At Yoga in Palmerston North launches flight yoga classes

Kari Highstead (left) and Tracy Jenkinson show off the hammocks that are a feature of At Yoga Floor & Flight Yoga Studio. Photo / Judith Lacy

It's taken two years but Tracy Jenkinson is no longer grounded.

The Palmerston North resident wasn't looking to cruise the Danube or visit family in Queensland. No, she wanted to get her flight yoga classes off the ground.

Jenkinson owns At Yoga Floor & Flight Yoga Studio and it now offers yoga and pilates using a hammock.

She did her flight yoga (also known as aerial yoga) training two years ago. It took her some time to find the right studio space with one requirement that it be at ground level.

She moved into a space in the former Innes Dean House last July. Then she had to get beams installed and signed off, then begin practising for the classes. The support structure for the hammocks was designed by an engineer and each hammock is rated to 500kg - strong enough to hold a baby elephant. With Covid-19 and lockdowns it had been a long, slow stop-start process.

Jenkinson has been doing yoga for 14 years and teaching for more than four. Two years ago, she did her anti-gravity fundamentals training. She has a background in dancing and teaching dance to children.

Flight yoga movements are like those of floor yoga but with less weight-bearing. There are sun salutations, warrior poses and breathing control. Students can also do inversions (when your head is lower than your heart) to elongate the spine and increase blood flow to the heart, plus shavasana (corpse pose) to hide from the world.

Yoga helps to slow down the mind, Jenkinson says. There is a lot of yang in the world at the moment so focusing on yin allows time for the brain to recover.

Kari Highstead says being in the hammock is like being in your own womb. Photo / Judith Lacy

Kari Highstead is At Yoga's other flight yoga teacher. The nurse says yoga is a great way to lock the world out for a while with no social media, no phones ringing, no people in your ear. Being in the hammock is like being in your own womb.

Flight yoga is for all abilities, she says. "You don't have to have Cirque du Soleil in your mind to come try."

Highstead has been practising flight yoga for six years, starting her training in the United States before moving to New Zealand five years ago.

"It's nice to see it come to fruition especially for Tracy because it's been a long haul for her."

At Yoga currently offers beginners flight yoga classes and one for teens, with plans to add intermediate and restorative classes.

The old Innes Dean House on the corner of Rangitīkei and King streets will become a wellness centre, Jenkinson says. Hypnosis is already offered from the same floor with more tenants to come.