Aerial Lesson #2

My second aerial lesson at NCCA was A-MA-ZIIING and I really wish I'd written about it straight afterwards when I was still buzzing on the endorphins, instead of now, when I'm ill in bed feeling slightly sorry for myself.  But hey, at least I finally have the chance to catch up!

So, first extremely enjoyable thing about last week's lesson was being handed this baby:

Please excuse the horrific pic quality, I'm still getting used to this newfangled 'smart-phone' thing

You may just about to be able to make it out if you squint really hard? Yes, that's right, it's a security pass!!! With my name on it!!!

I can't tell you how excited I was about getting it - but obviously only internally. Because to do a little dance in front of 50 other people, who were also being given passes and looked kind of bored about it, would not have been at all dignified. I did one when I got home though, to make up for it.

The second extremely enjoyable thing was that we had a different teacher this time and ohhh boy, she whipped our soft little asses into shape.  The whole session was like a military operation with lots of repetition and correction etc. It sounds awful, but it turns out I really enjoy this kind of coaching! I could feel myself improving exponentially, especially after she told me this:

'You can totally do all of these exercises, your muscles are strong enough, you're just sending a completely new message from your brain to your limbs and they need to get used to it.  You are burning new neural pathways.  BURN THEM, BURN THOSE NEW PATHWAYS INTO YOUR BRAIN'

(Or something along those lines anyway.  I accept no responsibility for gross exaggeration).

At the time she was gently shouting this at me, I was dangling from the bar of the trapeze trying to make one of my hands let go.  The instinct for self-preservation runs suprisingly deep, but I did manage to do it in the end, yay.

There was nothing wrong at all with Teacher No. 1, but I loved new lady.  I like to be pushed!

After thoroughly practising getting on and off plus last weeks positions, new things learned were:

Lampost

Pic borrowed from: thecircusdictionary.com

This looks easy but felt like the icy breath of the grim reaper on my neck - wobbly and precarious, but eventually possible.

Splits under the bar

Pic borrowed from thecircusdictionary.com

So much fun, even if you can't even dream of doing the splits like me.  One day I'll be able to do it, even if it takes another 30 years dammit!

Incidentally, if these pictures look like people doing basically nothing to you, check out the videos at www.thecircusdictionary.com, they are much more illustrative.

The class finished with a horrifically difficult set of conditioning circuits which included

• press-ups
• pull-ups
• sit-ups from hock hang (hanging off by your legs)
• hanging off the bar with one hand
• straddle mounts (getting on with your legs apart - less rude than it sounds).

Third extremely enjoyable thing - I managed to make it into my free supporting class, rather than arriving late and not allowed to join because I missed the warm-up (I can neither confirm or deny that happened in the first week).  Well done me! I went to the Flexibility class on Thursday and ohhhhhhh it felt SO good to stretch out all my newly-traumatised muscles.  I was skeptical beforehand about the real benefit you can get from one little flexibility class, which I thought would be essentially an hour of pointless warm down.  But those stretches were the best things ever.  It was like having a giant internal muscle massage, mmmmmm.

I am now fully addicted again, I've even started going to multiple yoga classes  in an effort to cross-train myself to aerial amazingness! However I feel like ten kinds of crap today and will probably have to miss tonight's class - gutted.

If there's no 'Lesson #3' post I'll make it up to you, promise!

*shuffles off in dressing-gown*