Poletential seems to be quickly becoming my home away from home. Although they are an hour away, so I can't really get there regularly for classes, they have some fun events that I have been really excited to attend. I didn't get a chance to write much about it, but I was touched that
Tracey invited Rita and me to Twirloween -- Poletential's birthday party and student/instructor showcase. There are some videos on my
YouTube account if you are interested.
Of course my first direct contact with Poletential was the
Air Show last July. I had so much fun and am eagerly anticipating the second Air Show next month.
I also attended a
Zumba FUNdraiser to benefit the beautiful Tracey Horne. What a lovely bunch of women who came together to support their pole sister in a time of need.
Also, don't forget Christina and Pam answered my
Studio Spotlight questions recently as well.
In early October I had tried aerial silks at Twirly Girls and saw that Poletential had aerial hammock. It looked a little easier than silks. Rita and I signed up immediately, but due to scheduling issues, didn't get in for a class until yesterday. I saw an aerial hammock demonstration at OC Pole Fitness' open house in September. I mean, those girls were advanced and did some amazing things in the hammock but I figured anything with the word "hammock" in it couldn't be
that hard.
Rita and I arrived at
Poletential yesterday, ready for whatever the afternoon held for us.
Jessica was our instructor. I guess I knew we wouldn't be gently swinging in the breeze, but I still don't know what I actually expected. I figured it would be yoga-based as I had also heard aerial hammock described as aerial yoga. But I certainly didn't expect the workout that I got!
We started seated on the ground doing a gentle warm-up/stretch and then Jessica told us to reach up and grab the hammock to lift ourselves off the floor. I giggled. Surely she was joking. She wasn't and she lifted herself like a cute little genie and floated above the ground with her legs still folded. I attempted to pull myself up, then saved myself the embarrassment and just stood up.
Then the real fun began: Warming up with one of our legs in the hammock. I will pretend that part of why I struggled so much was because I chose a hammock a little too low to the ground. So my leg in the hammock was angled downward a bit instead of straight out. Yeah, we'll go with that.
Ten minutes into the warm-up, I was sweating my ass off. I struggled through some of the poses, mostly due to my own inability to balance (weak core, yes, I know!). I joked with Jessica that I had signed up for the gentle hammock class (not the boot camp my body thought I was putting it through). She shot back that we were almost done with the warm-up...and I don't think she was kidding. :-)
After some awesome yoga poses, both on the ground and in the air, and some inversions (which I was only able to do for a little bit because the silks dug into my bad hip a little too much), we snuggled into the hammocks like little bugs in a rug for Savasana -- the final resting pose in yoga. It's the few minutes you get to lay still, recover and reflect after you've worked so hard. I swear there was a small earthquake. The hammock swayed gently and bumped into one of the girls behind me. It was not scary or uncomfortable. It was kind of weird -- almost re-assuring that another person was floating in space with me.
I really enjoyed the class and am really sore today. I know I have a long way to go before I would be able to consider myself even slightly adept at aerial yoga. But I am always down for a challenge and am hoping to get in there at least once a month. I also want to thank Jessica for putting up with me. I know I tend to be a bit silly when I'm uncomfortable.
Thank you to Poletential for always being so welcoming to the Twirly Girls. Next up: I am definitely looking forward to trying some Liquid Pole with Ellen soon!
