So I haven’t wrote anything for a while and the main reason for that is, I don’t want to force myself to find things to write about.
This blog started as a way for me to express my frustrations over getting to grips with Graves’ disease and for me to try and help friends and family understand why I’ve had such a drastic personality change. So I don’t want to allow it to stress me out by setting myself a schedule for follow and forcing myself to find things to write about just so I can post on a regular basis. I just want an outlet to have a little rant as and when I need one.
I expected I would have a lot to say and rant about with the world as it is right now. But this is the first time I’ve actually thought of anything I want to discuss in the three weeks since the lock down started.
Training at home! I know as aerialists you don’t want to lose your strength or flexibility. I get that you all want to start back exactly how you left off when studios are finally open again, and I really understand that. After having four years off, it’s hard starting back again.
And I will help my students do that as best I can. We are working our arses off to provide classes and tutorials for you to do at home to maintain your fitness and flexibility. But please, please, please be safe.
You do not need to risk yours or your child’s safety by rigging up aerial equipment to trees or home made structures. It isn’t worth it! There is a saying in the aerial community that if you aren’t willing to hang your car off it, then do not hang a human on it.
It might seem like over kill, but the forces you can generate just doing basic, controlled aerial moves would shock you. And you will be doing them over and over again, putting the same forces on the same point repeatedly!
If you do not understand the forces you are likely to be creating doing aerial or the type of force your rig point can manage, then you really don’t understand enough to be setting up your own rig and you are an accident waiting to happen.
I know that aerial rigs are expensive. But you’re not just paying for the materials, the cost also covers the safety checks and load testing that has had to go into place for it to be considered safe, you’re paying for the engineer to design the rig to withstand the forces that will be created during an aerial arts session and for the experience and research that has been undergone to work out what type of force is likely to be created by an aerialist.
If your rig point fails, the results could be disastrous. You’re not risking just a broken arm or dislocated shoulder that can heal over time. Failed rigging has caused broken backs, aerialists ending up paralysed and death. Injuries aren’t just created by the fall but also by the rigging structure and aerial equipment coming down on top of you. Is it really worth it?
A lot of people tell me ‘I’ve been doing it for ages and it’s been fine’. Everything is always ‘fine’ until one time it isn’t.
Lots of people drive drunk with nothing drastic happening, it doesn’t make it a safe practice that everyone should try.
In addition to the rig, you need a crash mat to. You should always use a mat but especially when you’re training at home with out a spotter or instructor guilding you. And buy your apparatus, slings, swivels and carabiners from a reputable supplier, not knock offs from Amazon that are a third of the price. They don’t have the same safety standards and there has been a substantial number that has failed (i.e snapped) in this last couple of years.
Its an expensive hobby and most people can’t afford to just set up and train at home, and if that’s the case don’t try to take short cuts. Do the conditioning workouts and dance choreography we are providing and try to maintain your strength, fitness and flexibility in other ways.
I honestly do understand why you want to train at home and if you have the means to do it safely then I will support and teach you as best I can. But please be safe!
AerialEmma 