Aerial Yoga

Hammock yoga as a modern fitness style

A 2013 newspaper feature credits the invention of anti-gravity yoga to aerial performer Christopher Harrison and says the same style reached South Africa through teachers who trained in New York in 2010 with a second brand, Unnata Aerial Yoga. The feature gives no year for the invention itself, and none of the pages opened for this entry supplies a founding date. The origin is therefore described here only as a modern, brand-led development rather than dated precisely.

More than one commercial method uses the hammock, and each brand tends to present its own approach as the starting point. The sources reviewed do not settle which method came first, and they do not trace aerial yoga to any particular historical yoga lineage.

Relationship to yoga more broadly

The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health describes yoga as a practice rooted in Indian philosophy that, in the United States, usually emphasizes physical postures, breathing techniques and meditation, and notes that styles vary widely. Aerial yoga is a posture-centered variation of this kind, and it sits within the Machipedia family page Yoga Styles. The general background to the wider practice is covered on the Yoga page rather than repeated here.

Names in use

The practice is called aerial yoga in the research literature and in a professional-education article on a 2016 industry-sponsored study. Press coverage also uses anti-gravity yoga, which is also the name of one commercial brand. A case study published in 2024 describes a participant as practicing aerial and Hatha yoga, which shows that the two terms are used side by side for different formats.

Terms that are easily confused

Aerial yoga is not the same as aerial arts such as silks or hoop, which are performance disciplines. A 2020 study from a US university examined aerial practice taught with a performance focus, and its findings should not be read as findings about hammock yoga. Floor-based styles are described on the pages Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga and Restorative Yoga, and the clinical use of yoga is covered on Yoga Therapy, which is a separate topic from a fitness class.

The hammock and the class

In the descriptions reviewed, a soft fabric hammock hangs from the ceiling and supports some or all of the participant's body weight while traditional yoga poses are performed. In the 2016 industry-sponsored study the hammock kept participants no more than a few feet off the ground, and classes lasted 50 minutes with one instructor. A 2013 feature describes a silk hammock hung from two overhead points, with poses such as downward dog and cat-cow performed while suspended.

Supported, grounded and inverted work

The same feature says some positions are inversions in which the legs are wrapped in the fabric, that holding them takes a reasonable level of fitness, and that some students feel anxious about blood rushing to the head. It adds that heavier participants may find the fabric strap uncomfortable. These are one journalist's and one instructor's observations rather than measured findings.

How it differs from floor yoga

The hammock changes how weight is carried, because the fabric can bear load that the floor would otherwise bear, and it adds balance demands in suspended positions. The 2013 feature states that the work can be as demanding on the core as floor yoga. In the 2016 study the average class was of moderate intensity, at about 4.8 metabolic equivalents and roughly 320 kilocalories per 50 minutes, a figure the author compared with about 200 for a Zumba Gold class.

Flexibility, strength and spinal decompression

Instructors and brand founders describe aerial yoga as a way to build flexibility, core strength and balance and to let the spine lengthen while suspended. In the 2013 feature, the founder of one brand makes claims about relieving joint pressure and improving spinal alignment, which the article presents as his views rather than established findings. No source reviewed tested spinal decompression in the hammock.

Stress, mood and general fitness

Classes are also described as a way to reduce stress and improve mood and general fitness. The author of the 2016 study suggested that stress relief might explain an unexpected blood pressure change and called for research on stress and mood. These claims are hypotheses and are separate from the measured results described under Research and Evidence.

Few studies of aerial yoga itself

A PubMed search for aerial yoga in titles and abstracts, run on 12 October 2026, returned one record, a single-participant case study. Further web searches for trials and for systematic reviews of aerial yoga found two small intervention reports, described below, and no systematic review. The evidence base is therefore thin, and every finding here comes from small, short studies.

A sponsored study of healthy women

The American Council on Exercise sponsored a study of 16 healthy, active women aged 18 to 45 who attended three 50-minute classes a week for six weeks. The report describes significant changes in weight, body-fat percentage, waist circumference, maximal oxygen uptake (up 10.9 percent), systolic blood pressure (down 8.6 mmHg) and HDL cholesterol. No control group is described, one instructor taught all classes, and the report appears in a professional-education publication; no peer-reviewed version was located.

A small randomized report on flexibility and balance

A 2024 report in a journal supplement randomized 60 sports players aged 18 to 25 to an eight-week aerial yoga program (three 60-minute sessions a week) or to no activity, 30 in each group. Flexibility was measured with a sit-and-reach test and balance with a one-leg stand test, and the abstract reports significant improvement in the aerial yoga group without giving numbers. Only the abstract was available for review, the comparison was with no activity rather than another exercise, and there was no long-term follow-up.

Indirect evidence and what cannot be concluded

A non-randomized 2020 study of 17 university students learning aerial practice reported lower depression and stress scores over time in both groups, without follow-up, and it concerned aerial arts rather than yoga. Reviews of floor yoga summarized by NCCIH report slight benefit for low-back pain and limited or preliminary evidence for several other conditions. Those findings concern other yoga styles and should not be carried over to the hammock.

Injuries and falls

No source reviewed reports injury rates for aerial yoga, equipment failures or falls from the hammock. For floor yoga, a systematic review of nine observational studies found that adverse events were common, that serious events occurred in 1.9 percent of practitioners, and that sprains and strains were the most frequent injuries. NCCIH adds that adults aged 65 and older have a higher rate of yoga-related emergency visits.

Head-down positions

In a study of 10 people with open-angle glaucoma and 10 without, eye pressure rose significantly in four floor poses, most in downward dog, and returned to near baseline about two minutes after sitting up. A case report described worsening visual field loss in a woman with juvenile glaucoma who practiced headstands, and its authors advise people with glaucoma to avoid head-down yoga. In 60 women, two minutes of inversion traction raised systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and the authors note that hypertensive people may need to avoid it. A case report links a retinal vein occlusion to headstands in a man with poorly controlled hypertension, and calls this very rare. None of these studies used a hammock.

Pregnancy and existing conditions

NCCIH advises people who are pregnant, older, or living with severe high blood pressure, glaucoma, balance problems or joint and spine conditions to consult a provider first. The NHS advises that later in pregnancy lying flat on the back should be limited to a few minutes, that activities with a risk of falling should be avoided, and that instructors be told about the pregnancy. No source reviewed addresses vertigo specifically.

Equipment and instructor standards

Searches for rigging standards and instructor requirements from independent safety or fitness bodies returned only studio, vendor and manual pages, which were not used, and no recognized standard was found. The 2013 feature quotes hardware ratings given by one brand's teachers, a manufacturer-level claim. NCCIH advises asking instructors about their training. This page does not replace medical care, and symptoms should not be left unassessed because of a class.