It is officially 24 hours since I fell in love with an exercise prop that goes by many names: the aerial sling, aerial hammock, aerial trapeze - yoga trapeze. While there are significant differences in terms of the form factor for practical purposes/applications, the basic idea is the same. This product is a practical tool for strength training, deep stretching, and - wait for it - spinal decompression.

The thing is, it is exclusively marketed to women. Why? The circus arts adjacent, aerial silks, are performed by men - you can see more men than women performing aerial silks in a Cirque du Soleil setting; however, generally, these aerial sports are consumer-oriented toward women only^[1].

Related aerial sports tend to emphasize all of the poses you can accomplish - generally feminine sports seem to be marketed toward displaying the feminine form, whereas male sports seem to be pretty preoccupied with the execution of a intra/inter-competitive objective^[2]. The man who goes to yoga by himself is still a rare breed. I guess one perspective is that aerial arts are a feminine entry point to calisthenic training. But as I mentioned above, I think these sports offer a lot more than is marketed.

So do men miss out on practical ways to physically feel better - and even train hard - by avoiding these “feminine” exercise classes? I’m not saying all you dudes need to sign up for pole dancing classes. But, man, it’s too bad there isn’t a male-oriented aerial hammock class. Imagine that! An exercise class about all the different ways you can get into your hammock while getting a stretch, some good strength training, and even some lumbar or thoracic decompression before you crack open a cold can of beer. The class comes with a can of beer, much like barre classes serve champagne.

1. Except for aerial straps, which look brutal. ↩

2. Even aesthetic weight lifting gets preoccupied with numbers and stats. ↩