Wednesday, April 10, 2013

RBBB-TRAPEZE

Circus fitness goes beyond the big top


(Dayna Smith/ For The Washington Post )
- Tara Ogren, a trapeze artist with Ringling Brothers circus, performs on a lyra at Verizon Center.
By Vicky Hallett,
from:  Washington Post.com
Apr 09, 2013
Through April 21, Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey will present “Dragons” at the Patriot Center. Then the warriors who leap through spinning wheels of blades and fire, the horseback riders who form human pyramids and the acrobats who dangle precariously out of globes suspended high above the stage will head to West Virginia.
But even though that circus will be gone, it seems circus fitness is here to stay. Ever since Trapeze School New York opened a Washington branch in 2009, people who’ve never tried anything in a big top other than sit down have been giving various acts a whirl. And they’re getting buff.
“There’s strong and then there’s circus strong,” says Shanti Sethi, 41, a surface warfare officer in the Navy whose weekly regimen involves flying trapeze, partner balancing and aerial conditioning at TSNY-DC. “Circus is the majority of what I do to stay in shape, and I’m definitely in better shape than I’ve been in my entire life.”

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The off-the-wall workouts have also become a common form of cross-training for folks who believe in the power of body-weight exercises, says Brian McVicker, owner and manager of TSNY-DC. That’s probably why circus-inspired fitness classes — incorporating static trapeze, silks, partner balancing and other acrobatic apparatuses — are popping up at gyms and studios across town.
.read more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/circus-fitness-goes-beyond-the-big-top/2013/04/09/c70f213a-9ba3-11e2-9a79-eb5280c81c63_story.html

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