What is Aqua Yoga? Benefits and How to Get Started

There are many ways to shake up your yoga practice, thanks to the impressive diversity of yoga as a movement practice. 

You can enjoy a relaxing and healing restorative yoga class, a heart-pumping Vinyasa flow, a sweaty Bikram yoga class, a safe and low-intensity chair yoga workout, or even an adorable and numerous goat yoga class.

There’s almost always some type of yoga or a handful of poses or asanas to practice to suit your mood, energy level, workout goals, and fitness level.

One of the newer forms of yoga that is quickly gaining popularity, particularly in warmer climates and among seniors, pregnant women, and those with mobility impairments is aqua yoga.

Aqua yoga can be a great way to move your body and enjoy the benefits of yoga while reducing joint impact and providing a different stimulus and resistance for your muscles to vary your yoga routine.

In this guide, we will cover the basics of aqua yoga, and provide actionable tips to get started with aqua yoga for beginners.

We will cover: 

• What Is Aqua Yoga?

• What Do You Wear for Aqua Yoga?

• Benefits of Aqua Yoga

• How Do You Do Aqua Yoga?

• What Equipment Do You Need for Aqua Yoga?

• Aqua Yoga Poses for Beginners

Let’s get started!

What Is Aqua Yoga?

As the name implies, aqua yoga, also referred to as water yoga, involves practicing yoga in the water. In most cases, aqua yoga is done in an indoor or outdoor swimming pool, but you can do aqua yoga in other bodies of water, such as a hot tub or spa, lake, pond, or ocean. 

Aqua yoga can include numerous aspects of yoga practice, such as asanas (poses), pranayama (yoga breathwork) and meditation. 

Yoga poses may be modified for aqua yoga, depending on the pose and the depth of the water. Lastly, aqua yoga can involve the use of equipment or aqua yoga props or accessories, or it can be done without equipment.

What Do You Wear for Aqua Yoga?

You can wear whatever you’re comfortable wearing in the water for aqua yoga. Most people wear a bathing suit, wetsuit, or shorts with or without a top, such as a sports bra, along with a swim cap.

If you are doing aqua yoga outside, you should wear waterproof sunscreen, and consider further UV protection such as sunglasses and a sun hat.

Benefits of Aqua Yoga

There are a variety of benefits of aqua yoga, many of which overlap with doing yoga on land. However, the unique medium of water also confers additional benefits when practicing aqua yoga, making water-based yoga a safer alternative for some people.

People with osteoarthritis of the hips, knees, ankles, feet, or spine often benefit from water-based exercise such as aqua yoga because the buoyancy of water reduces the force or body weight going through your joints. Even high-impact exercise, such as running, when performed in the water becomes a relatively low-impact activity. 

The buoyancy of water reduces wear and tear on the joints, and offsets some of your body weight, making water yoga a good option for beginners looking to improve fitness, seniors and older adults with mobility issues and weakness, pregnant women, those who are overweight or obese, and those with arthritis or low bone density.

For example, studies have found that aquatic-based exercises can be more effective at reducing the pain associated with osteoarthritis than land-based exercises.

Benefits of aqua yoga include the following:

• Improving flexibility 

• Increasing balance

• Helping cool the body and prevent overheating

• Reduced joint pressure and bone stress due to the buoyancy of the body in water

• Greater resistance from the water to move against, which can increase strength

• Decreasing stress and anxiety

• Reducing swelling due to the hydrostatic pressure of submerging the body in water

• Increasing range of motion in your joints

• Reducing the risk of falling

• Increasing postural control and core strength

• Improving confidence

• Increasing the mind-body connection

• Allowing deconditioned and weaker individuals to move their body due to the relative weightlessness of being in the water

• Providing variety or an alternative way to practice yoga

How Do You Do Aqua Yoga?

There’s no “right” or “wrong” way to do aqua yoga, so long as you are practicing safely.

Although not a hard-and-fast rule, aqua yoga is usually performed in the shallow end of the pool or when the depth of the water covers about 50-70% of your body when you stand upright.

Water yoga practiced in this depth allows you to keep your feet planted on the ground under water but have your head, neck, shoulders, and potentially arms, chest, and upper back above the water, depending on the pose and the depth of the water relative to your height.

Some aqua yoga poses take place with your head above the water, while others can involve holding your breath and submerging your body under water.

Some yoga poses translate very easily to aqua yoga with very little modification because they involve standing upright. Examples include Tree Pose and Mountain Pose.

Other yoga poses can be modified for aqua yoga such that you alter the pose from lying on your mat to floating on the water in aqua yoga, potentially with or without equipment. 

For example, you can perform Corpse Pose in the water by floating on your back with or without a pool noodle underneath your arms and upper back or an aqua jogging belt around your waist.

Finally, you can modify yoga poses for aqua yoga based on the depth of the water.

One good example is Bow Pose, a yoga pose that is typically performed lying on your stomach to strengthen the muscles on the posterior side of your body, such as your back, glutes, and hamstrings.

Since it would be uncomfortable and difficult to perform this pose lying on the floor of the pool, you can modify this pose for aqua yoga into Floating Upward Bow Pose. 

This playful variation still allows you to stretch the chest and front of the body while strengthening the muscles on the backside of the body. 

You can stand upright in the pool, then hop up, quickly bending your knees and reaching back to grab your ankles. Then allow your body to bob in the water as you hold the pose (and your breath) as you buoy under the water.

What Equipment Do You Need for Aqua Yoga?

You can practice aqua yoga with just your body, or you can choose to use yoga props or equipment to support your body in the water.

Pool noodles are often used in aqua yoga to provide support and additional buoyancy under the body. For example, you can perform Floating Corpse Pose by hooking one or two pool noodles under your upper back and armpits as well as one or two under your knees for a blissful, relaxing float.

Some people also use kickboards or inner tubes, yoga straps, and even yoga blocks during aqua yoga.

Another nice piece of equipment to use is an aqua jogging belt. This is a floating on belt that is worn around the waist, usually during water jogging or walking, to provide buoyancy.

Wearing an aqua jogging belt for water yoga can be a good option for those who feel uncomfortable or uneasy in the water or who want an extra bit of floatation assistance for poses where at least one foot is off the floor of the pool.

If you’re looking for the best aqua jogging belt for aquatic exercise, we recommend the Fluid Running System.

Aqua Yoga Poses for Beginners

Ready to try aqua yoga? Here are a few of the best aqua yoga poses for beginners:

• Tree Pose

• Triangle Pose

• Warrior III Pose

• Peaceful Warrior Pose

• Chair Pose: Beginners can modify this pose for aqua yoga by holding onto the edge of the pool.

• Low Lunge Pose

• Cobra Pose: You can modify this pose for aqua yoga by doing it standing up holding onto the side of the pool rather than lying on your stomach.

• Stork Pose

• Sky Archer Pose

• Airplane Pose

• Boat Pose: You can modify this pose for water yoga by doing Floating Boat Pose. Press down on a pool noodle towards your waist to provide some buoyancy.

• Bow Pose: Modify for aqua yoga by doing Floating Upward Bow Pose

Almost any yoga pose can be modified for water yoga with a little creativity and mental flexibility in how the pose should look. Using props for added flotation can also help, and you can perform poses standing up or floating in the water that morally take place lying on your mat.

Experiment to find what poses you like performing in the water, or consider looking into taking an aqua yoga class for additional ideas and guidance.

Get involved!

If you’re looking for a great aqua yoga workout for beginners, check out this free water yoga workout YouTube video here.