Today was my first Aerial Beginner A class. There are roughly 12 people in the class and I am the youngest, at 17 years old. Most are graduate school age or late college. A few are older than their mid30s.
The class started with a brief role call and name game session. The instructors introduced themselves, Jackie and Mary Kelly. Jackie has been doing this for several years and Mary Kelly used to work as a clown and trapeze artist. They both seemed very nice, knowledgeable and approachable with questions.
After the little meet and greet, we set to work. We climbed up the corde lisse (thick fabric covered rope) once on each foot. By climbing on each foot I mean wrapping the rope once around one foot and squeezing it against the other to provide a base to climb on. I was too weak and too scared to climb all the way to the top on either foot. But climbing with my left was definitely scarier since I felt weaker and less secure on that side. After reaching my version of the top (about a meter below the actual height) I slid down the rope to either start again on the other foot or to stretch out.
The warm-up continued. Beginning at seven, and moving all the way down to one, we did jumping jacks then second position plies then mountain climbers. Following the blood pumping warm-up, we did a series of yoga stretches before settling down to business.
We began with the basic moves. Holding onto the corde lisse with our hands and with our feet starting on the ground, each of us attempted the upside-down descent move. Upside-down descent is when your body is positioned one side and you straddle your legs above your head so that one knee is hooked around the rope. You then let go with the outside arm and wrap it below your body. Finally you let go with the inside hand so that you are holding on with one knee and one hand, upside-down.
(me doing upside down descent during a later class). At first it is scary, and to someone so out of shape, it is actually difficult.
The second move we learned was the Rock n Roll. It is a way to mount the trapeze where you hold onto the bar, pike your legs through and curl your knees around the bar. Let go with your hand and swing up as high as you can to grab the ropes above the bar. Then lean back, flatten out your body and lever your way into a sitting position. We simply leaned backward to dismount and pike our legs back through the space between the bar and our bodies.
We finished the lesson with three “toughening” exercises and three “strengthening” exercises. The toughening exercises were simple. Hold onto the trapeze with only one leg/knee (once for each leg), an ankle hang where yes you hang onto the trapeze ropes by the crook of your ankle and finally by hanging onto the trapeze with each elbow. They were painful, but definitely got me used to the type of things I would feel in the future. We finished with the strengthening exercises which comprised of 5 pull-ups on the trapeze with assistance, 5 situps hanging on the trapeze with spotting and 5 tuck-ups (pulling a straight body into a pike position and through the space between your body and the bar) 5 times.
If I had stopped there, I would have left feeling empowered, yet ultimately unsatisfied with myself. Where had all my strength and flexibility from years of gymnastics, field hockey, track and crew gone? I was bulging out of my spandex, the fat between my legs was touching and not because there was muscle to push it out of the way. I was determined to get back in shape.
The class started with a brief role call and name game session. The instructors introduced themselves, Jackie and Mary Kelly. Jackie has been doing this for several years and Mary Kelly used to work as a clown and trapeze artist. They both seemed very nice, knowledgeable and approachable with questions.
After the little meet and greet, we set to work. We climbed up the corde lisse (thick fabric covered rope) once on each foot. By climbing on each foot I mean wrapping the rope once around one foot and squeezing it against the other to provide a base to climb on. I was too weak and too scared to climb all the way to the top on either foot. But climbing with my left was definitely scarier since I felt weaker and less secure on that side. After reaching my version of the top (about a meter below the actual height) I slid down the rope to either start again on the other foot or to stretch out.
The warm-up continued. Beginning at seven, and moving all the way down to one, we did jumping jacks then second position plies then mountain climbers. Following the blood pumping warm-up, we did a series of yoga stretches before settling down to business.
We began with the basic moves. Holding onto the corde lisse with our hands and with our feet starting on the ground, each of us attempted the upside-down descent move. Upside-down descent is when your body is positioned one side and you straddle your legs above your head so that one knee is hooked around the rope. You then let go with the outside arm and wrap it below your body. Finally you let go with the inside hand so that you are holding on with one knee and one hand, upside-down.
(me doing upside down descent during a later class). At first it is scary, and to someone so out of shape, it is actually difficult.The second move we learned was the Rock n Roll. It is a way to mount the trapeze where you hold onto the bar, pike your legs through and curl your knees around the bar. Let go with your hand and swing up as high as you can to grab the ropes above the bar. Then lean back, flatten out your body and lever your way into a sitting position. We simply leaned backward to dismount and pike our legs back through the space between the bar and our bodies.
We finished the lesson with three “toughening” exercises and three “strengthening” exercises. The toughening exercises were simple. Hold onto the trapeze with only one leg/knee (once for each leg), an ankle hang where yes you hang onto the trapeze ropes by the crook of your ankle and finally by hanging onto the trapeze with each elbow. They were painful, but definitely got me used to the type of things I would feel in the future. We finished with the strengthening exercises which comprised of 5 pull-ups on the trapeze with assistance, 5 situps hanging on the trapeze with spotting and 5 tuck-ups (pulling a straight body into a pike position and through the space between your body and the bar) 5 times.
If I had stopped there, I would have left feeling empowered, yet ultimately unsatisfied with myself. Where had all my strength and flexibility from years of gymnastics, field hockey, track and crew gone? I was bulging out of my spandex, the fat between my legs was touching and not because there was muscle to push it out of the way. I was determined to get back in shape.
correction: my instructor's name is Mary Kelly, not Mary Sue.
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