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Certainly sounds like you're strong enough to start working on cartwheel. When I teach this, I have people start with their strong hand at shoulder height on the pole, bend over, and put their non-dominant hand low–like mid-shin height–on the pole. The inside (same as dominant hand) leg is the one that kicks in front of your body between you and the pole. (It is less scary to start learning this with your bottom hand already down than it is to start trying to dive down into position.)

I have people start by trying to kick up and tuck into a ball, and hold that balanced upside down. This move is a HUGE pull with the obliques and push with the bottom arm, while pulling with the top arm. You are trying to bring your hip to your top elbow. The main mistake I see is people not going upside down. Everyone always tries to watch themself in the mirror, and so their head never drops past horizontal. It's an invert–think ear into your bottom armpit. 

This move generally takes people a long time to get, many many tries. It is sometimes helpful to have an instructor catch your hips and lift you up into position so your body and brain can feel where you are headed. 

Good luck!!

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One other thought on back flexibility…

when you are arching backwards, your back isn't actually stretching, it's contracting. The front of your body is stretching. So to have a really good back arch, you need to spend a lot of time stretching the quads, hip flexors, psoas, and chest muscles. Your back muscles need to be strengthened to be able to pull your body backwards adequately.

The resistance stretching that I teach works on exactly this principle–in order for a muscle to fully stretch, its balancing muscle needs to be strong enough to fully contract.  I offer private sessions via skype, message me if you want to know more.

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Hey everyone,

I am ready to roll with the one-on-one video stretch sessions. To remind you:

I am a pole instructor and resistance stretching trainer, trained by the same people who appear on the Dara Torres DVD and who stretch her every day. I recently did a Skype session with our very own Amy, who had nice things to say about it–scroll through this thread to find her comments. 🙂

This would be a one on one private 60 minute stretch session where we can identify and target your particular issues, practice the appropriate stretches for you, and leave you with a "homework" list of stretches. Price is $45 for the hour; $175 for a package of 5 sessions ($10 per session savings, payable up front in one payment.)

You need a webcam and skype account (free). You need to schedule directly with me and pay via Paypal. You can message me here, or email ellen.lovelace@sbcglobal.net, or find me on Facebook. I am in the Pacific time zone, to give you some help with schedule ideas.

I look forward to working with you!

Ellen

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Hey ladies
Sorry I missed some of the comments on this thread.
It is very normal to be sore after these stretches. You are creating microtears and you will likely feel like you’d been lifting weights.
Shaking is also common. It generally indicates weakness in the balancing muscle group (ie biceps and triceps). Dara Torres DVD does a great job of explaining how these muscle groups work. The stretches are paired with strengthening for the balancing group. One great way to get more flexibility in a muscle is to gain strength in the balancing muscle.
I definitely understand why you might feel lost reading Cooleys book. I also ignore all the meridian/personality stuff. But it is hard at times to understand what exactly he means or what muscle you’re supposed to use and how.
I started another thread letting everyone know I will soon be offering video resistance stretch lessons live via skype. I’ll be doing privates as well as groups. Stay tuned for more info on that soon! Hope to get to see you then.
Ellen

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Hey kasanya,

I'm not sure I ever noticed that, too funny. You're right of course, you do need to stretch your quads as part of the full series. The quads balance the medial hamstrings and oppose the lateral hamstrings.. Generally I have people do the full series of 8 leg stretches every time they stretch, You just never know what balancing or opposing muscle is standing in your way!

Hope this helps.

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Awwwww, thanks for all the Poletential love, ladies!!! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_heart1.gif

We are about a 30 minute drive from SF, and Caltrain comes to within 1.5 miles of our door. We have quite a lot of students who come down from the city and we've been able to hook some of them up for carpooling. We've also been known to pick them up from Caltrain before class!

In the city proper, S Factor and Shelly's studios really are her only options. Other ladies on here can tell you about S Factor. Sedusa is in South SF, which is another city about 10 minutes drive south of SF (not a part of SF itself.) They only do 5 week series classes and are very focused on sensual dance. Their South SF studio is quite small and has limited offerings. 

There are no pole studios at all in Santa Cruz. We've got tons of ladies (and an instructor) who drive "over the hill" to pole with us. 

If your sister-in-law wants to come check it out or ask questions, feel free to put her in touch with me– ellen@poletential.com  https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif

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PLEASE be careful if trying this on static!! I can't remember the details of who or where, but Fleur spoke with someone who had done this and ended up with internal tearing from it. Her stomach gripped on, and things tore inside. I believe there was surgery involved and it was quite bad. I recommend trying it only as a HOLD on static, and as a spin on spinny mode. 

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Aha, Amy. In our warmups, I’m making the girls work harder than they’re used to. Less dancey warmup, more hard core work. This also quickly gets their body temps up, which is great since the studio is cold this time of year, and helps them stick to the pole sooner. They hate it. It makes me giggle. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif
As for my 6 hours, I’m doing 3 hours a week with a strength and conditioning coach. (well, 2 with her, 1 on my own doing what she teaches me). It’s everything: walking lunges, bosu squats, band work, step ups on a box, ball crunches/side crunches/back extensions, various core work on a mat, lots of tricep/lat/rhomboid training with weights…
I’m doing 2 hours a week with a PT. Then about another 1.5 – 2 hours per week of doing my PT exercises myself every night. These are all with therabands and focus on training all my upper body muscles EXCEPT my biceps/pecs, trying to re-cue how my muscles fire. (Note that these are all done at a very very simple and light level. Your muscles would sneer at what my muscles cannot do after 3 months of disuse.)
2 hours a week of Pilates reformer class.
2 hours a week of stretching (should be more…)
So actually, more than 6 hours! No wonder I feel like I live in gym clothes lately! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif

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i’m not quite sure i understand this… this may be a dumb question but…

when you guys are warming up for pole classes, what do you do? don’t you do pushups and core strengthening?

Hey Amy,
Yes, in our classes about 20 minutes of the hour is devoted to warmups that include core strengthening.
I’m talking about now spending up to another 6 hours a week away from the pole working on strength and conditioning. And about another 2 on flexibility. The idea is that I cannot build the strength I need by doing pole alone–and that no athlete can use their sport alone. (Think about Zoraya and the amount of time she spends in the gym…)
Make sense??
E

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I’m currently in rehab/PT for a bad bicep tendon injury. For 3 years I’ve done almost nothing but pole as my fitness routine. I’ve always done Pilates twice a week as well, but find that better for stretching than for any serious strength training.
My PT said something to me that was a total "lightbulb moment." He said:
You cannot use your sport to train for your sport.
Football players hit the gym to build strength. Ice skaters use ballet to build grace, flexibility, and tone.
If pole is your sport, you can’t just use pole to train for it.
So I am now seeing a strength and conditioning coach three times a week to work on overall fitness and build the strength and stamina I need to be able to perform at the level I want. I’m continuing Pilates. And I’m focusing more on core-building and strength exercises as my pole warmup.
My PT is very wise! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif

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It’s always much easier to learn to descend down into a move than it is to kick or invert up into it. Have you tried working from a basic invert, splitting your grip, finding your balance point, and taking your legs off the pole?
From an invert, I do a small caterpillar to get a bit of height with my butt and get my top hand firmly placed up by my belly with a bit of a bend in my elbow so my bicep is engaged. From there, I stick my butt out and bring my ankles to the pole with my legs straight piked out in front of me. I can then find my balance point and take my ankles off the pole. Once you’re used to that, you can start playing with moving your legs, bringing one over to lay on top of the other for jackknife.
The thing that made this finally click for me actually was a serious dose of rosin on my hands. Once I wasn’t worried about my grip slipping at all, I could play with it until I got it.

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Totally echo Veena. That armpit has to be squeezing like mad. Don’t just hang off your skin, relying on stick–that hurts like a mother. Push your hip into the pole as well, gotta get the push going in two places like Amy said. I find this position doesn’t lock in until you fully arch and grab your outside ankle behind you.
Felix is short. Jenyne is short. Karol is miniature. You can do this.
Oh and "fetus on a stick"–WIN!!!!! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_cheers.gif

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My naturopath has told me that B12 isn’t absorbed orally and injections are really the only way to get it in you. (She may be motivated by getting paid to give me shots though, so….)
One other thing to think about is hypothyroid. Not sure how old you are but it’s so common from the 30s on and is just about the most missed diagnosis in women. If you continue to feel punk, a thyroid function test is a cheap and easy thing for your doc to order. Make sure to get the test that tests multiple types of thyroid function though–they usually just order T4 and there are a few other more sensitive tests to do as well.

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Pink,
I’ve been dealing with bicep tendinitis for over a year. I had to take 3 months off the pole this time last year, and now I’ve again been off it since mid-October. I teach with one arm and a lot of talking. Your strength will come back quickly and your muscles will remember. In many ways, you’ll come back stronger than you were before. The hardest part is just the mental anguish of missing out on pole time! Heal up totally, don’t let it become chronic. Use the time to work on flexibility in your legs, that’s my plan!

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Empy, I found the foot file at a drugstore I believe.
Kiehl’s is sold at high end department stores (Nordstrom, Neimans), online, and at stand alone stores in big cities and malls.