Arm Strength

morganriley18 started this discussion · 10/7/2013

Hi everyone, I'm a pole beginner and I'm having a lot of trouble with basic strength. I have a fair bit of strength in my legs so I'm finding the pole climbs to br really easy...but my arms are another story. I can't do a pole hold for more than a second (or less) and I don't seem to be getting any better at it....and I can't move onto all the other moves I want to try because I don't seem to be strong enough to hold myself up. Any tips on building strength without expensive gym memberships or equipment? Specifically, what should I be doing and how often?

8 replies

IrishOrla · 10/7/2013
Hey :) you are exactly the same as me when I started pole. My legs I can do anything with but my arms just weren't strong enough for moves like butterfly and extended butterfly. My pole instructor advised me to do pole pull ups. Basically place your two hands on the pole about 3-4 inches above your head and pull yourself up, try to hold yourself up for as long as you can. Just keep repeating. It's very important to swap each hand around so one is at the top and one is on the bottom each time as you want to work both arms evenly! Hope this helps as its worked for me :)
morganriley18 · 10/7/2013
Thanks :) How long were you able to hold them for when you first started? I've been trying to pole pull ups already but I can only hold them for about a second. It's getting a bit discouraging since I don't seem to be getting any better at holding them. But I guess I"ll just keep trying!
Veena · 10/7/2013
Hi Morganriley, What else are you doing besides pole holds and pole ups? Have you added in other strength and conditioning work specifically for shoulders, forearms, and hands?
morganriley18 · 10/7/2013
Not really much else apart from working on pole moves and the other exercise I do is cardio, so I'm not gaining any strength from it. I have been doing your pole strength routine, which is really good. I have only been doing it about once a week though so I haven't made much progress. Do you have any suggestions about how often I should do that routine or what else I should be working in? Thank you :)
Veena · 10/7/2013
You'll need to do strength work more than once a week if you want to see gains. If you take a look at the descriptions for each lesson you'll see how often I suggest doing them. Also be sure you're going in the order I have the lessons presented, always starting with the Getting Started Lesson. In addition to that, you'll want to work on the conditioning lessons as well. Have you tried the 30 day take off program? I tell you exactly what to do for 30 days.
IrishOrla · 10/7/2013
At the start I could only hold them for at the most about 2-3 seconds. I did them everyday for about 10mins. Now a year later I can hold myself up for 2-3 mins depending how I am that day lol. I also do weights now as well which I feel has helped the most. Going over your spins as well help because your building your arm strength one at a time. I'm still nowhere near how strong I know I could be, it'll take time please don't let it get to you. I was the same, so disheartened!
PoleFly · 10/7/2013
Planks are an easy way to take a few minutes out of the day to help build upper body strength. Just make sure your form is really good and back is flat not curved and try seeing how long you can hold a plank for, make it part of your routine. If you live with somebody you can have them put a broom across your back so you can feel that your back is flat and not curving at all during the hold. Challenge yourself with it, when commercials come on, see how many ads you can get through while holding the plank. There are different varieties of arm and leg placements for planks to give you more challenges and target different areas.
anamika · 10/8/2013
I feel I don't have that much upper body strength. I hate push ups. Recently, I read Stanford professor BJ Fogg's interview in Success Magazine and I stole his idea. Don't laugh at me but now every time I go to the bathroom at home, I do one push up. It comes out to at least 10 push ups a day. According to Mr. Fogg, once one push up seems too easy, I'll get motivated to do more and more and eventually, I'll be free of the unease that I get when I do push ups. Hopefully, I will get some strength in my upper body. Also, I'm little scared of lay backs, so I have decided to give lay back a try everyday - only once a day. Let's see if Fogg's theory works. It's a great theory and will take me a while to explain but you can Google BJ Fogg Standfor professor and read all about it. Just an idea.