The OT Aerialist

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The OT Aerialist With the OTAerialist as your guide, we will go through the benefits of Mastering Meaningful Movements

10/08/2026

💅 Pretty nails are great, but what about your grip?

Your distal interphalangeal (DIP) joint, the joint closest to your fingertip, plays an important role in grip strength.

A 2018 study found that immobilizing the DIP joints resulted in a 20% decrease in overall grip strength!

Now, long nails aren’t the same as immobilizing a joint, but they can interfere with full finger flexion. And when you’re training aerials, your grip matters!

📱 Think about your phone battery. When you’re down to 20% in the middle of the day, suddenly that 20% feels pretty valuable.

Shouldn’t we value our grip strength just as much?

And maybe long nails aren’t your thing. So here’s my question:

What’s your 20%?

What limitations affect your aerial training, whether they’re something you can change or something you’ve learned to adapt to?

I’d love to hear your experiences! 💬

📚 Research reference:

Wu, K., et al. (2018). The effect of simulated total distal interphalangeal joint stiffness on grip strength. Plastic Surgery, 26(3), 160–164.

https://doi.org/10.1177/2292550318767925

AerialArts

10/06/2026

Three things I wish I knew before becoming a professional aerialist…

I don’t have to be the most talented performer in the room.

I don’t need to be the most flexible. My splits don’t determine whether I belong in the air.

And I don’t have to take every gig that comes my way.

That last one was probably the hardest lesson for me to learn.

When you’re trying to become a professional, it can feel like you have to prove yourself constantly. Take the gig. Get the exposure. Learn more skills. Be more flexible. Be better than the person next to you.

But after years of doing this, I’ve learned that being a professional aerialist isn’t about being the “best” at everything.

It’s about knowing your strengths. Continuing to train. Taking care of your body. Being someone people can trust to do the job. And knowing yourself well enough to say no when something isn’t right for you.

Sometimes becoming a better aerialist has had a lot less to do with what I can do in the air and a lot more to do with what I’ve learned along the way.

If you’ve been doing aerial for a while, what’s something YOU wish you knew when you started? 👇 I would genuinely love to hear what other aerialists have learned.

OTAerialist

09/22/2026

Take away the ground and your body has some figuring out to do.

Your vestibular system is processing a new relationship with gravity. Proprioception is helping you understand where your body is in space. Your brain is continually updating its body map as you move, rotate, invert, and find stability again.

That’s one of the things I find so fascinating about the intersection of occupational therapy and aerial arts.

Change the body’s relationship with gravity, and you change what it has to adapt to.

09/18/2026

Sometimes “no” doesn’t mean I don’t want to.
Sometimes it means I don’t feel safe enough yet.

That’s where progressions matter.

Meet them where they are. Give their body time to figure it out. Build trust one movement at a time.

Because getting into the hammock isn’t always the first goal. Trusting it might be.

Over the next few posts, I’m going to break down what gravitational insecurity can actually look like, how I recognize it, and the progressions I use to help build trust in the hammock.

09/17/2026

What does occupational therapy have to do with aerial arts?

A lot more than you might think.

I’m sitting outside of work in my scrubs, thinking about how much overlap I see between these two worlds.

In OT, I’m watching how someone moves, problem solves, responds when something is difficult, uses both sides of their body, and how much support they need to be successful.

Then I look at aerial arts…and I see those same things everywhere.

That overlap is really where OTAerialist began.

So maybe it’s time I start showing you more of what I see. 💙

Sometimes support is part of independence.A hand nearby doesn’t mean you aren’t doing it by yourself. It can be the litt...
09/17/2026

Sometimes support is part of independence.

A hand nearby doesn’t mean you aren’t doing it by yourself. It can be the little bit of safety you need to explore, problem solve, build confidence, and eventually need that hand a little less.

Progress doesn’t always look like a huge new skill.

Sometimes it’s one more try.
One less prompt.
One small movement they weren’t ready for before.

Small steps can lead to big changes. And every movement matters. 💙

The goal isn’t always the trick.Maybe the goal is tolerating something unfamiliar.Maybe it’s figuring out where your bod...
09/16/2026

The goal isn’t always the trick.

Maybe the goal is tolerating something unfamiliar.

Maybe it’s figuring out where your body is in space.

Maybe it’s coordinating both sides of your body.

Maybe it’s staying with something when it gets challenging.

And sometimes, the trick happens too. ✨

Aerial arts gives us something exciting to work toward.

The OT lens asks:

What did we build along the way?

09/15/2026

It might look like we’re simply playing in a hammock.

But I’m watching 👀

- How did you figure out how to get in?

- Did you use both sides of your body?

- What happened when your balance changed?

- Could you adjust your body without being told how?

- Did you try again when it didn’t work the first time?

Sometimes the most interesting part of movement isn’t whether someone completed the task.

It’s how they figured it out.

That’s the OT lens I bring into aerial arts. 💙

09/14/2026

The hammock is more than aerial equipment.

From an OT lens, I see opportunities for:

✨ Body awareness
✨ Motor planning
✨ Balance
✨ Bilateral coordination
✨ Sensory input
✨ Confidence

The aerial hammock simply gives us a different environment to explore movement.

And sometimes changing the environment changes what the body is able to discover.

That’s the part I find fascinating.

Movement doesn’t have to look impressive to be meaningful.Sometimes meaningful movement is reaching a little farther.Cro...
09/13/2026

Movement doesn’t have to look impressive to be meaningful.

Sometimes meaningful movement is reaching a little farther.

Crossing midline without thinking about it.

Finding balance after feeling unsure.

Trying something that felt intimidating.

Or discovering that your body is capable of more than you expected.

As an occupational therapy practitioner and aerialist, I’m constantly looking at movement through both lenses.

Not just: “Can you do it?”

But: “What is your body learning while you do it?”

That’s where movement gets really interesting.

Mastering Meaningful Movements ✨


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5655 W Valencia Rd
Tucson, AZ
85757

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