The Yoga hammock — which is one long piece of silk fabric — and the style name “Aerial Yoga” started appearing around 2011. Aerial Yoga combines traditional asana (the physical postures of Yoga) and Yoga philosophies with aerial arts. The silk hammock is hung from the ceiling to aid practitioners in forming shapes.

 

In an Aerial Yoga practice, you will be fully supported by the aerial silk hammock with the silks wrapping around particular body parts while keeping other parts of the body on the floor. Hanging fully or suspending individual body parts is believed to create traction and open your body more gently and intuitively than when you’re on the floor. The silk hammock also aids balance.

 

The practice of yoga with props is largely credited to B.K.S. Iyengar (1918–2014), who developed Iyengar Yoga. In addition to using the blocks, straps, blankets, and rope walls you may see at many studios, Iyengar would hang his students from the ceiling in yoga swings. The original swings were not like the colorful silk hammocks we see today. They were often made solely of ropes and would be padded with yoga mats or blankets. Antigravity yoga, as it was originally called, began to gain traction in the late 1990s. The first yoga swing, a collection of silk harnesses connected to handles and foot holdings, was purportedly created in the U.K. in 2001.

 

A combination of the arts and athletics, aerial yoga offers several physical and psychological benefits:

• Improved flexibility, stability, and balance. A 2019 study observed that aerial athletes have exceptional flexibility, balance, and strength

• Traction and joint decompression. Hanging upside down and inverting are said to decompress the joints, which can compress over time due to gravity and age. 

• Reduced risk factors for heart disease. While research on this style of yoga is limited, the most-cited study, conducted in 2016 by the American Council on Exercise (ACE), found significant reduction in the risk factors associated with cardiovascular heart disease.

• Low to moderate intensity. The same ACE-commissioned study found that 50 minutes of aerial yoga can burn upwards of 300 calories, making it a form of low to moderate intensity exercise.

• Improved mental health. A small study noted significant improvements in depression and stress levels when people practiced aerial arts for the love of movement. This seems to bode particularly well for aerial yoga, which applies yogic philosophies and is often less competitive and more accessible than a circus-based or formal acrobatics class.

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Aerial Silk Hatha is multi-level with basic and intermediate climbs.

Beginners are welcome to join.

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*enquire to find out more about this class. Aerial Yoga and Floating Sound Bath Class is not suitable for people with vertigo and motion sickness, or pregnant ladies. Limited to two hammocks per class.

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