- If someone who is an adult, they've got their adult life goin' on, they're in their late 20s, late 30s, 40s, 50s, and they say, they come to me and they say, I want to try acrobatics for the first time, I wanna get involved with, with this circus business, um, I wanna learn.

Without any background, without any experience, I would say absolutely.

(electronic music) - I am Cheryl Birch, I'm a performer, I'm a contortionist, I'm a hand balancer, an aerialist, an acrobat, I'm a certified personal trainer, I'm a teacher.

I teach the contortion, hand balancing, acrobatics.

Most students who come to me, I have a small handful of students who have a fair amount of gymnastics or figure skating or dance background, but most of the people who end up in front of me don't have any of that background.

(electronic music) - So, I am Jennifer Stedgy, um, I started with Cheryl doing contortion, um, and I started with legs and splits and contortion, and then I moved on to handstands with her, and then did hammock, and now I'm trying lyra.

- As far as, I mean as far as like flexibility or contortion things, it's really super healthy.

It protects your body from injury.

Um, the more length your muscles have, the more mobility you have.

You can have a strong, flexible body doing acrobatics, without going to a traditional gym.

Without using barbells, without running on a treadmill, I, I, I build endurance with my students, doing circus, doing acrobatics.

We, you know, you can, when we talk about cardiovascular health, you can totally do that on circus equipment.

Yeah, way more fun.

- I hate going to the gym, I get nothing out of it, I will sit on an elliptical and be bored out of my mind, and I just can't get myself to continue going, where this, I have my friends that I get to see every time I come, and I get to learn just really cool stuff that not very many people can do that, um, takes the same amount of strength and stamina and endurance, um, but it's just used in a completely different way.

(laughing) - Um, a lot of times they want to, there's, there's the physical motivation, they wanna get their bodies stronger, they might feel like they need to lose weight, they might, um, just generally want to get into shape.

But, it's so much more complex than that, it's, they're looking for something to provide them with support, just being around other people, um, connecting with other people, feeling normal.

I see so much support.

They rely on each other, they cheer each other on, they, they recognize one another's achievements.

When I look at my students, and I see them post something on Facebook and it's a picture of them doing, doing an acrobatic thing, and they say, yay, I did the thing!

And I look down and there's you know, 40 people commenting and liking the post, and it's all of their other friends who, who come to these classes and, and they're supporting their friends, they're saying, good job, you worked so hard.

They're saying, we love you.

They're saying, oh my gosh, I wanna learn that, too.

I don't think that, that lifters and rowers and runners and traditional solo gym-goers get that same community support.

- I think I like the community the best.

When people like, get a new trick, or you get a new trick, the community is just so inviting and welcoming that it like, makes you want to go.

- You don't have to set limits for yourself.

No one has to set limits on you, that you can, you can overcome it, and you can do it.