1 step forward, 2 steps back

After a long spell of fever, chills, and other sickie symptoms I'm back to training this past week.
It's amazing how much I lost in terms of endurance during the down time.  Today was especially difficult, but looking back over the past 5 days I see why.... I've trained and/or taken 8 hours total of class (9 by the end of today). *whew*  I'm at my goal of 10 climbs per class, but by the last climb my forearms are in knots.
We went back to the ankle hang today, and I managed to actually hang instead of just plopping on the mats. As you can tell, I'm still super tense, trying to brace against the discomfort of all my weight pulling around my ankle. The silly thing is, the rest of my body actually feels released and relaxed upside down, it's just the squeezing around my ankle that makes it seem otherwise.
Another tiny life lesson in this practice. We spend so much energy struggling to brace against discomfort rather than sinking in and just being present. Often the discomfort is nothing more than a single point, but with all the flailing &tension it seems like much more.  


Trying single ankle hang... eep.

pull over.. muuuch less painful.. I'll even smile.

learning to fly

   Winter is here, and it's unusually cold for the bay area.  So, we've all been showing up to the Center wrapped in sweaters, hats, and other furry layers. But, turns out you can work up a nice sweat with a few climbs or some handbalance.  It's so peaceful to turn my creaky cold body into a warm working machine.
  Now that the classes are full of regulars, it's fascinating to see practice carving arcs.
The progression is so visual, and clearly non-linear.  Getting an idea to settle (or unsettle) in a body is a strange process. On that note, with a sneaky trick from Jaron, I managed to mostly straddle up into a handstand an balance. Wheeee!!!!

 A good daily thought for yoga, aerial and life....

 Ashtanga yoga founder, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois:

“Do your practice and all is coming.”                                                                                                      

                                                       








flight.

 Wrapping.

Handbalance class,  working on the bench.

Hand balance class.  More on the bench.                                                                                                                                

meathook.

Tried a meathook for the first time. It looks deceptively easy but turned out to be one of the deepest ab workouts I've ever experienced; muscles I didn't even know were there are sore. 
We also went after my endurance goal; on top of the usual workout ..7 full climbs.
No grace in shaking and sweating all the way down, but a certain satisfying deep tug at the muscles down to the bone.

meathook

play

 15 seconds of fame: Hardcore CrossFit rockstar Max Lewin & crew came to play.  They had no problem at all climbing and getting right into the swing of things, trapeze and all. 

 Playing at Kinetic Arts in an attempt to get into headstand with no hands.  A bit arched, but a fun experiment.

Chinese pole

  The center is putting up Chinese poles, we got a chance to experiment after class this week and it was a blast.  Can't wait for the class to be officially up and running!!
   Otherwise, started learning a one leg hang of sorts... beautiful but also feels like my ankle is going to be sliced off by the rope, even halfway off the ground.
Tricks aside, climbing is really starting to click physically. It's still hard work, but my body understands it to the point that I'm not gripping, or struggling. 
The next step is definitely endurance.
3 month goal: 10 climbs per class (at 4-5 right now).

Climbing the pole:

Monkey mouth, seeing exactly how much core strength is in there!

Getting a hang of the.. er.. hang on the ground first. Yep, it hurts.

 

So. Dizzy.

So, after searching through inspiring aerial videos online my sister came up with a few involving spanish web.  Next time we showed up for class, Jaron had all the trappings for Spanish Web.  In the video we watched the woman was magically whirling, so it was funny to hop up and find out someone actually hangs out under the rope and spins it. huh. Cue Jaron laying on the mat and twirling the rope as laugh hysterically.

Actually getting up on the rope and was no problem (though apparently I'm in too much of a pike in the photo, but it was the only photo so there ya go.) but avoiding dizzy, not a chance. Bobble head and googly eyes are inevitable, at least at this point.

We're also finally both figuring the first drop on tissue without direct physicla assistance (video link).      The long pause is mostly talking to make sure we wrapped everything the right way, waiting, and finally dropping.  The music is just for fun, but if it weren't there you would hear a lot of coaching, me saying..  eeep!.. then everyone in the space cheering and echoing through.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aannBrCI32Y

Overall an interesting by-product of this whole training has been that the begginers mindset has a way of making way into everything else in life.         If you've read The Art of Possibility you might say... How fascinating! .. and it is.  

Body on rope.

  A funny moment yesterday when both my sister and I were up trying to twist into a wrap of sorts.    The ropes rotated and when we saw each other across the mat we both laughed and said ..  that looks so neat... do I  look like that?  Truly though, I still have very little idea what my body is doing between the rope and the upside down so photos end up being a fun check point.
   It's been bit like this exercise: arms straight out, backs of hands together, cross wrists so that now palms touch, interlace fingers, twist hands in all the way toward chest, elbows rest at your ribs, hands near your heart... now try to move individual fingers on certain hands, no touching fingers, just think it, then do it... hard isn't it?  Although my body understands the motions (whether criss-cross fingers or twisted rope),  I'm not familiar with this context so it simultaneously makes sense yet feels completely strange.  Fun to turn it all inside out to see what my body really knows.
    Overall an interesting life pondering though, are you actually good at XYZ or are you great at XYZ but only if ABCDEFGHI......  The athletes,  leaders and people that I deeply admire may have come into thier expertise via a certain environment, system of leadership, or set of ideas, but ultimately they are not dependent on those tools, they just are.

Spinning... and seeing eachother

Look Mom!!!  ( yep, I actually sent this to my mom...)