Strength as an Aerialist

I am now on the home stretch with my dissertation. Finding it hard to keep motivated and typing after a busy year 🥴

I wanted to talk a bit about strength. A lot of people who took part in my research mentioned strength, feeling strong after training aerial and how exciting it was seeing muscles develop. I know I used to want people to think I was a strong person so I wanted muscles to prove that. I remember someone once said to me ‘don’t you have to be strong for that aerial stuff?’ and I was annoyed for weeks. I made myself an intense training plan and wrecked my arms so much I had to wash my hair upsidedown for a week because I couldn’t lift my arms enough.

I used to have a fear of rest days as in my head I saw strength as a momentum which was either progressing or regressing and could not be maintained via stillness/rest. With a constant progress plan and spreadsheets on building each muscle it all got a bit overwhelming and I felt like I was going backwards if I took a break.

We all have different mental and physical strengths that aren’t visable just by looking at someone. In the aerial world I feel like extreme strength is something to strive for and is often measured in abs, biceps, reps, the hardest straps move you can do.

How much does strength mean to you in terms of your aerial training? Are you striving for a certain ‘level’ of strength or is it something you don’t pay much attention to?