My First Trapeze Class!!!!

I had my very first trapeze class last night! Overall it was awesome! The drive to it from work was shorter than I had expected, which was nice, and the parking situation was good. Because I arrived so early, I had a chance to take some pictures with my iphone before the class started. Once I figure out how to post them, I'll get them up.

I got one pic up - of me taken in a mirror, but I have some others of the circus ring where we practiced, but I can't get them to go through from my phone to my e-mail account. Ok, spent 20 minutes walking around outside to find a network so that I could send another picture through from my iphone. The 2nd picture that I just put up is of the ring we practiced in. All the trapezes were still rigged up on the ceiling since my pics were before class when almost no one was there. We used 3 trapezes during the class. There were 2 more pics that I wanted to post, but due to technical difficulties, this will have to do for now.

The class started with an extensive stretching session, which was really good. I found that I was the most flexible student in the class, which was a boost. I suppose all my stretching for the past 11 weeks has paid off. I do need to start focusing on my straddle stretch more, though. That's my weakest stretching area.

Fitness-wise regarding weight I was in the middle, so that was good. My outfit was good for the top half (I decided to wear a fitted sports bra which extended down as a shirt, covering my abdomen as well. You'll be able to see it in the picture when I upload it.). The bottom part will need to change. I wore some biker shorts with regular shorts over them. This looked fine, but it's better to have some fabric all the way down so that it gives a bit of protection to the backs of the knees for hangs. So, I will make that correction for next week.

There are 6 of us in the class (although 1 person wasn't there). Out of the 5 of us, 4 were female, and 1 was male. Everyone looked to be early to mid-twenties. I'm sure I looked around that same age as well even though I'll be 30 next week. 2 women had taken the class before. The other woman was more in my boat. She had never done any type of trapeze class before. She was actually big into ballet in the past. She really had the look of a dancer, too, long lines and excellent toe point. Then the only guy has a fiancee who is an aerialist, and he wants to be able to do partner work with her.

The instructor was in excellent physical shape. Her body fat percentage had to be extremely low. She had been teaching aerial for 7 years, making her probably in her upper 20s. She's 5'1 1/2, and she had a really fun attitude - positive and fun but not overdoing it.

Ok, so after we did the stretching, we started on the trapeze. The instructor did a demonstration first, and then we each took turns doing the routine, with her spotting us.

I was impressed at how much we actually did in the first class. We wound up doing 2 different series of routines. Here is what we did:

Basic Hang
Double-Up (Tuck through to pike)
Double Knee Hang (Hocks Hang)
Bird's Nest
Double-Up (Pike Tuck through to down)
Down

and then...

Basic Hang
Double-Up (Tuck through to pike)
Double Knee Hang (Hocks Hang)
Double-Up (Tuck through to pike)
Up to a sit
Stand
Lean forward - toe to knee, leg out forward
Lean Backwards - toe to knee, leg out backwards
Stand
Sit
Double-Up (Pike Tuck through to down)
Down

You can see what some of these moves are via this link:
http://www.fedec.net/fr/manuel%201%20-%20part%202.pdf

The instructor called the Tuck through to pike something else, but I forgot what it was called, so I just went with the name that the web site had.

We were given 2 different options for the Double-Up (tuck through to pike) move. The first was to tuck into a ball while moving your legs through your arms under the bar. The second option was to keep your legs straight in a piked position, keeping them straight all the way through under the bar. The instructor advised me to take the 2nd option, saying that my pike stretch was really good and that I would be able to do it well. The 2nd option, however, is much harder. It requires more abdominal strength. If you think about it, you have to hang and then lift your legs up all the way through. It also requires strength in the quads muscles in your legs. I will definitely get it in the 14 weeks, but I will need to build up some more strength. I can do it very well, coming down from the trapeze, as that requires the same flexibility, but not quite as much strength.

The instructor was really good regarding safety, especially with the 3 of us who were complete beginners. Also, she pointed out polishing techniques, which were very helpful - e.g. making the movements slow and controlled, striking a pose when we got up into the sit position, and how we were supposed to land when dismounting.

The class itself was an excellent strength training and flexibility workout. It was NOT a cardio workout, though. It's deceptive in how much it worked our muscles because we were all concentrating on learning the techniques and having fun doing the tricks. But, this morning, I really can feel it in my abs, quads, forearms, shoulders, back, etc. Also, my hands are still hurting. My right hand actually has 3 red spots on it, where I must have busted some small capillaries or something. I'm glad I started toughening up my hands. It will definitely take a while to get the toughness built up. Also, the back of my left knee has a red spot and is hurting. I definitely need to wear long pants/leggings next week. But, I'm almost proud of these things. It's proof that I'm on my way to learning the static trapeze.

Oh yeah! And we ended the class with some conditioning - 20 hanging shrugs (I was one of the few who was able to do it all in a row without dropping) and 35 crunches.

As a result of this class, there are several things that I'm going to need to change regarding my fitness routine. I need to focus my strength training on the muscles that I need for the trapeze. There are several new exercises that I'm going to add to my regimen (e.g. leg lifts while hanging from the pull up bar), and some exercises that I'm going to modify (e.g. assisted chin holding the side bars rather than the bar in front to help me be able to pull up from seated on the trapeze to standing). I also need to work on my toe point. I intentionally did not point my toes well in the first class because I wasn't sure about it. My feet are a bit messed up (flat arches, a tendon connected wrong), and I didn't want to cramp them. There's a toe pointing stretch that we were shown that I'm going to practice, and I want to practice just pointing my toes at home to see where I am with it before I try pointing them fully in class.

This was definitely an amazing experience. I'll be posting in the next couple of days regarding the changes in my weights sessions. It's good anyway to mix that up to keep the body guessing. Also, I'll be concentrating more on abdominal muscles, too. In 14 weeks - well, I suppose 13 weeks now, I'll be performing on the trapeze! It's hard to believe, but after the first class, I feel confident that I'll be able to do it.