COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — During a class at Yoga on High, 13 women spent part of the hour tapping their inner 5-year-olds rather than their spiritual selves.
Like youngsters on a playground, they squealed in delight while swinging in bright-blue hammocks 3 feet off the ground, their legs stretched in front of them.
Following the lead of studio owner Michele Vinbury, the baker's dozen — some more readily than others — launched into a move called an angel flip.
Although initially reluctant, 64-year-old Babaaritah Clark dared to give it a go, somersaulting forward while tangled in the stretchy fabric.
"Wow, that was wild," said Clark, a Columbus resident.
Like Clark, others, too, are gradually discovering the adventure — and health benefits — of aerial yoga.
The exercise, which began popping up in New York in 2006, is just now making its way to central Ohio. It blends traditional floor yoga with aerial arts, minus the intimidation.
Moves that might be more difficult on the ground, Vinbury said, become manageable with the support of high-density nylon hammocks.
"It's playful," she said. "They're swinging, and they're having fun; but then they come up against an edge. I think people are surprised at what they can do."
When flipping upside down, she said, participants enjoy a release of sorts.
"There's no weight on your head, your neck — and you're really able to elongate your spine. Fluids rush through the vertebrae, and it's a really nice feeling for people."
Aerial yoga can also help unknot muscles, Vinbury said, and leave the body feeling more "integrated."
Yoga on High, in the Short North neighborhood of Columbus, introduced its classes five weeks ago, after Vinbury and two other instructors attended training during the summer at the Boulder Circus Center in Colorado.
Infinity Aerial in Worthington, a Columbus suburb, has offered aerial yoga for about two months, but owner Valerie Schrader said her classes focus more on the aerial aspect — a complement to other aerial and dance classes she already offered.
"Anti-gravity stretching opens up the whole body, which you can't do any other way but with the hammocks," Schrader said.
At Yoga on High, participants choose from three class types: strength, restore and flow.
The strength class most resembles a cardio-interval session, the restore class uses lowered hammocks to support slower stretches, and the flow class encompasses the characteristics of traditional yoga.
All three cater to newcomers and veterans alike.
"You're approaching the poses from a different viewpoint," said attendee Gail Larned, 64, who has been teaching yoga since 1988.
"There's an extra bonus of flying — I love going upside down."
From the start of the recent flow class, participants found themselves mostly airborne.
Vinbury showed them how to hop into a hammock from one side and sit in it with legs — and the fabric — stretched out wide.
She cautioned them not about falls but of a different aerial hazard: "wedgies."
"There's some potential for thonging here," she said. "It happens to the best of us."
With hammocks hand-adjusted by two assistants according to a participant's height, Vinbury led gentle stretches using the nylon while standing or kneeling behind it.
Taking their cues from her demonstrations, class members performed aerial moves with varying degrees of difficulty: the warrior 3 pose, a move in which students stand with one foot on the ground, the other stretched behind them using the hammock as support; baddha konasana, a traditional yoga pose that involves sitting with the bottoms of the feet touching; and inversion poses while hanging upside down.
They rested their hips on the fabric and draped themselves over it to form a hip hang. They elongated themselves, lying across the hammock, and swung in a swan position.
They even stood on the fabric.
"It's a great way to experience a different freedom," Vinbury said.
Clark, new to aerial yoga, described the workout as strenuous and sometimes painful, but she expected to return.
"I am a dancer and a drummer, and I am looking forward to this building my strength and stamina," she said.
Several of the moves — including the aerial flip and the inverted baddha konasana — forced Clark to really trust her body, she said.
"I let my spine really stretch."
The class, she said, left her feeling more flexible than does a traditional yoga session.
Susan Driskell, 60, considered the angel flip the most intimidating but also the most secure move.
Jen Piela, 33, who practices yoga daily, surprised herself in the aerial class.
Several times, she said, she wasn't sure she could mimic Vinbury's poses.
"But then you do it and think, 'Wow, I'm awesome.'"
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