{"id":27286,"date":"2016-02-04T09:17:41","date_gmt":"2016-02-04T14:17:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=27286"},"modified":"2016-02-04T09:17:41","modified_gmt":"2016-02-04T14:17:41","slug":"well-that-was-a-lot-harder-than-it-looked-circus-silks-u-of-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2016\/02\/04\/well-that-was-a-lot-harder-than-it-looked-circus-silks-u-of-t\/","title":{"rendered":"Well, That Was a Lot Harder Than it Looked: Circus Silks @ U of T"},"content":{"rendered":"I walked into my first circus silks class at the Athletic Centre last Friday pretty confident (largely due to the fact that I found my way from the AC change rooms to the Lower Gym in the Benson building on the first try).\r\n\r\n
\"Essentially<\/a>
Essentially the layout of the Athletic Centre and, of course, University College. Good luck.
Background Source: watchervault.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nI wasn\u2019t arrogant \u2014 I know I know nothing about aerial silks, but the instructor asked if I had done anything similar or notable and I mentioned that I\u2019ve been coaching gymnastics for over five and a half years and used to do aerial yoga.\r\n\r\n
\"This<\/a>
This is aerial yoga. 10\/10 would recommend. Even if just for the awesome Instagram photos you\u2019ll get out of it.
Source: yearningforyoga.wordpress.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nAnyway, we started with a warm up. It was very \u00e0-la gymnastics. I felt like I was taking one of my own gymnastics classes. Jiu Jitsu doesn\u2019t work some muscles the way that side kicks with pointed toes do, however, and I felt that right away.\r\n\r\nThere were 4 of us there, I think there may be a couple more in the class who didn\u2019t show up yesterday. It\u2019s a small class by necessity, as the gym only has one silk set up. As a result, we rotated through stations. We had a conditioning station (doing planks, superman holds and the like), a mini-silk set up using one of the gymnastics bars (the Lower Gym is the gymnastics gym at UofT and I felt right at home!), a rest station and a silk set up with the instructor.\r\n\r\n
\"silks-3\"<\/a>
Source: vimbly.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nI was a little behind, having missed the first class the week before, but I caught up rather quickly. I learned that I\u2019m more inflexible than I thought, and that this art takes incredible grip strength. Coming from Jiu Jitsu, I thought that should have been the part where I excelled\u2026 it wasn\u2019t. My hands protested something fierce, but it was definitely worth it!\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s a fun challenge, and when you master a new piece of the puzzle it\u2019s really satisfying. I recommend it 100%! It was also a pretty good workout between the conditioning and the strength and balance it took to tangle oneself in the silks. It may look pretty but that doesn\u2019t make it easy. I have a new found respect for aerial silks performers already.\r\n\r\nThe class is an hour long, which is both sad because I want to do more and probably wise since it\u2019s really hard work. I can\u2019t wait for next week though!\r\n\r\n
\"As<\/a>
As a gymnast and a VERY beginner aerialist now, I wholeheartedly agree.
Source: pinterest.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nNow, I feel like this post would be incomplete if I didn\u2019t add in the \u201cpart where Annette embarrasses herself.\u201d After we wrapped up class I had to get back to the change rooms to bundle up before heading home. I made my way in that direction thinking to myself \u201cHah, I\u2019ve got this route down pat.\u201d I went through a set of double doors and I heard them click behind me. I didn\u2019t recognize the place as somewhere I\u2019d passed through on my way to<\/em> the lower gym, so I went to turn back. The doors were locked. My only option was another set of doors at the bottom of the stairs. As I made my way towards them I felt it getting colder. I had a good feeling I knew exactly what was past those doors, but what choice did I have? I pushed them open and sure enough I was outside, in view of New College, freezing in my tank top. I explained this to the front desk staff later so they\u2019d let me in to get my stuff and they weren\u2019t even a little<\/em> surprised. I\u2019m telling you, the AC is a labyrinth, it\u2019s not just me!\r\n\r\nAnyway, let this serve as a testament to the awesome classes available at the AC, but also to the secret athletes aerial silks performers are. Check back next week for updates and possibly a photo or two (I\u2019ll be trying really hard to conceal my \u201cthis is really hard\u201d face).","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I walked into my first circus silks class at the Athletic Centre last Friday pretty confident (largely due to the fact that I found my way from the AC change rooms to the Lower Gym in the Benson building on the first try).\r\n\r\n
\"Essentially<\/a>
Essentially the layout of the Athletic Centre and, of course, University College. Good luck.
Background Source: watchervault.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nI wasn\u2019t arrogant \u2014 I know I know nothing about aerial silks, but the instructor asked if I had done anything similar or notable and I mentioned that I\u2019ve been coaching gymnastics for over five and a half years and used to do aerial yoga.\r\n\r\n
\"This<\/a>
This is aerial yoga. 10\/10 would recommend. Even if just for the awesome Instagram photos you\u2019ll get out of it.
Source: yearningforyoga.wordpress.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n
Continue reading “Well, That Was a Lot Harder Than it Looked: Circus Silks @ U of T”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1758,63,7204,6669,62,70,82,67],"tags":[12345,25512,15804,15807,768,1385,15808,543,15805,487,2107,259,1733,15810,9283,15806,1734,10843,2171,237,15809,1837,766,887],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27286"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27286"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27349,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27286\/revisions\/27349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}