Beginner Silks at NoFitState

Now that I'm back in Cardiff for a few days I've managed to make it to a few sessions at NoFitState

There's loads of excitement at NoFitState at the moment, in addition to working on their new space (Four Elms - looks amazing!) they're gearing up for another tour of Bianco which will be traveling around the UK all summer.

Bianco is the show I was lucky enough to see three times last summer at the Eden Project.  I'm so excited they'll be back in Cardiff at the WMC for a while, I'll certainly be seeing it again to see how it's evolved.

In case you don't believe me on how amazing it is, check out this video:


And this song, by the amazing band Fireproof Giant who provide live music for the Bianco



But alas I am not good enough for Bianco but I am getting stronger and I will be learning more tricks soon!  I'm really loving circus classes at the moment but I need to get serious about my core strength, I'm still mega flail-y. I did get a video this week - which will look woe-fully underwhelming compared to the Bianco ad.  But pretend you didn't just see amazing people doing amazing tricks, and look at my 1.5 minutes of awkward flailing!

Aerial Ropes & Silks at NoFitState Circus

Yesterday marked my less-than-triumphant return to aerial ropes and silks at NoFitState Circus.

I call it less-than-triumphant because apparently doing no Circus things for 2 months did not improve my circus-ing that much.  But I think I am close to being better - just not quite there yet.  My arms ache today and I was rubbish during my weights session this morning, but at least I'm back in the classes again!

NoFitState are behind a number of amazing projects in Cardiff and in the UK.  People who are really good do amazing shows like this:



My teacher who is really good does things like this:

And the rest of us learn.  We learn by watching and trying.  The class only had 3 people in it, which is an amazing opportunity for learning new skills with lots of help from professionals.

AJ is my circus-bestie, she and I both took an intro class last January, but she has continued for a whole year while I've dropped in and out of classes.  Here's AJ learning a trick way more advanced than what I can do:

Circus is amazing, but Circus with a Circus-Bestie is even more amazing.

The great thing about Circus is that you can tell people you take Circus classes!  And everyone says "circuits?" and you say "No, CIRCUS!" and they don't really get it.

The other great thing is that it's full of awesome people.  Imagine the kind of people who do Zumba but upside down.  Or the kind of people who think "Pull ups?  I wonder if I could do that on a trapeze!"  Circus classes are more fun than pretty much any other classes.  Don't get me wrong, I love yoga classes, and I love swimming lessons, and I love my cycling sessions too, but I don't smile half as much in all of those combined as I do in Circus.

So if you live in Cardiff I would recommend you go to NoFitState NOW and sign up for a class.  Or do drop-in.  I was in Unicycle Lessons for a while - those were sweet.  On Friday I'm probably going to Aerial Conditioning, which is just going to hurt so much.  

But I bet I'll smile a lot too.

Core strength and silks training at NoFitState Circus.

Core strength is one of my weakest areas.  I've been dabbling in some silly circus skills for about a year now, but I'm not getting that much better.  A lot of the tricks I want to do involve climbing ropes, lifting legs, and having excellent core strength so I can do things like this:

At the Moment, I mostly do this:

Yes, that's me at the end of "Scarab" I think.

So the point is, I can either try to do new tricks, or I can get stronger, or I can weigh less (less to lift) and a combination of the last two will probably bring me the quickest improvement (be stronger and weigh less) though with Christmas and my love of all things chocolate, I may just focus on "stronger" for now.  In January I start the silks class again, and we'll see how far I've get (or how far I can fall) then.

So how am I getting stronger?  With this

AMAZING CORE WORKOUT:

Leg Lowers - until failure (4 sets)

Hanging Knee Raises - until failure (4 sets)

Crunches - until failure (4 sets)

Bicycle Crunches - until failure (4 sets)

Plank - 30 seconds (4 sets)

And that's it!  Plank is pretty much the hardest thing in the world.  Some people travel to the moon, and some people fight wars, and some people solve complex math problems, but people who can do strong planks for long periods of time.... well those are people.

So anyways, maybe I'll do this workout soon.  But until then, here's a video of me doing my only trick on arial ropes, and doing it rather sloppily.  Enjoy!