RoseMay
Forum Replies Created
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With a pulled muscle you want light superficial message and no deep tissue massage because you might interrupt the healing process. So if you roll go easy on the injured muscle.
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I'm wondering … is it even safe to do aerial moves without thinking? Wouldn't you always kinda pay attention to what you're doing?
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I'm a US 30G. I've had a very pretty pole bra made for my size by Sweet Vixen Couture which really fits. Not sure if that's an option for you though. The changing of size didn't cost extra 🙂
As a normal sport and pole bra I have a favorite model that unfortunately is only sold in the UK, so probably also not an option for you. Just FYI, here it is:
I have it in different colours. It's not as ugly as other support sport bras and soooo comfortable 🙂
@glitter: I think even without you posting the name people will know which brand it was https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
@portableninja: That's interesting, I've been buying my bras for years in the UK. They don't sell my size here in Germany. Didn't know it was the same problem with US brands 🙂
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Dang, I mixed up horizontal and vertical in my post. Happens all the time https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_confused.gif Sorry for that …
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Okay, first of all: You don't use the same muscles for push-up as you do for handstands. Push-ups are vertical pushing movements and handstands horizontal pushing movements. Push-ups are a lot more about arm strength (triceps mostly, if done correctly) and handstands about shoulder strength. So keep that in mind while working on upper body strength. For pole tricks we need mostly horizontal pushing strength.
Also I find the reverse handstand against a pole is a lot easier than doing a full handstand against a wall, because if you do it correctly you hold a lot of your weight with your legs in the inverted crucifix position. The further away from the pole your hands are, the easier it is because you are leaning into the pole instead of resting the weight on the hands.
I think your best bet is just to start working on the reverse handstand. It's a very useful tool and can help you build strength gradually. If you feel comfortable with your leg grip you can try to remove one hand and then two hands and bam – you're in a inverted crucifix 🙂
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Usually dynamic stretches and some prehab work for whichever body part needs it. Then I warm the pole up with some freestyling in which I slowly add fan kicks and pole holds, then spins and then climbs. Often I'll also add elbowstand work with leg variations. Takes me around 15-30 minutes.
Then I'm ready to go 🙂
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I always thought people do this when they get their feet mixed up https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif Happens to me a lot when after a combo I don't know which "side" feetwise I'm on in a inverted crucifix ….
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itac is a grip aid that helps you stick to the pole and dry hands is an antitranspirant that stops sweating and adds a little grip as well.
If you're having trouble with sweat a grip aid alone is probably not gonna help as you're gonna sweat right through it. Though if you just have trouble sticking to the pole (coldness, dry skin, …) then grip aids are helpful.
I still like the vinegar, it allows me to work on moves that I'm already comfortable with for a long time until I have to clean the pole. It doesn't really help for moves that I'm not really comfortable with yet though. For those moves I'm still cleaning the pole after every trick.
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I have a S factor book "strip workouts for every woman" – it's awesome for sensual floorwork and how to connect with the music and how to feel sexy in general. There are lots of moves described in a way that you can easily replicate them and how to link them together to a whole floor sequence. There's also something about wall dance and how to strip.
The pole part in it is … meh. Some tricks in it but not very well described. For pole stuff there is better instruction out there IMHO. I'd only get it if you're interested in sexy floorwork and sexy dancing 🙂
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It depends on your goals. Do you want a flexibility routine for splits or for the whole body? For side splits Aletheas Pure Splits is IMHO the better one. For the whole body Felix's flexibility DVD is the better one. Back flexibility exercises are on the Felix DVD and Aletheas Stretching for Pole, but I can't evaluate the quality of the stretches. The BeSpun one is from my experience not very good for any kind of flexiblity ….
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Ha, I can't even reach the pole with my arms in a CAR or CKR! Do I win the "most unflexible back" award? https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
Though I think it's normal that once you start with inverted tricks and are putting several together in combos there will be a point where you feel that your lack of flexiblity is hindering your progress and makes everything look "bad". At least for me it was this way.
I think it's worth it to focus the training more on flexibility if being more flexible is what you want. It doesn't have to be 100% flexibility and losing your strength – what about 50-50? 🙂
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If you bend over from the waist and have a very rounded back to touch your toes it's mostly a back stretch (forward bend) and not a hamstring stretch. I don't know about your goals, but for me hamstring flexiblity it a lot more important (actually I barely work on back flexibility). So for me it's a lot more important how far I can get down with my back straight than being able to touch the toes with a rounded back (By now I can actually touch my toes with my back straight without being warmed up but I had to work a lot for that!)
So keep the difference in mind when working on touching those toes 🙂
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What's your flooring like? I've got carpet and I can only do pirouettes in thick socks or heels with tape on the bottom. I can't do pirouettes on bare feet, thin socks or heels without tape. So for dancing it's usually heels for me. It took me a while to figure that out! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
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Saphyre, thanks for the explanation! I think I got the genie –> butterfly transition right then, at least in my head (probably worded it a bit wrong :-)). As for the flatline scorpio –> wrist sit I think I'm gonna need to see a video https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif The way you described it I'd say that you'd end up in a thigh rest https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_confused.gif
I know it's probably hard to describe, but if you ever happen to find/make a video I'd be interested 🙂
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prettyfitstore, looks like you found some pretty combos for your show case, good luck working on them! 🙂 In the pole dance dictionary are some doubles, maybe that will give you some ideas:
http://poledancedictionary.com/moves/?category=doubles
Saphyre, with that combo I was wondering when you do side climb –> genie –> butterfly, do you swing that bottom leg through two times? I mean at first it's behind the pole from the climb, then for the genie you have to bring it to the front. And the only way I found to get into butterfly from there was to swing the bottom leg back behind the pole again before the hands get into split grip position. (Btw while trying that I found a new (for me) combo: side climb –> shooting star –> butterfly 🙂 )
And the last part flatline scorpio –> wrist sit completely eludes me. I don't even have an idea how to go about that https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_confused.gif
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Saphyre, do you have that last combo in a video somewhere? I just tried it and got stuck https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
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I think it's called the "U-bend" or "U-turn". There are several variations to this move that probably all have different names … maybe someone else knows more 🙂
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Do you get stuck while trying to bring your top leg through under the upper arm? If yes, it helped me to grip higher with the upper arm and/or to slightly release the top hand for a moment and slide the body down to get the leg through.
Or do you get stuck after the top leg is through?
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I think to grab the foot like that overhead you need back flexiblity in addition to split flexibility. Can you reach your foot overhead in other poses? And a good way to work towards it would be to use a towel or strap around your foot to shorten the distance you have to reach.
I can't give any pointers on technique though since I can't do that pose 🙂
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Well, as always, the more often you practice it the less it will hurt https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
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It's best to start from the floor first: lay in front of the pole, pole between the legs. Then bring the booty up and bring the legs in position for the CKR. From there you can practice holding it (without having to hold your full weight as the upper body rests on the ground) and pulling yourself up (in the beginning help with the hands). This should get you used to the pain.
Also, once you start working on it up the pole, you don't have to go all the way back at first. In the beginning you can just lean back so that your upper body isn't even horizontal and you can even hold on with your hands in this position at first. Once you feel comfortable there work on slowly leaning all the way back.
It's basically just a matter of doing it often enough so that it stops hurting 🙂 And the more you squeeze with the legs the less it hurts the skin.
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Just take it one day at a time. I like to think of training like writing a book. Every training session you write one page. That isn't much. But after one year you'll have over hundred pages (depending on how often you work out) – and that is, in fact, a small book. After two years you'll have a normal or even a large book. But what do you have to do for getting that book? Write one page at a time 🙂
Set yourself small goals for every session and every month. What would you like to have accomplished in one month? Then do your prep exercises for that every single training session. Even if I have a halfhearted session, as long as I did some strength exercises and prep work I feel that it got me a bit closer towards my goals.
Pick out some combos you'd like to learn that include moves you already know, write them down, and work on them during training.
And soon you'll have some new tricks and combos you can do very well and can be proud of 🙂
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Have you looked into PNF stretching? I've found that with passive stretching I could get my splits down to like 4 inches off the ground and then the progress stalled. Once I started PNF stretching in the split position from there I was down on the ground really quickly.
To get the splits I did flexibility training for around 4 hours per week, usually on 3-5 days once per day, depending on how sore my muscles were.
Also I've found that just dancing isn't a very good warm-up for flexibility training for me. I like doing dynamic stretches as a warm-up.
I highly recommend following routines (DVDs or Veenas lessons) on a regular basis. You can throw your own stretches in before or afterwards. But those stretching routines will teach you technique and new stretches that you might not have tried before.
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You can work on the leg positioning for the basic invert (and other inverts) lying on the ground with the pole tucked under your inside arm. I think Veena goes over this in some of her invert lessons.
For elbowstands/handstands you can try to find something where you can walk your legs up so that you don't need to kick them up. At the beginning I used a corner in my room where I had the wall at my back and a cupboard a couple of feet away from that wall. I put my hands down in front of the wall and walked my feet up the cupboard. I also have a cupboard next to my pole that I sometimes use for handstands against the pole. Obviously you need to be careful that when coming down you either step beside the object or carefully back onto the object.
If you do it this way you also don't need to go into a full elbowstand or handstand straight away. You can stay in the arm position with the feet elevated but without having to hold your whole body weight with the arms.
Btw maybe you'll find in this thread here some more tips:
https://www.studioveena.com/forums/view/4eac57fa-9a74-4e16-a5a3-57760ac37250
😉
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Try to turn your legs outwards from the hips so that the knee doesn't face up but towards the ground in the direction of your body. So in the picture you posted the knees and feet would face the pole behind her.
Apart from that, just like AerialGypse said, be careful and don't push into the pain. It might be that you're compensating a limited range of motion of the hip joint by putting too much stress on the knee joint. Depending on the anatomy of your hip, if the angle between the femur and hip socket is too small the range of abduction is limited (= no middle split). If that is the case and you push into it, you're only going to injure yourself.
