Yoga takes to the air in the latest trend

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- The latest yoga trend defies gravity.

AntiGravity Yoga is a fitness practice that uses a silk hammock as a soft trapeze for resistance and support as participants hang upside down and are suspended in the air. They say it makes them feel airy and light while helping to relieve compressed joints and align the body from head to toe. Trainers say it provides the benefits of yoga without straining muscles.

Founder Christopher Harrison, a Broadway aerial choreographer and former world-class gymnastics specialist, began incorporating the aerial technique in 1999 during his own training.

"Let's take it up into the air," he recalled saying the first time he hung the material from the ceiling. "Thus the silk hammock was born."

The hammock, which is lowered to waist height, is connected from two overhead points. It acts like a swing or trapeze and can hold up to 2,000 pounds.

It is manipulated several ways during a class, as participants hold onto the fabric to move into a sitting position and the hammock wraps around the body to form a cocoon. Legs are stretched out to a restful position. Feet are looped around the hammock for support before participants turn upside down, allowing their hands to drop and softly graze the floor.

Workouts in the hammock blend traditional yoga poses and principles with elements from aerial arts, dance, gymnastics, Pilates and calisthenics. But mastering the positions, as with any new fitness routine, takes some work.

"It was something new," said David Gaffney of Manhattan after his first AntiGravity Yoga class at Harrison's studio in New York City. "It was a real challenge, too."

Harrison says that in addition to the physical aspects, being inside the hammock cocoon can also lead to a meditative state similar to yoga.

"It's almost this thing that happens when you're inside and it lets you close out the rest of the world and be still," Harrison said, saying that some participants report leaving class with "an antigravity high."

Originally launched at Crunch Fitness clubs in 2008, AntiGravity Yoga will be available in more than 50 locations by the end of the year, half in the U.S. and the others around the world, from Italy to South Korea. The AntiGravity hammock is trademarked -- though a few other companies now offer similar programs and products -- and trainers must go through a certification process to ensure safety for participants.

Though AntiGravity Yoga classes are not currently taught in Cape Girardeau, the Source-Yoga 'n More will offer Aerial Yoga in the next year, according to Lauren Jones, owner and an instructor at the Cape Girardeau facility.

"Aerial Yoga has more stringent requirements and training versus AntiGravity Yoga," Jones said.

According to Jones, the training for AntiGravity Yoga is only 30 to 40 hours long, whereas Aerial Yoga, officially called Unnata Yoga, requires that instructors receive 80 hours of training.

"They both have their appropriate place," Jones said. "AntiGravity Yoga is geared toward fitness with a modicum of yoga involved, whereas Aerial Yoga (Unnata) is yoga-centered, using the aerial aspect as a prop much as one would use a block, blanket or Yoga Wall."

Jones said that once the studio has space for the slings, they will arrange for Michelle Dortignac, an instructor who teaches Aerial Yoga in New York, to come to Cape Girardeau to train the studio's teachers.

In addition to the Source-Yoga 'n More, other types of yoga classes are taught locally at HealthPoint Fitness in Cape Girardeau and Jackson and Fitness Plus in Cape Girardeau.

Southeast Missourian editorial-page editor Lucas Presson contributed to this story.