[RoseMay]

Well, for me poling was never a topic for the first date. Just because I don’t feel like explaining to a “stranger” that in fact I do not work as a stripper in my spare time (That’s what most people around here are thinking when they hear pole dance.) .. and to not give them any ideas. In the beginning all they need to know is that I work out a lot (I do a lot of other things besides pole, so there is more to talk about in this regard).

I usually wait till date number 5+ and if I feel like telling him I’ll look for an opportunity to bring it up. The last time I told someone was on our fifth date or so (we’ve known each other longer than that). We were on a playground that had a pole. I got excited and was like: “Hey, let’s see who can climb up the fastest” and “Look, can you do THAT?” .. he did not get suspicious at all that I was able to do all that cool stuff 😀 Afterwards I told him that I had one of these in my house so that he wouldn’t feel so bad about his lack of skill on the pole and he thought it was pretty cool because then he could appreciate the strength and skill necessary.

[RoseMay]

Pull-ups & chin-ups! Obviously other weight training exercises are beneficial as well, but I think those exercises have a huge impact on pole strength. Add to that some handstand work and you’re golden.

I recently was off my pole for 6+ months while training for something else. During that time I increased my pull-up strength (from 0.5 to 5) – when I came back to my pole I “accidentally” did my first ever aerial shoulder mount in my first session 😮

Obviously you will lose some of the skills during your time off. I know it would take me a few weeks to get back to being able to do Ayeshas and so on, also the pain tolerance for leg hangs gets a lot worse :p But not as bad as it was in the beginning.

But it’s definately possible to increase pole strength with gym equipment.

[RoseMay]

I'm wondering why you're eating in a caloric deficit in the first place when you say that you don't want to loose weight? If you're pretty lean and store fat in a particular area (e.g. in the midsection) it's likely due to hormonal problems.

I'm kind of curious about your height and weight though. 1200 calories as maintenance intake does seem pretty low.

[RoseMay]

I found that if I do strength based workouts (including pole dance) I can get away with eating 1 hour before working out. It's only when I do cardio (with intervals) that I need to wait the full 2 hours after a meal. It's best to try how your body responds and whether you experience any nausea.

After a workout your body needs food to repair the body with the nutrients. If you don't take any workout shakes it's best to eat a meal with protein and carbs within one to two hours after working out. This will only make you gain weight if you exceed your total daily caloric needs. But since that's probably the most important time to give the body nutrients it would be better to save those calories at other meals.

[RoseMay]

I believe you're supposed to do one video per training day and you train anywhere from 3-6 days per week. Of course this depends on whether you're a beginner (3 days a week) or more advanced and if you do any other kind of exercise (pole dance?).

I personally have trouble with all the high impact exercises they implement so I couldn't follow their workouts for longer than a week before my knees started giving up.

[RoseMay]

To all you ladies with back pain … you might want to go see a specialist to check whether you got some kinda postural problems going on (i.e. kyphosis, lordosis, flat-back or sway-back). I've read about estimations that 80% of all people with a mostly sedentary lifestyle have a kyphotic-lordotic posture, and yes, that causes back pain. There are things that can be done about that and it could save you years of pain ..

[RoseMay]

When you say strength training, what do you mean by that?

In the end you're gonna have to find out on your own whether a new training schedule works with your body, your lifestyle and nutrition. If your strength training includes upper body training and you're doing pole dance in between your strength training days you're probably gonna run into troubles with recovery sooner or later.

For me I find I can manage this schedule pretty easily with 1-2 rest days per week for a longer period of time (I think that's what you suggested in your post?):

day 1: pole dance

day 2: strength training (upper body)

day 3: rest (or lower body stuff: strength or flexibility)

If the strength training on day 2 is full body the third day can be used for flexibility training. But this means only two days of poling per week and only two days of strength training per week – so progress will be slowed in both of them.

I've also poled only every other day, without extra strength training. Then I added some strength moves for reps at the end of each poling session – at that point the sweating doesn't bother me that much. This would mean 3-4 days of poling per week – so obviously faster progress with poling than general strength.

Also, make sure you eat enough quality food if you want to build muscle 🙂

[RoseMay]

I was wondering whether the hand placement for the invert is the same as the one for the normal flag? I use the one that Veena shows in her lesson for the flag.

With that hand placement I can easily go from the stomach-facing-the-floor pose to a normal flag with V legs. And from there, I "only" need to drop the head and lift the hips, yes? https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif

[RoseMay]

I think you pretty much already answered your own question. According to the article people who need excessive flexibility for their sport (e.g. pole dancers) need to stretch/do flexibility training. "Normal" people who already have and only need normal range of motion in their joints and do "natural movement" on a regular basis .. well yeah, they don't need to do static stretching. (Though how many sedentary people do move naturally on a regular basis?)

Physiotherapists have those measuring tools and tables that define "normal" range of motion for all joints in the body. Every joint that moves too little or too much indicates potential problems. So increasing range of motion over a certain point can cause health risks, no surprise there.

On a personal note, I'm happy with my ~4 inch oversplit that I can maintain pretty easily. I don't need to be more flexible than that. I don't work on (lower) back flexibility at all because I don't want that instability there that comes with the flexibility. I will never achieve a middle split due to the structure of my hip bones and that's okay. My health is more important than those goals.

Every pole dancer has to decide for herself how far she and her body are willing to go for the sport. For some it comes easier and for others not so much.

[RoseMay]

Valentino brothers have beginner/intermediate and advanced DVDs. The beginner/intermediate are definately suitable for beginners, for people who can't do the splits yet. They explain a lot there. The 3 beginner DVDs brought my splits from 16 inches down to 4 inches off the floor within 6 months on and off training. At this point I stopped making progress and bought Aletheas DVDs.

If you can do the splits you can use the advanced Valentino Brother ones (at least the ones about leg flexibility).

Re: How long does it take to maintain the splits: For me I need 2 hours per month to maintain a 4 inch oversplit on my good side and normal split on my bad side 🙂 30 minutes per week is ideal, but I don't always do that. Though it would take a lot more work for me to progress from there.

[RoseMay]

Eat less calories if you don't want to gain muscle. Muscle can only be built when you give your body enough nutrients to grow. That would also help with getting rid of the fat above the muscle – making the arms look smaller.

But I gotta agree with the ladies here – nothing's sexier than strong women 🙂

[RoseMay]

In the first season of Ninja Warrior women were doing the same obstacle course as men (not sure if it's the same show now though?). There actually was a pole dancer competing, a 60+ year old grandma. She didn't come very far though.

[RoseMay]

Yeah, I never tried to spin the Marley, not sure how hard it is without grabbing the top foot on a static pole. But the knee advice goes for all knee holds (Marley, Cupid, …), just in case it continues to bother your knees.

Glad you're feeling better already! 🙂

[RoseMay]

Once most of the pain is gone you should try to massage your calves, either with the hands, foam roller or tennis ball. Sounds like you got some knots in your muscles there that were awakened through the knee hold.

Also, it's better for the knee if you don't grab the top foot. It's harder, because you have to rely on your leg muscles to hold you, but it's better for the knee joint. It's okay to grab the top foot once you're strong enough to hold it without the hands (so the hand doesn't really hold anything, it's just there for the look). Maybe that's where the pain from behind the knee comes from?

[RoseMay]

Omg, this would mean I don't have to take 3 months off poling every summer due to sweating! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_eek.gif That is exiting news, indeed. Would love to read more about it.

[RoseMay]

This list was obviously written for people who are out of shape or fitness beginners or people who look for the "quick fix". Otherwise there would have been no need to include the shake weights or stuff like that.

And I suppose we can all agree on the fact, that without the proper knowlegde pole dance CAN be dangerous. E.g. if you don't know which pole brands are quality brands and you buy a cheap one and start inverting on it .. well this probably won't end well. Also if you don't know about strength training there is a big risk of injuring yourself if you try out advanced moves that you didn't even know you weren't ready for.

I actually don't like seeing pole dance become a "fitness trend" that everyone should do like yoga or pilates. Lack of knowledge will probably give pole dance a bad reputation in the fitness world (regarding injuries, not just because of the stripper association https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif )

[RoseMay]

Can you do the V hip hold? You're basically holding your weight with the armpit and one leg. Doing a pike hip hold isn't that much different. You don't have to rely on both legs holding you up. It's that inside leg that's pointing across the pole and towards your outside shoulder that holds you 🙂

[RoseMay]

Thanks ladies, I'm gonna go and eat more spinach so! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_rambo.gif

[RoseMay]

Can you please explain what you mean by "deadlifting"? When I'm not kicking and can do a shoulder mount from the ground with one leg straight … is that deadlifting? Do I need to be able to have both legs straight? Or is the "not kicking" part enough?

[RoseMay]

I like that idea! I haven't worked on basic moves for months … https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_confused.gif

I don't know all of the moves listed, so I'm looking forward to your video 🙂

[RoseMay]

I've seen Jamillas "gemini stretch" being called the dragon. It's an inside leg hang with the inside arm on the pole next to the leg and the outside arm on the pole above the head.

[RoseMay]

Oh, another thing that helped me was to always stretch the forearms after split grip work, like Veena suggests in her lessons 🙂

[RoseMay]

I found Aerial Amys tutorial on the mermaid very helpful for upright split grip holds:

http://aerialamy.com/blog/2011/10/25/tuesday-tips-aerial-body-waves/

In the second paragraph she explains which muscles you actually need to engage. Reading that was kinda an aha moment for me. I think the engagement of the back and shoulder muscles for the carousel spin is similar?

[RoseMay]

Ly Kieu Le, look for someone with a certification from USAW for olympic lifting. I doubt you can find a lot of good coaching for the olympic lifts in crossfit gyms since most people serious about the lifts would never do them in high rep circuits like Crossfit does. That ingraines bad form.

Of course they do have (or had^^) some good coaches there who know what they're talking about, like Mike Burgener or Greg Everett. But the normal crossfit trainer?

[RoseMay]

Looks like a good plan! Only thing I would change is to do the pole practice before your strength and conditioning exercises for injury prevention. It's much easier to injure a tired muscle and if you're exercising those small shoulder muscles they tire out really quickly. Usually it's easier to get injured during skill work than during strength work.

Also, for me, I found that if I do too much warm-up before pole practice I'm way too sweaty to do anything on the pole https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif

And if you find that your sessions are getting too long you can always focus on flexibility (and conditioning) on your off days. That worked for me really well 🙂