How to Straddle Invert on Aerial Hoop / Lyra: Tips and exercises for Beginners

One of the most common worries my aerial hoop students express is that they can't straddle invert (get upside down into a straddle position) without jumping or having someone help them. This is perfectly normal, DO NOT WORRY!!! The good news is that you can build up the strength by separating the movement into stages, as I show you in this video. These aren't meant to be tackled all at once though - instead, identify which level you're currently at (only just able to hold your body weight on tiptoes before your arms straighten/ able to hold body weight with bent arms/ able to hold body weight with bent arms and lift knees out towards shoulders/ able to maintain shape while letting the arms straighten to invert) and build up from there by slowly increasing the difficulty until you're strong enough to manage the next stage. For body weight holds, build up from three sets of one-second holds to three sets of 5 seconds. For the other exercises, just aim for three sets of one to start with, slowly building up to 3-5. You don't need a hoop to do these either - gyms with pull-up bars, children's playgrounds, or a pull-up bar at home are just as good!

The next step is transitioning from Hocks Hang (hanging from the back of your knees) to sitting in the hoop - this can also be a challenge! My video 'All about the Straddle' covers this from 41 seconds in and provides techniques that help:    • All about the straddle | BEGINNERS AERIAL ...   . Enjoy!

Apologies for the poor sound quality and wind interference - this is my first spoken hoop tutorial, so it's a bit of a learning curve for me! I might re-do it if it's too difficult to hear my voice, so do let me know if it's helpful or not/ whether you can actually make out what I'm saying ;-)