Flexibility training for aerial hoopers.

NOTE: BE CAREFUL!
Stretching is not for everyone! If you have any problems with your hips, back or knees be careful, and the best would be if you would ask your doctor first, if you can do any flexibility exercises!

While stretching there might be pressure which can be really dangerous! So If you feel pain or something is making you concerned give youorself a break. You won't stretch your body in one day. We are talking here about MONTHS or YEARS of trainings which can actually improve your flexibility a lot(still you probable wont be able to do some hardcore moves like that one:

 but still you can be better than you the day before :) ).

But patience is really the most important here.
 Patience and persistence!

If you've never done any kind of flexible training before start with some simple things. 
Here is a really nice movie by emotioncatcher, who is pole dancing and hooping, she did movie for pole dancers about stretching, but it will be great for aerial hoopers too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPUcbQkVjk8 

But remember : You might not be as good as her. She is practicing it for 3 or 4 years now so remember to do everything as you feel it. Do not overtrain yourself, becouse if you will try too hard to stretch your muscles you might end up with contusion becouse of which you won't be able to stretch for like weeks or even months!( I had my tendon contucion in my thigh and I couldn't stretch for 2 months! )

I can guarantee that if you will stretch your body everyday the effects will be really fast! 


So move your ass and stretch! :)

One more important thing: 
YOU CAN NOT STRETCH WITHOUT WARMING UP YOUR MUSCLES!
So you have to remember about WARM UP! It might be faster than regular one for trainings, but you have to do it.

Poses directory - vol. 7 "SEATS"

SITTING POSES - poses that mostly sits on hoop:

Photos tooked from youtube,google and tumblr. If you are the author or model and you want to be mantioned here just let me know. Or if you want your photo to be delate also, just let me know about it!

Poses directory - vol. 3 "Head Hangs"

HEAD HANGS POSES - poses that mostly hangs on your head:

Photos tooked from youtube,google and tumblr. If you are the author or model and you want to be mantioned here just let me know. Or if you want your photo to be delate also, just let me know about it!

Poses directory - vol. 2 "Leg Hangs"

LEG HANGS POSES - poses that mostly hangs on your legs/ feet/underknees:

Photos tooked from youtube,google and tumblr. If you are the author or model and you want to be mantioned here just let me know. Or if you want your photo to be delate also, just let me know about it!

Poses directory - vol. 1 "Back Hangs"

I think It will be nice to collect all possible poses in one place and order it by category.

BACK HANGS POSES - poses that mostly hangs on your back:

Photos tooked from youtube,google and tumblr. If you are the author or model and you want to be mantioned here just let me know. Or if you want your photo to be delate also, just let me know about it!

Aerial Hoop seats, first hang, bruises, sweat, pain and prints.

Another topic after you'll master mounts is PAIN :) As you probably know already: NO PAIN NO GAIN. And that will last for some time at least.

We will still refer to Emily's movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIGexyg_qTU 
 sss

 Hocks hang: you're getting there from any kind of mounts from prev note. It might hurt your knees at the beginning but believe me - it will stop after some time :) If you can not handle pain it will be better if you will still hold hoop with your hands, it will make it easier and your knees even then will have opportunity to get use to it. Don't do it too many times, at the beginning it will hurt you a lot! Especially AFTER or DAY AFTER training!

 Basic seat: getting there from Delilah is probably the easiest, you need a little more strength or momentum to get there from Pike Mount or Straddle Mount. Your butt will hurt at the beginning but it will stop, as everything. Just don't overtrain yourself at the beginning.

 Stag seat is as simple as Basic sit, you just have to turn your body a little and catch hoop with your underknee with your left leg, and bend it.









You can practise seats without hands on hoop, it will help your balance, which on hoop is REALLY important.

Pain will go away after some trainings. Just remember to always have few days break after your first hoop trainings if you've never did it before!

Sweating: On aerial hoop you don't need Mighty Grip, or you need just a little bit if your hands are really sweaty, but also in that case you may use special gloves or wrap your hoop with cotton ribbon.

How to get onto aerial hoop. Invert, pike, straddle mounts.

There are severat ways you can get onto your aerial hoop.


We will use this movie as a reference becouse poses are clear, named, and nicely done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIGexyg_qTU

First way to get onto hoop is:

 Pike mount: You can try that one but if you didn't train before it might be tricky. You should work on your arms muscles and stomach to do that one. To mastered that one you can train halasana pose from yoga: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1CKyt_9ZrQ and trying to do it as slow as you can. It will build your muscles and make it strong. Just remember to do is slooooow :).

 Next is straddle mount, it might be easier for you becouse you don't have to brought your knees between your hands. At the beggining you can just jump into it, try to stay in that position for a while, than put your legs onto hoop and bend them, you can sit then or get back onto floor by getting back into straddle mount. You can also try straddle mount on a side.Try to lift your body slowly, and drop it slowly too, it will make you stronger, it will take some time, but the effords will be reward :).

Delilah mount: This is probably the easiest way to get onto hoop. You can jump or lift yourself and hang one leg onto hoop. Then you can lift your body and sit on your 'soft' place, then take one leg to the other and you'll be in simple sitting :)









If you feel that you are still not strong enough try to work on your abs mouscles, it will help and if you will practise everyday effects will shock you! :)

As I said, you shouldn't jump into poses. This is really important.
If you jump into something that means you're not ready to do it properly.
I understand that you may want to do all that crazy stuff but don't forget about basics, they make aerial hoop performances smooth and pretty, so you should understand that they are REALLY important! :)

Are aerial arts tough? Warm up and what to remember.

Probably you will ask yourself that question: Is that tough? Any aerial art is hard if you didn't do anything before it but if you want you can try :)

There are few things that may make it tougher:
-your back,
-knees
-or heart problems.

If you are not sure of your body or health go to the doctor first! These are not jokes, while doing aerial arts you can really injure yourself so it is really important to remember: IF YOU DON'T FEEL LIKE SAFE, DON'T DO IT, WAIT, AND TRY ANOTHER TIME!

The most important part of doing any aerial arts is good preparation. You can not forget about getting proper warm up. It should last at least 15minutes and warm everysigle part of your body especially your hands, wrists, fingers, thumb, elbows - Those things are the most important becouse you are using mostly them in any kind of aerials. You can not forget about your back and neck too. For example your worm up may look like that one(it's for pole dancers, but it's so similar to hoop that you can easily try that one): [ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmoik4IDfzY ]

Aerial Hoop First Tips

Aerial Hoop Blog Start!

Hello there!
I just started aerial hooping yesterday so I think it's nice moment to start a blog for all of those, who would like to get similar to aerial hoop/lyra/ring, however you call it :)

I was pole dancing for 9 months now, so It might be a little easier for me than for other people, who didn't train anything before, but I hope that things posted here might be useful for anyone at any step :)

So for the beginning. Where can I buy a hoop?
There are several place on internet where you can buy it, probably it would be enought if you would post in Google something like "aerial hoop buy" or "aerial hoop city[your city]" you can type also aerial hoop in you language :)

I am from Poland so I can reccomend you Filigran Circus for buying a hoop. They offer variety kinds of hoops, so you can customize it for your needs. It costs ~85euros(350zł) +consts of deliverity , so it's not that expensive :) I bought my hoop there and I have to say I'm really satisfied!

If you are looking for help you can visit Facebook Aerial Hoop page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Aerial-Hoop/154021481424257


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