The rope climb is a one of the stereotypical enemies of nerds in gym classes everywhere. Rope climb is for jocks. Not stringy, pale people in glasses.
Ppp-shhaaw I say to that.
We have a climbing rope in our gym. It took me months to learn to climb it. Well, kind of. We'd do pull-ups on the rope and I couldn't strong-arm my way up the ropes like the guys can. I tried and tried to climb the rope, and could get a few feet up. In frustration I googled "how to climb a rope" and it was all over. The next time I went to the gym, I climbed 3/4 of the way up. And shortly after that, all the way up. (This is the video I found most helpful. I watched it several times: http://youtu.be/uKGy8EsN0VI)
The key is a foot wrapping technique.
1) Jump up on the rope. If there's a knot you can base your feet on, use that. Grab as high up on the rope as you can and then stand up.
2) Wrap your foot (I use my right) around the rope.(With the rope on the inside of your leg, wrap your leg outside and then tuck your foot back inside the rope. So part of the rope will be on your leg. It will go across your ankle or top of your foot and then under your foot again.)
3) Step on the wrapped foot with your other foot and pull yourself up.
4) Repeat. Keep wrapping and rewrapping. (Watch the video. She explains so much better then me.)
5) And then come down from the climb. Just watch out for rope burn! (And the knot at the bottom. That can hurt if you come down too fast and hit the rope with your crotch.)
This way you use your legs AND your arms to get up. The foot wrapping technique gets easier with practice. The first few times I tried it, I had to really think about it, and concentrate on rewrapping my foot. (I miss my footing once in the video.)
Don't worry, you still get an arm workout. (It really burns my arms out. I can climb 1 time to the top max.)
This is one of my tricks that I'm proud of—because climbing a rope is awesome. And you do have to be strong to do it. Maybe it looks impressive? #Beastmode.
With Youtube, maybe there's not an excuse not to be able to climb a rope? Except for maybe rope burn….On your thighs. That totally sucks.
Today was my first day of aerial Trapeze class. Everyone in Athens raves about Canopy and I was ready for something different so I decided to give it a try.
It was as first classes are. Go around the room and say your name, stretch, learn about the equipment, and do some tricks but not too many.
The class was a diverse mix of people—all women. A few were younger. I'd say most were 30s and 40s. There were 14 people in all.
After stretches we partnered up to work on the trapezes. First, they showed us how to lower a trapeze from the wall, take it off the caribiner and adjust the height. It was all complicated and will definitely take me a few classes.
We had partners and we took turns practicing all of the skills like getting on the trapeze. You don't simply sit on it. (My logical brain was so confused.) You start on the floor and bring your knees over and pull yourself up. We practiced sitting on the trapeze and swinging playground style. We did knee hangs—both from a low trapeze with your back on the floor and then later from a higher trapeze when you could actually hang. We practiced laying back on the trapeze, standing on the trapeze (It was shakier than I thought it would be) and something that might have been called star pose—with one foot and hand on the rope, and the other two out. We tried leaning back from standing and getting down from that (think one footed squat, while balancing on a bar) and then doing a skin the cat to get down from the trapeze. The end. That was class.
Trapeze seems complicated—there are a lot steps, and placements to remember (grip your thumb around the bar, keep your thumbs up like in thumbs up, pike this way etc.) It doesn't seem overly difficult though. I wasn't tired or winded afterwards. And perhaps I was expecting it to be more fun? (Like trampoline, acro or gymnastics. All super fun for the first class.) I guess it could be more fun later. For my first class, I wasn't wowed. But then again a good foundation is important. We'll see how the next class though.
Clockwise from top right: TRX at Aerofit, cardio at Aerofit, acro yoga and tumbling at Bishop Park.
My usual workout routine is just going to Aerofit. I do some cardio. I do TRX. I like to mix it up.
To add some variety, I've been going to Wednesday night tumbling. This summer and added in the occasional Sunday night acro yoga. I signed up for Monday night aerial trapeze classes starting this week. There's also Tuesday night tumbling in Oconee that I want to try. And when I can afford it, I want to try Leap, the flying trapeze. And that's a lot. And probably how I hurt my knee to begin with—overuse.
So, if you need me, I'll be at a gym….somewhere…..hopefully not being bored.
I've tried since February to take classes at Canopy studio, which is a local aerial arts facility. They teach trapeze classes, silks and more.
I've know about them since college. Their classes are pretty popular in my liberal little college town.
My neighbor talked about wanting to take classes. I thought it sounded fun enough and I said I was happy to tag along. After a pretty lengthy delay, they told her they had no openings when classes resumed March 17, but she could take expensive private lessons.
This happened again with their new session of classes months later.
Finally, their fall session has openings. I email the day the newsletter comes out—asking if I can take a class (new people have to get permission to take the classes. A popup tells you this when you try to sign up.) And I don't hear anything back.Nothing. After about two weeks I email them again. I keep running into Canopy people, who all say it's so fun.
I'm pretty mad at Canopy at this point and give up on taking the class. They have awful customer service and must not need new customers. (A coworker tells me she once stopped by for more info and they wouldn't help her.) I decide there's an acro yoga class on Monday, I'd probably rather take.
The Friday before classes start they email me to go ahead and sign up. !!!
I wasn't going to sign up. But then I thought it was this hard to get a spot, when am I going to get the chance again? So I signup. It's$153 for a 9-week class. That comes out to $17 a class, which is kind of pricey. But I am looking for something different. We'll see…...
I've wanted to go to Skyzone since I heard about it a year or so ago. A giant trampoline gym? Yes please.
The closest one, however, is more than an hour away. Friday I was in Gwinnett to have my car looked at. On a whim, I typed in Skyzone on my iPhone map to see how far away it was. Five miles. I really needed to get home to feed my cats, walk my job, and let my friend get something she'd store in my garage out. I was tempted though.
I was leaving the service center and the guy told me not to take my usual route home. He said there was a bad wreck. I took that as a sign I needed to try Skyzone. (So I called and had my neighbor take care of my pets and to tell my friend I'd be home later.)
I drive to Skyzone. It's in a giant warehouse in a business park. There was plenty of parking. You go in and fill out a waiver on their computers, then wait in line to be checked in at the front desk. I signed up for a 30 minute jump. It was $10 + $2 for some orange grippy socks. (I thought the socks would be annoying. I barely noticed them). They give you a sticker to put on and then you go jump for your allotted time. Mine was 6:30-7 p.m.
There were some quarter-opereated lockers to put your stuff in. There's also a concession stand. There were a ton of trampolines. I didn't know where to go. There were some trampolines near a foam pit. (The lines looked long.) There were two dodge-ball courts with 8-12 year-olds jumping madly over pads. And there was the giant trampoline court. It had vertical trampolines on three sides and was probably 3x the size of Aerofit. These trampolines had a lot of little kids (toddlers with their parents) and some 5-8 year-olds, but not a lot of older kids. That's where I went. An employee in an orange polo shirt gave a group in front of me directions, and I followed on the trampoline. I went to a relatively unused corner and tried to figure out what to do. There were kids just running and jumping. No one was doing tricks really.
I jumped across the trampolines. I think they were a tad bigger than the Aerofit trampolines, and there were some narrow tumble track looking trampolines. The trampolines felt different than the ones at Aerofit. They weren't sprung as tightly. I tried a butt drop and had to really concentrate to get it because the spring wasn't the same. I saw a kid flipping over the pads so I tried a cartwheel. And it's actually easier to flip here—because of the spring in the trampoline. I tried some round-offs and one-armed round-offs. I ventured over to the wall—which isn't lined up exactly. One vertical trampoline might be behind two regular trampolines. I tried some back bounces and supermans. They still felt different so they weren't as effortless and but totally doable. One other kids tried a back bounce into the wall, but I was mostly the one one doing tricks. (I couldn't do a backdrop hand stand. The trampolines weren't tight enough to get my arms under me.)
A16-year-old employee with a whistle in his mouth came over to my area. I bounced over and asked him what his best trick was.
"Probably that," he said to my butt drop. I was disappointed. The employees at Aerofit are the ones with the best tricks. They're also more enthusiastic than these kids who just give the little jumpers dirty looks. (Teach them a new trick!)
I jumped around some more and worked on some toe touches, back drops, flagpoles, whatever I could remember. I was having fun. By myself. No one ever comes to the trampoline park by themselves, but why not?
Finally a different employee (with whistle and orange polo shirt came over) and asked if I was doing a workout. I told him I was just playing. I asked him what his best trick was and he said a full. I was much more impressed with that, though he did not demonstrate. Apparently, he's a competition cheerleader. And we chatted about me not being able to flip. He suggested the foam pit. I decided to brave the lines and give it a try.
I stood in line with 4-year-olds who just dove into the foam pit. It was mostly really little kids. There was a 6-7 year-old who looked a little lost who was giving me weird looks. And there was a 12-year-old girl who seemed to be there with her toddler brother. They dove, I worked on my front tuck. I didn't have anyone to give me pointers on form, but I tried. And had a blast.
I'm just a big kid at heart. Skyzone was super fun to visit. I'm glad I went. I'd go back again (especially with a friend)—if only my car was working…..
This week I've been resting my knee—which has translated to more arm work at the gym.
I've been doing circuit training this week and avoid the circuits with jumping. My knee doesn't need the added strain. And the teacher has been giving me arms to do.
Skip TRX shootouts. Climb the rope instead. 4x. Skip cardio step-ups, do TRX I-holds instead.
Tonight my workout included rope climbs. Four of them. I got all the way up the first time. The second and third times I got about half-way up and the last time I got 3/4 the way up. The next station had 60-second TRX X-holds. And then 60-second intervals of battle ropes. The burnout was 4-straight minutes of plank holds with your feet in the TRX straps. There were some pendulum swings and bringing your knee to your chest and back, but it was a murderous workout. I was dead afterwards. So so dead.
The instructor said he was glad he wasn't doing it with us. Thanks.
Also on my to try list. I need to save up the courage to take this. I am so uncoordinated! But all the girls who do this have killer abs.
4. Kickboxing
I could be pretty bad at this, but if someone taught me how to do it, then maybe?
(There are two groupons for this right now.)
5) Blast 900
I've driven by this place on Baxter St. A million times. They offer you a free first class, but I don't know what it is.
(Note: I looked it up. It's interval training with treadmills. I'm not sure I like treadmills. Classes are $20 each or $195 for an unlimited month. Not sure I can afford to like this one.)
Description from their website:
BLASTClasses
BLAST is a fat shredding, muscle toning, personalized group exercise class in which people of every fitness level alternate between cardio on a treadmill and strength training on the floor, each working at their own pace to reach THEIR maximum effort.
Other ideas
6) Running
I could take up running again.
7) Canopy Trapeze classes
I've wanted to take trapeze classes at Canopy for a year now, but have had no luck. Despite emailing the owner a few times and knowing two instructors, there is NEVER an opening in their beginner classes and there's no drop-in classes.
8) A friend suggested belly dancing.
I cannot dance. I'm not sure about this idea, but it is on the list of possibilities.
9) Zumba
A coworker lost a ton of weight doing zumba. I can't move my hips so I think I'd be tragic at this one.
10) There seem to be a lot of bootcamp classes in Athens. I could look into this.
