[MilienElayne]

keeping your head forward like you did at :03 is the only way you will get that great C curve in your back, if you are using the pole. make sure you stretch out before you practice on the pole though! my contortion friend said you can get scarring in your back and you wont progress if you dont https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_confused.gif
looking great though! keep up the hard work https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif

Thanks! I had warmed up and stretched out before starting my pole workout. Yeah, I worked out that I had to push my chest out and have my head looking at the pole to get my feet lower. That’s what you mean, yeah? I just love how my back springs right back. My legs hate me sometimes, but my back is forgiving if I sometimes take the day off. You’re so right about that!

[MilienElayne]

oops. omg. was posting while watching and didn’t finish the clip before posting. there’s nudity in that clip at 3.25. Sorry!!!

[MilienElayne]

Found a pole sit drop: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgI2e6a75TU&feature=related at 2.22. *EDIT* Be warned there’s nudity past 3.25 in this clip. I can’t totally remove this post, so I thought I’d edit it. There’s another post after this one mentioning this also but it went to the next page and I wanted to make sure this warning was seen. If this needs to be removed, moderator please do so.

[MilienElayne]

I just got this same error message for a clip I’m trying to upload. I watch it load, then it says approved and then the error message and the vid disappears. I’ve checked that it’s small enough and I have tried in .wmv, .flv, and .mp4 formats. Is there an upper limit to how many vid any one member can post? If not, I’d love to know what type of error occured so I can remedy this.

[MilienElayne]

Out of curiosity: What would be the criteria you’d look for in a line of pole dancer clothes as top heavy ladies?

I’m pretty demanding, I think…

I’d want matching tops and bottoms that can be bought in hugely different sizes. If I bought a cropped top in Kmart, it would be a stretchy 16 to cover, but the matching undies or shorts would be an 8 (Australian sizing, sorry, but you see the great difference).

I echo the cup versus band dilemma. In Australia we have small bands and small to large cups… but of course the styles get grosser once you pass out of DD into E and beyond. We don’t have small cup sizes teamed with larger band sizes and again, the bigger the band size, the uglier the bra tends to be. I am safe at the moment, as long as I stay under an E because I need a large cup and small band. So I’d want lots of possible combinations there.

My size changes every few months too! Either from weight gain or loss. I hope I have stopped growing… :S Adjustable cups would be cool… maybe not doable though…lol.

I’d want the choice of full coverage or lesser coverage with each pattern/color/design, so multiple styles of bra in the exact same theme. I hate going to a store and finding a cute color or pattern and not being able to wear it because it’s not in a style that fits/suits.

I like the idea of reversibles so there’s two outfits in one… probably wouldn’t work for formed bras though, but normal tops and bottoms.

I’d like to choose between plain and flashy too… lots of different choices.

How are some outfits more ‘pole appropriate’ than others?

For me, I want coverage because I don’t want to fall out and am self-consious when I pole, but if everything fits well, does it matter what you wear as long as your points of contact are bare?

[MilienElayne]

Tried a SM to Brass Monkey in class (haven’t been taught it, shouldn’t be showing off) during freestyle and had no grip whatsoever on my legs… forgetting I had put lotion on to shave earlier and that the pole was still a little cold…lost my hand grip trying to catch myself…and plummeted to the floor. Landed on my shoulder, legs over my head, and I was pointing my toes so hard one of my 6" heels half came off, hanging by the strap from my ankle. Spent the rest of freestyle time getting right side up and trying to get my shoe off before throwing a hurried back arch pose like nothing happened and before the song ended. Graceful! My instructor acted as if she didn’t see me fall (maybe she didn’t), and everyone else seemed to be too busy working their own freestyle… Lucky escape!

[MilienElayne]

Ooh, if I had a foam mattress to use, I’d cut it in half and then cut a slit from one side to the centre on each and then just slide the pole into the slit until it sits right then do the same with the other on top… maybe cover it so it doesn’t get sweaty? I’ve thought about buying a crash mat, but my couch cushions are thick and four fit around my pole like a treat. If I want them to stay together, I’d probably sticky tape them for that pole session https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif I spend far too much on lessons and workshops and workout gear as it is.

[MilienElayne]

ok. omg. first move a standing over split into split grip holds. just… I can’t watch this… I can’t NOT watch this. 3.09 she looks like she’s popped her leg out of it’s socket to get that… but looking closer it’s like a split with a backbend. 3.34 no handed split. whhhaaat. ok, sapphirecatzeye said it best: her legs are crazy!

I thought ice-skater when I saw her outfit, but they’re all fully covered in mesh and fabric and have skirts. Then I thought gymnast, but then they’re pretty covered and one-piece too. Balera does some cute and funky seperates including sparkles and metallics…

[MilienElayne]

GLOVES: Firstly, I don’t use gloves or any grip product for spins. Despite sweaty hands, I can barely get enough momentum (overgrip) with bare hands, let alone with grip aids! I heard recently that gloves don’t allow your hands to strengthen as much as using bare hands. Perhaps, your grip can be more relaxed in gloves as they grip for you? I’m weaning off them so I don’t end up at a loss if I for some reason don’t have gloves when I pole and I don’t want to lose any ounce of potential strengthening. I’ll use them as a last resort or a new scary move backup.

PAIN: I make sure I am really motivated and can be distracted by getting into the music, having an audience (in class, or my camera) and focusing on my form…and I somehow vacate the area of my brain that focuses on the skin pain. I feel it, but I just don’t care. ‘Yeah, this hurts a bit, but I rock this!’

The lessening of pain, I think anyway, happens over time as you get used to it and as your muscles and form develop to better execute the move (as others have said). If you do now exactly what your started out doing, I reckon it would still hurt the same.

I’m not a believer in physical desensitisation. Yes, I am slowly building small, thin callouses on my hands (after 1 year of dedicated poling and recently starting assorted aerials apparatus), but I still blister over and under them. Plus, I still bruise a crapload (more than anyone else I know who’s not anemic or has clotting issues), even doing a move very well and having done it several times a week for a year. My diet is good and nothing else bruises me like pole contact. A strong fall on my shoulder, a torn hamstring, a bad sprained ankle, a high speed run in with a table, smashed in the head so hard I see stars with a play tea tray… no bruises.

However, I love every pole bruise and ache because I know where it came from and enjoyed getting it!

[MilienElayne]

Nice!!! Awesome. Wish more general pubs/clubs had poles and that I went out https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif

[MilienElayne]

Sure you can do a Brass Monkey drop… I do it all the time… I end it in a *smack* on the floor. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif (Cold pole or slippy legs.)

But seriously, you could do a Brass Monkey, let your grip go (and you’d plummet) and catch it with Reverse Inverted Thigh Hold into some other move, re-grip the Brass Monkey (though, I’ve never managed that, I’m sure it might be possible?), or swing into a Pencil or straight edge style hand grip (do you have super strong and grippy hands? https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif) ? Can handstand down from it from a height? (Ouch.)

I’d love to see a deliberate and well caught Brass Monkey/Funky Monkey/Marley drop!

[MilienElayne]

No minding here https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif Would love to see anyone’s videos of this move! I am SO jealous you got to take classes at Bobbi’s, Caitlin! I am the same, I would take every single class available if I had the time and money. My skin is crawling today because I have to have a pole free day as I have a big beading deadline and I also start aerial preparation at NICA on Monday night and don’t want to be sore or worn out for that. My pole is sitting 3 metres from me in the living room and it calls to me. Oh dear.

[MilienElayne]

I’d say always keep trying/practicing every method of getting into and out of a trick and doing it on both sides if it’s at all possible. Just switching sides…it is sometimes amazingly easier on the other side…or I learn something new about how the trick and my body works doing it on the ‘gumbi side’. I can’t superman properly either, but I can do it from the floor and from a hip hold pike, and I can bend weird ways and do heaps of other things… so I CAN superman! I figure it’s a mixture (for me) of lack of practice, lack of exposure (to more vids…MORE!), lack of seeing it done live (rather than in videos, it’s so different) and all resulting in incorrect positioning or movement on my part. If I can’t do a move, it’s ‘not yet’, not ‘I can’t do it ever because…’. I hope every trick can be modified and worked at until it’s doable to some degree unless prevented by injury or flexibility.

I’m pretty tall, so my superman balance is hard to hold and getting into it means I have a lot more leg to swing around. I need to start way up the pole (rather than from a floor invert) for some moves and definitely for combos, and flipping around is a bit slower and I can sometimes lose height just concentrating on getting all my limbs around https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif

[MilienElayne]

How’s the practice going?

I’ve never gotten into it from a caterpillar… they still scare the crap out of me… Caterpillar and Straight Edge/Aysha are moves I still haven’t gotten yet, but Butterfly and Extended Butterfly, easy. Weird, non?

From the ground I invert and hook my gemini leg and keep the leg I’m going to extend straight and already out, keeping my top hand on from the invert, then put my other hand in split grip below and twist to a Butterfly. If I’m doing it aerial I do a chopper, then hook the gemini leg and do the same thing. I’ve never even thought to go from a caterpillar. Should do that!

[MilienElayne]

Voodoochild, Ooooh. Let us know how it goes!

Sapphirecatzeye, Great vids!

I start my first mixed apparatus aerial classes on Monday!! Eeeek.

verucablue, aerial silks for the house?! Do you have massively high ceilings? How are you anchoring them? I would die to have my own aerials rigs.