Underwater yoga catching on in Vizag

Nooka Sridhar gives a demonstration on the occasion of International Yoga Day

Hold your breath Nooka Sridhar giving a demo of underwater yoga in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.

Underwater yoga, a relatively new concept, is fast catching the fancy of children and adults alike, says Nooka Sridhar, a swimming instructor at the Rail Club in Visakhapatnam.

He gave a demonstration on the occasion of International Yoga Day at the Rail Club on Wednesday.

Barely nine months into the act, Mr. Sridhar has not only perfected the skills but also trained a few children and adults in underwater yoga techniques.

Mr. Sridhar, who is also a lifeguard and scuba diving trainer, has been practising yoga for the last one year.

Inspiration

“I saw a presentation by Baba Ramdev on television about an year-and-a-half ago and was drawn to it. I practised ‘Surya Namaskaram’ and other techniques on the ground, after watching them on the web,” he told

The Hindu .

“One day, I thought of performing yoga under water and, in a few months, I succeeded in performing some of the asanas under water.

“I have been doing underwater yoga for the past nine months. Some of my students, both children and adults, have evinced interest in learning the underwater yoga and I taught them some of the techniques,” he said.

Vivian, an 8-year-old boy of Presidential School in Seethammadhara, has learnt quite a few concepts at the swimming pool at Rail Club during the two-month summer swimming training camp.

Vital technique

“He learnt to hold his breath in 15 days. I taught him ‘Padmasana’, ‘Namaskaram’ and ‘Buddhasanam’ under water. These should not be done at a stretch,” he warned.

“Any person can hold his/her breath for periods ranging from 30 seconds to a minute. With practice, one can hold breath for a longer time under water. The time for which a person can hold his breath depends on the depth of the water and his position. I can hold my breath for 4 minutes and 20 seconds at a depth of 4 feet, but at 9 feet, I can hold it for 2 minutes. This can be increased slightly by practice over a period of time,” he opined

Sridhar has been training children at the Aqua Sports Complex of GVMC on the Beach Road since 1997.

“I used to take swimming classes for children at the HPCL Club and presented a five-minute demo on underwater yoga there. One of the parents recorded it on video and showed it to me. I was impressed and later I arranged shooting of a few underwater videos and posted them on the YouTube and uploaded them as Nookas Aqua Activities,” he said.

Mr. Sridhar plans to give a full-fledged underwater yoga session during the next International Yoga Day.