[Sanchara]

Hmmm…. I think that it is important that you have "our" friends rather than "his" friends and "your" friends. Now I'm not saying that means saying good bye to everyone – you just have to socialze with people you feel comfortable with. 

My husband and I went through some friend – related growing pains in our first year together. His best friend thought he was being sinful by being with me. (I'm 12 years younger than him and I was in my last semester of highschool when we started dating) and my best friends one thought he was an old perve and the other was in love with me…

But there were lots of people who on both sides who were supportive and those are the ones that became "our" friends. 

In anycase –  I think your discomfort about the pole is a symptom not the problem.

[Sanchara]

Back flexibility is a tricky subject. It's really easy to cause yourself serious injuries.

Make sure that you are fully warmed up and in a warm area before you do any back stretches – your back is much less forgiving than other parts of your body.  Pole Dancing fortunately is a sport where climate control tends to be relatively manageable (compared to vaulting where we train in a barn or outside)

If you do a flexibility training routine the best time to do back is in the middle of the routine, I usually start with legs, do back and then finish with shoulders.

Back Flex pre-requsites

1. Back and Core Strength – Back flexibility skills require that you support your spine with the muscles surrounding it.  Now when you engage your back muscles and core muscles you will probably not bend quite as far but trust me that’s better in the long run.  Here are some exercises for this

-Planks all directions on your elbows (front, both sides, back) – start by aiming for 30seconds and work your way up to three minutes (Planks are also the best strength training exercise for flat, smooth tummies)

– With a partner holding your legs rest your hips at the edge of something like a sofa or the edge of your bed do lean down to the floor and sit up to a slight arch position.  Then do the inverse (your butt at the edge arch down and sit up to a slight hollow) you can also use a roman chair rather than a sofa and a partner – most gyms have them,

-Hollow and arch body rocks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8vd45ynGqQ make  sure to keep the back as round as if you were doing rolls or something – then the arch is exactly the same thing on the tummy

2. Shoulder Flex – a lot of back flexibilities require a ton of shoulder flexibility (such as the bridge for example) you can get this from stretching the shoulders both in warm up and as part of your post-workout flexibility training. Here are some stretches

– Place your hands on a table or other low object and bring your back down until it is in a straight line with your shoulders. Alternate between holding your head relaxed and  trying to lift your head above your arm while pushing the shoulder down.

– sit on the floor with your hands together behind your back and slide down slowly.

-place your palm against a wall with your arm at shoulder height and slowly turn away from the wall until you feel a stretch

Back Stretches

Cobra – the first image on this page except the girl is doing it wrong http://www.flexibilityexercises.com/back/ make sure your hips don’t break contact with the floor. This one is good for warm-up and also as the first in a series of back stretches.

Bridge- Everyone knows this one but here are a few key points to remember about it.

Do not allow your spine to take any of the weight – you should be lifting with your stomach, supporting with your back muscles and pushing up with your gluts

Keep your knees together and legs straight

Push back into your shoulders so they can take some of the stretch.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=gymnastics+bridge&view=detail&id=83EB8D345A5D2A77B33356D4CBC9F01D55C0C8A5&first=31&FORM=IDFRIR this is wrong

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=gymnastics+bridge&view=detail&id=8A3F43DBEE3DBF30BA5BBC922413DABC1E408BEF&first=1&FORM=IDFRIR this is correct

Do a few of them – at least three for fifteen seconds each.

There are lots of other stretches that you can do but these are the most basic. Once you’ve mastered these you can start working on other skills like chest stand and ring balance – with ring balances tho be sure to stretch both sides evenly.

 

[Sanchara]

My pleaser shoes fit very true to size…if a tiny bit snug…

[Sanchara]

don't support google. they are an evil and corrupt company. I won't get into details but lets just say that working in the technology industry has really opened my eyes to a lot of things.

 

Adobe photoshop is far and above the best photo editing and digital art. I use version 7 at the moment – it's a little on the old side but still does the job for desinging website templates for work (I'm actually a web programmer but since I'm the only one in the company with an artistic bone in my body I get to to do the creative stuff lol.) I also use photoshop for digital painting so it is very versitile. I've even used it for designing floor plans for my new training room.

The only downside is that it can get a bit pricy. However there are simplifed versions like Elements and Express that are cheaper. (they still have all of the basic fetures – the things they lack are all things that the home user wouldn't ever use)

if your pricerange is "free" Gimp is a good option – it is made for linux but works on windows too.  I found it fairly intuitive to work with although not as fancy as photoshop.

whatever you do decide you should post pics!!

 

[Sanchara]

I would really really like to know where this BS about not holding a stretch for more than 30seconds came from. I've seen it in a couple of places now and it is entirely WRONG.

Stretching for Warmup

When you are warming up you basically want to move around enough to get the blood flowing and your body temperature up. Somethng like a barre warmup. You'll know you're ready when you start to sweat. Then you stretch the your "big movers" so the largest muscles groups like glutes, quads, hammstings shoulders ect. for a minimum of 15 seconds – 30 is best for most people but sometimes it takes even longer than that for the muscle to "give in" to the stretch, then stretch splits, wrists, ankles and feet.

then stand up and shake it out and you're ready to go!

 

Stretching for Improved Flexibility

The ideal time to stretch for impoved flexibility is IMEDIATLY after a hard workout when your muscles are hot and fatigued.  Start with dynamic stretches about ten reps of each one – remember to be gentle and lift rather than throw.

Next do legs holding each pre-split stretch for three minuts before doing actual split stretches. Remember to includ static active stretches like needles and arabesques.

Next do your back. hold each stretch for fifteen seconds, release and repeat until you have done at least one minut.

Lasly arms and shoulders. Each stretch for three minuts.

If you are not doing PNF stretching then you may stretch every day and should. If you are doin PNF you need to give your muscles a 36 hour rest in between each session (on the off days gentle static passive stetching is okay)

If you would be content with180degree splits then you will only need an hour a day of flexibility training day.

 

 

[Sanchara]

a giant on the pole? hmmm not sure how that would work. but then again I can't even do one on bars lol

[Sanchara]

I’m coached by Colin Schmidt for Vaulting and I don’t know that many people in the gymnastics world yet. I’ve only been doing it for like three months. I train at Twisters and my coach there’s name is Johnathan. Both are absolutely excelelnt coaches. Very knowlagable about their respective sports and very very technical wich is something I need. I also lucked out because I dont learn well from females as all lol.

[Sanchara]

dehydration can also make cramping more of a problem. i don't cramp at all unless I'm dehydrated.

I always drink a whole bottle of water slowly over the half-hour before I train (my water bottle is about 600ml) and then 1 liter per hour of heavy sweaty training.

Also I second what Nymphdancer said about vitamins – although I tend to say boo to supplments unless you have some kind of defiaincy…Spinach is your BFF – learn to love it.

[Sanchara]

Thanks PowerTwirl. I will probably start videoing my training. I wish i had the time to take classes…but saterday is the only day that I don't already have 5-6 hours of traning scheduled. It's supposed to be my rest day but I still do some ballet barre, swimming and pole.

[Sanchara]

thanks anyway then. You all make very good points. I will start from the beggining. 😀

[Sanchara]

from someone who already has oversplits and got them from non-splits. There is not magic training plan, and certianly non fancy gimick stretches to help get them quick. it takes time and patience. LOTS of time and patience.

 

[Sanchara]

Good luck to both of you. I lost 30 pounds between febuary and june of last year so it is 100% reasonable.

All I did was repace refined sugars with natural sugars and fruit alternatives and simple carbs (white bread, chips ect) with complex eqivelents (whole grain bread, whole grain crackers ect)  and train hard. As a rule of thumb if you're not sweating almost right away and exausted after half-an-hour you need to work harder. 😉

 

I hope my experiences help 🙂  

 

As for my plans

1. Take my career to the next step more programming less web-monkeing – maybe even learn some lower-level programming languages like power BASIC and maybe event ASSEMBLER (I can dream big lol)

2. Optemize my fitness; I look okay in a bathing suit now but I would like to be a LOT stronger

3. I currently have 190degree splits – I want 210degrees

4. Optemize anccilary capacities (sport psycology, nutrition, warmup/cooldown procedures, hydration, rest ect.)

 

I think all of my goals are kindof meduim-term like…a year from now I'd like to complete them.

 

[Sanchara]

oh and also – ballet ballet ballet.

[Sanchara]

First off the point that Minicoopergirl made is extreemly valid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HhXPP06Nb4 this is a good ballet warmup for the whole body.

 

if your feet are cramping when you point your toes then you are probably scrunching your feet rather than reaching and stretching through the calf and ankle.

To elaborate on what polergirl said "toe point" comes from the action of the whole lower leg reaching and stetching.

for the moment forget about your toes and focus up higher. work on reaching and stetching through the shin and calf, down to the ankle, and then to the instep. Form there your toes will just naturally follow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=338PFBMbEaI&feature=related  how to properly point your feet

Exerises to get better feet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRwduc1b2ZY&feature=related 

(any of these you can do sitting down any time… – if you work in a job where you are at a desk you can even wear shoes you can quickly "escape from" and stretch your feet while working)

 

and as far as simply remebering to point your feet during routeins just get in the habit of pointing your feet all the time no matter what you are doing.

[Sanchara]

I don’t see anything wrong with high difficuty moves by people’s names, other sports do it all the time. Ususally they go by the last name tho, not the first. The best example that comes to mind is the "beilman" in Figure Skating and Equestrian Vaulting (wikipole calls a simmilar move the ‘skater’)

for the moment, my plan is to work through the wikipole picture directory alphabetically, not somthing that would neccicarily work for every new poledancer but I alredy have a lot of strength and flexabillity from Vaulting so… I should be fine.

annother quick question tho,
on average how many moves are in a pole dance routein?