DedeJoy
Forum Replies Created
-
Point out that one pole one time is way cheaper than an ongoing gym membership.
Unless you guys are just barely not starving to death, I don’t see why y’all can’t budget for a pole savings fund, setting aside maybe $10 a week. Is there some luxury (fancy coffee or something) that you could give up and use that money?
Hell, set up a kickstarter or gofundme page. All you need is ten Studio Verners to donate ten bucks. 😉 -
A. Pole is 10% figuring out what to do with your body, 30% building up the strength to pull it off, and 60% getting used to the pain. You may just be in the 30% part.
B. clean pole, clean hands and warm up.
C. Invite your friends from the studio over to play so it gets all scuffed up and wiped down a gajillion times. -
I usually just break off something that's fairly easy for me to pull off, looks impressive, and doesn't require a lot of warm up, nor stripping down to stick. Butterfly would be my go-to show off trick.
Thought you guys would like this story: So a friend of mine whom I only knew from the internet was passing through my town and I'd offered to let him stay at my house on his way through. I promised him a little performance. As I had just come from teaching my class, I was still in my pole skivvies and already warmed up. I grabbed my towel and started wiping the pole down and just as I was about to climb up and wipe the top part off, he jumps off the chair and offers to wipe down the top foot or so for me. "Do you need help with the top? I can get that for you."
I laughed out loud right in his face and told him to sit down. I thought, "You have never actually seen anyone pole dance, have you? You have NO IDEA what I'm about to do." I said, "I got this, I promise. Thanks for the offer." About two seconds later, his jaw was on the floor and he was all WOW, as they do sometimes. All I did was a beginner routine; it hardly had anything tricky in it, but he thought I was AMAZING. So little effort for such great payoff. 😉
-
I just spent the last 30 minutes learning about penises. Thanks, firebird. That was enlightening! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif
-
I was on Depo for ten years. For me, it caused about 1-2 pounds a year of weight gain and beyond that, no negative side effects. However, everyone is different.
I'm currently on my second Mirena IUD and I have never had children. There is a very minor risk of uterine perforation, but it doesn't cause any pain (unless it pokes through your uterus). Getting those things put in is very painful, but after a few minutes, it's over and you get five years of worry free bonin'. ;>D
For me, I prefer the Mirena — fewer hormones as I am past the age where a bunch of hormones is okay for me. The pill is contraindicated for me because I'm a smoker over 40.
Just talk to your doctor, read all the brochures, do your homework. I'm sure you'll make the best decision for yourself.
-
Well, I'm glad you've made a little progress for now, but it still seems very controlling that he has all these constraints and rules he wants to put on you about it. And as long as he's paying for your classes, you are giving him that power to call those shots.
My suggestion is to pay for your own classes, then post pix and vid wherever the hell you want to. If you simply can't afford to and you insist on allowing him to pay for your classes, then you will have to suck it up and obey any rules he lays down about it. Be prepared for there to be more rules and stricter rules as your skill improves. He will tighten the thumbscrews every so often as long as you're still letting him think he's in charge of you. I can't recommend strongly enough the value of paying your own way so you can be in charge of yourself.
-
I vote for "be 100% completely, totally, up front and honest" about this. Sit him down and lay it out one. more. time. This is what I do, for reasons that are about me. I don't do it for attention, or money, or fame, or glory, or for tips. 😀 If you can't be supportive and understand what this is about for me, then I'll do better with it on my own.
It's possible that, if he realizes that you take it so seriously, you're willing to torpedo the relationship over it, he might also begin to take your poling seriously. He might also just be one of those guys who refuses to un-sexualize it. That may never change.
My opinion is that it appears he does not respect you as an adult who is capable of making your own decisions. Right now, you're kind of letting him drive your choices for you. Ask HIM to hold the camera and take some video for you. Then watch it with him and let him listen to you critique yourself, i.e., "Oh, I should have extended my leg more," or "Oops, need pointed toes there," or "Oh, I've almost got that one, but I need to keep my right hand a little higher." Maybe he needs to see you picking it apart as a discipline, and not just catching video so you can post it on Facebook like some kind of attention whore. Most of us get plenty of attention over this without having to troll for it, ya know? :>)
-
I love how all these beautiful, talented polers are also obviously smart, savvy women who have all got it going ON. Y'all are awesome!
I'm an editor for a major international educational publishing firm. I rearrange commas all day. :>)
I was recently hired by my studio to teach pole, so I'm now teaching pole conditioning and beginner pole classes.
-
I worked on mine for so long, I pinched a nerve in my shoulder. Couldn’t feel three of my fingers for a couple months. 😀
Yes, it goes away and won’t hurt anymore after a while.
-
I use mention of poling as a litmus test to determine who is interested in me as a person and who is interested in banging a stripper. I'm not a stripper, but I'm not really very vocal about saying that because I don't think there's anything wrong with being a stripper.
What I find happens, very often, is you're having a perfectly polite respectful conversation and the minute the word "pole" comes out of your mouth, some people feel like they have to start treating you like a cheap whore. There's nothing wrong with that either, except the respect just flew out of the conversation. Suddenly, I'm talking to someone who has no more questions for me other than, "Can I watch?" (I once had a contractor spot the pole in my house and asked me, "Hey! Tell me about what you do for a living?" I looked right at the pole, then back at him and said, "I'm an editor. What do you want to know?" "You're not a stripper?" "Nope. Were you interested in editing, then?" :: crickets chirp :: Dede LOLz.)
If I do finally break down and let a date watch, in my experience, the first couple times they're all into it and after a while, they barely notice. We've gotten the girls together for at-home pole jams and I notice the boyfriends and husbands getting bored and gazing longingly at my Wii. LOL
The people who are into you as a person will not change how they treat you when they learn of your favorite hobby. If anything, they'll respect the athleticism and appreciate the art involved. The people who are into you just because they want to bang you reveal themselves very quickly and I tend to ditch them to the curb faster than a spiral spin. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif
-
I have pretty significant hearing loss, so when my pole instructor started teaching me fan kicks, I thought she was saying "pancakes" and I thought that was the stupidest name ever. One day, I heard her say it when the music wasn't so loud and, you know, *face palm* We still have a good laugh over that one.
So my first tip is: please turn the music down a little bit when you're explaining or introducing tricks. That is one of the biggest impediments to understanding for me because the music is competing with my instructor's voice.
Also, try to face her when you're speaking. Sometimes, that's not so easy. Often, I will physically move closer to her so I can either hear or see her face — IF it's something that's so tricky, I actually need to hear what she's saying. Sometimes, I just glance over, see what we're doing and get to work.
The main thing is, she's aware that I can hardly ever hear her, so she doesn't get offended if I don't respond when she's talking to me or if I totally misunderstand a question she asked me.
You could try signing if you both know ASL, but that would be pretty unusual. I wouldn't worry about taking ASL classes or anything. She has some hearing (like I do), so try to be concious of competing noises (like the music), try to face her, and if you have to, move right over to her — like a foot away — and repeat yourself just for her. Make sure she feels comfortable coming over to you for additional explanation if she feels like she missed something. Should be okay and it's very kind of you to look for ways to accommodate her.
-
You know, beanie, it never occurred to me until this thread that old hip injury could be what's holding me up now. I bet you're right.
-
Dwiizie, I had a great front split when I was 14/15. Until I came down with my body twisted one day and tore a bunch of ligaments in my right hip. That injury wasn't treated properly (a whole other parent thread) so it followed me around for years and years.
So, although I wasn't terribly athletic, I danced a lot and I know I could do it once upon a time. It just seems like it's taking so much longer as a middle-aged poler. I noticed that I didn't build strength up as fast as the younger women in my classes, so I'm working on the theory that all of it takes just a little bit longer when you get older. There's another woman in my class who seems to be somewhere between my age to maybe as much as ten years older, and I notice she gets hung on on the same tricks I get hung up on and usually, they are tricks that require extreme bendiness. We're both strong and we can both do most everything except these few tricks… Floating ballerina and allegra come to mind as examples. Funny, I can do a jade split, but it could be flatter.
-
@ Marle777: My understanding is that we need body fat to produce enough estrogen to make our bodies build up uterine lining. Therefore, gymnasts, marathon runners, and other athletes who have next to zero body fat do not produce sufficient estrogen; therefore, dysmennorea occurs (your periods stop).
All males and all females both have three sex hormones: testosterone (relates to libido), estrogen (relates to menstruation), and androgen (don't know what that does). As we reduce body fat, we don't actually produce more testosterone, but the estrogen levels are so low the proportion of testosterone is higher than it would be if we were carrying around what would be normal body fat for females (I think around 20%). I believe you have to get down to something like less than 7% body fat to stop periods. And yes, anorexics/bulimics often suffer from this problem for the same reasons.
All that said, my advice is: listen to your body. If it doesn't feel right, don't do it.
When I broke my foot, I only stopped poling for about a week and then I did only inverted work where I didn't need my feet. (Side climbs, not straight up fireman climbs.) I got back to the floor work and spins after my foot healed. We can do the same thing with Aunt Flo: just do what feels okay during that time. But gymnasts and other athletes compete regardless of what time of the month it is, so it probably won't cause any sort of permanent damage, just might be a bit more uncomfortable… than usual. I mean, who are we kidding? Pole hurts under the best of circumstances. LOL
-
I've been stretching 2-4 days a week for more than a year and a half and I'm still a good 4" off the floor in my front split. I am nowhere near the floor with my side split. I think my issue must be hip flexors.
I have a theory that it just takes longer as you get older and so I've given myself permission to not be as bendy as the 20-somethings in my class who can get their splits in 6 months. Anyone in this thread over 35 or 40 and find it's taking/has taken you longer than the younger polers?
