[RoseMay]

It's best to start from the floor first: lay in front of the pole, pole between the legs. Then bring the booty up and bring the legs in position for the CKR. From there you can practice holding it (without having to hold your full weight as the upper body rests on the ground) and pulling yourself up (in the beginning help with the hands). This should get you used to the pain.

Also, once you start working on it up the pole, you don't have to go all the way back at first. In the beginning you can just lean back so that your upper body isn't even horizontal and you can even hold on with your hands in this position at first. Once you feel comfortable there work on slowly leaning all the way back.

It's basically just a matter of doing it often enough so that it stops hurting 🙂 And the more you squeeze with the legs the less it hurts the skin.

[RoseMay]

Just take it one day at a time. I like to think of training like writing a book. Every training session you write one page. That isn't much. But after one year you'll have over hundred pages (depending on how often you work out) – and that is, in fact, a small book. After two years you'll have a normal or even a large book. But what do you have to do for getting that book? Write one page at a time 🙂

Set yourself small goals for every session and every month. What would you like to have accomplished in one month? Then do your prep exercises for that every single training session. Even if I have a halfhearted session, as long as I did some strength exercises and prep work I feel that it got me a bit closer towards my goals.

Pick out some combos you'd like to learn that include moves you already know, write them down, and work on them during training.

And soon you'll have some new tricks and combos you can do very well and can be proud of 🙂

[RoseMay]

Have you looked into PNF stretching? I've found that with passive stretching I could get my splits down to like 4 inches off the ground and then the progress stalled. Once I started PNF stretching in the split position from there I was down on the ground really quickly.

To get the splits I did flexibility training for around 4 hours per week, usually on 3-5 days once per day, depending on how sore my muscles were.

Also I've found that just dancing isn't a very good warm-up for flexibility training for me. I like doing dynamic stretches as a warm-up.

I highly recommend following routines (DVDs or Veenas lessons) on a regular basis. You can throw your own stretches in before or afterwards. But those stretching routines will teach you technique and new stretches that you might not have tried before.

[RoseMay]

You can work on the leg positioning for the basic invert (and other inverts) lying on the ground with the pole tucked under your inside arm. I think Veena goes over this in some of her invert lessons.

For elbowstands/handstands you can try to find something where you can walk your legs up so that you don't need to kick them up. At the beginning I used a corner in my room where I had the wall at my back and a cupboard a couple of feet away from that wall. I put my hands down in front of the wall and walked my feet up the cupboard. I also have a cupboard next to my pole that I sometimes use for handstands against the pole. Obviously you need to be careful that when coming down you either step beside the object or carefully back onto the object.

If you do it this way you also don't need to go into a full elbowstand or handstand straight away. You can stay in the arm position with the feet elevated but without having to hold your whole body weight with the arms.

Btw maybe you'll find in this thread here some more tips:

https://www.studioveena.com/forums/view/4eac57fa-9a74-4e16-a5a3-57760ac37250

😉

[RoseMay]

Try to turn your legs outwards from the hips so that the knee doesn't face up but towards the ground in the direction of your body. So in the picture you posted the knees and feet would face the pole behind her.

Apart from that, just like AerialGypse said, be careful and don't push into the pain. It might be that you're compensating a limited range of motion of the hip joint by putting too much stress on the knee joint. Depending on the anatomy of your hip, if the angle between the femur and hip socket is too small the range of abduction is limited (= no middle split). If that is the case and you push into it, you're only going to injure yourself.

[RoseMay]

Okay now that we've brought out the big guns (lol) and started talking about the people that made looking muscular their job …

The difference between figure/bb competitors and pole dancers is that the first group trains and eats for the look while the second group trains and eats for the performance (e.g. getting stronger, getting more flexible, being able to train for a few hours to polish the skills and work on choreos, teaching classes for several hours, …).

Assuming that you don't take drugs, if you eat and train only for the look you will never achieve your maximum performance. It's mostly because the body doesn't have enough energy to support heavy training … also the cuts prior to competitions are mentally draining. So they are usually strong, but they could be stronger and train harder if they didn't have that lifestyle.

And on the other side, if you eat and train for best performance you usally won't look like those, that eat and train for the look. Of course genetics play a big part here. But it's no coincidence that the strongest people usually don't look like bodybuilders (e.g. olympic lifters, power lifters, strongmen, gymnasts, … if we compare it with pole dance gymnastics is probably closests to what we do)

[RoseMay]

Of course, the girls here are very helpful when someone uploads a video and has a problem with a certain move. Just write in the titel and description that you need advice and I'm sure someone will have something helpful to say 🙂

You can upload videos when you click on "Videos" at the top of the page, next to your member name, and then go to "Upload a video" in the right upper corner of the page.

[RoseMay]

Well, for me my perception of the female body changed the more I got into strength training and later pole dancing. A few years ago I always thought skinny top models had the most beautiful bodies. Then once I started working out I looked at pictures of fit women and sometimes I liked what I saw and sometimes I thought: "Ugh way too much!"

But over the years that changed and more and more muscles became "normal". Especially in pole dance you see lots of girls with strong arms and backs  https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_heart1.gif and the more you look at it the more it becomes normal. When I see a formerly thought of "pretty" woman I'm always thinking: "Wow, look at those tiny arms and bony shoulders! How can she survive like that?" I often pinch my female friends that don't work out in their arms and say something like: "Oh look at that, it's so cute!" https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif

I especially love muscular forearms. They make women (and men) look so strong and grown up.  I've actually never seen a pole dancer who had too much muscle (female or male). It's in the nature of the sport: the more mass the body has the harder the tricks become. Also there are some strong pole girls out there who don't look muscular at all!

(On a side note: The way your muscles look depends mostly on the body fat percentage you have. If your muscles are covered with fat they will look more bulky than the same muscle with less fat on top of it. Also, just because you're getting stronger doesn't mean you're actually gaining muscle mass. That depends mostly on what you're eating.)

I personally don't build muscle easily so I'm very proud if I see a photo or video of me and the shadow makes it look as if there are visible muscles https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif (Although I'm often told by other people that they think I have too much muscles … well, I only think that's very rude, it's not like I ASKED for their opinion about my body. I mean I don't go around telling people that I think they're too fat/skinny/muscular/bony/whatever … I don't just assume that they care for my opinion about the way they look. In the end every person should feel good in their own body, no matter how it looks like and what other people think https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_flower.gif)

[RoseMay]

Haha, when reading the title I thought this thread is about a cool new combo https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif

I think for most people for the handspring there are lots of moves you need to be comfortable with before working on it, because you need to know how to hold yourself up there once you can handspring up. Whereas for the shoulder mount you just work on the conditioning exercises and then one day you are strong enough to do it (if you know how to do the inverted crucifix).

[RoseMay]

If the pain doesn't get better within one week you should go see a doctor. Also, if there is any swelling or bruising in the injured body part you should go see a doctor.

That being said, be careful with the foam roller. Light massages are good but do not push into the tissue hard as this will interrupt the healing process.

Also, do not stretch the muscle. Try to move it only through a painless range of motion. Once the muscle feels better you can start to slowly increase the range of motion.

Heat is also good. Hope you feel better soon! 🙂

[RoseMay]

Are you sure your positioning is right? I get my flag bruises over my boobs (between my armpits) not ON them, because that's were I place the pole. At least this is how Veena teaches it in her lesson.

Not sure about the flag invert though, haven't been able to do that one yet ..

[RoseMay]

Often :-p One time I dreamt of a "new" combo and wasn't sure whether it was even possible to do outside of a dream … almost fell once trying to do and then just stopped trying. A few months later I saw Jenyne do it in a performance – so, obviously it is possible https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif

[RoseMay]

My mum is usually the first one who sees a video of a new trick, enough said? https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_heart1.gif

[RoseMay]

Of course it's possible to get the splits even if you aren't naturally flexible! I started off about 15 inches off the floor. It took me about 9 months until I was on the ground. (actually only 6 months of consistent work, took a break in between)

I uploaded some pics to prove it in my album "splits". Maybe it helps to motivate someone 🙂

Though I do think that some people just can't get the middle splits due to the anatomy of their hips. But front splits shouldn't be a problem. Even if you aren't anatomically able to do a middle split you can still improve the straddle flexibility which will help a lot for dancing and tricks 🙂

[RoseMay]

I believe the second one is called a hangman. The first one I've never seen before, looks pretty cool though 🙂