50 pulls of pain

OMIGOODNESS. Today in my Aerial Conditioning Class we did 50 pull-ups. That was basically the class: to use all of our time, if needed, to complete the assignment of 50 pull-ups.

This was partially MY fault, as last week I asked Emily (our teacher) how best to get over my 5 pull-up hump. I got from 1 pull-up to 5 pull-ups in a few months and have been stuck there ever since. I cannot seem to push out a 6th no matter what the circumstances. She said that when she got to that point, she started to do 50 a day, up until she could do 10 in a row easily. She had been told by a circus person that an aerialist should have 3 sets of 10 pull-ups. period. she took this seriously at the time. since then, she has decided that it is really just a silly thing, but that having a set of 10 IS important. and 50 a day will help with that. So…fast forward to this week. none of the intense stretching, rope climbing, trapeze or rack exercises. oh no. pull-ups upon pull-ups upon pull-ups.

i fared pretty well. was the second in the class to finish (one girl stayed two ahead of me the whole time). did 10 in the first set (first five alone, second five slightly assisted is how that works). 8 in the second. 6 in the third. (here is where she stopped helping us.) 5 in the fourth. 5 in the fifth. 5 in the sixth (this was where it started to get REALLY bad - as is 'holy shit, where are my arms i cannot feel them?!?!? kind of bad....'). 5 in the seventh. 3 in the eighth and 3 in the final. I didn't really know where to pull from by the time I hit fifty and think I was actually pulling myself up with my abs and my ass at that point.

The bonus for the two of us who finished ahead of everyone was to do these awful leg lifts against mats whilst everyone else took their sweet time finishing their 50 pull-ups. That was almost as bad as the pull-ups. Whew.

I cannot imagine what this will feel like tomorrow.