Flight attendants are allowing sky-high ‘airplane yoga' — but there's a sneaky reason why: ‘This is insane'

New York Post

4 days ago

Is it air-robics?
Flight attendants are helping people unwind in the friendly skies by holding impromptu yoga classes in flight, as seen in multiple viral TikTok videos.
In one video from June with 1.5 million views, a flight attendant on an EasyJet flight is heard guiding passengers through a series of poses in their seats while the 1980s dance hit 'Maniac' by Michael Sembello blares in the background.
'Lean to the left,' he instructs. 'Now come to the middle, hands up in the air. Lovely.'
3 An EasyJet flight attendant guides passengers through an inflight flow session.
@user1118383829333/TikTok
The crew member then commands the travelers to turn their heads to the left and right and touch their knees as they go with the flow.
Another clip, filmed aboard Spirit Airlines, shows another flight attendant leading this stretch-based game of 'Simon Says.'
However, after guiding them through the motions, the flight attendant reveals that this so-called airplane yoga class was an elaborate ploy to get them to clean up around their seats.
'Touch your toes and stretch your back out c'mon,' the crew member-cum-yogi instructs. 'Now, while you're down there, get all that trash you threw on the ground.'
3 Spirit Airlines flight attendants are getting flyers to clean up around the seat under the guise of a yoga class.
REUTERS
'It (the plane) was clean when he came on, it's gonna be clean when you leave,' he sasses as the passengers erupt into guffaws.
The Post reached out to Spirit Airlines for comment.
TikTok commenters were amused by the trick, with one writing: 'Oh Spirit got jokes, huh?'
'This is INSANE hahaha,' another amused commenter remarked.
3 'It (the plane) was clean when he came on, it's gonna be clean when you leave,' sassed one Spirit Airlines crew member after tricking flyers into picking up around their seats.
@dontworryaboutmeever/TikTok
This in-flight yoga fakeout became a trend a couple of years back with budget carriers holding mini flow sessions that ended with an instruction to pick up trash — such as in this clip from 2021, the Daily Dot reported.
High-jinks notwithstanding, flight experts recommend staying active in flight as remaining sedentary for prolonged periods can potentially lead to a host of health problems, including joint stiffness, fatigue, dehydration and even life-threatening blood clots, the Points Guy reported.
'This can lead to clotting of the blood in the veins (deep venous thrombosis) and can pose a severe threat to one's health,' explained New York City orthopedist David T. Neuman, CEO and co-founder of Pop-doc.com, told TPG 'A blood clot that travels to the lungs can cause shortness of breath, difficulty breathing and even death (pulmonary embolism).'
To avoid immobility-induced complications, NYC physical therapist Dr. Karena Wu recommended that travelers 'stand up every hour to stretch their legs and decompress the spine a bit.'
'The aisles of the plane are tight but any standing-in-place exercise can be done without bothering your plane mates too much,' she explained. 'Calf raises activate the calf muscles to help use them as a pump to help with venous return to the heart. Standing backbends help to reverse the curve in the low back and stretch the front of the hips open.'
Just be sure not to treat the cabin as your home yoga studio like certain folks have done in the past.
In 2016, an airliner flying from Hawaii to Japan was forced to return to its destination after a passenger insisted on doing yoga in the galley in defiance of the crew.