[michaelaarghh]

i absolutely love brass in winter, i find it super, super sticky. but i hate it when it’s humid in the summer, and much prefer my chrome 🙂

[michaelaarghh]

i have no idea what a python or genie is????
but i just re-grip into a cup grip and lower myself onto the floor.

[michaelaarghh]

i’m another one for photogrid!! i love how simple and quick it is to use that app! other than that i don’t really do any photo editing 🙂

[michaelaarghh]

This is a really interesting thread to read !
I really liked the point about pole stepping away from showcasing and now being all about competitions. I don’t feel I am ‘qualified’ to have much thought on the matter, but like the poster before me, I want everyone to feel encouraged and welcomed into the pole community and if they feel there needs to be categories for them, then power to them.

I do think, however, that determining by BMI is a stupid idea since it’s such a stupid measurement to begin with. If you’re a slim person with a heap of muscle (which let’s be honest, a lot of pro polers probs are) your BMI will probably be really high and may even put you in the overweight / obese category.

[michaelaarghh]

We did conditioning for it by holding the twisted grip, standing in front of the floor feet flat on the ground and then lifting knees to chest.
It’s a great conditioning exercise for your core as well as your shoulders. But you have to be really careful to dead lift and not jump into it (that obviously defeats the purpose!)

[michaelaarghh]

Twisted grip is pretty common here in Australia, but we also have v skinny poles (38mm). I can’t imagine TG on a thick pole would feel too great.
I can definitely see TG handspring being really dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing, and it can be quite jerky. Again, I feel like if you don’t have the strength and are kicking into a TG shoulder mount, again…that can be dangerous.
But I personally like twisted grip shoulder mounts. You’re using different muscles than you would in a cup grip for instance… TG is a lot of core and you use a lot of lats, as well as some of the muscles in your shoulder, whereas cup grip is also a lot of core, but a lot more shoulder and a lot less lats.

I personally really like twisted grip, and especially when I’m inverted. But, it can be dangerous and I think you should keep in mind what your body is capable of (e.g. if you don’t have the shoulder flexibility work up to that rather than just pushing past it)

[michaelaarghh]

or they’re hard to find!! (by a landlord? hahahah!)

[michaelaarghh]

yep, directly over one joist.
I think what Robyn has said about finding joists is the best way to do it. In the place we’re living now, I climbed up into the crawl space of the roof to see the joists and lined them up with my boyfriend standing on a ladder underneath me. We then used a pin to double check and it was all good.

[michaelaarghh]

I agree with trying it low to the ground…that way if you fall you don’t have far to go and are a lot less likely to get injured.
I also fell out of superman (there’s a vid on my profile that’s actually pretty hilarious). I found that finding out WHY I fell, and what went wrong really helped me to overcome my fear of the move.
xx

[michaelaarghh]

I didn’t learn to invert until about 5 months into pole. Like everyone else has said, keep strengthening and conditioning and you will get there.
The basic invert is a big move. You are lifting your entire body weight with your arms and flipping yourself upside down. That’s not easy, so don’t beat yourself up because you’re not there yet!
Don’t even worry about aerial invert if you can’t do an invert off the floor. They should be thought of as separate moves because one requires a lot more strength than the other.
With proper technique and strengthening you will get there eventually. xx

[michaelaarghh]

Absolutely go and see a doctor or physio if you think you’ve done damage to your rotator cuff. It’s such a large group of muscles and even once you’re no longer in ‘pain’ the muscles may still be weak so if you don’t rehab them properly and build the strength back up it’s too easy to damage them again.
I tore my rotator cuff when I was 15 and holy moly it was agony. For about two years I could not move my shoulder at all. (With physio appointments every week) I wore it constantly in a sling because even just having it by my side was putting too much pressure on it. Then when I took the sling off and tried to move it, even with physical therapy I could not lift my arm higher than my shoulder. I seriously thought I was going to be disabled in that arm. I’ve spent the last 6 years very aware of my rotator cuff and trying to protect, strengthen and stretch it.
So just be very, very careful.

I’m kind of hesitant to even say ‘google exercises to do’ because you don’t know what you’ve hurt or what you’ve actually done. Shoulders are too important, go see a dr!

[michaelaarghh]

I don’t really understand how your tail bone is even making contact with the pole?

[michaelaarghh]

That looks awesome Kobajo!!

and Silver Sylph, stretching progress is always slow, but you look fantastic! You’re a lot closer than me! I have been deep stretching at least once a week, and light stretching 2-3 times a week as well on top of that!

I will upload my photo later this week…I am still quite far from the splits but maybe this time next year I will have it…what a great progress photo it will make!

[michaelaarghh]

Yep where is the squeak coming from? I had some issues with this with my xpole and contacted them about it they were able to tell me what it was and get it fixed but knowing where the squeak is coming from is necessary to determine if its the top adapter , ball bearings etc etc

[michaelaarghh]

litlbit, did you even read this forum? No one is complaining that they are being told to wear too much? with all due respect I think it’s a little different saying to a student “you must have skin contact on your thighs to grip the pole for your safety” as opposed to “your shorts must be this many cm long and cover this percentage of your skin so everyone else feels comfortable looking at you”.

I feel that everyone should only be concerned with what they’re wearing. Sometimes I wear shorts to class that show a little bit of butt crease. I only ever wear a sports bra / shorts combo. Other girls in my class always wear a singlet. The point is, everyone should feel comfortable wearing whatever they damn well feel like, within reason. If there is a particular student practically being naked and flashing their bits all over the place, then that’s a different story and they should be spoken to in private.