CAPE COD TIMES  – When I spoke to the folks at Payomet in Truro about attending the morning exercise classes I mentioned I was a regular walker but not a flyer. 

By Gwenn Friss – Photos by Merrily Cassidy, Cape Cod Times

After 118 days of isolation, when there was an opportunity to run away and join the circus for an exercise class, I was out the door like a dog hearing car keys.

In other words, quickly and with great, bounding enthusiasm.

Yep, I’ll drive an hour each way for the 8 a.m. Cirque By The Sea class with real three-dimensional people gathered — but socially distanced — at the Payomet Ballfield on Old Dewline Road in Truro.

Aerialists Teddy Ment and Eleanor Getz were on the raised stage surrounded by the 100-foot metal structure they use for circus training and performances.

A half-dozen cars were parked in front of the stage, with 10 or 12 feet between them.

“You park between the cones and then the area in front of the car is your exercise space,” instructed the woman directing people to their spots.

 
When I spoke to the folks at Payomet about attending the morning classes — circuit training at 8 a.m. and whole body active flexibility at 8:45 — I mentioned I was a regular walker but not a flyer. They assured me that all the moves were on the ground and adaptable depending on students’ ability.

“These classes are for people one to 101,” Ment said, “or if you’re older than 101, come on by anyway. It’s really meant to be a community event where people who want to get out can do so safely.”

She added, “Learning how to fall correctly or learning how to balance and protect yourself from falling is really important as people become older and that becomes a higher risk.”

Wonderful.

In the first class, one of the exercises involved laying on your stomach (that mat comes in handy on the rain-starved grass) and moving arms and legs as if “swimming on the ground.” OK, no problem.

But it wasn’t long before there was an exercise with a burpee, a notoriously difficult move involving a jump, down to a plank/pushup and then back up in what seemed like seconds.

The burpees didn’t seem to be a problem for Chris Hughes and Emily Merrigan of Boston, who were staying with Merrigan’s parents in Chatham and stopped by the 8 a.m. high-intensity training class on their way to spending the day in Provincetown.

“It was a good quick way to start the day,” Hughes said.

The second half-hour class focused on lengthening and strengthening muscles, with a concentration on breathing and balance. It felt like yoga — much more in my wheelhouse.

Mother-and-daughter Monica, 66, and Kelly, 38, Brennan of Whitinsville and Truro did the flexibility class side-by-side.

“I exercise but I don’t do yoga so this is a stretch,” Monica Brennan said, not seeming to notice the pun.

I glanced at my 12-feet distant neighbor, Georgie Johnson, 22, of Nyack, New York, and saw that she had folded herself from the waist and was resting comfortably with her nose on the ground.

“Cross-training,” she said.

“Better not to compare yourself to the Johnsons,” I thought.

One move was called a curtsy plié and was exactly what it sounded like. I’ve always thought that a good curtsy is important in case you ever meet the Queen of England, but I had never considered that it exercises little-used muscles.

“The circus is all about pushing the boundaries, but first you have to know where those boundaries are so you don’t hurt yourself,” Ment said.

Several students at the pay-what-you-can class marveled at the instructors’ flexibility.

Ment and Getz, who are aerial partners (“She’s the flyer and I’m the base, although we can switch places because we’re a similar size,” Ment said.), pointed out that flexibility is their job.

“These are the kinds of things we do for the circus, but more so,” Ment said. “I will work out like this four to six hours a day six days a week.”

I, on the other hand, was done after the two 30-minute classes.

“Send in the clowns,” I thought as Judy Collins’ song played in my mind, “There ought to be clowns.”

Follow Gwenn Friss on Twitter: @dailyrecipeCCT.

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If you go

What: Cirque By The Sea fitness classes

When: 8 a.m. high intensity circuit training; 8:45 a.m. whole body flexibility, both on Wednesday

Cost: Pay-what-you-can

Registration is required:

http://tickets.payomet.org/FullBodyFlex
http://tickets.payomet.org/CirqueCircuit

Side note: Aerialists Teddy Ment and Eleanor Getz may be seen in their current story-based drive-in circus show, “Sandman,” at 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Check website for availability: payomet.org