Practice Questions

adamseve started this discussion · 5/7/2009

I've been curious about this for some time so I thought I pose the questions: (1) How long do you practice? I practice for a minimum of 1 hour. This includes stretching before & after practice and the warm-up and cool down. (2) How often do you practice? I try to practice daily. Pole dancing is my drug and it is very therapeutic for me. I love it! (3) Do you just freestyle or do you have a plan of action? I do both. I have an Excel spreadsheet that has a schedule of what I want to accomplish on what days of the week and I also freestyle. My goal with freestyling is to get comfortable with transitions & floorwork so that I'm able to choreography my routines one day. (4) Do you stretch before, after or before & after practicing? Before & after practice. I'm prone to pulled muscles & strains so it's imperative for me to stretch before & after. I have been lax about stretching when I don't get on the pole however. (5) Do you incorporate any strength training & conditioning exercises into your practices? Yep...I focus mostly on ab exercises such as the plank, crunches, etc. I also use my exercise ball. Additionally, I incorporated weight machines & free weights at the gym into my weekly fitness. I was using 8 lb dumbbells at home and it just wasn't cutting it. Finally, I do pole sits & pole pull ups. (6) Do you self-teach, take classes, or both? Currently I'm self-teaching, but hope to start classes on Monday. I have to travel 1 1/2 hours for classes unless the studio I plan to review tonight pans out. I'm really looking for a studio that not only teaches proper form & technique, but also focuses on strength training & conditioning. Hope this is a good start. Thanks for participating.

9 replies

Gothycromance · 5/7/2009
Well, I'm a beginner but here's what I got (1) How long do you practice? About an hour and a half (2) How often do you practice? three times a week but I hope to bring that up to five times a week (3) Do you just freestyle or do you have a plan of action? Both. I generally start a practice with a couple things I want to try but I also play around to get in the mood and get amp'd. Then I throw in a couple tricks I KNOW I can't do to keep myself motivated. (4) Do you stretch before, after or before & after practicing? Before and after. Sometimes I don't stretch before, but I know how bad it is. So DON'T do it. I've strained a muscle because I was too eager to hop on the pole and get started. (5) Do you incorporate any strength training & conditioning exercises into your practices? I learned some exercises to do while on the pole so I do some of that every practice. But I hit the gym 4 times a week for about 2 hrs. I do alot of weights and cardio. I'm targeting my arms because I have NO upper body strength, and this is important for alot of inverts that I want to do. (6) Do you self-teach, take classes, or both? I self teach, I watch some vids on the internet to try some moves. I have also stopped by some exotic clubs just to watch technique and see how others perform some moves. I wish classes were available in South Texas but nope. If there were I'd take 'em. There is a huge difference between watching someone do a move on the computer and having someone critique you and give you advice. Hope that helped! 👍
RoxyPink · 5/7/2009
(1) How long do you practice? Any where from an hour to three...if I'm having a good practice! (2) How often do you practice? at least 4 days a week (3) Do you just freestyle or do you have a plan of action? Freestyle when it comes to dance...but usually I have an idea of what moves I want to work on. (4) Do you stretch before, after or before & after practicing? I do some light stretching as part of my warm up...but most is after I'm done working out. Stretches are usually held for 30 sec! (5) Do you incorporate any strength training & conditioning exercises into your practices? Only on the pole...I do a little bit of pilates though (6) Do you self-teach, take classes, or both? Completely self taught!!
Kari828 · 5/7/2009
(1) How long do you practice? I don't really time anything, i just go and if its going well, i keep going, if not i'll stop...it's usually around an hour during the week and anywhere between 1-3 hours on the weekends (2) How often do you practice? I try and get on the pole everyday, even if its only for 15 minutes... it's my addiction and i need a little everyday to stay level 😉 (3) Do you just freestyle or do you have a plan of action? Freestyle mainly but i have certain moves that i want to work on each time but find that if i just go with the flow and don't plan things out that is when i have my biggest breakthroughs (4) Do you stretch before, after or before & after practicing? I do a little stretching before but i do my big stretching afterward when my muscles are nice and warm... Fleur's stretching vids are great! i'm working on trying to get into split and have seen a huge improvement since i started (5) Do you incorporate any strength training & conditioning exercises into your practices? I try and do yoga in the mornings, just a simple sun salutation and incorporate pilates too (6) Do you self-teach, take classes, or both? I took a six week class but now I'm self teaching, with the help of Veena and everyone on this site of course 😀 thanks!!
Foxy_Rei · 5/7/2009
1) How long do you practice? About an hour and a half or so 2) How often do you practice? 4-5 days a week 3) freestyle or plan? Pretty much freestyle, I usually have a few moves in mind I want to work on or try 4) Stretching? I'm horrible... I usually don't... 😳 Maybe a little afterwards, and usually only the parts of my body I was really working on (my back has been bothering me so I've been stretching that) 5) strength training and conditioning? Nope, not really! Although I try to do moves that will help build strength towards other ones, like I've been doing the extended butterfly to try and work towards being able to do cartwheel mounts, straight edge, etc. I may do a few leg lifts, but not much else. 6) self teaching or classes? Entirely self-taught 😀
jleigh · 5/8/2009
(1) How long do you practice? Ususally 1 hour with stretching (2) How often do you practice? 2-3 times a week (3) Do you just freestyle or do you have a plan of action? Freestyle mostly unless I'm really trying to learn a new move (4) Do you stretch before, after or before & after practicing? Stretch before but not after (5) Do you incorporate any strength training & conditioning exercises into your practices? Only pole (6) Do you self-teach, take classes, or both? Took 6 week beginner course, then 6 private classes and now am self taught although I got to a pole drop in class mainly so I have a spotter available since I'm trying new intermediate/advanced inverts
Fleur · 5/8/2009
(1) How long do you practice? I practice 1-2 hours total with warmup time. I usually spend the first half hour warming up. (2) How often do you practice? 2-4 times a week depending on how much I teach. I try to go for every other day. (3) Do you just freestyle or do you have a plan of action? Some days I decide to just do a bunch of uncut freestyle dances. Other times I have a list of moves I've written down to work on. Most times I do a warmup freestyle dance (only spins and transitional moves, maybe one climb and simple invert at the end) and spend the rest of the time working on individual moves. (4) Do you stretch before, after or before & after practicing? I do not usually stretch my legs when practicing pole but I do make myself stretch my arms AFTER!! I stretch my legs AFTER my cardio workout (power walking 4 miles). Did I mention I stretch AFTER not before a workout? Oh, ok, just checking 😉 (5) Do you incorporate any strength training & conditioning exercises into your practices? No, I only do pole for upper body and core. Power walking and the occasional ballet class is for the lower body. (6) Do you self-teach, take classes, or both? Well, I teach classes. Other than that I am self taught since I am the most advanced dancer at my studio. Fleur
Former member · 5/12/2009
What a great thread!! (1) How long do you practice? Oh geez, well lately not much!!! I'm hoping this summer I'll be able to practice at least an hour or more each time I pole.... (2) How often do you practice? Well, lately not very often, but again I'm hoping to get on at least every other day or so. (3) Do you just freestyle or do you have a plan of action? Usually just freestyle, but I'm not progressing like everyone else is on the site haha!! So I'll have to step it up and start working on some different things. (4) Do you stretch before, after or before & after practicing? I used to try and stretch EVERY day, even if I wasn't dancing, but I've been slacking on THAT too!!! So now I'm starting back at the beginning...I'll try to stretch every night and then when I practice before and after. (5) Do you incorporate any strength training & conditioning exercises into your practices? Hmm, I figure that the dancing is enough strength training and conditioning exercises....but I'm not sure. LOL, what was the question again?? Strike that. No I don't do any strength training. (6) Do you self-teach, take classes, or both? I have Veena's lessons, which are absolutely incredible and then I used to take lessons here where I live but I've stopped because I'm in a dance troupe now; so I'd rather have Veena's lessons and then practice in the studio on Friday nights when there's open pole 🙂
moonflower · 12/17/2009
Okay, I know this thread is old, but I can't help but add my two cent. Maybe with a little luck, it'll even revive the thread. (1) How long do you practice? 1-1.5hrs, depends on whether I'm having a a good pole day or not. On a good day, I have to force myself to get off the pole. On a really bad day, I spend the last 15 mins cursing at the pole. (2) How often do you practice? 4-5 days a week. I would love to pole everyday, though. (3) Do you just freestyle or do you have a plan of action? I keep a pole journal (pole log, whatever you want to call it) and I take notes on how things are progressing and what i want to work on next practice. My practices are still pretty unstructured though. The only constants are the warm up and stretching. (4) Do you stretch before, after or before & after practicing? I do a few simple dynamic stretches durign my warmup, but I do the bulk of my stretching AFTER my pole work when my muscles are nice and warm. During my stretches, I let my chinchilla and pet rat (yes, I only have one rattie left, sniff) out to play. They like to climb on me like a jungle gym and it forces me to hold my stretches longer to prevent throwing them off. But it tickles. (5) Do you incorporate any strength training & conditioning exercises into your practices? Just squats. I don't have much of an ass, so I'm trying to build some glutes. Anyone willing to spare some? (6) Do you self-teach, take classes, or both? I took classes for about a year, but I'm self teaching now.
Runemist34 · 12/30/2009
(1) How long do you practice? Usually, I try to go for about a half an hour of straight up dancing, but generally I don't have the stamina. With stretching and warmup, I can make the half-hour though. (2) How often do you practice? I would like to practice once a day, or once every other day, but often it turns into once every couple of weeks. I'm pretty bad for keeping a routine, because I don't have a daily routine right now (it changes a lot!). I still have the goal of every day or so, though! (3) Do you just freestyle or do you have a plan of action? Freestyle, generally. This ends up with quite a bit of the same transitions and moves, and some amount of just walking around the pole, trying to think of something to do, but it's getting better. I can never remember the routine in my head while I dance, so it's hard for me to stick to my choreography! I can choreograph, though... (4) Do you stretch before, after or before & after practicing? After, when I'm all warm and stuff. (5) Do you incorporate any strength training & conditioning exercises into your practices? Yes! I do Pole squats and lifts (or the newbie equivalent, anyways) currently, because those are my two worst areas...the quadriceps, and my upper body strength. It's getting better though! (6) Do you self-teach, take classes, or both? I used to take classes, but I found them sort of...not my thing, not quite the style of dance I wanted. Also, there were quite a few gaps in their knowledge of moves, and when I found out I could learn stuff off the internet, I turned to self-teaching! Still, I would prefer to have a nice class now and then just to get some basic, one on one help...maybe one day I'll get it, but where I'm moving, I don't think so! 🙄