Aviva Steiner: The VISIONARY CREATOR OF the Aviva Method
By Zsofia Jamieson, co-founder of The Fertility Class and certified Aviva Method instructor, who has taught the method for 15 years.
Last updated October 2026.
In short: Aviva Steiner (born in Budapest in 1930) was a dancer and physical education teacher who moved to Israel in 1946 and worked as a physiotherapist’s assistant at Hadassah Hospital in the 1950s. She created the Aviva Method, a precise sequence of short, rhythmic exercises that targets pelvic circulation and supports a regular menstrual cycle. Certified instructors still teach her method around the world, and it is the foundation of The Fertility Class.
Her life
Aviva Gabriella Steiner was born in Budapest in 1930, the daughter of well-known Hungarian athletes, and grew up in gymnastics and ballet. She spent much of the war in hiding, and in 1946, at 16, she was sent to Israel. There she studied classical ballet, modern dance, yoga, karate and jazz, and her dancing caught the attention of the choreographer Gertrude Kraus. She later left her dance career to earn a degree in physical education, and in the 1950s, during the polio epidemic, she worked as a physiotherapist’s assistant at Hadassah Hospital.
The turning point came in an exercise course she taught for women, when participants began reporting more energy and more regular cycles. Aviva set out to understand why. She spent the following decades studying how specific pelvic sequences affect the menstrual cycle, and that work became the Aviva Method.
The method she created
The Aviva Method rests on a simple, carefully tested idea: that precise, rhythmic movement of the pelvis can improve circulation to the reproductive organs and help the menstrual cycle find its rhythm. Aviva believed that many fertility difficulties are connected to poor circulation and too little movement in the pelvis, and she designed every sequence to address exactly that.
The exercises are short and dynamic. They engage the pelvic floor, the deep abdominal muscles and the lower body in a deliberate order, with the aim of improving blood flow to the ovaries and uterus. Women have practiced them for decades for irregular cycles, difficulty conceiving and conditions such as PCOS and endometriosis. For a full guide to how the method works, read What Is the Aviva Method?
Hormonal balance was central to Aviva’s thinking. She believed regular practice could support the body’s own production of hormones such as estrogen and progesterone. Modern research is now beginning to test her ideas: clinical studies from Hungary have measured improved uterine artery blood flow and reduced period pain after Aviva Method practice. Hormone levels themselves have not yet been studied directly, and that is the next question for researchers to answer.
Her legacy
For more than four decades, Aviva devoted herself to the method and to teaching women that they could take an active part in their own reproductive health. She trained a generation of instructors who carried her work forward. Among them was Judit Puni, who founded the International Aviva Method Information Center, and Lívia Tóth, who brought the method to Hungary and became the first certified teacher there. You can read Lívia’s story in Lívia Tóth: The Teacher Who Brought the Aviva Method to Hungary.
Her influence reaches beyond the method itself. Adelheid Ohlig’s Luna Yoga grew from Aviva’s cycle exercises, as we explore in Adelheid Ohlig and Luna Yoga, and her work holds a central place in the history of fertility exercises.
How The Fertility Class builds on her work
The Fertility Class is built on the Aviva Method, and it would not exist without Aviva Steiner. We teach her exercises as the foundation of everything we do, and around them we have built a complete program for modern life:
- Guided online classes that women anywhere in the world can follow from home, so the method is no longer limited to a small number of studios.
- Current research on movement, blood flow and hormonal health, which shapes how we teach and how we tailor practice to each member.
- Stress support, including breathwork, meditation and visualization, because chronic stress affects ovulation.
- Nutrition guidance grounded in the evidence on fertility and hormonal health.
- Support alongside medical treatment, including phase-by-phase guidance for IVF and IUI cycles.
Aviva’s work paved the way for movement to take its rightful place in fertility care. Teaching it to a new generation of women is a privilege, and we hope to honor her legacy in every class.
Common questions
Who was Aviva Steiner?
Aviva Steiner was born in Budapest in 1930 and moved to Israel in 1946. A trained dancer and physical education teacher, she worked as a physiotherapist’s assistant at Hadassah Hospital in the 1950s. She developed the Aviva Method while teaching exercise classes for women, then spent decades refining it into the precise system of fertility exercises that certified instructors teach today.
Is the Aviva Method still taught today?
Yes. Certified instructors teach it around the world, and The Fertility Class teaches it online, led by two certified Aviva Method instructors.
Has the Aviva Method been studied?
Yes. Recent clinical studies from Hungary measured improved uterine artery blood flow and reduced period pain after Aviva Method practice. Read more in What Is the Aviva Method?
Sources
- Kovács, Hegyi and Szőke, Journal of Clinical Medicine, 2023: Aviva Method exercise and uterine artery blood flow
- Kovács et al., Medicina, 2024: Aviva Method exercise and primary dysmenorrhea
- International Aviva Method Information Center: Aviva Steiner’s legacy
More research on our Studies page
