I thoroughly enjoy the feeling of hanging upside down. Blood rushing to your head, pulsating in your temple. You become acutely aware of your breathing, as the feeling of topsy turvy settles into your mind and body. It’s like defying gravity, feet reaching up into the sky, your hair grazing the ground.

I was a monkey bar QUEEN back in the day, twirling around in the playground like it was my 8-year-old civic responsibility. Always just under my weight curve, my body’s never been much of an obstacle to flip over. But it’s the dead of winter in New York City, and too cold to hang off the frozen metal bars in the scarce downtown playgrounds usually hidden within school grounds.

So why not up the ante and defy gravity in other ways… yoga? I took a class at Crunch gym last week and wow, let me just say, it’s a total body workout. I stretched muscles that I’m sure have sat unused for several months now. If anti-gravity yoga took human form, it’d be a 300 pound sumo wrestler that completely squashed the living soul out of me. I can’t remember the last time I felt so sore, no, bruised.

The experience was exhilarating: swinging back and forth suspended on your navel, flipping your body forwards and backwards, hanging upside down with your legs intertwined against the silk hammock. But that was the easy part. In between, we did serious AB work suspended in mid-air or holding ourselves up with our hands. “You should feel suicidal right now, or else, you’re not doing it right,” our teacher instructed. Suicidal was an understatement. The class resonated with grunts, giggles, gasps, OMG’s and the rare clunk of a body hitting the floor in renunciation.

I wish I could say otherwise, but this class whipped my ass! For the thrill seeking, challenge thriving, monkey bar swinging child-at-heart individual, I definitely recommend it!