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Forum Replies Created
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Jolene, I hear you on the sexual fetish thing. I'm actually a very sex positive person – I am always advocating healthy expression, and I would've made a great employee at Babeland or some other high end adult shop. But that's not what pole is about for me. A lot of times the first thing people say is "oh, I'm sure your husband must LOVE that!" Of course he does… he loves to see me happy about something, and we're both interested in fitness. We talk about the body mechanics and muscle groups used in pole all the time. Sure, he doesn't mind watching me contort my half naked body into crazy positions, but unless I'm specifically putting on a show for him, he'd rather be downstairs playing video games instead of watching me grunting and occasionally getting stuck.
The way some people react, it's like I just told them about my sex toy collection. (Jeez people, I know enough not to talk about those!)
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Yup. I'm a happily married, well-behaved professional who got straight As, eats her vegetables, says no to drugs and has never even gotten a speeding ticket. I'm also a bisexual Star Trek-loving pole dance enthusiast and pro wrestling fan. Guess which parts I typically keep under wraps in public, LOL.
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I'm out to some people, but not others. Generally, anyone under 30 knows that I pole, and most of them think it's cool. It's the older generation I'm more coy about.
I belong to a few different maligned subcultures, the pole community being one of them. All of my interests are the sorts of things that you don't generally discuss with grandma or the boss, even if there's absolutely nothing harmful or bad about any of them. It's easier just to keep the conversation about the weather and what cookies I'm baking and not bring up the pole trick I'm working on or the unusual show I went to or how I'm spending my time on the weekends. I don't want to deal with the questions, or have my hobbies be the only thing anyone ever talks about when they think of me. I don't want to be judged solely on being the "freak" in the family instead of just being a person with interests that skew outside of the norm.
Most people already know I do yoga, so if I attend a pole workshop, I just say it's a yoga workshop. Sometimes I feel like I'm living a lie. The only person who knows everything about me, and truly accepts me on every level, is my husband. The pressures of having to keep pole under wraps, and make up excuses about what I'm doing with my time, is draining. I'm tempted to just have a "coming out" day. I'm waiting until I have a really impressive trick under my belt so I can post a photo of it on Facebook. Like… "surprise!"
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If there's one thing pole has taught me, it's that body shape/appearance and strength are not necessarily linked. I have seen plenty of skinny, petite girls struggle to do things that larger women can do with ease. It's all about practice, practice, practice and building strength gradually over time.
The best thing to do is focus on what you are practicing and not too much on what others are doing. A lot of people in the pole community also bring years of experience in other activities (dance, yoga, gymnastics, etc.) so they may have a head start on certain muscle groups.
Whenever I am in a class and I see someone who is new, I always try to be extra friendly to them and give lots of encouragment. I remember how hard it was to be just starting out. Maybe someday you will be able to pay it forward to the next "new kid in class." 🙂
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Nice! That fan looks awesome. I have a Lasko tower fan that does a good job of circulating the air. I get pretty sweaty, so sometimes I'll just stop and sit down in front of the fan until I dry off!
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I live in a rental. Thankfully, our landlords are very hands off, so they haven't even been over to visit since we signed the lease over a year ago. We took down a ceiling fan in one bedroom to make room for my pole. At first I was kind of sad, because it was the only ceiling light fixture, and having a fan in the room would make it a lot more comfortable during workouts. Then in the process of removing the fan, my husband discovered that it was never anchored to the electrical box properly, and every time I used it there was a risk of it flying off. LOL… installing my pole actually made the house safer.
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Hi there! I just want to chime in and echo the importance of a warmup before stretching. I have struggled with my splits too. I have very flexible hips, but my hamstrings are holding me back. It's probably the same muscle Veena described. I experience the same pain on the inside of the knee unless I am very warmed up.
I take vinyasa yoga classes in addition to pole. A 90 minute vinyasa class is essentially like an hour of strength based warmup, with 30 mins of deep stretching at the end. I can stretch so much further at the end of a yoga class than I can at the start. I'm not saying you need to spend an hour on warming up, but definitely do your flexibility training at the end of a workout when you are warm and relaxed. Stretching while cold hurts and doesn't really lead to much improvement.
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Agreed. My TG pole can occasionally feel slippery, but a quick cleaning with either Windex or rubbing alcohol fixes it.
The right cleaning product depends on why the pole is slippery (from oil or moisture). I use Windex to remove body oils or lotion, and alcohol to dry up sweat. Once it's cleaned, I really don't have any grip issues. Of course I need to get stronger, but that's blamed on my muscles, not my skin. 🙂
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This is great. Some of my pole friends are plus sized, and I think they are amazing. First of all for practical reasons… thinking about how strong they must be to pull themselves up into an inversion! What's my excuse? And one of my friends is an incredibly expressive and passionate dancer, and it would be a shame for her to never have an outlet for fear of being too large to take classes. I also like your point that not all women start pole dancing to lose weight. I think the excessive focus on weight loss as opposed to overall health in the fitness industry is a bit unhealthy.
I'm actually pretty average sized (6/8) but I am large busted and curvy. I struggle with body placement in certain moves as well. No amount of weight loss would change the shape of my pelvis. And there are moves where I can't get my arms into the correct position without having to push a boob out of the way first, like you said about flag.
I agree that it's great to see pole instructors who don't have typical "dancer" bodies. My very first pole instructor was a petite pear shaped girl, and my classes had people of all shapes and sizes – tall, short, tiny, plus sized. It made me feel like I was welcome despite not looking like a ballerina.
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Yes, you can pay using Paypal with a credit card. This is the only way I use Paypal. When you get to the order page, just select Pay As A Guest and you can use any major credit card.
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I don't have kids yet, but when I do, I hope I can be as cool as Veena!
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I also find that my 7 inch platform Ellies are easier to walk in than my 3 inch job interview heels.
I think it's because it's easier for me to walk on the balls of my feet (which the pole shoes force me to do) than on regular or kitten heels, which put me in this weird sort of half point, half flex position that is really hard on my ankles and feet.
I wouldn't wear the 7 inchers to work, just because it would be awkward to suddenly grow 7 inches overnight. But I have an evening wedding to attend in April and I'm tempted to wear my Ellies!
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I think I remember reading on Karol's FB page that the only difference is the color of the fabric. Since it's a new product though, the offerings may be changing at a moment's notice.
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That is interesting! I never knew about that quirk of British English (and I'm kind of a language nerd.)
In Japan it can be considered offensive to refer to someone as "you" unless the context of the statement requires it. It's more polite to avoid using the pronoun or a person's name at all, if you can. And other languages have different forms of pronouns depending on how familiar you are with a person (like tu/usted in Spanish and du/Sie in German).
I've heard that Americans have a reputation for being informal. Maybe because it's not something we usually even distinguish in our own language. 🙂
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My experience has been more like Charley's. For me, brass is either painfully grippy when my skin is dry, or it's like trying to grab a playground pole while slathered in sunscreen when I'm sweaty. The inconsistency is what I don't like. Either I stick like glue or I slide dangerously. If TG is more "consistent" that that sounds better for me. YMMV.
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This is just my opinion – but I am also dry skin, very sweaty.
The reason I don't like brass is because I've used various brass poles at studios. I am not sure of the brand because they were one piece permanent poles (I obviously recognize a domed Xpert with adjuster holes when I see it.)
I have very dry skin, but I sweat a lot. Both when I exercise, AND when I get nervous, so pole makes it really bad.
So I stick to brass really, really well when I first start, up until the point where I start sweating heavily. Then I'm prone to literally slipping off the pole. No amount of squeezing between my legs or hands will stop it… it's like the pole has been greased. I'm not sure if it's the actual brass that I can't hold onto, or if it's whatever the studio uses to polish their brass poles. But the only time I've ever felt dangerously unsafe while poling was while I was sweating on a brass pole. It was like having sunscreen all over my body.
On chrome and stainless steel, sure I will slip a bit when I'm sweating, but if I squeeze hard I can at least slow down the slipping until I can get my shoulders or feet into a safe position. Brass is just too scary for me. I am thinking of getting a TG pole as my next pole because it sounds like a grippier version of chrome.
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A very good friend of mine was diagnosed with a digestive cancer with a near zero survival rate. We all knew it was just a matter of time until he passed – it's just not the kind of thing you get better from. Similar to what Steve Jobs and Patrick Swayze had.
But after receiving his first round of chemo, he was so miserable that refused to get any more, and instead tried special diets and other bits of pseudoscience not unlike what you've just posted. Since his prognosis was so grim, I'm really not sure chemo would have helped him in the end. So no one really stood up to him and just let him be. Sure enough, he passed away just more than a year after his diagnosis and got to have it his way.
But for so many other cancers, chemo and radiation are the only way save your life. Promising new research is being done with other types of treatments, including gene therapy. But if the research holds up in clinical trials, believe me you will hear about it.
Most pseudoscience comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of how the human body works (like your point about ingesting whole enzymes,only for them to be broken down into their components by digestion long before they would ever reach the cancer.) That's like saying that if you eat enough beef you will turn into a cow.
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Yes. At my photo shoot I had other pole girls there to tell the photographer when to take the shot. It was a lot of "ok is she ready yet?" "No, not yet!" "How about now…" "Wait… ok now!"
If you have poses in mind, it might be helpful to bring reference photos of other dancers, and framed the way you want it, so the photog has an idea of the image you want to create. Sort of like bringing photos to the hairdresser. A picture is worth a thousand words!
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Yup. I have literally had it happen in an instructor's face. I was attempting a straight edge from caterpillar and so she was right there behind me as a spotter. I never said a word about it and hope she didn't notice. But I respect her a lot for not saying anything about it to me! I'm sure instructors have had to deal with all sorts of unpleasant things…
It was terrible to think I was the only person that ever had this problem. Now if someone happens upon this thread they won't feel alone!
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Yes you're absolutely right! I learned how to avoid it by keeping the door shut, so to speak. It really is just a matter of focus and remembering to do it every time. Sort of like keep your shoulders engaged… keep the lady parts engaged.
When I'm upside down working on a new pole trick though, I admit that my mind is usually more focused on the mechanics of staying up than staying clenched!
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I think there's two threads going on here here… the smelly kind, and the "omg I just accidentally inflated myself while inverted, now what do I do" kind. 🙂
That's the worst feeling… you know it happened, you know you have to dismount eventually… and you just hope you can handle it discreetly without anyone noticing. For me the answer is usually no, lol.
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Ugh… I have this problem! It's happened in yoga too, which is even more mortifying than pole class because of the calm and quiet atmosphere. I laugh it off at home (and sometimes even impress myself) but it is so embarrassing when it happens in public. One of the benefits of poling at home I guess.
I also have the problem of being unable to play it cool when something like this happens. I could never be an exotic dancer, lol. Or maybe I'd develop a following as the easily amused one…
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There are some other poses you can work on to improve back flexibility as you work up to a full backbend (called wheel pose in yoga)
Bridge/Half Wheel
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_R8c3bIPv5TE/THKscw8EKtI/AAAAAAAAAak/AcxsIcT1AKA/s1600/Half-Wheel.jpgOne Legged Half Wheel:
http://media.onsugar.com/files/2010/07/27/3/192/1922729/ceba7807b18b9374_1-legged-half-wheel-pose.jpgUpward Facing Dog:
http://www.yogaclass.ie/images/upward-facing-dog-urdhva-mukha-svavasana.jpgIt took me a while to get my full backbend, but it helped to start with these progressions instead of struggling and potentially hurting myself in the full position. Good luck! From what I can see of your videos, you are awesome already. 🙂
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I am not in my late forties, but I take yoga classes with many women who are (or appear to be… who knows, maybe they're in their 60s!) Some of them have very good backbends. I'm not sure if they were flexible in their youth or if they've only achieved it recently. But it's totally possible for them.
Also, what do you define as a backbend? If you are looking at pictures of contortionists, then that might not be possible for you (or me). But I'm sure you can achieve some degree of back flexibility.
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I think the clause in the manual about not being responsible for ceiling damage is just to cover them legally in case someone is careless. Used properly under a stud, an Xpole will not damage the ceiling. My dome has left a faint ring on the ceiling but it comes off easily with a Magic eraser. Now that I know that, I just leave the ring because it helps me place the pole after I’ve taken it down. I’ll clean it when we move. 🙂
