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My Body

Trapeze Artist Lorelei Macdonald on Muscle Ups And Balance

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Recently retired aerialist Lorelei Macdonald is the founder of Gravity Defying Fitness.

 I started as a dancer, but then I got injured and went into the circus. I performed up until I was 42. When I was 42 I moved to New York and opened my own studio. Now I live in New Orleans. I’m using the skills I used as an aerialist to get people fit. A lot of people are intimidated by trapeze. A lot of my clients are women in the forties who are challenging a lot of their fears. Maybe they have a fear of heights. Maybe they don’t like going to the gym, and they want to be fit, but they don’t want to take a boot camp. They want to try something different. There’s a huge range. And people in New Orleans are thinking about Katrina, and about being strong enough to pull their own body weight in the face of adversity. Being able to pull your body weight in the air gives you amazing confidence.

There’s a lot of core work in trapeze. Hanging from your knees, doing crunches. It’s an incredible amount of core, and back work, and shoulder work. Static trapeze is very dance-y, and there’s a lot of work we do for lengthening the legs. Creating a long and beautiful line like in dance. It’s so much fun. You’re working really hard but you feel pretty and light.

My clients were telling me that because of all the ab exercises they’re getting great results. I had a woman who had a prolapsed uterus who could finally jump rope without having to go and pee.

Being healthy is the ability to go out and do everything I want to do in the world, and enjoy it, and not be held back by my physical being. I have had a number of injuries, both as a dancer and an aerialist. I had a neurological disorder when I was thirty that sidelined me for over a year. I had to relearn how to walk before I could relearn how to fly. That’s why I enjoy movement so much. I don’t take it for granted.

I’m going to be 44 in two days. There was a time I equated health as ”Could I do this amazing feat of strength?” I always wanted more. Now I want to be free of pain. I want my movements to be fluid. I want more balance in my life. I want playtime in my life.

I like to do 150 million things. I still train on the trapeze. I do workouts in the air at least three times a week. I climb the rope. I climb it without my legs. I love swimming. I’ll take two yoga classes. I started taking BOSU classes. I’ll try anything fitness once—if I like it, I’ll get addicted. I ride my bike to get around. But I love to be in the air, on the rope, on the rings and do my thing.

I hope the healthiest period of my life is the next 50 years. The last two years I was performing I rarely ate out. I was very focused with my diet and with my training. I could do five muscle-ups and fifteen pull-ups, which is insane for a forty year-old woman. I was physically incredibly strong. I could do one-legged squats and climb the rope twice without using my legs. I was eating cleanly and beautifully. But it was not balanced. I had to do it, though, to keep performing. That was the strongest I’ve been. But, now I’m trying to look at health at a more holistic manner. I’m trying to have it be about balancing my life. Now I’m pretty strong in a way that doesn’t involve pull-ups.