a width of five inches, and thickness of 6mm. “Using a wheel as a prop aids flexibility by helping one break free from arduous daily activities that cause neck tension and poor posture,” he says. On the other hand, Power Yoga enhances the mind, body and spirit through an intricate blend of various yogic art forms while Therapeutic Yoga strives to rehabilitate the body and rejuvenate the mind and spirit of individuals suffering from various ailments.