Fit Trend: Aerial Pilates

Photo provided by hanneke Antonelli

You’ve heard of aerial yoga, hot yoga, and even hot barre. Now, there’s a new trend in town and you can find it locally at South Boston Yoga (SBY). It’s called aerial Pilates, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: Pilates. In the silks.

Hanneke Antonelli, a local Pilates instructor, life coach, and co-creator of Pilates With Purpose, a monthly fitness pop-up event for charity, is hosting an aerial Pilates workshop at SBY April 19. Antonelli, who teaches mat Pilates at SBY, says that she designed this program to define, reform, and reshape her clients bodies.

“I’ve applied some of the reformer and chair [moves] to the aerial band,”Antonelli says. “It is a little bit more intense than the reformer.”

Even if you’re a Pilates purist, you’ll still be amazed at how easy the silks can relate to a typical reformer or chair class. “[In the silks] you can do elephant, knee stretches, and single side stretch,” Antonelli says. “You can do pushups, shoulder bridge, and a lot more.”

Locally, we haven’t seen a specific aerial Pilates class elsewhere, but there are a number of studios offering aerial yoga. Aircraft Aerial Arts, a Somerville-based studio, offers a variety of classes in the silks. Just outside the state, Kama Fitness and Nutrition in Sandown, New Hampshire also hosts an aerial Pilates class.

Apr 19, 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., $20, 36 W Broadway, South Boston, 617-315-7448, southbostonyoga.net