Aerial 101 at Cirque School LA
With week 5 already completed, we have less than a week left of my PERSU Kickstarter campaign! I've always been curious about seeing the Circus school in Hollywood so when a Groupon deal for the place showed up last week, I bought it immediately. Since I've never tried aerial classes before, for my #fitnessexperimenter class #9 I took Aerial 101 at Cirque School LA in Hollywood.
- Class Set-Up: The set-up space of Cirque school is one large, open playground with aerial silks, hammocks, and trapeze hanging from the ceiling and padded mats on the ground. Multiple classes can be in session with groups staying in separate areas. The place reminded my of my childhood gymnastics gym but with circus equipment instead of balance beams and uneven bars.
- Class Style: The class starts off with a warm-up using over-sized exercise balls. We did stretches and core work on the balls to warm-up and loosen up. After the warm-up, we start off with trapeze. Since this is an introductory class, the instructor taught us how to properly pull yourself up and sit on trapeze as well as leg hangs and pike from the bar. I've never done this before and I can tell you I had callouses start to show up within 10 minutes of practicing on trapeze! The last half of the class, we split into two groups and rotated between aerial silks and hammocks. On aerial silks we practiced climbing with different foot hooks and split silks. On hammocks, we practiced straddles, belly hangs, and cross-over arm exercises. The class ends with a quick stretch cool-down.
- Conclusion: Aerial 101 was very interesting and fun to try! Swinging trapeze is definitely not as easy as it looks and climbing silks is a unique and different feeling. To climb a piece of fabric by hooking your foot securely in the fabric and pushing off makes you think about how creative human beings can really be. :) I enjoyed all three aerial stations we did, especially the hammocks because I could've hung in the inverted straddle all day. :D
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Additional Details:
- Pricing: $25 per class for 101 students. $35 per class for any trickster students and/or classes. Class package deals may also be found on Groupon (check to see if it's still available).
- Location: 5640 1/2 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028
- Parking: Meter street parking
SpeedX Brentwood
Recommended through a friend, I woke up twice the last two Wednesdays at 6:00am just to make Cleveland's 6:30am class at SpeedX in Brentwood for my #fitnessexperimenter class #10. The class was so good (and hard!) the first time that my friend and I went back for seconds. While I was never a morning person before (especially when it came to exercise), I think that this class has changed that for me because now I know I won't die if I work out hard in the mornings. :P
- Class Set-Up: The Brentwood SpeedX location is one large room with stations all around to accommodate the circuit style training of the class. There are rowing machines, stationary bikes, weights, boxes (for box jumps), weighted balls, kettle bells...etc. This is one of the few fitness facilities I've been to where there is no mirrored wall but given how intense this class is, you probably don't want to see yourself working that hard anyway.
- Class Style: I knew this class was going to be hard when Cleveland announced the warm-up as tabata style jump-rope followed by a series of weighted squats, half get-ups, single leg deadlifts, and more, followed by a 200 meter run. After this intensive warm-up, Cleveland goes through all the stations that you will have to complete by the end of the class. The first time I took the class, each station was to be completed by sets and finished with a 200 meter run. The second time I took his class, each station was tabata-style with 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off 10x before switching to the next station. Both classes were hard and examples of his stations include: overhead squats with weighted bars, deadlifts with weights, box jump burpees, hollow-rock abs, and throwing weighted balls against the wall.
- Conclusion: Absolutely the most intense class I've ever taken besides Leyon Azubuike's boxing classes. I've never done so much in just one hour, AND at 6am! This class is awesome and I highly recommend those who like high intensity workouts to try it!
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Additional Details:
- Pricing: $25 per class and a variety of class packages. Classes may also be found on ClassPass.
- Location: 11755 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 40, Los Angeles, CA 90025
- Parking: Validated 90-min parking for $1.50 in the building's parking structure