Strike a pose

My knee has been giving me grief. Turns out I have an irritated IT band tendon. Irritated is an understatement, it is downright menstruating. Anyway, I needed to find a new activity. A couple of months ago I found a trapeze school that had a free trial week for all their classes. I tried out silks which is what you see in the Cirque du Soleil (where the person wraps up in a giant hanging fabric and “flies” around the ring). It felt like climbing a rope for two hours but the rope was actually a slip in slide. I had to resort to spraying tough skin all over my feet. Oh boy is that a treat to scrub off later.

I ended up signing up 8 weeks of areal trapeze lessons…or doing chin ups until I puke. The first three lessons, my palms would be covered in blisters that would bleed through the athletic tape. Yaaaay fun. Then the blisters turned into calluses. Now I have workman hands! Seriously, I have calluses on my knuckles…who gets those? I do admit, my back and arms are all Million Dollar Baby like now.

By the time of the last class, I was able to do the craziest stuff like hang from one ankle and flip around the bar. I brought my camera to document everything, but we had a substitute instructor and she wouldn’t let us do half the cool stuff we have learned and perfected. Here are some cool pictures though (and yes it is a lot harder than it looks).