Injuries: Ankle cross release

Shanghaililly started this discussion · 3/23/2011

Hi I am practicing the ankle cross release, which I can do, but not that well. Problem is I cant practice it too much, if I just do it once or twice I get horrible sores on my lowerback (tailbone). It is so bad I actually get a bad scab if I do it more than once or twice in a day and I have to refrain from doing the move for a week or so. I have a pole dance competition comming up, and i want to incorporate the ACR but... if I cant practice it then what to do? What am I doing wrong? Is it normal? Will my skin go "thicker" eventually? I have been doing it for the past 2-3 months and it doesnt seem to get any better. Also, when I practice a lot, my skin goes VERY sore, anyone have any tips on how to make the skin get back to normal faster? I need to practice for my competition but feel like i cant practice every day because it is so painful. Hope to hear from you all with tips!

4 replies

azriel · 3/23/2011
I've heard several stories about the tailbone hurting for the crossed knee release, but not for the crossed ankle release. Make sure you're bringing your legs up before you release yourself back, so that the pole is running across the whole length of your thighs. In other words, don't keep your legs parallel to the floor.. bring them up. Also, arching your back may also help to keep pressure off your tailbone. As for your competition, i'd suggest not doing any moves that you're not 100% comfortable with!! A performance always looks better & more impressive with just a few well executed moves, rather than with more difficult tricks that look so-so! Good luck with the competition!! :)
PolefitFanatic · 3/24/2011
@Shanghaililly I have had that before with cross ankle release. Quite painful and bruised, no scabs thankfully! I have to remember not to drop down into this too quickly, to do it with some control and also to flex my butt muscles and thighs very strongly which seems to give some protection to the tailbone area as your glutes tend to take the impact. I hope you know what I mean!
Madfelice · 3/24/2011
My teacher teaches us to raise our legs to position a split second before dropping our torso back which eliminates the sensation of falling she says you can get doing this trick and means that the tailbone would not take a knock the way that you are describing. Not sure if the way I put it makes sense though. She describes it as bringing your knee back to the pole as soon as your legs are locked in position then laying back. It all happens soo fast that it is not totally obvious to the onlooker but it certainly works for me. I never even considered a bruised tailbone as a possibility before reading this post, but now I can see how it could happen and I think that the bringing of the knee to the pole would prevent it.
Shanghaililly · 3/24/2011
thanks for these tips ladies, I will take the ACR off my routine as the days are running out before hte competition, but it is good to know for future reference. For now I have come up with a temporary "invention" to avoid my skin feeling like it will fall off dude to too much practice: i put toilet paper and cellotape around hte sore bits on my legs, then sprayed the tape with sticky spray. Works amazingly well surprisingly, but looks really ridiculous lol but at least my skin will feel fine by the day of the competition so that there wont be any need to look like a mummy.