Skip to main content

Red Bridge Shopping Center has landed an unconventional fitness studio that offers classes such as aerial pilates and aerial yoga.

What exactly is aerial yoga? Essentially, it’s doing modified or traditional yoga poses, such as downward dog and the warrior, while incorporating looped silks suspended from the ceiling.

“The movements are more anti-gravity; you’re not putting all the pressure on your joints,” Amina Ricca, owner of Silks & Pole Aerial Fitness and a Leawood resident, told the Kansas City Business Journal.  

At times, participants may be completely inverted hanging from the ground or balancing both feet in the silks while placing their hands on the ground. It all leads to a deeper stretch, she said.

But for Ricca, the aerial silks craft also is personal. She started 15 years ago, and it later aided in her recovery when she broke her hip in a car accident four years ago. Ricca couldn’t head to a traditional gym to use the treadmill or lift weights.

“My rehabilitation has been the silks, and that’s what made me start the gym,” she said.

Read More