Back in July I hosted a Girls' Night, now rebranded as an ExplorHER Event, to Aerial CLT. Click here to learn about that adventure.
Since then I've enrolled in an eight week silks intro course. Today, September 8th, is my first day of the course. I'm pretty excited and anxious as I get dressed that morning and head off to class. As I walk in just as the last time, I'm greeted by Aerial CLT employees and instructed that we'll be on the silks on the left side of the room today. I make my way to the cubbies and place everything in there. Then I'm reminded that I have to take off all of my jewlery. Once that's finished I find my way to the mat.
There are four other girls present and I introduce myself and vice versa. As I sit there pretending to stretch two more girls join the class. So there's a total of 7 women in the class. Next up our instructor walks over an introduces herself. Her name is Aly and she's not the same woman I had previously. This entire class was basically a review of the skills I picked up in my drop-in class back in July.
We go over arm wraps and positioning. This is where you wrap your arms around in the silks, and then sink the lower half of your body until your arms hang straight and you're hovering above the ground. We hang from varying heights. Either a low hang that you sit into with your arms straight or a medium hang where you bring your knees to your chest in a ball. We also go over the basic foot lock. Mind you everyone else in the class is new so it was a review for me.
How to get into a basic foot lock:
Hold both the ribbons together which is called a "rope"
Lift your leg up, right or left it doesn't matter because we practice on each leg, at a 90 degree angle (keep it high)
With the rope on the inner side of your thigh, flex and maneuver your foot so that the rope is draped over your foot.
Now, take the rope on the inner side of your thigh and pull it slowly, about a foot or so.
The rope that you just pulled, drape it over that same foot that you have up and flexed, and under that foot.
When you're done your foot should be locked in the fabric and your leg is still at a high knee. This basic foot lock is a maneuver that I will use to get into the start of many different poses.
The pose we worked on today was "Standing/Sitting Hip Lean"
You get into your basic foot lock (see steps above)
Place your arms firmly around the rope above your head (arms locked)
Then you stand up with your leg that is in the lock. For all purposes moving forward we'll assume I'm using my right leg.
Once you stand up keep your locked foot flexed and your arms tucked into you
Bring your free leg (left leg) up into a high knee (keeping the rope in your innermost thigh)
Take the opposite arm of your free leg (in this case your right arm) and grab your left knee
Once you're comfortable, slowly begin to lower your body to the right side until you're sideways.
Voila, you're in your Standing/Sitting Hip Lean pose. You can do this pose both up high or down low. In the lower form you'll get to step 4 and then:
Sink your body into a sitting position. Your free leg (left leg) should be straight in front of you. Right leg (the one that's locked) bent.
With your right arm you will firmly grasp the side of your left leg
When comfortable you will lean sideways.
To get out of any pose you will simply do the same steps backwards. Doing this means that you won't get tangled up, tied into a knot, or possibly fall and hurt yourself. Plus it's easier to remember to simply go backwards than to have a brand new set of steps to memorize.
Don't forget to check out more of my #AerialAntics from the other weeks!
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