Last Sunday morning my wife and I spent an hour and a half doing something neither of us have done before, taking a class called Aerial Playground.
The class is pitched as the following on their website:
Do you remember when you were a little kid? Jumping off playground swings and flying into the sand, climbing on jungle gyms, climbing trees, even climbing fences you were warned to stay off of?
If these memories are still fresh in your mind, or if you need reminding, Aerial Playground is a great class to attend. We teach beginners, those who have never climbed a rope, and we train advanced students toward performance and even a professional career as an aerialist.
Remember, however, that fun can be dangerous, and often danger can add to the fun. But the aerial arts is a sport and activity that can cause severe injury, even death.
Even with the death warning, I was excited to give it a try! The class was taught by two of the most chill individuals I have met in years – Simonne Garrigues and Bruce Magnottii (shown above). Bruce and Simonne own Seattle Aerial Arts and have been practicing their craft for the last six years. According to the Seattle Aerial Arts website, the classes prepare you to perform (assuming that’s your goal) or just explore new movements you’re interested in learning.
Seattle Aerial Arts uses various forms of aerial apparatus focusing on “technique [and] graceful flowing transitions, as well as core conditioning and strength training using the aerial equipment.” Bruce and Simonne work with Static Trapeze, Rope, Tissu, Silks, Corde Lisse, Hoop and Lyre.
Seattle Aerial Arts claims that the focus of their classes are on the ”fundamentals” of what are often called aerials, aerial acrobatics, and circus arts. These fundamentals are perhaps the best way to build core strength and offer the student an interesting and enjoyable activity as an alternative to traditional gym training.
Our Experience:
My wife and I arrived at the enormous space with 30-foot high ceilings at about 11AM. The class only consisted of my wife and I as well as one woman in her 20′s who had taken one trapeze class a few years ago.
We got started playing with the ropes, trying to focus on climbing up while using our legs vs. primarily engaging our arms. This sounds easy, but when you’re focusing on doing something very different from they way you have in the past, it’s anything but intuitive. I personally had a hard time relying on using the “break” created by my feet to push higher, instead relying mainly on my arms to help me climb.
After each of us took multiple turns trying new ways to climb the ropes, we started with more challenging movements including winding our bodies in the rope after throwing our legs above our heads (see below for my less than stellar execution of one of these movements).
The precise positioning of the rope becomes critical and completely dictates the success of your movements. For example, the next progression of the above movement requires the rope to be looped around your waist in a very specific way which enables you to shift your weight to one side and dangle your body freely without the use of your hands. If the placement of the rope is at all off, then you will likely end up on the ground very quickly.
After working with the rope for a while, we graduated to the hoop. Bruce encouraged my wife and I to execute the “seesaw” movement, where two people climb up into the hoop and then find a way to support each other’s body weight by placing their feet under each other while leaning out and arching back. Of course my wife did this with complete ease, while I struggled mightily! I found it difficult to just stretch my body out, due to the combination of pain resonating from all of my weight being placed on the back of my knees and the odd feeling of just dangling there. My mind kept thinking about exactly how much LESS my wife weighs compared to me, yet her weight was “supporting” me. I couldn’t help but think at some point her feet wouldn’t support me and I would come crashing down, but that didn’t happen.
Below is the progression of the seesaw movement. The two pictures only show the progression with me because as soon as the command was given to us my wife executed it beautifully while it took me a few minutes to get there.
What Aerial Training Can Teach Us About Our Lives
The class was a lot of fun and I strongly encourage it for people who are already fit and interested in trying new movements that will challenge them physically and intellectually. Whether you’re interested in trying out the Aerial Arts or not, here are two insights I gleaned from the class that are applicable to all sorts of fitness activities (and arguably life in general):
1. Developing Your Sixth Sense: during one of the movements the instructor paused and asked us how many senses we have. Clearly he wasn’t looking for the answer “five.” His point was that humans don’t use all of the senses available to them, and one of those largely unused senses is called Proprioception (as described below by Wikipedia):
Proprioception…from Latin proprius, meaning “one’s own” and perception, is the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body and strength of effort being employed in movement. It is distinguished from exteroception, by which we perceive the outside world, and interoception, by which we perceive pain, hunger, etc., and the movement of internal organs.
Bruce exemplified his point about people not activating their proprioception by talking about how people lose their sense of where their bodies are on the rope. Bruce trains people to trust what they already know (i.e. using their proprioception senses) so that they can focus more on what they don’t know (where is the top and bottom of the rope). Bruce claims that 99% of people who are starting to execute more complex rope movements lose track of which way is up vs. down so their natural focus shifts to where their hands are on the rope (which they already know because they can feel it).
As Bruce put it, “when you’re dangling several feet above the ground with no net and looking for the wrong things (and spending too much time focusing on what you already know) it can create a very brief, but incredibly detrimental moment of fear for the artist” which can lead to injury and even death. Bruce trains people to focus on the “pole” (a.k.a. the portion of the rope above your head) and the “tail” (a.k.a. the portion of the rope below you). Where your body is in relationship to the pole and the tail are all you need to know. Everything else (hand placement, how the rope is resting against your torso, etc.) you can sense.
2. The Power in Connecting the Dots: as the instructor discussed various movements, he made it clear that the “power” of the movements come from the flow and transitions between poses vs. simply nailing a pose. Whether you want to call it focusing on the integration, flow, or connecting the dots between movements, I do find that most of the fitness activities I enjoy (and find most rewarding) focus on how to bring all of the movements together into one continuous flow.
When this flow is executed properly I find that I get a more intense workout and feel a far greater sense of mastery over the exercise. This of course doesn’t just pertain to Aerial Arts. But I do feel this need to apply flow to my movements in everything from Hot Yoga to running to even CrossFit. Achieving an equilibrium between using my brain and trusting my body (and maintaining the clarity required to execute this type of “flow”) is what my drives my pursuit of staying fit and healthy.
Bottom Line:
If you’re looking to mix it up a bit and find muscle and mind control something you like to play with during workouts, I strongly recommend Aerial Arts.
