Yoga teacher runs classes on paddleboards

A yoga teacher is running classes on paddleboards to give students "an extra challenge".

Arabella Love, from Codsall near Wolverhampton, hosts the summer sessions on the lake at Aldridge Sailing Club in Walsall.

Ms Love said "that extra wobbliness of the board” on the water helped students to build their muscles.

She added that the classes had attracted people from their 20s up to their 50s so far, with one person even using the sessions to help conquer a phobia of water.

Ms Love has been teaching yoga since 2020 and she first ran paddleboard classes last summer, as part of the Aldridge SUP School paddleboarding club.

She started this year’s sessions on 1 June and plans to run them until September.

In the classes, she does many of the classic yoga poses such as downward dog, but she avoids those that involve balancing on one leg.

She added that the lake was 3ft (1m) deep, so students were not submerged if they fell into the water. A paddleboard instructor is present during the classes.

Paddleboarding has become a popular water sport in recent years, and other hybrid forms of the exercise include paddleboard pilates.

Ms Love said she found teaching the paddleboard classes particularly "rewarding", because she often saw students quickly grow in confidence after feeling unsure about being on the water.

She recalled one woman who attended a class last year to help her overcome a phobia of water, using yoga breathing techniques to help her to stay calm.

"At the end of the session she said 'that was amazing!'" Ms Love stated.

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