4 Week Begining Lyra Classes

Sadie Hawkins Photo by La Photographie Nashville  

About a month ago I was done with Dracula: The Rock Opera, I was done with Imperial OPA's Masked Charade and was closing on the end of my semester and had a month before Atlanta Xmas Apocalypse... what was I going to do with my time?  I mean, I had to finish up school but I was going to have all this free time on my hands and we can't have that!  My friend, Sadie Hawkins, (who is an amazing performer with many aerial apparatuses, burlesque and fire) happened to post that she was going to be teaching a 4 week beginner lyra class series at Kinetic Hive that fit perfectly into my month off!

It was both easier and harder then I thought it would be.  I had taken a few classes from her maybe three(?) years before so some of it I had done before, but that didn't mean I remembered any of it.  The class was small, there were only three of us, so with Sadie showing us what to do we each got about 15 minutes on the lyra per class.  That does not sound like much, but as we were all beginners none of us needed to be on my longer than that as it's a very intensive work out that uses all of your muscles. We worked on different mounts, positions, and moved fairly quickly through a bunch of different things in a very short period of time.  So there I was, hanging from the ceiling, sometimes by only one hand and maybe one foot, doing splits in the air, sometimes upside down and sometimes doing flips around the ring.  Yeah, is under a month she had us doing flips and they were awesome!  I will say that I was often sore and ended up with bruises in places that made me look kind of like a battered junkie whore, but they were all worth it!  My word of advice is this: after class, drink about a liter of water (I drink water that has electrolytes in it) and take some Ibuprofen before you go to bed.  This will help keep your muscles hydrated and keep them from getting too sore.

Even at only one night a week I feel a lot more confident about being up on the lyra and I am planning on taking more classes from her in January.  Also, Kinetic Hive has some Aerial Jam time which means that you can come in and spend time with the aerial equipment to work at your own pace with lots of other people.  They also have an aerial conditioning class to help build up muscle and flexibility for aerial skills.  I am seriously thinking of doing some drop ins for those before the classes start back up in January so I don't loose any of my skills or strength during the break and can go further with this.  I am not really planning on performing on lyra, but this is a great time that is way more fun then going to the gym!