from The Guardian UK

Defiance of gravity

We know it takes toil to get fit, and yet the idea of upside-down yoga just seems too good to miss

Upside-down yoga is sweeping America, soon to set the gyms of the UK afire with the defiance of gravity. I was just scanning the internet for what, exactly, was good about it. On the website it says: “The AntiGravity Hammock acts as a soft trapeze, supporting you as you master simple suspension techniques leading to advanced inverted poses.” So being upside down, in other words, leads to you getting better and better at being upside down. You can also get better at upside-down pilates, and the rather ominous-sounding upside-down dance.

On the one hand, I can’t believe it will take off in Britain, because it is so extravagantly pointless, but on the other hand, for the same reason, I can’t believe it won’t. Faddy exercises are reason-proof, recession-proof and science-proof, insulated against any consideration of consequence that might otherwise ever stop anyone doing anything.

The year before last there was a fad for heated pilates. It was just like the regular kind, only you did it in a heated kennel, while someone outside it enjoined you to “Lose! Tone!” It was more soothing than it sounds. Perspex has a muffling effect. I had a go. “This,” I thought, with a clarity that might have stopped my heart were it not for the lovely warm environment, “is the end of civilisation.”

[ click to read at The Guardian ]