Friends, this is the number one question I’m asked by new silk students. What can I do at home to get stronger? Better? More flexible? It is a fabulous question, and I love that you’re asking. Know what I’d love more? For you to actually do your assigned homework.
The Grunt Work
Ya’ll – it’s literally grunt work, as in you’ll grunt the entire time.
Ground conditioning isn’t glamorous. It lacks the cache and instagram-worthiness of being upside down. It’s reps and burning and focus and sweat. It’s investing long term; it’s waiting to eat the marshmallow.
We are submerged in a culture that tells us that we can get “fit” in fifteen days, get “certified” in 24 hours, get splits in four weeks or five easy steps. We are promised spectacular returns with minimal investment, and we fall for it all the time.
Dear Dangler, you are not getting your splits in four weeks. You are not getting your straddle inversions by Thursday. You are not going to be ready to go on tour in a month. Can you accept this? If not, circus training will be one crushing disappointment after another, because bodies just don’t work that way. You don’t just show up for a year of lessons and come out spectacular on the other side; you don’t stretch really hard for four weeks and suddenly have a hoo-hoo-on-the-ground split. Somebody lied to you and you bought it, hook, line, and sinker. Are you ready to talk long-term yet?
Do the Work
If you’re not willing to do the work, you have to accept that about yourself. If what you want are a few photos of you upside down to post on Instagram, that’s OK! That is absolutely fine. Not everyone comes into classes wanting to get really good! We come for lots of reasons – community, fitness, variety – all valid.
But.
You say you want to get better. You want to be really good at this. You’re not afraid of hard work. MARVELOUS! The aerial coaches of the world support you in this endeavor! In fact, most of us are trotting out classes in exactly what to do at home this very minute. Just sayin’. If now is not a time when you can direct any energy towards training, that’s completely understandable; but if you’re just waiting until you can get back to the “real” work – the part in the air – you’re missing 50% of your training. The pre-hab, the mobility, the aerial-specific exercises, the stretching, it’s all as important as the time you spend zooming around on your apparatus.
If you want to get good, do your homework. All of it. We can tell when you don’t. Love and pull-ups, Laura
PS – Not sure what you should be doing? Chances are pretty great that your aerial school has conditioning classes up and running online. Go support ’em! And you’re certainly always welcome in mine.
Are you looking for some homework? Here ya go!