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Pole Climb/Posture
Okay. Basically I have always had bad posture, I’ve always been taller than my friends and I guess I just tended to slouch a lot, roll my shoulders forward and slump over, so there always seemed to be a slight curve in my upper back and my neck would crane forwards slightly. I didn’t actually NOTICE this it was so normal to me until I went to a specialist about my neck pain and he told me about it. Since then I have been trying my best to stand up straight and improve my posture and I think that exercises I do to strengthen my core for the pole (push ups/crunches etc) are really helping. I definitely have improved, though occasionally I catch myself slumping.
However I know that I have relied on my upper shoulder/neck muscles do do a lot of stuff that my core SHOULD have been doing, for a lot of years, so as a result the muscles there are pretty strong. SO sometimes when I pole, even though I try really hard to keep my shoulders down and back its hard to stop them doing some of the work.
Point in case is climbing up the pole. Whenever I climb the pole I can feel my shoulders rising slightly. Is this supposed to happen? Even when I try to keep them as far back as possible they always end up rising. And when I try to do it without rising my shoulders at all, I find that I cant even get an inch up the pole, whereas the other way I can climb to the top.
I may post a video or something showing how much they rise because I suppose otherwise its hard to tell. In my most recent video I do a pole climb and my shoulders are pretty high…when I watched it back I knew that was too high. They aren’t as high as that at all when I pole climb now, but they are slightly raised.
What I want to ask is…are they supposed to be raised slightly? Or not at all? because I’ve had such problems with posture in the past I literally don’t know whats normal and what not anymore. If your shoulders are supposed to be completely fixed and down during pole climb then thats scary because I can’t even get off the ground like that!
I just wanna check that I’m doing this the right way, I want to improve in the right areas.
Sorry for the epic length of this post guys! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif -
11 Replies
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okay so I tend to be a "forward bender" and I have the bad habit of slouching too! If I think about pushing my shoulders back and down I still tend to go forward like you…instead I think of pushing the boobies out! I know it’s pretty much the exact same idea but this helps me so much more and my shoulders don’t go up! Of course working on core strength does naturally help improve posture! I would say that it’s natural for your shoulders to rise some when climbin because you are engaging those muscles…I think it would look very robotic if they didn’t move a little! Good luck and of course a vid always helps! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
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I agree with the "push your boobies out". https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
I’m very bad about slouching as well. I also have a slight amount of scoliosis in my neck that makes it worse. Here’s something I do that helps.
1) Feel the back of your neck, right where it meets your shoulders. This is your seventh neck vertebra. (Fascinating tidbit — all vertebrates have seven neck bones.) Think about pushing this backwards.
2) Put your hand in the notch where your ribs meet in the front, at your solar plexus. Think about pushing this forward.Doing this makes my chest open up, and my shoulders drop into the correct place. Just practice a little at a time, as it takes a while to get used to this. One other visualization that might help is to imagine a string attached to the top of your head, pulling you upward.
I hope this is useful for you! I learned this posture during my west coast swing dance obsession. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
Good luck!
Mindy -
Yep, Boobs out is good https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_thumleft.gif
My yoga teacher explained nicely:
"shoulders back and down" or "shoulders away from the ears" can be confusing, because people think about their shoulder *blades* while the problem is usually the head of the arm bones, aka the joint itself.
When slouching, the head of the arm bones is rolled forward and downwards (so technically it is away from the ears). To get the right posture and shoulder placement, move the head of the arm bones back (you can do a few shoulder rolls and then park them on the back). This will bring the boobs out and up, and vice versa boobs out = head of arm bones back. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_thumleft.gifWith this, you can take a look at your shoulder blades. For sure you don’t want them all the way up right next to the ears. But forcing them all the way down and inwards, so they pinch together, will actually restrict your chest from opening and the boobs from coming out. Also your rhomboids (between shoulder blades and spine) will not like this (I know ’cause I did this when starting pole…). Somewhere in the middle is good and should feel most natural.
Summed up, the optimum position is head of arm bones back and shoulder blades slightly down, but not too much.
For climbing the pole I conclude, as long as head of arm bones is back and boobs are out, it is OK for the shoulder blade to slide up slightly when you reach up over your head, but when you pull yourself/step up, they should simultaneously slide back down. This movement gets your lats (the triangular muscles under the shoulder blades on both sides of the spine) working, protects you from dislocating your shoulder, and helps get you up the pole. A lat pulldown in the gym is a very similar movement.
OK, that was a lot of rambling… hope it helps a little.
Let me know if you want a video to explain better https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif
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Yep, Boobs out is good https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_thumleft.gif
…
Let me know if you want a video to explain better https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif
I WANT A VIDEO!!! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
Mindy -
I have an excellent strength lesson on the way, (hopefully up sometime this week) that will help dancers learn how to properly engage their upper back for climbs, hold and inverts. Its good that you are aware that it could be a problem for you. Going into inverts, climbs and hold with a rounded upper back is never a good thing. A video would be nice so we can see what is going on. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
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OK, here is the video version https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif
http://ver3.studioveena.com/lessons/view/1980 -
Sorry, this seems to be processing forever https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_sad.gif
If it doesn’t show up by tomorrow morning I’ll try posting it again… -
OK, my video just disappeared https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_scratch.gif
I’ve uploaded it again and now it’s there:
http://ver3.studioveena.com/lessons/view/1983 -
The first one disappeared because it failed during processing…. however…..We don’t allow members to upload tutorials on the site…you may post this to youtube or some other place and link it into the forum if you would like. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_thumleft.gif OK, my video just disappeared https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_scratch.gif
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We don’t allow members to upload tutorials on the site…you may post this to youtube or some other place and link it into the forum if you would like.
Ooops, my apologies!!! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_redface.gif https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_redface.gif I should know… https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_redface.gif
Thanks for kicking it, Veena, won’t happen again!
I don’t have a youtube account or such, so it won’t show up elsewhere. Sorry -
Ooops, my apologies!!! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_redface.gif https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_redface.gif I should know… https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_redface.gif
Thanks for kicking it, Veena, won’t happen again!
I don’t have a youtube account or such, so it won’t show up elsewhere. Sorryaww Tine you should get a youtube account! Its pretty simple, only takes a few minutes to set one up and I’d love to see your video! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif Really wanna see Veenas strength video as well, hopefully that will be up soon! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_bounce.gif
Thanks for all the helpful comments, I just wanna make sure I’m doing everything correctly, don’t wanna end up hurting myself or with hulk like neck and shoulder muscles https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif
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