Lyra Fundamentals

So...Lyra. I'm in a once a week, beginner class for eight weeks, meets on Tuesdays. I've had two classes yet, plus that mini free first class. It's just not enough, yo. I need more. So I signed up for fundamentals on Saturdays.

I was a bit anxious, would this be too much for me? And at first, the warm-up seemed to be. I had to take deep breaths as she was explaining, trying to calm my brain from the bubbling panic that this was a bad idea, a very bad idea indeed. She modified the warm-up for me and what I could do, and things were better. Dead hang shoulder shrugs. I can only do about 3 or 4 at a time yet.

Then we worked on what's call ball inversion. I'm sitting in the hoop and lean back so that my knees are over the hoop and keep sliding back until I'm dangling by my knees. I was using a very low mounted rig so by the time I leaned back completely, my upper shoulders were resting on the floor. So...almost a hocks hang.

The purpose is to then grab the hoop and hoist yourself back up. I wish I had a bit of video of this. I was able to do it, we did 3 rounds of it for practice, and I was able to do it each time. Sharing a rig with three other students, it was slow going. It's hard AF and a bit scary. Once you get your hands up to around 3 and 9 o'clock on the hoop, you extend your legs straight, and that acts like a lever to pull yourself into the hoop without a lot more upper body effort.

The teacher was split between some more advanced students and a few lesser advanced students, so there was some standing around time. The next move we worked on was man in the moon with scissor leg (or cross legs, as they called it, but I had no idea how to visualize that until I saw it). And that was all we worked on, in 90 mins. The warm-up took much longer than my beginner class does. And the stretching after. I'm hoping we work on more variety next class. Or I could just be patient. Novel concept.

I was told to not quite yet leg go in this position, something for next week. I had a moment where I thought, I could just let go, make this pretty, but I'm a good lil student, rule abider, and so I didn't.

And oh, the bruises! I have outer thigh bruises from mermaid on Tuesday. Inner thigh bruises from star. And now I have these little polka dot bruises on the backs of my knees. They match well with the bruises on my upper arms from roller derby. And some weird shin bruises, not quite sure where I got those. Derby or Lyra?