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Very new to pole – need some advice
Hello girls,
My name is Leea, I’m 35 and live in Holland. In my city I can not find a proper pole class, but after following 1 trial lesson and 4 short classes last month at a fitness club, I just fell in love with pole dance/pole fitness. I am not a dancer nor flexible, nor skinny (163cm/61kg). I just love being sexy on (or better said around) the pole. So i started doing some fitness training to strengthen my core. I can not exercise a lot because a day only has 24 hours and a week only 7 days and with work, my sweet baby girl, etc, i have very little time to exercise.
But! I bought my own pole few weeks ago. The space in my “pole room”isn’t much, but it’s enough to make a spin.
I found Veena’s online classes so I subscribed for one year.
I want to ask which class shall I start with? The 30 days take off? Or start with the moves explained in the Beginner section? I have no idea how to start online, because I see so many videos and pics of moves I want to be able to make… And I’ve tried some of them. I realize that I have to build a good core before I try them again. Some of the moves I can do, but not for long, can’t hold them for as long the girls in the videos hold the pose.. And could you girls advise me how many times a week and for how long per time shall I train in order to have a fast progress. I am willing to try to find time, so please be as honest as you can with the advice.
One more thing, sometimes it feels like my pole is much slippery then other times, which is weird. When I work on the pole for about 30 min 2 days in a row, the third day the pole is “less slippery”then before. Than I stop touching the pole for a week because of my big enemy: “TIME”. And when I try to exercise again the pole seems again very slippery. And yes, I clean it and my hands, never use lotion. Any ideas why? Does anyone experience this?
Sorry for this long post, it’s my first time posting and I would totally appreciate all the help, advice, I can get.
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5 Replies
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Hi Leea!
Welcome to SV, and to the pole world!
Most of us didn’t start out as dancers, or as athletes, or flexible or anything else! It can be really tough to look at all the lovely ladies in videos and compare them to yourself, but seriously… please don’t! Your journey is yours, and you’re just at the beginning!
The 30 day takeoff is a really awesome option, especially when you’re not sure how to structure your workouts at home. It’s a good example, and then if you want to add more or do less, you can adjust as needed. Veena has put all of her lessons in order of difficulty, so you’ll find that a lot of the beginner lessons are fairly easy, but you need to master them in order to move up to the harder ones, because the techniques you learn will carry through! So, beginner section in order, and then you move up from there!
And, please try not to push yourself too hard to move forward. Certain moves seem like they’d be awesome, like they’re easy, or you just want to GET THAT MOVE, but pushing to hard can be rather dangerous- I’ve heard a lot about injury when people do things incorrectly, and personally speaking, I’ve fallen off the pole, and done damage to my shoulders and arms doing things too quickly, or wrong. Keep your safety in mind!
Because Pole is a lot of strength training, you don’t want to do it more than five days a week. Rest days are essential for letting your muscles repair and grow stronger! My own routine is three days a week, with one rest day in between, because I tend to push myself hard, and I really need the rest! I get very sore, and that’s a good sign that you need rest.As for the pole itself… I’m curious, what kind did you get?
Slipperiness is often affected by the finish of the pole (powder coated and Titanium Gold are often very grippy, where stainless steel and chrome can be slippery), as well as the chemistry of your body (if you sweat a lot, or just how your skin reacts to the needs of pole dancing). Also, very important, is the WARMTH of you and your pole! If you or your pole are cold, then you won’t grip nearly as well, and this is likely a bad time to work on harder moves. Doing some dancing, and warmup for you and your pole will bring everything up to speed, and seriously prevent injury. I believe Veena’s warmup is for both you, and your pole.I hope that helps! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask, or search the forums and see if anyone else has asked, too. 🙂
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Hello Leea,
Runemist gives good advice!
I’ve been pole dancing for 5 months, once a week. I have huge gaps in my knowledge so I signed up to Veena’s lessons and started the 30 day take off programme with the goal to master the beginner moves before moving on. I have just got my own pole. Despite my patchy education and my extremely sedentary life I am making progress in strength and flexibility which is really encouraging.
My advice to you is this: start the 30 day programme. Start off gently first, maybe for the first two weeks before adding extra conditioning or maybe more practise of the beginner moves. I cannot stress enough that it is far better to progress slower with correct form, true confidence and knowledge of the move than to sacrifice even one of these for a “cooler” more advanced move. Pole dancing is a wonderful thing but it must be treated with a lot of respect. Not to scare you or anything but you can seriously hurt yourself through accidents or have injuries that can put you out for many many months, or it can be permanent. This can be caused by bad form, moving too fast, not listening to your body etc. Not only that, an accident can be enough to put someone off poling forever. You can’t come to any harm being too careful but you certainly can do if you’re not.
Listen to your body. Not only will you grow as a person in confidence and strength etc but you will or should become very in tune with your body. Listen to its cues. If you feel very sore, pained, tired, a bit flat, are hormonal, etc consider easing up or even stopping for a few days. Rest days are vital regardless and I’m a strong believer in that it helps your brain process what it has learnt. You can often go back to the pole and then bang, it clicks. My advice is watch all the intro videos regarding the 30 challenge, stretching, foam roller, conditioning, beginners etc multiple times. There’s a lot of info. Write down key points, it’s a lot to take in!
If you master your moves before learning more advanced ones you will dance better. You will be stronger, more flexible and more confident. You will actually progress faster. Of course there’s no harm in watching videos on the more advanced lessons, or other ladies here or famous dancers on youtube, but don’t rush to this point.
My house is very cold and so my pole, a chrome one, is slippery. I’m often cold too. I warm up intensely and then I grab a clean dry cloth and start to rub the pole, building up speed. I find it warms the metal up really fast and it holds it too. Bonus is that it warms me up even further! Cold pole = slips! Same for a cold you, excess sweat, lotions on the skin, and even dry skin.
Drink plenty, eat the best quality food you can afford, as unprocessed as possible. Get plenty of rest. Don’t focus too much on tricks but also just freestyle, let it go, relax, flow. Recording yourself can be extraordinarily helpful in helping you progress fast. If you get frustrated, stop, breath, practise something you know you can do. Always end on a good note. Sometimes it can take months to master a move so be patient!
You’re starting a great journey, you’ll be amazed at your progress!
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Hi Leea! Welcome to the site! I would suggest starting with the 30 day take off. Then you can move onto trying lessons on your own. When doing the lessons on your own, remember that all lessons are in order so you don’t need to skip around, every section of lessons are in order for you. If you ever have questions on a lesson please feel free to contact me 🙂
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Oh, the Basic warm up warms the Pole and body. https://www.studioveena.com/lessons/view/52e9ddc7-6c54-4f49-b60b-48950a9aa0eb
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Hi girls,
Thank you very much for your answers. I will start on Monday with the 30 days take off. I have tried yesterday to warm up good (myself and my chrome pole) before starting some moves. It really helps! The pole wasn’t so slippery as in other days, I could even do an inversion and hold on the pole pretty long only with my legs.
I am eager to learn fast, but I will follow first the 30 days.
I’ll post new pics and videos when I make them. Thanks for your support. It feels nice to know that even if I learn alone in my room using online lessons, I am not completely alone.
greets
Leea
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