What’s Your Favorite Acro Skill to Do While Sheltering-in-Place?

Maybe hiking in nature with family has been your thing, working out in your backyard, lifting weights in the garage, walking around the block or taking online dance classes. For me, turning on some Afrobeat or Latin music and dancing in my living room, working out with the Train with Lyzabeth App, and nature walks with my dog, Carter, has been giving me LIFE. 

Before COVID-19, I knew people who were all about CrossFit, worked out regularly at 24-Hour Fitness, and trained hard during AcroSports Open Gym. Many of my friends took three to five dance classes a week, others practiced their daily Yoga Sun Salutations, or played capoeira often. During SIP, however, maybe you’re someone who has decided to take a break from it all, and being able to sit with yourself comfortably with your internal world is important too.

Whatever you decide to do (or not do) with this time, make sure to keep moving your body. 

We move our bodies during activities of daily living- to get out of bed, make meals, eat dinner, go to the store, and do work around the house. But when we’re INTENTIONAL about moving our bodies and HOW we move them, that’s where real wellness begins. 

Movement is medicine. It enhances our overall health, wellbeing, and mind-body-soul connection. Exercise heightens our brain function, mood, and stamina. When we are more intentional about moving our bodies, it elevates our mind (emotional), body (physical), and spirit (spiritual) because everything is connected. Ultimately, it releases stress and strengthens our immune system. This is essential, especially in the midst of the current pandemic. 

To inspire all of us, to be more intentional about how we move our bodies, we asked people from our AcroSports community to share their favorite acro skills to do during SIP that allows them to move outside of the mundane.

“All those Acro classes, teaching us balancing tricks and baby backflips totally paid off.” – Pamela Hamrick, mommy to Avery and Dex

“I really like practicing handstands. I can hold it for pretty long.” – Olivia 

“You can practice this by doing one-handed cartwheels to build up strength. It’s one of my favorites because you can practice it anywhere and it’s really fun.” – Angelina 

“It is so satisfying when you hit this at the perfect spot! To warm this up, you need to stretch your splits on both sides and fully warmup you back in order to not pull any muscles. I went to Acrosports for 8 years, and did my first performance ever when I was three with Tine!” – Masai

“The muscle up is comprised of 4 movements Step 1. Pull your chest to the bar. Step 2. Pull your knees to you chest right when your chest becomes level to the bar. Step 3. Explode your legs together and down. This will put you upper body over the bar. Step 4. Push through your triceps and lock your muscle up position. I worked at AcroSports for four to five years. Definitely some of the best times of my life. I met some of the most open-minded beautiful incredible loving creative people.” – Andrew Hornsby

“The skill I’ve been working on under quarantine is ‘breaking’ (In photo, I’m doing a ‘Sisi’ footwork move). Breaking is Hip Hop’s original dance form known for its dynamic nature, combining art and athleticism.” – Bobby “Bboy Finesse” Vicario

“Ive been practicing a lot of cartwheels, which is a fundamental skill for many tumbling tricks we learned in Coach Mick’s Beginning Tumbling Class! I do probably 20/day, three-to-four times a week. Mick said to practice spotting something across the room, instead of looking at the floor.” – Panda Deda

“Since SIP, I’ve been working on holding my baby freezes for a longer period of time. It’s helped my focus on improving my core stabilization.” – Jason Johnson

“This is a forearm plank. I do this to strengthen my core. I also move my body around to stretch out my shoulders to help loosen up the tension that occurs from working at a computer. I have a lot of posture injuries and so I am unable to do handstands at this point, however I am using shoulder and back strengthening techniques that I learned in classes to work up my strength. Being upside down is great. It’s a great way to stay in shape.” – Amanda “Ahsia” Devis

“I’ve still been working on contortion and stretching on my own. I’ve also been practicing handstands and others skills from Serchmaa’s class. I stretch for at least 45 minutes everyday. My everyday stretches include over-splits, shoulder/upper back, and practicing handstands.” – Alina Vakutin

“As a family, we also take long walks around the city, especially on Twin Peaks. And the kids do a lot of awesome things everyday. My daughter Asha came up with this exercise to lift her legs over a ball while swinging, which takes tremendous abdominal strength. I asl Judah to stretch his hamstrings regularly. As a growing boy, flexibility can be challenging because his body is changing so quickly. He does 20 pike lifts most days, and five assisted back tucks, which takes a lot of coordination, power and strength. It’s probably a good time to invest in a pull up bar or an OM gym if you don’t have one. It has been lifesaver for our family. Jumping is an incredible way to strengthen your core. It’s also wonderful for your cardiovascular health and lymphatic system.” – Cat Fox, mommy to Asha and Judah

We also want to hear from you! Please comment below and tell us what has been your go-to movement activity to do during SIP? How are you being extra-ordinary with your movement?

-Contributor: Christine Joy Ferrer (aka Coach Tine)