Hey guys, I'm Brandy Chang for Young Hollywood. We're here at Air Aerial Fitness, and if you don't know what aerial fitness is, you're about to find out. Fun. All right. So we're sitting here with Lindsey from Air. Hi Lindsey. How's it going?

Hi guys.

We decided to do the interview inside the silks because why would you stand up for this interview, right? Um. So it's what they're here for. We're gonna do it upside down, but then I decided that probably it's probably best that we don't do that quite yet. But we are going to get into that after after we talk about what air is because I want to know what I'm getting myself into. What exactly is air?

So Air is aerial fitness, which is kind of a foreign term to some people, but it's using the silk in many different ways and many different formats. So we kind of, um, make a blend of yoga, Pilates, ballet, some cardio, TRX, strength work, all coming together with this silk. We can kind of move and groove and use the silk in different ways all around and all parts of your body. So basically you come in for what, like a 50 minute class, right? 50 minute class. You'll warm up, and then we'll kind of just take you along for the ride.

That's awesome. I love classes where it feels like you could just get in and out and under an hour and you're like good for the rest of the day and it's fun. You know what I mean? Like, you don't even realize that you're working out. That's that's the key to working out for me.

Absolutely. That is totally our one of our number one like pushes is people want to keep coming back because it's not like running on the treadmill for an hour. You know, it's like they're having fun. We're doing all sorts of different stuff, and a lot of people are like, I love it just because I need to focus for 50 minutes. Like I don't want to fall, I don't want to mess up, so it it helps me stay focused for the whole class as well and keeps the audience and the teacher kind of engaged, which is great.

And you said that you've been, um, you've been doing it for about two years now, right? So what kind of sparked your interest in Aerial Fitness?

So I thought I was in shape. I was running a couple marathons, I was teaching spin, and, uh, a friend of mine was actually starting to teach at the location in Chicago, and I was like, sure, okay, I'll try it out, and I took one class and I couldn't do anything. I was really like, I thought I was in shape. Guess not. So it was a nice wakeup call for me, and I just wanted to keep coming back and learning more tricks, and it definitely gets addictive once you start. It's a challenge for sure.

Oh yeah, absolutely. What do you think the biggest challenge in the class is that you see, you know, people facing or maybe that you still face?

Yeah. So definitely the whole upside down thing, getting the feet off the ground. It's, you know, a lot mentally and physically, so just slowly, mindfully taking them back and like everything with more time, with more practice, it becomes more comfortable and you just, I feel so natural now just going upside down. It's like no big deal.

big deal. I'm sure I will have that one day too. I want to talk a little bit about like you were saying, the mental and the physical challenge of aerial fitness. Can you touch on that a little bit?

Yeah. So just kind of breaking boundaries, getting over your fears, and knowing that it's like those flight or flight muscles kick in, like you're going to pull yourself up. You're not going to fall on the ground. You want to hit this trick. You want to get the cool picture for Instagram. You know, it's like you're going to do this, and you're not going to stop until you get there. And it's great. Everyone feels so accomplished when they're done, and they really feel like they worked out, and you leave this class with weird sorenesses too. Like you never knew you had muscles and like strength and places that you've never even touched before.

What are people most surprised about when they take a class?

How hard it is. Everyone thinks, oh, aerial yoga, great. And I'm like, no, aerial fitness. And they don't understand what I mean until they take the class after and they're like, oh my God, what just happened?

So what's the difference between Aerial Fitness and Aerial Yoga then?

So, yeah. So aerial yoga, you'll incorporate a lot of the similar yoga moves you do on the ground just using the silk to prop you up. Versus aerial fitness, we're using the silk sometimes as like a TRX band, so it's going to be more pushups. It's going to be more pullups. It's going to be pulling your own body weight up, tuck jumps, um, you know, just all that kind of stuff. So it's definitely a lot more physical than just kind of flowing on the ground and taking like a vinyasa flow.

Yeah. Well, now that you've put some lingo in, the tuck tuck roll, what did you just say?

Tuck jump.

Tuck jumps. And what else?

Candlestick.

Candlestick. I learned that one already. You're practicing.

Diaper.

Diaper. Yeah. So we're gonna get up here, and we're going to do some diapers.

So yeah. Good. So you're going to put your hands together in a prayer position. You're going to go through the, oh, did you wrap your arms already? Oh, yeah. You go through the opening and then wrap it around once and then twice. So you just have a nice secure wrist lock here, because your arms are going to be supporting you when you go upside down. Okay. So we'll practice the tuck jump first, just like you're cannonballing into a pool. You're going to pull down on the silk. You're going to bring your knees up to your chest. And then you're going to come on down. Easy. So now, so next, what we're going to do is hinge back. You're going to shoot your toes up to the ceiling, you're going to open up your chest, so this is why they call it Candlestick, because everything is going to be stacked up, you're going to squeeze everything together. Okay. You're going to squeeze your balance, okay. So, tuck jump. Mhm. Lean back. Mhm. Shoot the toes up. Open up the chest. You come out the same way you came in. Bring your knees to your chest. Roll it on to the tuck. And then bringing your feet down. All right. So ready? We're going to take our tuck jump. All right. We're going to lean back. We're going to shoot your toes up. Yes. And then if you want to try your split number, finding your balance. You got this, Brandy. You got this. Yes. Point those toes. Look at pretty. Look how Aerial-ish you are. See we could have done the interview like this the whole time. This is so easy. Right. No blood going to your head. Not at all. There you go. Oh my God. Hey guys, how red is my face right now?

So we kind of let our instructors create their own destiny. So we definitely hit all the body parts like I said and get all sorts of cardio, strength, that kind of stuff, pushups, sit ups, crunches. But we usually do five minute, like increments increments of each thing. So like five minutes of core, five minutes arms, then we play.

You have a big diaper on. You have a huge diaper. It's like a sumo

Almost like your cowgirl chaps.

Yeah. This looks like MC Hammer pants gone wrong. This looks like MC. Maybe you made up your first move. The Brandy. Oh my gosh, I have my own move at Air. This is awesome. What do you put, you say the biggest misconception is about aerial fitness?

I would say that because people think it's so easy and, you know, they're just going to float through it and it's going to be great. But it is hard work, and the results do show. You know what I mean? Like you'll see your upper body strength, you'll see your core, you'll see a little bit six packs happening, you know, the more you come, the more you'll see. But um, it definitely is a full body workout and it pushes you past, you know, maybe you'll just do 10 pushups and stop versus here like you're holding yourself up. You're not going to let yourself go. You don't want to fall down.

Try to keep your arms as straight as you can. Let one shoulder come through and then another. Come through. Yep. This way. And then you're just going to hold on for dear life and just slide down the silk. Oh. That's like a really good back workout.

Totally. The hard part is getting out. You're like wrapping yourself all up.

Yeah, you go. You're making it harder than it is. There you go. Oh my God. This is much easier. And then you can like start pressing out, like right arm, left arm. Yes. Both arms. Fancy pants. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. Just go back in the cocoon. Back in her cocoon where she's safe and sound. Just for one moment. Thanks for hanging out with us, guys. Bye. We'll see you at Air.