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All posts for the month March, 2013

She Flies Through the Air With the Greatest of….Plop

Published March 5, 2013 by Susan Woodward

HangTonight’s first assignment was to hang from an aerial hoop and do an “L” sit.  We have been doing that all along hanging from a trapeze, but this hit a whole different muscle group!  As you will see, I am straining to get my legs up!  But they are off the ground, which is a lot better than I did when I first started with the trapeze!  Yup that’s the face of one who is saying, “I am not going to let this get the best of me!”  Problem was, and you can probably tell…I was holding my breath.

One note…breathing is good.

Because I’d held my breath while trying to hang on, I got light-headed when I finally let go.  Ooops.

I think I managed it three times and then tried to go back on the trapeze.  Well, the arms weren’t having it.

And then it was time to get on the silks!  And not just climbing and hanging…it was time to LEAP on them a la Tarzan!!

Yeah…the idea was to take a running leap and fly onto the fabric, trusting that your hands would catch it like a rope and then hang on to swing back and forth.  Looks great when Will does it!  Or Katie or Annmarie or Michelle… ummmm…not so for me.  The first time I didn’t even get a grip on the silk.  It was like I took a running leap to see how hard I could land on the mat.  It took till the third or fourth attempt to grab it and hang on long enough to swing three feet before flying off.

No relation to Johnny Weissmuller here!  And for those of you not old enough to know who the heck that is, let me share this with you:

the-best-tarzan-johnny-weissmuller-pic2-c1942

Yeah…not seeing any resemblance.  Well, maybe the one on the end… on the right.  (Look again at my face above and you’ll see what I mean)  However, when I look at Jane on the left, I have a question for her: Where are your guns, Jane?    It doesn’t look like she could hang on for too long.  I mean, she’s got nothing on some of the ladies at silks!  Sorry, Jane, but just sayin’…

As for me, ok, so I’m not much of a swinger.  Yet.  Give me time!  I am at least off the ground in some fashion, and I do love going to class and working out!

This is really a great experience for me!!!

Rough Time After Missing One Class…

Published March 4, 2013 by Susan Woodward

Oy.  Take one day off from Saturday’s Cirque Fit to go to a Shakespeare competition, and my body wants to know what the hell is up tonight!  Ok, so I was trying to make up for the lost day and really threw myself into it tonight, and I mean I literally tried to do everything without a break (ok, I snuck in ONE break…) and with as little modification as possible.  I even tried the hopping and “leaps” across the floor.  Umm… yeah.  This is more of what my hopping looked like:

One of my favorite Everybody Loves Raymond episodes, by the way…

We had to hop forward twice and then hop once back…and then drop for three pushups.  I was bound and determined to do full plank pushups all the way across the room.  And I (sort of) did it!  Ok, so the push ups didn’t go all the way down, but at least I wasn’t on my knees for them!

And, oh, are the shoulders feeling it tonight!

I was told (I can’t remember if it was Patty or Will or one of the websites I was reading) that protein is a good thing after a hard workout because it feeds the muscles.  So I am making it a habit to eat protein after these classes (a late dinner because I certainly cannot eat BEFORE class… tried that once and it was an unqualified tummy disaster!).   The best thing I have found so far for this time of the evening (when I am too tired to cook much else) is mashed avocado and scrambled eggs.  I know I have mentioned it once before, but I bring it up again tonight because I added a modification.   Tonight I topped it with a bit of black beans and cayenne pepper.

Maybe it’s an acquired taste…I’ll have to try it again to see if I really disliked the combo as much as I think I did.   Maybe it was the cayenne pepper…I have a tendency to have a heavy hand with the old spice jars.

In any case, I hope the protein helps with the screaming shoulder muscles because they are bitching up a storm right now!   But I know that building these muscles is the only way that I am ever going to get to the point of performing my someday-routine… and nothing else matters!!

Oh, and by the way, my student, Stephanie Bertman did me proud at the English Speaking Union’s Shakespeare Competition!   Way to represent Webster Schroeder, Stephanie!

stephanie-bertman-and-me

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