How Aerial Fitness Improves Your Core Strength and Flexibility

If you're looking for a workout that feels more like play than punishment (but still sculpts and challenges your body), aerial fitness might be your perfect match. From the moment you step off the ground, you're engaging your muscles in a whole new way. Whether you’re wrapping yourself in aerial silks or gliding through poses in a hammock, aerial fitness builds deep core strength and flexible mobility that translates well beyond the studio.

Let’s break down exactly how aerial fitness helps improve your core and flexibility, and why it’s one of the most effective (and fun) ways to level up your physical health.

Core Strength: Built from the Inside Out

A strong core is more than visible abs—it’s the powerhouse that supports posture, movement, and stability in nearly everything you do. In aerial fitness, your core is constantly working.

Mid-Air Stability: Holding yourself up on silks or maintaining balance in a hammock requires your body to stay engaged. Your core muscles—especially your transverse abdominis and obliques—are activated every second you’re off the ground.
Controlled Transitions: Moving from one pose to another mid-air takes control, coordination, and core activation. Unlike floor-based workouts, where gravity assists you, aerial workouts make you work against it.
Functional Movement: Because aerial movements occur in multiple planes—up, down, sideways, and in rotation—your core gets stronger in all directions, which improves real-life movement and athletic performance.

Flexibility: Lengthen and Strengthen

In aerial fitness, flexibility is developed gradually and functionally, with your body supported and aligned in mid-air.

Deeper Stretching with Support: Hammocks and silks allow you to sink deeper into stretches without pushing past your limits. This support encourages longer holds and more effective muscle release.
Active Flexibility: It’s not just about reaching farther, it’s about being able to control that range of motion. Aerial training helps you build strength at your end ranges, leading to greater joint stability and safer mobility.
Improved Alignment: Suspended poses often align your body more naturally than ground-based versions, reducing strain and promoting more effective stretching in the hips, shoulders, spine, and hamstrings.

Aerial Hammock: Flow, Stretch, and Stabilize

Aerial hammock is more beginner-friendly but still incredibly effective. The looped fabric acts like a sling, making it ideal for gentle strength training, deep stretching, and mindful movement.

Core Engagement through Flow: Sequences that move fluidly from one pose to another improve coordination and challenge your core’s ability to stabilize while in motion.
Supportive Flexibility Training: From deep hip openers to heart-opening backbends, the hammock gives you the support to safely explore and deepen your range of motion.

Balance & Body Awareness: Because you’re suspended and sometimes only lightly touching the ground, your body learns to self-correct and stay balanced, engaging the core naturally without needing to think about it.

Aerial Silks: Power Meets Grace

Aerial silks are perhaps the most physically demanding of the aerial disciplines. Made up of two lengths of fabric that hang from above, silks require strength, precision, and control.

Climbs & Inversions: These movements force your entire core to engage. Just lifting your legs or pulling your body upward is a total-body effort, with your abs doing the majority of the heavy lifting.
Wraps & Holds: Holding yourself steady while wrapped in the fabric activates deep stabilizing muscles. Your core becomes the center of balance and strength as you transition between poses.
Back and Shoulder Flexibility: Many silk movements require arching, twisting, and extending, helping you build both strength and openness in your upper body.

Why Aerial Fitness Works

Aerial fitness is more than a beautiful performance art; it’s a transformative workout. Whether you’re wrapping yourself in silks or floating in a hammock, each session builds core strength, increases flexibility, and boosts confidence in your body’s abilities.

So the next time you're looking for a workout that engages your entire body and leaves you feeling stronger, longer, and a little more fearless, look up. Aerial fitness might just lift you to new heights.