Christina Koch Says Yoga Is “More Fun” While on a Space Mission

Hours before the four-person NASA crew climbed aboard Artemis II, launched into space, and began to circle the Moon for 10 days, they engaged in a pre-flight tradition of a card game.

It’s a “brief moment of levity in what can and will be a very long day for them,” according to a video published by the Kennedy Space Center of the astronauts laughing, high-fiving, and being dealt cards.

It’s a seemingly rare moment when astronauts prioritize playfulness. And it doesn’t end there. Considering the seriousness of the mission, you might assume there’s no time to keep up with hobbies or recreational activities or…yoga. However, among the Artemis II crew is Christina Koch who will, by the time of landing, have become the first woman to orbit the moon. Ever. Koch has previously shared that, while aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in 2018, she found it beneficial to keep doing the things she loves—even hundreds of thousands of miles away from the planet on which normally does them. Yoga included.

In an interview with Space Report News, Koch explains that yoga played a prominent role in her previous in-flight routine. “I did [a lot] of yoga when I was on board the ISS. And it’s actually not that hard to do,” she says. “In some ways, way more fun to do.”

“There are some poses that are tough,” she continues. “The standing poses I don’t necessarily get as much out of. But a lot of the stretching poses are great. So yes, yoga’s fantastic.” Although working out is NASA-mandated in space, Koch explained in an online Q&A with the University of Queensland that it’s the “little stabilization muscles” that are “really hard to work.”

Still, even in microgravity, there are plenty of pose variations to explore.

In 2022, the YouTube channel Cosmic Kids Yoga collaborated with ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti while she was in microgravity on the International Space Station. Cristoforetti demonstrated a free-floating Eagle and standing side stretch as well as a standing Camel Pose variation and Triangle Pose with her feet held in place underneath beams inside the spacecraft.

Perhaps the untethered sensation of space could inspire all of us the next time we’re resisting the Earth’s pull in Downward Dog or Plank. But whether practiced in space or Earthbound, apparently yoga is still yoga.

“I think that one neat thing about humans in space is how we adapt the things that we love on Earth to space,” explained Koch to Space Report News. “And it really just shows why exploration is [human], it’s in our DNA, and adapting what we love to new environments is just something we naturally do.”