If you’re looking up aerial yoga poses, you’re probably doing reconnaissance. There’s a class on Tuesday, or a friend keeps asking, or somebody gave you a gift card, and before you commit you’d like to know what they’re going to ask you to do in that hammock and whether your body is going to cooperate.
Fair question, and the honest answer is that nearly every beginner pose is a shape you already know from the floor, done with the fabric carrying part of your weight, taught with the ground close enough to touch. The one that looks impossible from the outside is the one the hammock does most of the work for.
Below is what you’ll meet in a beginner class, pose by pose, plus the milestone they all build toward.
Quick Summary
Most beginner aerial yoga poses are familiar yoga shapes done with the hammock carrying part of your weight: forward folds, down dog, chair, lunges, butterfly. They’re taught low, with the floor within reach. The one you’ll remember is your first inversion, and the hammock is what makes it possible.
Why poses feel different in a hammock
The fabric holds part of your body weight, so your muscles spend less effort keeping you upright and more effort opening. A stretch you’ve done a hundred times on a mat goes further in the air, and shapes that would need strength you haven’t built yet become available right away.
Your spine gets the other half of the deal. Hanging with support lets the vertebrae separate slightly instead of compressing, which is why people so often say they leave feeling taller than when they walked in. The effect is real and it’s temporary, which is a decent argument for booking the next one.
Beginner aerial yoga poses
These are the shapes that show up early almost everywhere aerial yoga is taught. One honest warning before the list: pose names aren’t standardized in this sport. The same shape is a cocoon at one studio, a womb pose at the next, and a floating savasana at the third, so treat these as the common names rather than the official ones.
- Supported forward fold (Uttanasana). Stand with the fabric at your hip crease and fold over it. The hammock carries your upper body, so your hamstrings get a longer stretch than they would give you on their own.
- Aerial down dog (Adho Mukha Svanasana). The same inverted V as the mat version, with the fabric wrapped at your hips. Because the hammock holds your pelvis, your wrists stop being the limiting factor and your spine lengthens instead of bracing.
- Aerial chair (Utkatasana). The fabric sits behind your back and under your arms while you sink into a squat with your feet planted. It’s a seat that isn’t quite a seat, and it teaches you what the hammock will hold.
- Supported lunge (Anjaneyasana). One thigh or foot rests in the fabric while you settle into the lunge. The support lets your hip open at its own pace instead of at the pace your balance allows.
- Floating butterfly (Baddha Konasana). Sit into the hammock with the soles of your feet together and your knees wide. This is the shape you’ll hear called the swing, and it’s the seat you’ll launch your first inversion from.
- Hip hold, usually called superman. Face down with the fabric at your hips and your arms and legs reaching out. Your back extends the way it does in locust pose, except the fabric holds your middle so your limbs genuinely float.
- Aerial plank. Feet in the fabric, hands on the floor, body in one line. Getting into it takes some coordination, so it tends to arrive after a few classes, and it’s where you find out your core has been paying attention.
- Floating savasana, or the cocoon. Climb fully inside the fabric and let it wrap you. Class usually ends here, and the squeeze of the fabric is far more settling than it sounds.
Your first inversion, the one everybody remembers
Ask Rachel McMeachin, who founded Voler in 2007 as Kansas City’s first aerial studio, what the real goal is for a beginner and she doesn’t name a pose. It’s getting an adult upside down on purpose for the first time. Her description of what that does to a person: “It freaks you out, and then it makes you giddy.”
Mechanically it’s simpler than it looks. From the butterfly seat, the fabric sits across your low back just above the hip bones, your legs stay wrapped around the outside of the fabric, and you tip back. To come up, you tuck your chin and roll. Your hands are for orientation more than for holding on.
Inverting in a hammock is more available to beginners than inverting on a mat, and for a specific reason. A headstand asks you to balance your body weight on your head and neck. A hammock inversion puts that weight into the fabric at your hips, so nothing is stacked on your spine and there’s nothing to balance. What stands between you and your first inversion usually isn’t strength. It’s the few classes it takes to trust the fabric.
You’ll hear this pose called a star inversion, an inverted butterfly, a monkey, or a cannonball depending on who is teaching. There’s no single correct name, and there’s no Sanskrit one, because the shape is a modern invention that arrived with the hammock.
What aerial yoga is actually good for
Two claims hold up well. The first is the traction described above, the same principle behind inversion tables, which real studies have measured as a temporary increase in space between the lumbar vertebrae. The second is gravity-assisted stretching, where the hammock takes enough weight that a pose opens further than it would on the floor.
It’s also a workout, and a better one than it looks from outside. One small study of aerial yoga classes put a session squarely in the moderate-intensity range, roughly comparable to a brisk effort rather than a nap in a sling.
The claims we’re going to skip are the ones you’ll find on most equipment sites: detoxing, lymphatic drainage, and various glands. Nobody has shown any of that, aerial yoga hasn’t been through clinical trials, and we’d rather tell you the truth about a fabric hammock than sell you on one.
Is aerial yoga safe for beginners
Yes, with instruction. When we asked Rachel which poses on a beginner list she would never let a beginner try, she couldn’t name one. Aerial yoga doesn’t really have dangerous shapes in it. The genuine risk is losing track of where your body is in space and slipping out of something, which is exactly what an instructor is watching for.
Everything is taught low first and taken higher only once you’re comfortable, and at Voler that method is backed by about 85 years of combined performing and teaching experience across our four instructors. We teach aerial yoga downstairs in the garden studio, where the ceilings are lower and the fabric hangs at hip height.
“Had a blast taking their Intro to Aerial Yoga class…Such a unique experience!”
— Kate C.
Google review ★★★★★
Frequently asked questions about aerial yoga poses
Who should not do aerial yoga?
A handful of conditions come up consistently: pregnancy, glaucoma or other eye pressure conditions, uncontrolled high blood pressure, heart conditions, recent surgery, and vertigo. Glaucoma has the clearest evidence behind it, since going head-down raises pressure inside the eye. None of this is a door closing. Tell your doctor what you’re planning, then tell your instructor, and most of a class can be adapted to keep you upright.
Do you need yoga experience to try aerial yoga poses?
No. The hammock does enough of the work that plenty of people meet their first down dog in the air rather than on a mat. If you’ve never taken a yoga class of any kind, this is a friendly place to find out what it’s about.
Can you learn aerial yoga poses at home?
You can practice at home once you’ve got a safe setup, though the setup’s the hard part and a permanent rig belongs to a qualified rigger. We wrote a whole post on buying a hammock versus taking a class, including how much ceiling height you really need.
Do you need to be flexible for aerial yoga?
No, and the hammock is the reason. It carries enough of your weight that you can settle into a shape gradually instead of forcing it, so people who can’t reach their toes on a mat often get further in the air than they expect. Flexibility is something the class builds over time.
What should you wear to aerial yoga?
Something fitted that covers the backs of your knees and the insides of your elbows, since those are the spots the fabric grips hardest. No zippers, no rings, nothing that can catch. Hammocks are provided and bare feet are normal.
Come find out which one is your favorite
Reading about poses is a poor substitute for hanging in one. Students turn up certain they’ll be the exception, the one whose body won’t do this, and then they’re upside down inside the first few classes wondering why they waited.
The floor stays close, the hammock holds you, and nobody is keeping score.
Join Us in Class. Beginner aerial yoga runs weekly in the garden studio, and no experience is needed.
