Topeka Yoga Network adds aerial and bungee yoga to downtown studio

The biggest change at Topeka Yoga Network is not just a new class menu item. It is a bet that aerial and bungee yoga can help turn a downtown studio into a stronger draw for first-timers, lapsed practitioners and anyone looking for a more playful way into the practice.

The mother-daughter team of Mary Boland and Evelyn Spangler unveiled the new offerings at 925 S. Kansas Avenue with a ribbon cutting, open house and afternoon of demonstrations called Rise, Fly & Flow on May 14. The studio says the aerial and bungee formats are being added permanently this year, making the move a business expansion rather than a one-day stunt.

That matters in downtown Topeka, where small wellness businesses compete on experience as much as on tradition. Topeka Yoga Network already has a broad service mix, including corporate yoga, private classes for groups and individuals, event yoga, wheel yoga, restorative yoga, senior yoga and children’s yoga. Adding aerial and bungee work gives Boland and Spangler another way to meet different kinds of clients where they are, whether they want a strength challenge, a lower-impact option or something that feels less intimidating than a standard mat class.

The studio’s growth has been incremental. Boland and Spangler began teaching yoga in Topeka around 2014, and the company operated as a mobile business before opening its downtown studio. Their earliest clients were mostly corporate private events, and they kept offering Zoom classes during the pandemic, a flexibility that helped keep the business moving while many fitness operators were still figuring out how to stay visible.

The new formats also fit the studio’s larger wellness pitch. Topeka Yoga Network says its instructors are professionally trained and that safety and anatomical alignment are priorities. Boland’s own teaching path began after she sought relief from sedentary-work-related joint issues and degenerative arthritis, while Spangler graduated from Emporia State University in 2008 and has a background that includes work with families with disabilities at TARC and nursing at Cotton O’Neil Clinic. That mix of experience helps frame the aerial and bungee classes as more than eye-catching fitness trends. They are part of a studio culture built around accessibility and guided movement.

There is also a broader market signal here. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says yoga is commonly used for well-being, fitness, stress control and managing health problems, and participation among U.S. adults 65 and older rose from 1.3% in 2002 to 6.7% in 2017. For Topeka Yoga Network, that means novelty does not have to replace the core practice. It can be the hook that brings people in, then keeps them returning to the downtown studio long after the first flight through the hammock.