Aerial Silks Class at Studio in Essence

Over the past few years, I’ve been seeing Aerial Silks classes pop up all over my social media. I’ve seen many photos of my friends hanging from silk ropes and showing off their intricate poses. Although it’s out of my comfort zone, I decided that I wanted to give this trendy workout a try.

I found a studio in my area that had $12 trial classes at the beginning of January, so I signed myself up. I was instructed to wear tight workout clothing (leggings and a tank top), as looser clothing can get caught up in the silk. I was also told to take off any jewellery that could get in the way during the class.

In the class, we started with a warm up, then proceeded to do a circuit, and finally we learned a few moves. The circuit taught us a few of the grips that are necessary to do aerial silks and put our upper body strength to the test. The instructor demonstrated a few of the moves, and then we were able to try them for ourselves. One of the coolest things we learned was how to flip upside down in an egg knot. For this move, the instructor brought out a thick mat for use to land on just in case. She watched us doing the move one at a time to ensure we were being safe.

I told one of my friends about the class, and she decided she wanted to give aerial silks a go, so we signed up for an 8 week package. The classes got progressively more difficult (and more painful) as the weeks went on. A lot of the moves involve the rope digging into various parts of your body. As well, it is really hard to stay still when performing the various moves. Whenever I tried to do anything with the silks, I would just go swinging. Obviously I need to work on my balance and stability.

The class is definitely a lot harder than it looks. You need a LOT of upper body strength to be able to do the moves. It’s different from a lot of other fitness classes, as you are required to carry your own body weight. It’s difficult to modify the moves, so I found myself unable to even come close to conquering some of the moves. There really isn’t a way to practice or build yourself up, unless you have some silks drilled into your ceiling. I would recommend that anyone interested in trying aerial silks take a trial class before signing up for any long-term program. Overall, I don’t think aerial silks is for me, and I won’t be signing up for another package. This isn’t just because I wasn’t very good at it, as I’m generally not great at most fitness classes. Let me know if there are any other novelty fitness classes I can try out!

Did you like hearing about my experience at an aerial silks class? Let me know in the comments below, and I’ll make more blog posts like this!