Bungee, aerial fitness classes on Long Island (2024)

Exercise gives you a lift in more ways than one at Long Island exercise classes that use a harness, hoop or silks to suspend you during your workouts.

Air time is built into the multilevel sessions at GoBungee Fitness in Massapequa. "Clients love this workout because it’s different and it’s choreographed and fun," says Stacy Vano, 56, who owns the 3-year-old facility.

Gerry Gaeta, 70, takes GoBungee classes about twice a week, in-between playing pickleball and walking. She’s a fan because it’s low-impact and innovative — win-win.

"Everything out there, to me, can become dogmatic and boring," says Gaeta, who lives in Huntington and is retired from her sales career. "It’s easy on your joints because there’s no pounding. It’s a big stress release when you fly."

Here’s a roundup of local gyms where you can drop in for classes or sign up and become a member. Get in shape as you catch some air.

GoBungee

Move over, Elphaba. Let someone else defy gravity! Slip into a harness suspended from the ceiling that supports you during a GoBungee sesh. After a warm up, you use your own weight for resistance in a low-impact choreographed cardio routine to the tunes of Taylor Swift, Pitbull and Ed Sheeran.

The bungee setup provides a sensation of weightlessness and adds a playful element as you build strength, agility and flexibility and master moves and increasingly challenging sequences.

Hourlong classes burn between 300 and 800 calories. There are four levels of classes. "I can’t wait to try Level 4," says Gaeta. Drop-in: $25.

Aerial yoga

You can teach an old (downward) dog new tricks. Tuck into a silk harness that lets you explore yoga movements in different ways than on a traditional mat. The harness supports you as you go through upright and inverted poses. During warm-ups, your feet are on the floor.

Being suspended in the hammock reduces pressure on the spine and joints while you work your core strength and burn up to 400 calories an hour, according to Sound Body & Mind Huntington studio owner Adam Levy, 41, who lives in Northport.

Leslie Speed, a teaching assistant who lives in Melville, takes a mix of aerial and traditional yoga. "You use the harness as a prop and do poses while you’re holding onto it," says Speed, who had an aerial yoga setup installed in her house. "You can then sit in it, and you can also position to being upside down. There’s always a new challenge. You leave with a sense of lightness." Single class: $25.

Aerial hoop

Channel your inner circus acrobat in a class at The Aerial Loft in Mineola that boosts your balance and builds full-body strength — and that’s not clowning around.

Suspended about 4 feet off the floor, the metal hoop used in this workout is also known as a lyra. Actual time spent in the hoop depends on skill level, says Regina Armand, who opened her studio in 2019.

"Beginners start conditioning to build their grip and core strength to enable them to lift up and get into the lyra," she says. As students progress, they learn basic seated poses and, over time, master more intricate movements, spins and fluid transitions. First class: $20.

Aerial silks

Participants climb, wrap and perform acrobatic moves on suspended fabric — called silks — in thisclass at The Fit Factory in Bohemia that emphasizes core stability, creativity and full-body workout.

Beginners start on the ground with exercises that build strength until they can climb and learn fundamentals like foot locks and wraps, according to studio owner Krystle Montalvo, 36. This training not only leads to more impressive moves and sequencing, but artistic expression within the activity.

"It’s empowering," says Montalvo, who’s seen many newcomers to silks get totally wrapped up in it. "The key to longevity in fitness is finding something you love." First class: $25.