[Cinara]

My hips are more or less 40" as well, and I just grabbed a pair of similar shaped booty shorts I have at home and measured the top of them, and it's exactly 12.6 inches, so I'd say you're probably fine with the large.

I just deleted an angry rant about how 40" hips are so not that freakishly large, but according to pole fashion my average healthy weight is too fat for cute pole clothes. 🙁

[Cinara]

Oh yeah that would put me in a split grip, not a proper pencil/iguana grip. Back to the drawing board!

[Cinara]

Finally free to take a break from my drama-filled life to reply. Thanks everyone for the ideas! It's good to know that the regular bending-over-and-grabbing-the-pole-thing can actually look nice in a routine. I guess it will just take me lots of practice to build some flexibility and learn where the pole is so I can get it smooth.

Coming down and then back up is also a pretty good idea. I wonder if I could be strong enough to do that without touching the ground by October. Hmm, maybe not unless I turn into Jenyne… I was planning to go with a CAR, lunchbox, bow and arrow, twisted grip aysha combo, but there's no reason I couldn't then go back into a split grip lunchbox and reverse iguana then back up, is there? (Well, except I can't do that yet, but still…)

DedeJoy, that explains why my studio calls an iguana mount a Darryl Hannah! It's clear to me now!

[Cinara]

Another thing that could help is not to think of it as holding your feet up, but as pulling them back behind you. On the other hand, I found I couldn't hold a chopper for ages and then one day I just could, so perhaps it's just a strength thing.

I'm not sure if back pain is always the result of not being strong enough to invert. I've been inverting for over a year and I have no trouble with air inverts on either side, can lower down slowly with control, and I'm almost parallel with the floor in an iron x, but I still find that I can only come out of an invert the way I went in if I do it very very slowly – and only about twice a session at that – without absolutely ripping apart my muscles (figuratively anyway). 

I think the pain could also be a technique thing. I know I have some technique issues with my basic invert thanks to learning it too soon (after six whole hours of pole experience!) and therefore having to rely on gymnastics horizontal bar technique instead of proper pole technique. The things I know are wrong with my invert are:

1. I round my back instead of keeping it straight. (I half remember reading somewhere on the internet that this can injure your muscles, but I can't remember where).

2. I don't get my hips in front of the pole before inverting. (I tried to invert from a bees knees once and just rocketed up into a chopper so fast I nearly bruised my pubic bone because it was so much easier from that position than my usual standing behind the pole) 

3. I try to go straight up and over like a backwards somersault, but I've recently noticed that other people kind of go up on a diagonal. When I tried it I realised just how hard I'd been making air inverts for myself all this time.

Polingaround, maybe check whether your back is too rounded, because that can prevent your hips from getting close enough to the pole, it may be associated with back pain in inverts, and I can tell you right now from experience that it makes transitioning from a chopper to a gemini far less smooth and attractive than it should be. 

[Cinara]

Aww that sucks, sorry to get your hopes up. Chances are it will just "click" one day soon and you'll be like "What the hell???" 

[Cinara]

@LopsiJulie

I first got into the split grip from and inverted crucifix and then slid down into a jacknife. I first got the twisted grip from an inverted D.

On the weekend we were told to start in an inverted crucifix, get into split grip, and then slide our legs down the pole (so they'd be bent rather than going into inverted D). But then we quickly had to move onto entering from a scorpio.(Right leg is inside leg and hooks the pole. Bring hands into split grip with right hand down, bring left leg over in front of your body, release into aysha.) Apparently some people find that easier, but I know I certainly dont :p

[Cinara]

I haven't really come across much about what works best. I use a fancy scented one, but I've seen people use cheap generic brands as well. As far as I know, anything that comes out as a gel and starts turning into foam is okay. I have found it doesn't work so well on hot sweaty days though.

[Cinara]

I've just discovered rubbing some shaving gel/foam into my legs (and therefore also my hands) before I start seems to help a lot on cold and dry days. 

[Cinara]

Ah yes, I call it The Buttcrack Bow and Arrow. One day I was suddently pantsing myself by catching my thumb on my shorts, and then a few days later it just stopped. I'm not really sure what happened differently. Maybe play around with having your hands higher or lower, or being careful to have all your fingers tucked away? For me I just tried to not to pull my pants down and didn't think about anyting more specific than that. Sorry I'm not of much help 🙂

[Cinara]

Like I said, I'm not just making stuff up. This is what I was taught just a few days ago. Not everyone is going to agree on technique of course.

[Cinara]

Ooh ooh I just learnt this on the weekend! If you have really short shorts, sometimes you can't go off to the side. I was told that you just have to push through the pain because it doesn't last long. As in, it's only the very first part of the slide that hurts, and then the rest is just against your butt, which doesn't hurt. (This is what I was taught at Bobbi's, so I'm not just making it up). But, if you can get away with going to the side without getting stuck on your skin, totally do that.

My problem with this move is that my bad ankles collapse when my feet touch the floor, and I end with the sides of my shoes on the floor, and my feet rolled all the way inward. The good thing about my bad ankles is that the ligaments are so loose othat this is completely painless and harmless for me, even if it would sprain anyone else's.

[Cinara]

Huh. That just adds more evidence for my theory that I have been inverting wrong the whole time. Still, I know I'm not the only one who has trouble coming back down, and I've had instructors say not to, so maybe it depends on the person?

[Cinara]

Congrats! It's a big step.

The sliding to the floor thing is thought to be the safest option. Hold on with your hands and legs and stay upside down and just move really slowly until your shoulders touch the floor. You can use the old rock-climbing advice of making sure you have 3 points of contact (or 3 limbs) on the pole at any time.

The other thing you can do it go into a handstand and then slide your legs down the pole. Just invert fairly low to the ground so you don't have to slide to get your hands on the floor.

Try to avoid coming back down the way you came into it (dropping legs to the floor) if you can. When you're new to inverting you can pull some serious muscles doing that and it hurts like crazy. I found I needed a solid aerial invert before I could safely dismount this way, and even now I still need perfect technique and very few attempts per session.

I would wait for some more expereinced instructors to post in case I've said anything wrong, but that's my experience.

[Cinara]

Being able to do a new move one day but not the next is completely normal, and happens to all of us. I'm going to resist the urge to geek out and write you an essay on motor learning (I'm doing a PhD on it), but I will say that whenever you learn something new, your performance is very variable at first while your brain works out exactly what signals to send to each part of your body. (And how to adapt to changes in humidity, triedness, etc, etc)

 In a pole sit, this doesn't matter so much because you can still grip the pole when your muscles are doing slightly different things (though as you noted it's not as clean). Something like a fireman, though, is far more complex and requires more balance, so a slight change in how your muscles work can throw the whole thing off.

All you need to do is just keep trying, and it will come back. Your brain just needs some time to experiement and figure it out. It's all just a part of the learning process 🙂

[Cinara]

I have sweaty hands and bad grip strength. And for some reason my skin hates chrome. I'm working very hard to improve my grip strength, but in the mean time this is my extreme treatment for very slippery days.

1. Dry pole thouroughly. 
2. Apply Tite Grip: allow to dry.
3. Apply shaving gel: allow to dry.
4. Apply Dry Hands: allow to dry.
5. Apply Tite grip: allow to dry.

That's before I start poling, and during the session I only need to apply a little bit of Tite Grip.

The other thing is to get used to the feeling of gripping a slippery pole. You get afraid of falling long before you will actually fall, so take it easy and be careful, of course, but try to persevere with a few safe skills. It's safer in the long run, because you'll be ready for any accidentally slippery hands incidents.

Finally, just dance through whole routines. I didn't think my grip would last until I had no choice but to keep going for four minutes. I still can't get an extended butterfly, aysha or poisson into a routine on chrome, but I surprised myself by being able to do everything else.