dustbunny
Forum Replies Created
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Hmmm, I like chemgoddess's suggestions. You could also do some wrist and forearm strengthening and stretching, not exactly a new trick I know, but sometimes you have to stop and build up strength before you can keep moving forward. 🙂
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I'm weird with this one. I can't do it easily from the floor and have trouble holding it for any length of time, but I do it all the time in the air (like pulling up from a gemini hook) and can hold it no problems.
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CAR aka CLR was my nemesis for a long time. I had completely given up. On day, after months and months of ignoring it, I gave it another go and …voila! Still not easy to get into and out of for me but I can at least do it now. I've had a few moves like that, I just put them on the back burner for a while and work on other things, and then suddenly one day they become mine. 🙂
Good luck everyone!
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Veena's lessons are great! They helped me to realize that one reason I was having trouble advancing was because I was taught a lot of the basics wrong at the studio I started at! I used the lessons on here to (at first) re-learn a lot of basic stuff, as well as the strengthening and stretching lessons are GREAT! And now that I am confident that I have the basics mastered, I have been able to get other moves that were completely out of my reach before.
Veena is a great teacher! I havn't had the lessons in a while, so I can't wait to get another membership and check out the newer ones especially the routined! 🙂
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I have found I use the same hand as my low hand for other inverted poses as well. But I still always try both sides.
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I had a huge mental block to get over before I could do a butterfly…I'll tell you the little progression that helped me to get it.
First do a basic invert. I invert with the pole on my right side, so my right hand is below my left. I drop my right hand down to become my low hand. Left hand stays in the same place on the pole, close to my hips. (If you invert opposite me, just switch all the L/R)
I started doing this with a wide split grip (keep it wide so your body stays close to the pole), but many people find the forearm grip more stable and secure. So try both, also try both sides, you may surprise yourself.
Ok, so get your arms into whichever position you choose and this is where I would get stuck…I could not for the life of me make my leg (the one behind the pole, for me it is my left) let go. I felt like I desperately needed it to stay up. So instead of trying to drop the entire leg back, I kept squeezing at the knees, and began by just trying to bend my left leg at the knee and taking my foot off the pole.
It was just enough to help me realize that I didn't need that leg on the pole. Once I did that a few times, I realized that I could drop the rest of the leg. The thought of it didn't scare me anymore, so I did. I bent at the knee first, then slowly released the knee squeeze and dropped the leg behind me.
Butterfly, tada! I hope it works for you too, Good luck. 🙂
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This is not an easy move, I have been poling for a year and a half now, and my chopper is still hit and miss. Oh, I can hit it everytime, but do I get all the way over with CONTROL? Sometimes, but other times I feel floppy and like I'm just dangling. Damn those abs… 🙂 Keep working on it, tucks, and fan kicks will help too.
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First day I got my pole set up, my husband performed a shouldermount on it! It wasn't pretty, it was just brute force and his upper body strength that did it, but it was impressive none the less. 🙂
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I suppose you can do it either way. If your doing it to condition for pole poses/spins you may as well point your toes since that's how you'll be doing it on the pole.
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It is abs, but it's also hip flexors! I have the same problem but this has helped a lot. Here is a good evercise for strength in this area:
Starting position: Sit on the floor in a straddle "V" with your legs straight and spread as far as you can comfortably sit. Sit up nice and tall, back straight, shoulders engaged (sitting with your back to your pole will help you stay straight). Make sure you are not hyper extending your knees at any point (I have hyperflexible joints so this is something I have to concentrate on all the time), engage your quads (top of thighs) and lengthen your hamstrings (back of thighs) to straighten your legs without hurting your knees.
Now for the tricky part…while keeping your legs straight, try to lift one heel off the ground. Were not going for height here, just movement. A centimetre or about half an inch is fine. If you can lift it at all then good for you! The next step is to hold it for a few seconds, and if you can do that then try both at the same time!
When I first found this, I couldn't get a leg off the ground! So don't worry if you can't either, just keep trying. It doesn't take long to see improvement. Now I can lift both up a couple inches and hold it for a few seconds (never actually timed it).
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Just watched your spinning chopper video. 🙂
As good as it feels to pull off new moves, I would gently suggest that you leave this one be for awhile. Work on your abs, and just the regular basic invert. You don't look like you're sagging in the shoulders too badly, but your hips are staying too low. You're probably hurting your back muscles because they are compensating for your abs. You need to be able to pull your hips up higher, and that requires ab strength.
One thing that might help you too is looking behind you when you invert. As you bring your legs up, instead of looking up towards your feet and the top of the pole, tip your head back and look behind you, this helps teeter-totter your body, lifting your hips.
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I know of someone who used to have one posted. She had some issues with someone and took all her tutorials down, but I'm sure if you ask her, she will email it to you.
Look for her on facebook: Lola Poledancer
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I am also a virtual hoarder riding that grey area between legal sharing, and illegal stealing. Well here in Canada, technically as long as you don't make any money off it, it's generally ok. Anything you have on stretching for flexibility or free weights, I'd love if you would consider "sharing". 🙂
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Oh and I wanted to add to be careful with your stretching. If you're finding the DVD too intense, back off the stretches a little, you don't have to be at the same level as the person on camera. Just go as far as you can, and remember that every day will be different. Sometimes you wont feel flexy and that's okay, just push to the stretch that you can achieve at that moment and be happy with that. 🙂
Some tips if you are new to stretching.
Stretching should never cause sharp shooting pain! The worst you should feel is a slight pulling sensation, a bit of a discomfort more that actual pain.
Listen carefully to everything the instructor says; alignment principles are very important for preventing injuries. If they say to keep your knee over your ankle, keep it there, even if it means you cannot stretch as far. It will come with time.
Keep you back straight and long, unless a particular stretch says specifically to round your back. It will help you in the long run (with pole too, Veena loves to keep reminding us to keep our shoulders engaged, back and down).
That's all I can think of right now off the top of my head. I'm definitely going to check out that DVD though. Good luck. 🙂
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Great goals! 120 oz of water every day, I'm impressed. I'm trying so hard, and still only getting 64oz a day (and I'm not making it every day). Ooh a stretchy torrent eh? I'll have to look that one up, thanks for the tip.
Good luck with the rest of it! Poi looks so cool. Something I would definitely take a class for if I had the opportunity.
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Should add, I have the older style x-pole, not the x-pert,
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If the dome will span 2 joists, put it between them. If your joists are further apart than the dome is wide, then put it directly under a joist. My ceiling is drywall, and is at least that old. I have had my pole up and down a few times over the last year or more and never had ANY damage. 🙂
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I highly recommend Super C (Super Converter). It's free to download and will transform just about anything to anything!
My camera is the same, it makes MOV's that I would trasfer into AVI, or FLV.
Just Google it! 🙂
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I've never seen either of the first two before, Thanks for sharing!
That is what I want to achieve with pole, Felix is amazing though. I know that I don't have the time to dedicate to pole that it takes to actually get that good, but that is what I aspire to be. 🙂
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Can you do a butterfly?
If you let your lower leg come behind the pole and reach down with your free hand you can get a split-grip and push up into a butterfly!
Or if you can't do a butterfly yet, you can let your lower leg come behind the pole and reach down with your free hand, push your hips forward, and release the top hand (think one long straight line from free foot to free hand) into a Jasmine (Shooting Star on wikipole).
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I have never used a 50mm actually. I think I would probably fail miserably, but I still want to try it someday.
I originally started on a 38mm at the studio I went to, but when buying my own pole I decided to go with a 45mm. I figured because the difference was less it would be easier to get used to. Going back and forth was never a problem, I didn't really notice much difference.
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It really is just a matter of loosening up the grip on your legs. For the fireman, try crossing your ankles on the pole, but leave your knees just to the sides (like inches away from the pole) close, but not gripping. Hook spins, just loosen that death grip. But I do understand…I learned the cradle in pants, and when I first tried it in shorts it was soooo sticky and slow, pole burn big time! But it doesn't bother me at all now, and I rarely ever use pants because I like to go up the pole too, not just spinning down. My old instructor used to say, "The more you advance, and the higher you want to go, the less clothes you have to wear." I never wear more than short shorts, and sometimes at home I just rip my jeans off and pole in whatever undies I happen to be wearing. (Those practices never get posted though, lol)
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I would say your just as good without it for a while at least. I think some more advanced moves like the bow and arrow or archer come from the CAR position, but I know of people who do those from the CKR as well.
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LOADS of people find this one tricky! I have been poling over a year and a half and have only recently figured this one out. Actually, yesterday was the first time it was even somewhat easy. It's still not that stable (I have to go into it from an advanced plank, can't do it from a pole sit. lol) but I can walk myself down using my hands, and pull myself back up. I'm so happy to finally be able to complete the move.
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I record all my practices. At one time I had over 100GB of data…just of me poling! I had to change all the files to a different type so that they weren't as big. LOL I still have about 20GB. 🙂
It's great to have video proof of all (or at least most) of my "firsts". Also to see improvement over time.
