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Flexibility and/or Strength….
I am not very flexible, and seem to be stuck that way. I am very athletic, but simple moves like The Spinner, The Chair, and ones that your legs aren’t on the pole and you are holding yourself out… all these evade me. I live in a tiny Bible Belt town, and so there are no classes or instructors to ask what I am doing wrong. It’s hard for me to fail at something… but when I can’t even complete the Beginner DVDs I bought, HOW AM I GOING TO GET BETTER?! Do I need more strength or flexibility? I just want to go upside down, but I don’t have a spot to help me and to make sure I don’t break my neck. What should I do? Is there a website to get tips directed at my problems? Is that this site? Thank you.
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3 Replies
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Honestly? Practice practice practice- from what I can tell (and from all the forums I’ve read) this site is the best online pole lesson site, so I’d give it a go 🙂
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Hey lazarenka!
Those spins were difficult for me for a long time, too… and I no longer have any classes in my town to turn to. I’ve not been going to lessons for most of my pole journey!
So, first of all… many “Beginner” DVD’s that I’ve seen in the Pole world don’t really have the same idea of what a Beginner move is. The Pole People one I saw puts the Chopper as a Beginner move- I mean, REALLY? That’s a very intermediate move. I’ve seen others with one-handed spins, I’ve seen lots with very poor instruction.
So, don’t put too much stock in a lot of the moves shown being “beginner” moves. You can always take a look at how Veena places her lessons, as they’re in order of difficulty. I’ve found her method and her ordering to be quite true for me in progression, and I know it’s true for many other people, too.However, as for those particular moves, I’ll say this: Momentum is tough. Appropriate swinging of legs, at the right time, is what will really get you around the pole in those moves. BUT, being strong enough to hold yourself up, with the momentum and everything, is something that comes with time! Using your lats to pull your shoulders down and protect the smaller stabilizer muscles is really key, and I’ve found that sometimes I can forget, and do myself some damage. So, please be careful!
For going upside down, you can purchase crash mats (some are really awesome, too!) to put around your pole. You can take it slow, be really careful about NEVER jumping into any move, and just see how you feel as you get into those moves. Pole dancing when you have no one around, I’ve found, requires a huge amount of body awareness and trust- you can do it! It just takes time, openness, and strength!
Posting on here with any of your questions is also super good. No question is stupid! We would all rather you asked “Hey, am I doing this right?” and post a video, than not and accidentally hurt yourself with a repeated injury!
And… flexibility requires a constant practice. Check out the Splits for Christmas 2015 thread for some tips (lots of pictures to scroll through, but we’re also all talking about HOW to get more flexible!) and as you add that into your routine, you will see slow, steady results 🙂
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Also, flexibility can be learned- some people are more bendy for sure, especially if they have a background in dance &/or gymnastics. but look at advanced yoga poses- they are incredibly complex and lots of people don’t start yoga until their 30’s or older.
I find stretching while I’m watching telly is really helpful as I am focusing less on the discomfort and more on something else, and I’m not as focused on holding the stretch for a certain amount of time etc.
there are tricks too- like getting into a stretch then tightening up all your muscles for 30 or so seconds (it’s hard!) and then letting it all go loose with a nice big breath out and you will find yourself sinking deeper into the stretch, then hold for a bit, ease up and do it all over again 😉Al Kavadlo has lots of great info on stretching and body weight exercises as does a Russian dude called Pavel Tsatsouline (just ignore all the “Comrade” stuff, he’s ex Russian army I think).
“Relax Into Stretch” is his book- I just found a torrent for the PDF but want to buy the video now because it’s really informative and clever.
He also has methods of overcoming your body’s stretch reflex where it will stop you going deeper into the stretch to protect the muscles and ligaments, but obviously you need to be extremely careful with that sort of stuff, but it can work.
Hope that’s of some help
Emma
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