acroyoga, aerial silks, and awesome fun times
Last night was another Phire practice session. Since we are at the school gym on Fridays we can bring the aerial silks and hang them from the trapeze set. At first I couldn't manage to climb at all. Never mind that last time I tried this, in mid-December, I managed to climb all the way to the top, this time I couldn't get off the ground at all the first many times I tried. The other girls demonstrated several different techniques, but no matter which foot wrap I tried my arms simply weren't pulling me up at all.
So I took a break, did some shoulder rolls with one of the sticks, and then went back to it, and suddenly it clicked, and I climbed easily to the top. Yay!
However, I didn't wind up doing so many tricks on the silks, because soon thereafter several of us started doing hand-stand training stuff and acroyoga poses. I love acroyoga! One of the girls has had a course in circus stuff, so knows how to do a fair few things, so with her as base I did quite a few things. First the basic flying pose, balanced on her feet (as she lays on her back with her legs in the air). I have been doing that one since I was a small child, but she showed me how to get into it without any hands at all. Just hold my body stiff, and lean into her feet and let her do most of the lifting.
From there we went into a "throne" position, were I shift my weight onto only one of her feet, so she can move the other foot to the underside of one of my legs, then I shift the other way so that she can move the other foot, then I sit up, with the bottom of my feet pressing into her shins. From there it is possible to stand up on her shins and balance there. Also from the throne she lifts her arms and puts her hands on my knees, and I shift forward, off of her feet, and kneel upright just held up by her hands under my knees (so far we are doing that part of the transition with my holding the hands of a spotter, but I can see that we aren't long from being able to do that without holding on). And from there it is possible for her to lift her legs and let me shift back around to flying on her feet. Later in the evening I got to stand on her shoulders. Fun! All of it is so much fun!
I also made time to practice a tiny bit of juggling, and picked up the poi and spun them a little for the first time. some of the boys then called us to watch the first part of their choreography they are putting together to get feedback, and that was fun as well, since we are each of us focusing on different aspects. Hopefully the appreciated all of the suggestions.
The end of the practice session came so darn fast. As we were bundling up to head outside I was talking to the girl I had been flying on, and she said that she needs to train her arms/shoulders/upper body. She said that it is easy to hold my weight on her legs, but with the arms it was hard. I told her that I had hired the personal trainer for just that purpose, and if she wants to join me in my work out sessions he gives me she would be welcome.
She was sufficiently keen that three of us agreed to meet this morning at 08:30 at the gym. Which number got bumped a bit, since they don't actually open till 09:00 on Saturdays, but still plenty early enough not to interfere with other plans for the day.
The room with the "jungle gym" in it had a class scheduled to start at 09:30, so we went straight there and did that part of the workout before class started. (Normally I can't even get into the gym on a Saturday, but since the jungle gym I had ordered on Thursday can't arrive this soon, my trainer made special arrangements to let me in the gym today, even though employee free access is normally only during business hours.) Then we moved over to the empty dance/yoga room, and did the head-stad part of the workout (whilst standing on your head, spread your legs out to the side in splits, bring them back to center, then press one forward, the other back in splits, then back to center, then the other direction forward and back, and back to center, and finally (the hard one), bring both legs forward and then lift them back to center.
After we did those several times each we started doing more acroyoga, repeating what we had done yesterday, and then trying lots more stuff. I can now say that I have done a hand-stand up against someone else's back, then have them grab my lower legs over their shoulders, bend forward, and roll/flip me over their back to land on my feet... and so many other fun acroyoga poses. So! Much! Fun! We were working out for just over two hours before we realized the day was elapsing, and perhaps we should head home.
I am so grateful that I have been doing that morning phone-app workout--the extra ab strength I have built up in that is what makes it possible to do these poses on my frist try.
So I took a break, did some shoulder rolls with one of the sticks, and then went back to it, and suddenly it clicked, and I climbed easily to the top. Yay!
However, I didn't wind up doing so many tricks on the silks, because soon thereafter several of us started doing hand-stand training stuff and acroyoga poses. I love acroyoga! One of the girls has had a course in circus stuff, so knows how to do a fair few things, so with her as base I did quite a few things. First the basic flying pose, balanced on her feet (as she lays on her back with her legs in the air). I have been doing that one since I was a small child, but she showed me how to get into it without any hands at all. Just hold my body stiff, and lean into her feet and let her do most of the lifting.
From there we went into a "throne" position, were I shift my weight onto only one of her feet, so she can move the other foot to the underside of one of my legs, then I shift the other way so that she can move the other foot, then I sit up, with the bottom of my feet pressing into her shins. From there it is possible to stand up on her shins and balance there. Also from the throne she lifts her arms and puts her hands on my knees, and I shift forward, off of her feet, and kneel upright just held up by her hands under my knees (so far we are doing that part of the transition with my holding the hands of a spotter, but I can see that we aren't long from being able to do that without holding on). And from there it is possible for her to lift her legs and let me shift back around to flying on her feet. Later in the evening I got to stand on her shoulders. Fun! All of it is so much fun!
I also made time to practice a tiny bit of juggling, and picked up the poi and spun them a little for the first time. some of the boys then called us to watch the first part of their choreography they are putting together to get feedback, and that was fun as well, since we are each of us focusing on different aspects. Hopefully the appreciated all of the suggestions.
The end of the practice session came so darn fast. As we were bundling up to head outside I was talking to the girl I had been flying on, and she said that she needs to train her arms/shoulders/upper body. She said that it is easy to hold my weight on her legs, but with the arms it was hard. I told her that I had hired the personal trainer for just that purpose, and if she wants to join me in my work out sessions he gives me she would be welcome.
She was sufficiently keen that three of us agreed to meet this morning at 08:30 at the gym. Which number got bumped a bit, since they don't actually open till 09:00 on Saturdays, but still plenty early enough not to interfere with other plans for the day.
The room with the "jungle gym" in it had a class scheduled to start at 09:30, so we went straight there and did that part of the workout before class started. (Normally I can't even get into the gym on a Saturday, but since the jungle gym I had ordered on Thursday can't arrive this soon, my trainer made special arrangements to let me in the gym today, even though employee free access is normally only during business hours.) Then we moved over to the empty dance/yoga room, and did the head-stad part of the workout (whilst standing on your head, spread your legs out to the side in splits, bring them back to center, then press one forward, the other back in splits, then back to center, then the other direction forward and back, and back to center, and finally (the hard one), bring both legs forward and then lift them back to center.
After we did those several times each we started doing more acroyoga, repeating what we had done yesterday, and then trying lots more stuff. I can now say that I have done a hand-stand up against someone else's back, then have them grab my lower legs over their shoulders, bend forward, and roll/flip me over their back to land on my feet... and so many other fun acroyoga poses. So! Much! Fun! We were working out for just over two hours before we realized the day was elapsing, and perhaps we should head home.
I am so grateful that I have been doing that morning phone-app workout--the extra ab strength I have built up in that is what makes it possible to do these poses on my frist try.