We wanted to take a few posts and explore the Thrower’s Ten, a series of PT strengthening and stretching exercises that focus on the shoulder girdle. For aerialists, strength and balance in the shoulder is crucial not only for performing movement but for long-term health of the shoulder. The rotator cuff and shoulder musculature, in general, are an area that has a high risk of injury when performing aerial arts and pole. What is the Thrower’s Ten? The Thrower’s Ten in a 10-pa

Hip Flexors and Lack of Flexibility Tight hip flexors are one of the hottest topics in our classes. So we are putting together a blog series on hip flexors. It’s no surprise that tightness in your hip flexors may be from lack of flexibility. Tight hip flexors can also be a weak core and lack of spinal stability or underdeveloped hamstrings and glutes. Today we are just going to focus on lack of flexibility in the hip flexors. Here is a cool chart of the muscles involved in th

It’s the holiday season and unfortunately many of us have elevated stress levels this time of year. Studies have show that people who make time for self care experience reduced stress. Self care can be ten minutes of meditation, doing something that you enjoy or taking an fitness class. Fitness reduces stress, yoga reduces stress and yes, aerial yoga reduces stress. What is Restorative Aerial Yoga? The type of aerial yoga I teach comes from years of teaching yoga, restorative

In aerial arts and pole we are frequently performing movement that requires us to rotate one section of the body. For example fan legs or handsprings in pole, a twisting downward dog in aerial yoga or a hip hang to back balance in the aerial hoop. Often we are using this rotation to transition from one move to another. Transitions, from a performance standpoint, need to be clean, in order to have clean transitions you need serious strength and control in the core. The major m

You hear it all the time in a studio, an instructor telling a student to engage the upper back. This is great, it can help prevent injury and let a student use more muscle groups to achieve moves, however many students have no idea what this means. Scapular retraction is the term for pulling the shoulder blades inward, like you are holding an orange between the blades. This engagement activates the rhomboid and trapezius muscle groups, which helps support the body in inversio

When I teach beginning classes, students always asks what can they do at home to help get a stronger core on the pole or for any aerial endeavor. The major core muscles are the Rectus Abdominus, Obliques and Transverse Abdominus and the Low Back muscle complex. We want to strengthen all these areas and find balance as we build these muscles. It is easy to forget the low back or the obliques, but we want to always include them in core workout. There are so many core strengthen

We are keeping it simple this week and examining three stretches that can help release and open tight places in the shoulders. In aerial arts and pole, we work the entire shoulder girdle. We frequently talk about over-development and imbalances that can happen in certain places on pole dancers and aerialists. In this post, we just want to focus on a few stretches that can help increase increase range of motion and flexibility in the shoulder area. Here is a chart of the musc

At Atmosphere Fitness, we talk a lot of exercise science and fitness in our trainings. We do this from a safety and progression standpoint, but we also include dance. Dance basics can help everyone in aerial arts and pole to find better posture, beautiful lines and that polished finish all performers desire. We wanted to select one dance principle and talk about it. Extension Extension means lengthening through the body to find the full expression of a pose. Basically it is

Many people battle with the inversion, whether in pole, aerial yoga, aerial hoop or any form of aerial apparatus. There are two major reasons for this struggle, one is not yet having the strength needed, the other reason is not engaging the correct muscles in the correct order, or the mechanics of the inversion. We will focus on the mechanics today and discuss strength next week. Mechanically the the inversion is a test because of the timing required to execute the move. The

Dynamic Tension is the idea of engaging the muscle and moving with purpose. It can also be describe as moving muscle against muscle to create slow and controlled movement. In aerial arts and pole we work with dance extension and muscular strength. Using the concept of dynamic tension and engagement applies for performance as it will create fluid and perfectly executed movement. Every student of aerial arts and pole should be using dynamic tension to create seamless transition