We've been getting stronger!
I think most people recognize different phases or stages in their Acroyoga journey. Each stage is characterized by its goals and approaches.
We went through phases of learning the basics, practising intermediate skills, improving our teaching, refining and calibrating and working on our partnership.
Now we’re really happy with how solid and all round our practice feels and if you’ve been following us for a while than you know that since last summer we’ve entered a new phase :
LEVELLING UP!
We identified two main goals:
Take a bunch of skills out of spots and GET STRONGER!
There is no way around it anymore; we’re at a point in our practice where strength starts becoming a bigger factor.
This was the feedback of several high-level teachers and coaches during our last Europe trip.
If we want to do skills like standing dynamics we need to get stronger as well as more skilled.
If you’ve been following us for a while also on Instagram you know that we’ve been following the program from Perform Athlete and last week we even had the opportunity to meet the founders Shani and Jesse when we did a training session together.
This has been a massive game-changer in terms of getting stronger!
We’ve been getting several questions about our gym routine, so in this email I’ll share about how we train in the gym to support our acro practice, what benefits we’ve noticed and what valuable tips they shared with us when training together.
Okay let’s start with the benefits of following a program:
First off; it’s easy to follow along.
Someone else (with much more experience and knowledge) has already thought out a balanced workout and all you have to do is show up and do it.
We’ve had periods of not being able to train and the program is so convenient that it’s very accessible to come back to and pick it up where we left off.
Or on busy days with not much headspace I find it super ideal to just follow along and not have to think about anything.
Secondly, because of the structure and build up of the program we’re noticing results much faster.
The way the program combines exercises and how everything is divided over a week gives a really all-round training approach.
In the Perform Athlete program you start with a warm up that consists of mobility and stretch exercises and general warm up.
Then you go into a base, middle & flyer strength set which is usually focussed on one bodypart.
After this it separates into Flyer accessory and Base & Mid accessory and it ends with an optional ‘sweat’ set, for if you still have energy left.
It’s written in crossfit terms like ‘perform 3 sets for quality of X reps’ and refers to RPE, which means ‘rate of perceived exertion’.
It’s a scale to measure how hard your body works during physical activity. It runs from 0-10 and this way you can indicate the exercise intensity.
Some exercises say for example ‘do 3 sets, 7RPE’ and this way it manages and builds up endurance and strength over time.
Thirdly, we’ve been learning new movements and exercises.
The program includes an Olympic lifting section which is something that we both have no experience with.
On top of that we’ve already learned so many new ways of using dumbbells, barbells and a bunch of other movements and exercises.
It’s beneficial to learn new movements, because the body is learning new pathways and engagement which is actually creating a better brain and body connection, and not just repeating the same movements over and over.
One of the things we really like about the Perform Athlete program is that it’s really tailored for acrobats and the different roles.
All the things we do carry over directly into the skills we train in acro.
As a flyer I’ve been working on my handstand strength and endurance, my explosivity in jumps and my overall integration and engagement.
As a base Caspian has been working on his overhead strength, explosivity, and also training specific strength pathways, such as hang clean movements which translate very closely to cannonball and drag up skills.
This leads me into the benefits we’ve noticed:
Caspian already got way stronger in overhead pressing and has better coordination for standing acro skills thanks to all the lifting he has done.
He's also improved in power generation and learning to isolate the power from legs and arms which translates nicely to dynamic standing acro skills.
My imbalances in my shoulders and hips noticeably got less, which makes my alignment in hand to hands and foot to hands better. I’ve gained more hip stabilization and I’ve built more strength and endurance in my upper body.
We found that the program is not a complete tool to learn complicated skills like those in Olympic Lifting.
The program states the sets you need to do and has videos for every exercise to show you how the exercises look like.
But I would say it’s good if you have some gym experience or coaching available to you, because even though the program gives a short explanation how to do the skills and mentions the important points, it doesn’t fully teach you the more complex movements.
So especially if you have very little experience in powerlifting or olympic lifting movements, like us, it's easy to be training bad habits or missing large aspects or intentions of the movements and what they are supposed to be training and teaching you.
Overall we’re really excited about the program and what we’re gaining from it. It was an honour and pleasure to meet the founders Shani and Jesse in person and train together!
On Tuesday we did a training session together here in Bali and that was so much fun!
Not only are they absolute beasts! But their open, kind, positive and cheerful personalities are standing out too.
It was so inspiring and motivating to see their skill level and know how much dedication, perseverance, patience, hard work, effort and sacrifice is behind that.
They are so knowledgeable and experienced and were able to point out valuable tips and pointers of how we can improve our technique and practice.
Jesse gave Caspian some key points about core bracing and breathing, which applies to all lifts and exercises.
He also shared useful tips about power generation from the legs by focusing on locking out the knees at the end of an explosion or acceleration.
Shani based me in some hand to hands and she is a rock! So solid and skilled; she made it easy!
Not a surprise for an athlete from GOM circus, but inspiring to experience as they are the living example of what is possible when you truly set your mind to it.
Okay that’s it for now friends! Maybe this inspires you to also include some additional gym workout or other movements to supplement your practice and see how it benefits your acro.
If you're curious about perform athlete you can check out their program here:
See you in the next one!
Laura
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