There are three primary roles in an Acroyoga practice: base, flyer, and spotter.[3]
Base – the individual who has the most points of contact with the ground. Often this person is lying on the ground with the entire back torso in full contact. This enables both the arms and legs to be "bone-stacked" for maximum stability and support of the Flyer. Main points of contact with the flyer are the feet (generally placed on the Flyer's hips, groin or lower abdomen) and the hands (which either form handholds or grasp the shoulders).[3]
Flyer – the individual who is elevated off the ground by the Base. The Flyer can move into a series of dynamic positions, and generally lets gravity do the work for them. A Flyer needs balance, confidence, and core strength.[3]
Spotter – this is the individual who has an objective view of the partners, and whose entire focus is on making sure that the Flyer lands safely in case of any slips. The spotter can also make recommendations to the Base and Flyer to improve their form.[3]
There are two main styles in an Acroyoga practice:L-basing andStanding.[4][5]
L-basing, where the base lies on their back while supporting the flyer's weight on the base's legs (creating an L shape with the body). This style allows a relatively long "flying" time.[4][6]
Standing - the base stands up and relies more on their hands and shoulders to support the flyer's weight. This style permits a relatively short "flying" time.[4][7]
Learning acroyoga requirestraining in strength, flexibility, and technique.[8] Strength training is accomplished through repetition of exercises likepush-ups,hand walking andhandstands.Flexibility training is best done at the end of a session with a partner. Learning good Acroyoga technique takes time and effort and is best learned with an expert teacher.[8] One important Acroyoga technique is calledbone stacking. This involves the base partner keeping arms and legs straight to maximize the weight load on bones rather than muscles to support the flyer.[9]A typical acroyoga session may include:[10]
Circle ceremony for communication and openness[10]
Warm-up to gradually get your muscles ready for more strenuous exercise[10]
Partner flow - continue warming up withasanas and stretching with a partner[11]
Inversions help build trust between the partners[11]
There are many static acroyoga poses.[12] A series of acroyoga poses that are repeated in a continuous flow is called a Washing Machine.[13]
A basictherapeutic pose isFolded Leaf in which one partner is inverted and supported on the vertical legs of the other partner whose hands are then free for back massage.[14]
Acroyoga's L-basing practice was pioneered by one of the founders of modernyoga as exercise,Krishnamacharya, in 1938, though without using Acroyoga's terminology.[4]
Acroyoga has echoes in the historic Indian practice ofmallakhamba, a training activity and later a sport using a wrestler's pole, documented from at least the 18th century. In the 1920s, mallakhamba adopted some aspects ofhatha yoga; it may earlier have involved dancing, acrobatics, balancing on poles, and other displays. Pole climbing and dancing is mentioned in theShukla Yajurveda (1200–800 BCE).[15]
There are many schools of Acroyoga. The original two schools were AcroYoga Montreal and AcroYoga Inc. AcroYoga Montreal was founded by Eugene Poku and Jessie Goldberg in 2003;[4] they had informally used the term AcroYoga since 1999.[16] Also in 2003, AcroYoga International was founded by Jason Nemer and Jenny Sauer-Klein in California.[17] For the first year or so they called their practice ContactAcro. In April of 2005 they changed their name to AcroYoga.[18]
This practice blends acrobatics, yoga and healing arts, with the focus initially mainly on therapeutic flying and yoga. Nemer and Sauer-Klei were the first to codify Acroyoga practice in 2006. They trained and made practice manuals for the public, trained teachers and travelled the world sharing the practice. AcroYoga Inc. had by 2017 certified around a thousand Acroyoga teachers worldwide. The focus of the practice has shifted more to the Solar – acrobatic – part of Acroyoga.[4]
^McCartney, Patrick; Center for Open Science (2021)."Acro Yoga".Om Yoga magazine (March 2021): 115.doi:10.17605/OSF.IO/WKYSD. Retrieved11 December 2025.
^"About Us".acroyogamontréal. Retrieved29 July 2014.
^"Our Origins (in box)". Acroyoga International.Archived from the original on 1 March 2024. Retrieved25 June 2024.AcroYoga International Co-Founders Jason Nemer and Jenny Sauer-Klein began codifying the practice of AcroYoga in 2003.
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