"She flllies through the aaaaaair with the grrreatest of eaaaaase..."
In one of my more spontaneous moves, I agreed to enroll in a 6-week aerial fitness class with my friend Monica from work. Of all of the things I have ever wanted to try, I can honestly tell you this was never on any short list, wish list, bucket list, to-do list. But as luck would have it, Monica talked to me the week prior to my birthday.
The significance? I'm a complete diva when it comes to my birthday, and for the week prior, it is ALL about ME.
Add that to my not-so-unique situation of turning 42 while attempting to maintain my mental and physical age of 24 a.k.a., a classic mid-life crisis.
What you get is an overweight female Walter Mitty-type with a thirst for new experiences swinging from the rafters of a tiny martial arts studio.
I showed up for the 7:30 class in skating gear since I deduced that would be the most appropriate. The level 2 class was finishing up, 6 long, lean, flexible yoga-types. I worry.
Then it's our turn to take the mat for stretches and warm-up. The two teachers are a laff-a-minute-"girlfriend!" instructors who put us at ease immediately. Jackie and Sabrina have a love for what they do and it shows as the class ticked into prime time.
In no time flat, we are warmed up and ready for the silks. The first lesson is to wrap the silk around our right leg and lock it by clamping down on the silk with the left. In order to do this, you also have to pull down on the silk then pull yourself up while twirling the silk around your leg.
This is harder than it sounds. In eight attempts, the best I manage is 3 inches off the ground but typically I end up with the silks wrapped around my foot, which is flat on the mat. Being a skater, I had a tendency to point instead of flex, which doomed me. But I did it a couple of times, which earned a few high fives.
Next up was attempting to shimmy up the silk using the wrap and grab. I failed miserably at this.
Then we tried the knot. You started with the wrap, then doubled the silk back over the foot to secure the knot so it wouldn't slip. I excelled at this, and rocketed up the silk and swung, kicked, flexed and didn't want to come back down. Monica and I traded turns scaling the silk and being pretty.
Last, it was time for conditioning, stretching, cool down and dialogue. Conditioning consisted of a series of push-ups from different positions. I did 10 standard push-ups, but only managed 5 decent and 2 crappy ones from hands under the ribcage. We switched to crunches, and did 25 standard, 8 with my feet in the air, and 8 with my legs spread. I'm not quite sure of the quality of the crunches there towards the end.
We took turns stretching each others arms and as we were going through these paces, shared small talk and were asked what we liked about our first day and what we wanted to work on. I said I really liked knot work but wanted to improve the wrap and inch up that silk.
I was exhausted, but felt like I accomplished something. Working with a small group, it was nice to get to know the other 3 instead of try to remember everyone in a group of 6 or more. Also, the instructors were fun, engaging, and most of all, encouraging. They gave us enough to make us work towards a goal while giving us something that gave us a sense of accomplishment.
I'm looking forward to next week.
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