Aerial inverts are tricky. No matter how long you have been practising inverting from the floor, you will need a lot more strength for an aerial invert. There are many ways to do an aerial invert . The simplest tends to be a basic invert from a pole sit where the harder ones know no limits; Superman to a shoulder mount for an example.

There are many ways to do an aerial invert, as there are many inverts to do! It is important to start on the easy ones and work up to harder inverts.

Aerial Invert How To (Pole Sit to Basic Invert)

Climb the pole to a pole sit. Place your strong, inside hand on the pole in front of you at shoulder height and place your weaker hand across your body and onto the pole above it. Make sure you have a strong grip on the pole with both hands. Take your legs off of the pole and to one side – making sure your inside leg is your strong leg. Use your hand grip to pull up and then tip your body backwards. Stretch your legs up and hook over the pole as you would for a normal invert on the pole. Grip on the pole with your legs and take your hands off.

Tips and Practise

• When you have taken your legs off of the pole you can swing your legs backwards and forwards to get enough momentum to take your legs up, just while you are practising.
• Practise taking your legs from a pole sit to a tuck and back to a pole sit. This will get you used to holding your weight. This is also where you hit a tipping point.
• There is a tipping point when inverting. When you take your legs off the pole and up in the air, tilt your body back. This tipping will shift the position of your body weight making it easier to take your legs up in the air.
• Work on getting one leg inverted, the other will follow naturally. The important thing is getting used to inverting, then perfect the technique. Think about sending this leg to the ceiling, this will naturally bring your leg up and close to the pole so you can hook it on.

Moving On

This basic Aerial Invert is a great starting point as you get used to holding up all of your body weight  A natural progression from here is to go in to a V invert rather than a basic invert. It generally looks nicer as well. Once you have mastered this try inverting from a pole climb rather than a pole sit. It requires a lot more strength and control than from a pole sit.

There are many different inverts to try:

• Superman to shoulder mount
• V invert repeat (Invert to a V, pull up, invert to a V again)
• Western flag invert (Go to a pole climb, into a western flag and invert to brass monkey)

Are You Working On Aerial Inverts?

What is your favourite aerial invert and was it hard to learn? Let me know! Happy Inverting 🙂