The Best Yoga Swing

How long you’ve been practicing yoga, the kind of routine you want to do with the swing, 

your height, weight, body type, strength level, the experience level you have with hanging upside down and doing full-body workouts, will all influence your aerial yoga swings choice.

We’ve put together a comprehensive guide on the features you may want to think about when buying an aerial yoga hammock. 

Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with what to look out for.

Yoga Swing

A yoga swing (also known as a yoga trapeze or yoga hammock) is used in aerial yoga. 

Yogis suspend themselves from the swing to hang upside down at various angles. 

Aerial yoga swings are available at many yoga studios, but some people prefer to have their yoga swings at home. 

A great quality yoga swing will take your yoga practice to the next level, just like a yoga wheel.

Benefits of an Anti-Gravity Swing

Total Body Workout

Aerial yoga works your arms, legs, and core muscles, giving you a total body workout.

Improve Flexibility, Strength, and Body Balance

Aerial yoga swings help improve the range of motion in your body, strengthening all of its parts. 

This helps you become more flexible, increases your strength, requiring you less time to recover between workouts. 

Aerial yoga swings also improve your body's balance. The more you use the swing, the better your body will become at balancing itself.

Development of Abdominal Muscles

Aerial yoga will activate the abs from the very start of you doing a lift. 

When used correctly, aerial yoga swings can offer a very thorough workout of the entire abdominal wall and lower back muscles.

Inversion Therapy

Inversion therapy has been used for thousands of years in traditional Chinese medicine to ease back pain and stiffness.

Modern research shows that it is actually beneficial to invert regularly and suspend one's own body weight on a sling or standing upright with gravity boots, or, via an inversion table, or an aerial yoga hammock or other inversion supporting devices are beneficial during the rehabilitation of back injuries.

Inversion therapy changes the way your body feels the weight, which helps to strengthen the muscles around your spine and decompress joints to relieve back pain.

The act of inverting also creates space between the vertebrae, enabling them to heal properly after an injury.

Enhances Blood Circulation

When you're hanging by your feet, gravity is pulling directly down on your body. 

This means all of the blood in your feet is heading directly to your heart, in a way that helps get all of the blood flowing from your feet moving towards your head.   

This is especially great for people who suffer from chronic pain because all of this additional blood flow means faster healing time and less inflammation.

Pain, Stress, and Tension Relief

A yoga swing has a wide range of physical benefits including reduced heart rate and blood pressure. 

Hanging upside down also offers pain relief in your neck and shoulders. It also calms the mind and helps you to get rid of distractions by clearing out your thought processes. 

It can really help you get in touch with yourself and to be able to hear what's going on in your head.

Features for a Best Yoga Swing

Purpose of Use

Some people use yoga swing’s after a workout to cool down, while others incorporate them to hold yoga backbend poses. 

Yoga practitioners use an aerial yoga swing, which involves yogis suspending themselves from the swing to hang upside down at various angles. 

A yoga swing can also be used for strength training by performing exercises that focus on core, arm, and leg muscles. 

Additionally, the use of a swing is considered an effective way to decompress the spine partially by hanging slowly but firmly and providing neck care. 

Size

Focus on how wide or narrow the swing is, and how high off the ground it is. 

The other thing to look at is how long the swing's support straps are – if they're not long enough, the yoga swing itself will be useless for all but very basic poses, like an inversion table.

Material

Aerial yoga swings are made of cotton, synthetic fibers, rubber, or a combination of all three. 

A mix of natural and synthetic materials is best to offer stretchy material for the best yoga trapeze. 

• Cotton - Cotton is easy to care for and breathable. Cotton should be mixed with other materials like rubber to keep its shape for repeated use.
• Synthetic Fibers - Material such as nylon is an alternative to cotton because it resists water and oil. A mix of natural and synthetic materials should always be used for a yoga swing.
• Rubber - Rubber absorbs heat as well, so the addition of cotton or nylon keeps the swing from getting too hot.

Weight/Load Limit

Pay attention to a swing’s weight/load capacity so that the equipment doesn't get overloaded and you feel secure. 

It's best to purchase a swing that holds an amount of weight that's suited for your bodyweight. 

Handles/No Handles

There are two types of aerial yoga swings: with or without handles.

Yoga Swing With Handles

A yoga swing with handles is easy to set up, and the foam handles reduce the impact on your skin during use. 

Another benefit of having foam handles is that you can easily adjust where you hang them to accommodate your height. 

The handles allow for beginners or those who are just learning how to properly use a yoga swing.

Yoga Swing Without Handles

A yoga swing without handles comes in three pieces: two straps and a handle. 

If you're taller, the straps may be challenging to adjust and keep secure when hanging them from a high place.

Yoga swings without handles offer more of a demanding workout, but can also be used as a tool to increase strength and coordination.

Overall, both styles are great tools that offer something different for various abilities.

Mounting

There are several different ways to mount a yoga swing.

Doorway Mount Set up

For a doorway set up, you can use a mounting belt and a strap system with clips to attach it to the door frame bar or a chin-up bar. 

Measure the distance from your door frame to where you will be using your yoga swing.

Ceiling Mount

You can use hooks or hardware that comes with the swing, depending on the ceiling accessories the swing comes with.

If there is no exposed beam available for hanging the yoga swing, there are also ceiling-mounted beams you can buy. 

This type is a heavy-duty shear beam that provides stability and will not crack or break. 

You can also choose to suspend the swing from a tree branch, over a pole, over a bar, or from high ceilings using hardware for suspension systems.

Free Hanging System

A free-hanging system provides more height when starting out, so it would be a good option for a taller person or someone who wants to be able to start their swing a bit higher.

It has an adjustable strap so that it can accommodate a wide variety of body sizes and levels of experience with a yoga swing. 

Once a comfortable height has been achieved, it can also provide the stability needed for core strengthening and toning exercises.