Hi folks,
I hope you are keeping warm and life is beautiful for you! For my latest My Active Life segment, I bring you one of, if not THE coolest left-of-centre fitness experiences that I have ever taken part in.
CIRCUS! I was inspired to do an aerial class at Vulcana Women’s Circus after two of our Lorna Jane graphic designers, Davina and Grace, had been hounding me to try their circus group. I could see how passionate they were about their special sport and although I am not the most flexible, I finally bit the bullet and went along. As soon as I entered the class, I could feel the warm and loving atmosphere so strongly. The phenomenal exercise was just an added bonus.
What got me most excited about this class was the energy I felt walking into the class. Each and every person was happily pouncing around like energetic puppies, souls gleaming through their skin because they were exactly where they wanted to be.
From observing this, I had a feeling that I was going to fit in as perfectly as a puzzle piece.
Welcome to my experience with VULCANA WOMEN’S CIRCUS!
As I walked into the class, I was struck by a feeling of nostalgia. The class is held at Brisbane Powerhouse in New Farm, which holds a special place in my heart because it was here within these four walls that my adventure with Lorna Jane began.
We shot here back in 2011 for the Extraordinary campaign and who would have known then, that that one modelling job would lead me to such a blessed position in being able to live the EXTRAORDINARY MOVE NOURISH BELIEVE philosophy every day.
Pretty cool, huh?
Okay… back to my circus experience!
Before we started, we separated into two groups, introduced ourselves and shared what piece of fruit we had eaten that day.
Whilst quickly introducing ourselves we did something really different; we used sign language to spell out our names. One of Vulcana’s prerequisites for joining the classes is being open and supportive to learning the basics of sign language to create an environment that is comfortable for the hearing impaired.
How beautiful is that? As I sat there and watched everyone take their turn, I was a little dumbfounded that I have never before learnt how to sign language my name. I felt a touch of ignorance about this, but embraced this present moment to learn. Now I can sign language my name like a pro.
We did many warm up activities for the first 45 minutes or so. This became the prime opportunity to open up, be silly and laugh. Sometimes exercise can be so serious, so it was refreshing to be in an environment where being ‘active’ was sociable and fun!
Warming up is a huge part of circus training. As you engage your whole body in such an unique way, you require a high level of strength, flexibility and body awareness all at the same time.
We started by getting our muscles moving with some light conditioning followed by games (yes, games) to increase our spatial awareness. This was followed by an extended stretching period, with a bit of static stretching because of the high amount of extended poses/positions. Oh, and if you’re wondering why I resemble a chicken in this photo, that would be due to the warm up exercise where we had to touch the floor with the body part that was called out, and swiftly get back up again. Not an easy task, and difficult to do it with grace and poise. This one in particular was the left elbow, soon followed by ‘nose’ and ‘top of head’ (the funniest of all).
The class began with a series of warm up games, which I LOVED because really, I am a big kid at heart. First up was Knights and Cavaliers. Kind of like musical chairs, only using people as chairs. You run around the room, the teacher calls STOP and if you don’t find a chair or human and jump on them/pose with them within 5 seconds, you had to do 10 burpees. I will do ANYTHING to avoid burpees, so here I am pretty much jumping this poor lady!!
Cue star jumps! YAAY! I love star jumps because I can actually do them, and they remind me of PT class in primary school.
After thinking I was ‘all that’ in the star jumping stakes, I was a little thrown when the women at Vulcana decided to put a different spin on the traditional star jump. Ah yep, as you can see I am completely confused.
We used simple stretching exercises like rolling the head from side to side to stretch the neck.
This has to be one of my favourites…. can you tell?
The ultimate back stretch. I can feel the burn as I go to touch my toes. I would love to be able to put my head to shins and I certainly tried, but I will definitely have to continue this stretching regime at home to stretch at that level.
I have been doing quite a lot of weight training (hence the change of scenery) so I was extremely thankful for this ‘Z’ leg stretch. Simply lay back and bring your foot back towards your butt as you lay back on the floor. This stretch is a killer for your quads and boy did I feel it.
More flexibility would have been nice right at this point. Ha ha, you have no idea how hard I was trying to touch my toes in this half moon…. Or how hard I was pushing myself to get into the splits. I have never been able to do the splits, but I was kind of hoping that with all this stretching and lengthening I might be able to subtly, slip into the splits…. but nope! My body did not want to oblige. I guess I am not a “flexy bexy” in the grand scheme of things. I was amazed at my fellow circus goers and their ability to slip into the splits so effortlessly, meanwhile all I can seem to muster is the Hunchback of Notre-Dame pose.
This exercise was actually really difficult. Finger flicks. Try and do it now and let me know if you get past 20 seconds of intense finger flicking! We did it for a couple of minutes which resulted in my fingers severely cramping, and my forearms burning. It definitely benefited me later on in the piece when I was continuously relying on gripping to hold up my body weight.
I think we all resemble a pack of seals. But it sure did feel good to stretch out the stomach and thighs with toes pointed. This followed by the hip flexor stretch, which hurt a lot too.
Inside and out into a back bend. You can’t see my smile but I was stoked I could still do this. It had been a long time since I tried this one.
With stretching and warm up done & dusted, I took it as a prime opportunity to pounce on the love heart crush matt. Who wouldn’t? It’s an injury free zone, shaped like a heart!
After warm up, everyone was assigned to their designated groups. I was in the beginners group (of course) and the first order of business…silks. I had seen silks before, probably as i watched gymnastics on TV during the Olympics, and I always thought the girls looked so elegant and graceful as they used the silk throughout their routine. Now it’s my turn. It seems relatively easy…I mean look at how easy our instructor, Chae makes it look. She even pulls off silks in jeans! What a legend.
… But as it turned out. It was A LOT harder than it looked. I was definitely put in my place by that sash of material!
Determined to climb this thing even if it made me look like a goofball, I was blown away by the amount of strength that goes into the exercise. I tried to do the basic grip with my feet to pull myself up except my arms were doing most of the work.
There is so much to think about at once, especially if you have never done it before. It’s quite technical actually, but look below…
BOOM! My feet are wrapped and locked in and away I go!
The next move was learning a different type of grip called the ‘Russian Twist’. Although my attempts at grasping the silks and hooking my feet into the fabric was quite the fail…
Not much Russian getting twisted there, but hey, remember the saying… fall 6 times and get back up 7? Never, never, never give up was running through my head the entire time.
My determination got me up once again. I was actually very surprised that I made it up, it was really tough. The prize was at the top as I pulled myself up and once I got the hang of it I didn’t want to stop. I may have given myself a pat on the back, and you would too if you have knew how HARD this is.
Oh look at Chae, hanging ever so graceful and elegantly …
But I can tell you differently from my experience. In fact, I think a warning is in order for the images to follow. The girls in my group said it perfectly; silks are fun, but a very, very humbling experience.
This is my attempt at Chae’s knee positioning, and at the time I definitely thought I had mine similar, but upon reflection and photo evidence, it is plain to see that they are world’s apart.
The hardest part about doing this silk act was the use of my arms to hold my body weight, especially when I couldn’t get my leg positioning right. Hanging upside down with the veins in my neck filling up with blood and popping out, Chae could definitely see that I needed assistance!
But that just wasn’t enough…
Despite having an awesome time in this process, I had no idea how to correct myself…
I plummeted to the mat!
But no disheartenment for Bec as I tried again…
The pressure was on and I started to crack…
A proud moment for me as I semi-made the pose but I must have been completely oblivious to the fact that Chae’s practically holding me up here. The glory was quick to change when I fell into a heap on the mat.
Head first too! Not the most graceful of landings.
Despite my dismal efforts, Chae the instructor was chuffed for me, so that was enough to tick that pose off for now!
We played around with a few other poses in the silks. Some I could do better than others but overall, I rate silks VERY HARD!
After that intense ab workout, I was onto TRAPEEEEZE!! I was looking forward to this one!
Getting to know the bar! And away I went.
It may not look like it, but I was actually feeling very confident with trapeze. All the playing on monkey bars as a kid really came in handy!
… and the stretching from the start of the night also came in handy for this pose also.
TA-DAAAAAAAAAA! I accomplished something rather elegant. This is my Black Swan moment.
This was SO hard and hurt SO much as I hooked my feet over one side of the rope. I couldn’t complete this pose and hang upside down, I was too much of a wimp.
Flexi Bexi came out to play as I pull off another manoeuvre on trapeze. My grin says it all! This is my happy, proud face.
From trapeze we went onto conditioning. These exercises in a row, non-stop were super painful but oh so fun as I got to bond and get to know the girls better.
Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch….
Chats with my new friends while doing wall sits made it all the more easier, my bottom and thighs were burning like crazy. These fit sporty sisters are used to it though!
To conclude circus, we warmed down in pairs and give each other a quick kneading and massage on the neck, arms and legs (this whole experience couldn’t get much better). It felt unbelievable and relaxed me well and truly for a good night’s sleep.
If I had to sum up my experience at Vulcana into two words, it would be: joyful & difficult.
What I loved most about the class were the friendly and welcoming people, especially helpful for a newbie like me with absolutely no previous experience in acrobatic training.
It was so lovely to have met such kind and beautiful women who, like me, love to chat and be active. We all encouraged each other throughout the lesson, and shared a laugh or three, which created a electric atmosphere, one that I truly did not want to end.
Now, coming away from the experience I can see that this isn’t just a physically testing and outside the box kind of sport, It was much, much more.
At Vulcana, it is a community. An eclectic and electric group of proud and happy women who are there out of an act of love for themselves. Community comes first, exercise comes second – and I love that!
Thank you so much to Vulcana for allowing photographer Shaelah and I to come join your class. It was absolutely wonderful!
Personally, I am hoping to get back ASAP, as I have my sights set on attempting Lyra (the hanging hoop)! Who wants to see this goose give that a shot? wink
Until next time, challenge yourself by trying something new and out of your comfort zone.
You may just find an new activity to love, or better yet a group of like-minded women to share in the experience.
Much Love,
Bec xx
PS. If you are a sporty sister who lives in the Brisbane area and are inspired to try out this wonderful exercise, you will find all the information you need on the Vulcana website.