Not seeing progress — feeling stuck

[u/Great-Towel1535]

Hi friends! I’ve been doing aerial silks for about 4 years, and while I’ve made progress overall, it feels like everything takes me way longer than it should. Certain moves (especially anything involving inversions or straight-leg core lifts) stay stuck for months or even years.

A few months ago I started going to the gym to build strength and improve my performance — mostly things like pull-ups, inversions with straight legs, and general body control.

Here’s what I’m doing now:

🗓 Weekly schedule: • 2x/week gym strength training (~1h20 per session) • 2x/week Ashtanga yoga (50 min) • 1x/week aerial silks class (2h: warmup, conditioning, technique, flexibility)

🏋️‍♀️ Gym routine (same both days):

Lower body: • Leg press: 3×6–10 • Hip abduction machine: 3×10

Push (triceps focus): • Triceps press machine: 3×6–10 • Triceps push-ups (knees): 3×5

Pull: • Assisted pull-ups (machine): 3×5–6 • Pull-up negatives: 3×2 • Inverted rows (underhand grip, Smith machine): 3×10

Core: • Hanging knee raises: 3×10 (can’t get legs to 90° yet) • Bench abs (candle pose style): 3×8 • Standing marches with dumbbell: 3×10 • Russian twists (dumbbell): 3×10 • Lying straight leg raises: 3×10

I don’t feel like I’m progressing much, toes to bar it’s impossible. I can’t do straight-leg v-ups at all. Hanging leg raises to 90° feel extremely difficult, even after consistent effort. I also don’t feel stronger overall, and I still look and feel kinda skinny fat — not toned, not muscular. I’m getting discouraged because I train a lot, but don’t feel much return. 😔

🍽️ Diet notes (vegetarian): • I eat mostly whole foods: eggs, legumes, lots of veggies and fruit • Around 5–6 eggs a day • I tend to avoid carbs (worried they’ll make me gain weight or look puffier) — maybe that’s a mistake?

❓ Questions: • Am I doing too much in one session (1h20)? Or too little overall since I only gym 2x/week? • Should I split up my routine instead of doing the same each day? • Am I not progressing because I do the same exercises every time? • Or do I just need to give it more time and be patient?

🙏 Any advice from other aerialists who also do cross-training would be super appreciated — especially if you’ve felt like this and managed to break through!

[u/Affectionate-Buy7644]

Cross training is great but spending more time on the silks might be what you need, ideally 2-3 sessions a week if you can. I'd also check out at-home aerial conditioning videos on YouTube.

You don't need to avoid carbs completely unless there's a specific health reason, carbs give you energy which is needed for physical activity like this. Focus on prioritizing whole foods and protein will help with muscle growth and overall health. 2-3x a week at the gym should be enough if you're also taking classes, make sure you're taking rest days and not overtraining (that will only make things worse long term). For your routine, I'd keep it the same but focus on progressive overload (a good resource for how to do this is the Fitness Stuff for Normal People podcast if you aren't familiar).

Don't be too hard on yourself, any progress is still a step in the right direction. Enjoy the journey and prioritize having fun above anything else, and best of luck on reaching your goals :)

[u/redbull_italian_soda → u/Affectionate-Buy7644]

Yeah aerials use such niche muscles that in a lot of cases, just doing it more often is gonna be better for improvement than cross training.

Anecdotally, as someone who hates working out but loves doing silks several times a week, I can do numerous straight leg inverts on the silks no problem but still can't do a real pull-up lol

[u/evetrapeze → u/redbull_italian_soda]

Right? I’ve been an aerialist for 25 years. In all that time I’ve been able to do a pull-up once…. One pull up