She's Flies through the Air

With not so much ease.






















Last night my friend, Darcy, and I went to join the circus. Really, we took and aerial fitness and conditioning class at the new Cirque School. We were raring to go. After a warm up of rolling around on one of those giant balls we did a circuit of silks, trapeze, ropes and floor exercises. Boy howdy...this was more of a workout than I anticipated.

It is core intense




















Super core intense...core whore intense (as Darcy called it). You have got to work all those muscles to keep your balance.

It is also Lat- tastic.

















I couldn't resist this image. It's so super hero cartoonish.
The lats are the muscles that pull you up on ropes and the trapeze and they are especially important in keeping your shoulder blades from ripping out of your body.

As Darcy and I were hanging side by side, by our knees, on the trapeze, the instructor asked us if we had done this before. We both exclaimed, not since monkeybars on the playground. Let me tell you, hanging as a full fledged adult rather than a 60-pound ten year old is a helluva lot of more pressure on the backs of the knees. I've got the bruises to prove it. It was much easier as a kid, but we did all right and even got to do a trick on the trapeze, which did not feel graceful nor did it probably look very graceful. Also, following directions with your ass over your head while hanging from a bar is more difficult than you would think.

The silks were fun and intimidating. Darcy was really able to pull herself up. It's all in the legs. We even did some kind of fetal wrap and hung parallel to the floor until gravity gently lowered us down.

In the end, we were sweating, our hands red and sore, a little ache in the wrists, muscles exhausted all over the body, and the backs of our knees bright pink. So what did we do...we signed up for more. It was so much fun.

Afterward, with hearty appetites, we chowed down Thai food and talked about how sore we would be tomorrow. But today, I am not as sore as I thought I would be. Lots of muscle fatigue but not too sore. I'll let you know how it goes next week and maybe try and get a picture or two.