Trying out silks

Another week another class to try out, this time in the form of silks, you know those long strips of fabric you see hanging from the ceiling in circus's that the performers elegantly tumble down? Well that's what I attempted, but not quite so elegently.

The class took place in the gym where I also do pole dancing and aerial hoop and was a one off taster that my instructor offers. She only does these about once every four months, so I jumped at the chance to try the silks out after having recently seen Cirque Du Soleil and deciding that I want to run away and join the circus.

It was a very small class, only 6 of with 3 sets of silks so we partnered up. There was 2 instructors on hand so everyone got a lot of attention.

We were taught the basics, such as how to climb the silks, wrapping the silks around the ankles, some basic inverts (going upside down) and even wrapping the silks around the hips and doing a small drop into a pose.

Silks is a lot more technical than pole and hoop because you have to remember which way to wrap the silks around your body and at times it felt like the silks had a mind of their own and would just end up in a massive tangle around my legs. Even something simple like climbing the silks requires a lot of effort as you have to make sure you are sliding the silk up your foot with you, or else you will just end up wasting a lot of energy to end up being back where you started, it sounds a lot easier than it is!

Silks require a lot of upper body strength and core strength, both things I have built up through my other activities but I still really struggled with silks, the whole class agreed they are blooming hard! I think silks are the only workout I have ever tried that I wouldn't recommend for a complete beginner. With pole and hoop it's easy to build up your strength quickly, with crossfit the workout is scalable to your level and with running you can take things at your own pace, however with silks if you haven't got the upper body strength doing even the most basic moves will be incredibly difficult/impossible which can be quite demoralising.

Despite all this I have to admit I really like the challenge of silks and want to keep it up, especially seeing as it looks so elegant on stage and I would recommend everyone to give it a go. I paid £10 for an hours taster class and I think it was worth every penny. If you are looking for a slightly more accessible aerial class I would recommend aerial hoop as it is a lot easier at the start you build up strength quickly. For anyone interested I go to Krunch gym in Waltham Abbey.