poledanceromance
Forum Replies Created
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Interesting. I would think there would be a challenge in that there’s no horizontal place to grip, it’s all sloping down.
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I get so conflicted because I think women aspiring to be strong and have muscles is clearly a better alternative to women aspiring to be extremely thin. However the images of female fitness models often come out of unhealthy practices like dehydration and fasting before shoots to increase muscle definition. The pictures don’t tell the whole story. Sometimes the pictures are of elite athletes who are training for the function of their sport, not just to look a certain way. Their bodies are essentially a mixture of luck and accident in the sense that they have the genes to be an elite athlete and intensely skill-focused training that results in a particular build.
So for me I guess it comes down to a more general belief that, while it might be healthier for women to aspire to a muscular physique instead of an extremely thin physique, as long as the goal is about achieving a particular aesthetic and not about achieving health and skill, then it’s not really healthy.
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Thanks for the update! You’re being awesomely methodical about this. No matter what solution you find this is really good information for people who have been struggling with rashes.
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Keeping your skin clean could be the key then. This is weird, but so you know if you look in a pharmacy, they make basically baby wipes for taking care of bed/wheelchair bound people, but they’re much bigger. Like big oversize baby wipes for sponge bathing. Those could be good for wiping down during/after pole practice provided you don’t find them irritating, but they’re usually pretty gentle.
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Some people can do twisted grip easily and the rotation of the shoulder is not damaging for them when carefully and properly trained up. But some people have real anatomical limitations that make it unsafe for them to train this move, and those people should not do twisted grip bracket holds. It has nothing to do with their skill, ability, or capacity as pole dancers. It has only to do with how their muscles, tendons and skeleton are set together according to their DNA. It’s no different than how some people have anatomy that will allow them to train up for 18″ oversplits on both sides where some people’s hip anatomy simply does not allow for oversplit training. If you have taken time off as directed by a doctor, done recovery, trained up carefully and built your strength and your body is still screaming NO, if you were a student in my class I would be giving you modifications away from using that grip. Moreover I would be using the sum total of all my teaching powers to show you that you do not have to take it personally because this move isn’t for you. And I will say from my teaching experience that this is not something you HAVE to be able to do; there are modifications for almost every trick and transition I can think of. Working on those modifications can make you feel better!
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There’s alcohol in most of the liquid grip aids so be aware of that if you do a spot test of alcohol and grips and get reactions from both. If it looks like you are having issues with metal allergy from contact with the pole, you might be able to prevent the effects by showering immediately after poling if possible, or washing off/wiping down at the studio before you leave. And it can depend on the severity of your nickel allergy. For example, some people have a nickel allergy such that wearing jewelry in a fresh piercing that has a high nickel content will cause a rash, but wearing something like a bracelet or even jewelry in a healed piercing might not cause a rash. Then again some people can’t even wear costume jewelry because just the skin contact is enough for a rash. Since you tested positive you might have a severe enough allergy that the contact with the pole repeatedly over areas that get tenderized by say, doing sad girl drops or working one knee pit grip heavily in a session, could be enough. Good luck, and consider reporting back on the process of elimination you use in trying to figure it out since it seems like there’s been a couple people with questions on this lately!
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I love that video ^^^ That’s fantastic!
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I just realized it might not have come off how I intended with the use of the word “complaining,” I didn’t mean that to sound like I think you’re whining! I’ve just seen a few people lately with rashes blaming it on metal allergy to the pole but we use SO MANY CHEMICALS on and around the poles that I think that’s the most logical place to start in ruling out an irritant, not the pole itself.
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I have seen lots of people complaining about this lately and frankly I think it’s far more likely that you’ve developed a sensitivity to something that you’re using to clean the pole or something in a grip aid. I would try using a steamer to clean the pole really well to remove any residue of cleaners or grip products, and also make sure to use a clean towel to wipe the pole and yourself every session, as your towel could also be holding something that’s irritating you. This is especially true if you have shared towels at the studio….bring your own clean one. It’s also worth a try to wipe your pole with water only. Giving the pole a wipe with a damp cloth and then a dry one does a good job cleaning it and you can eliminate any outside factors of substances that could be on the pole. If you try to eliminate the possible chemical irritants and you STILL get a rash from the pole, then you might consider nickel allergy. But if you switch away from chemicals and the rash goes away, you can find the culprit by doing “patch tests” of the different chemicals. Basically taking a little rubbing alcohol or grip or whatever, rubbing it on a little quarter sized spot on your forearm and leaving it there overnight to see if you get any rash. The most important thing if you’re having a recurring issue like this is to be systematic in checking different potential irritants otherwise you won’t know what it is.
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Just another poler chiming in. When I first got into this several years ago, pole was a different world. We were only just starting to really understand how to prevent injury in training, as there just hadn’t been a focus on that before. But we were just coming out of an era where the superman was considered a top tier advanced trick. Soon, we entered a world of twisted grip handsprings and then it all went psycho from there.
By the time I was 6 months into poling, I was already experiencing shoulder problems. We started to get the basic safety info out and I got smarter, but the damage was done. At about 2.5-3yrs into my pole journey, my shoulders took a turn and I was basically incapacitated. I couldn’t even hold my purse in my left hand-this was no longer a matter of pain to work around, my arm would physically and involuntarily give out if I put any weight on it. It was a “30 day push-up challenge” type thing that put me over the edge. As a result I took about a year of rest and completely 100% altering the way I approached pole in order to heal. It changed my relationship with pole completely. And this was something that could have been prevented by 12 weeks of rest and 2 weeks of physical therapy almost five years ago. Five. Years. Ago.
It’s a lot better now, but I am still training around the tightness and limitation in my mobility which sadly now interferes with my training in back bending. You need excellent shoulder flexibility for back bends, something I didn’t realize when I started. All of this plus my limited interactions with the “pros” made me realize: most of us started pole because we believed in our hearts that if we could do this, we would feel good. We started for our wellness. Most of the professionals we so admire are constantly training around really severe injuries. I mean really severe, really painful injuries that will cost them heavy consequences in the long term. They do this for the sake of making their bodies do a certain thing with a certain aesthetic. The professionals we admire make the choice to specifically sacrifice and jeopardize their wellness to enhance the end result. I believe that with pole we all have to decide what it means to us, and know completely and clearly why we’re here. Because we all have to make that choice in the end: are you training for your wellness, or are you training to make your body do what it takes to win?Just my two cents on recovery and the role of injury in my training as I near the half decade mark in my pole life.
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Neat idea, I really like this one! Something to work on once I get over my happy new year flu lol
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What a spiteful, sniveling, bed-wetting shit stain.
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You guys rock so hard. There is a reason you guys are, in my opinion, the best maker out there and without question the first maker I suggest to anyone. P.S. please advertise the pole-away thingy a hell of a lot more. It’s so damn awesome.
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Chem that’s not totally true for everyone. If you have liver issues like lupus or digestive issues like UC or Chron’s or IBS even the dosage on the bottle can be an issue. But mostly I only posted based on some people’s mentions of taking more than the max dose every day on a continuous basis. I didn’t mean to get everyone whipped up scared about OTC NSAIDs, just wanted to remind everyone to check the dosage information on the labels and consult with your doctors if you feel the need to exceed it, just to be safe because some people out there can be sensitive to the side effects and not know it. The future lawyer in me can’t help but gently urge everyone not to undertake anything that qualifies as a drug regimen without going over that with their doctors.
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Just tossing it out there that NSAID’s like ibuprofen say right on the bottle not to use them so heavily for so long because they are very hard on your digestive system and can give you ulcers with long term use. Just something to be aware of, I’d definitely suggest having dr. supervision if you’re wanting to use ibuprofen or other NSAIDs daily to manage soreness.
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Are you poling seriously every day or most days during the week? If so the constant soreness is a huge challenge. Truth be told some of this is inevitable as chemmie said…however I have also come to learn that three factors hugely impact my body’s recovery:
1. Drinking enough WATER. I mean tons. GALLONS. As much as you can. Your body’s water consumption when you’re exercising a lot goes through the roof. And your body needs tons of water to build muscle and maintain the fluids that lubricate and protect your joints.
2. Diet. Protein. Fatty acids. Good fats. Research the nutrients your body uses to build muscles and make sure your diet gives you enough.
3. Adequate rest. Not just sleep, but also sleep. But rest in general. You have to take it. I personally am much more prone to post-workout soreness when I don’t get enough sleep.I also find using ibuprofen and hot baths really helps me get going when I wake up sore. These are just my observations based on realizing that the more we intend to train, the more important our self-care is.
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Sadly Chemmie is right. But if you want a good resource for all things pole in central IL, I suggest you contact the Illini Pole Fitness group at U of I via their fb page!
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Yes please share webby!! Plans for this would be the answer to a prayer because it would make it feasible to do the whole project in a weekend and know it will work.
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I also agree that it’s unjustified to be insistent about what is “your” music. Especially in this day and age where pole dancing has emerged from its early infancy and is now a growing and popular hobby and athletic pursuit. There are so many of us now…if I were to keep a list of songs other people have danced to that I couldn’t dance to, even if I counted ONLY a random list of 5 “pole stars” who have been around at least five years, I wouldn’t have any safe music left. Dance means many things to many people. A song can mean something different to you than it does to me, and we can both express those differences with our dancing. We’re all on our own journey. We can all take the opportunity to take something we need from the music. The only situation where I would defer on a music choice because someone else is using it is in a competition or showcase situation where it would mean two people in the same show using the same song, and the reasons are different there.
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If it’s any reassurance, I’ve lived in several old houses and in each of them when I put the pole up I heard cracking sounds and ultimately wound up with some small cracks in the ceiling that were not structural at all, just surface cracks as you mentioned. I think particularly if you live in an older building things can shift and settle when you put the pole under tension and it makes those little cracks but doesn’t damage the structure of the house at all as long as you aren’t over-tensioning.
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I would use a robust mobile web version more than I would use any all that couldn’t preserve the site’s function. But that’s just my personal preference. I’m usually the one on some random website trying to disable the mobile version because it doesn’t do half what the full site does-not a problem here I should add, which is much appreciated especially because I don’t have Internet access from my phone right now.
I could see there being some cool companion features, like being able to make a workout calendar, pinning certain lessons to a day or adding notes, and syncing that back to the sv website….something that was almost like a “mobile trainer,” an app generally meant to be used as more of a workout assistant/tracker/planner like myfitnesspal or fitocracy. That’s the kind of app I tend to use most. Apps that attempt to replace a web browsing experience I tend to use with less frequency.
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Daniele so true there are many ways to be a polefessional that don’t depend on competition titles ! I don’t think anyone would deny that Veena is a professional and I don’t think she’s ever competed or held titles though she has coached people who have won titles! Similar to Kelly Yvonne who has also been on the front lines of pole for years now coaching, promoting pole as art regardless of level AND pole as high level sport.
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And I’ll say that one more time so it sinks in…I have NEVER met a “professional” pole dancer who does not have to work around at least one permanent injury. Not because they are necessarily reckless but because that is the nature of the choice they have made to do this professionally…it means you can’t just quit to rest, and you also have to make it look good no matter how much that hurts.
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All that AND….factor in that underneath all of that struggle they are in constant, never-ending pain. Pain from overuse of the body in general, extreme physical fatigue…but also injuries. Every single pro I’ve met must constantly work around one or multiple permanent and painful injuries. Many of us pole for health and wellness…but the pros sacrifice that, and give up the general health and wellness benefits in order to make their bodies do those incredible things. Any professional athlete sacrifices the health and balance (what many amateurs seek by practicing) to make their bodies function a certain way. Most of us aren’t physically able or emotionally capable of making that sacrifice…that’s partly where the good genetics come in, many of these people are made of tough enough stuff to train through injuries that we would not and could not train through.
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Hopefully Joel Lessing won’t mind me quoting him, but he was an online round judge for the Florida comp a while back, and when I talked with him about that experience afterward he remarked that one of the things judging really did show him was that, while many performers of many body types are capable of delivering absolutely amazing PERFORMANCES, there is a “body type” for the really high level aerial acrobatic pole work and that’s the general aerialist body type- a relatively thin but muscled frame with a very strong upper body and good overall flexibility. I don’t have a problem with that. If you look at the US women’s olympic gymnastic team, there’s very little variation in those ladies on height and general build. (Same for weight lifters, or any sport really…) In the more performance-oriented pole world or competitive circuits that aren’t just about gynmastics and acrobatics there is much more body type variety in pole. As a cast member of Girl Next Door Chicago I can tell you there is a definite wide range in body types in GND, although they all have tricks that suit their body types because they have fantastic training.
Within the “high level” pole competitions, I really think there are some people out there who are bucking “traditional” beauty ideals in how they perform. Danielle Romano is a FANTASTIC example of this…her whole look and style bucks the norm. I also think in some senses people like Patti Zikmund and David Owen buck beauty norms in the pole world by telling their story with their bodies without obsessing over what conventional wisdom says the pole aesthetic “should be”…in other words they aren’t out there trying to look like ballet dancers or do things the “conventional pretty” way, they feel free to go out there and be creepy and stompy and interpret feeling and movement without trying to fit it into a particular dance technique.
In general I think in many ways many people are attracted to pole specifically because we enjoy rejecting some of those norms. Even those of us who are the trained dancers are certainly doing something that the traditional dance world tends to push against. And those of us who are the “sexy style dancers” on first appearance might have a “look” that reflects western beauty norms, yet the western beauty myth doesn’t allow for us to be respected for our looks if we “look like strippers…” we can’t just be “normal” and pretty, we’re whores! (so they say) And since we all had our own reasons to come to pole…I truly believe we are all fighting for something with our dance, and we all reject norms somehow…so I have learned not to judge a pole dancer from her outward appearance, and try to see each dancer for what she fights for.
