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I've heard the same thing said about running (my other hobby;))and flexibility too – I guess anything where you're doing an activity that shortens/tightens muscles is going to seem the direct opposite of lengthening those muscles (ie. stretching). Like Veena and others say about lifting though, I find my best stretching happens after a good run because my muscles are warm so I can get more deeply into stretches.

A couple of random other things – re lifting, it may depend on what kind of lifting you're doing as well as to the effect it has. Higher weights, lower reps presumably tightens more than lower weights higher reps (I can't give you a biomechanical reason for this but it makes sense to me!). Re gymnastics, you have to remember that gymnasts have been training both strength and flexibility since they were knee high to grasshoppers so really aren't the best templates for us regular folks! 

 

 

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I take small forays into spinning pole – and have a section in my latest routine that certainly was a challenge when I first tried it, being used to static. As I phrased it to someone today though, you have to make physics your b*tch. The basic principle is that the more weight closer to the pole, the faster it will spin, which works against all our basic instincts to grab tighter to something when we freak out over the motion. My advice is to always enter your spins slowly and if it's feeling too fast for you, fling out a leg or poke your butt away from the pole or anything that takes to weight away from that central point. I know some people seem to thrive on the super fast spinning but to me, it just ends up feeling like my brain is rattling round and my body can't do anything against the momentum!

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Where I live, I’m pretty sure there’s an employment court where you can apply for wrongful termination and possibly be awarded damages, depending on the situation, but I’m guessing things are quite different in the US! Sorry it worked out badly for you but at least it doesn’t seem to be hampering future employment prospects, which would have been one of the potential negative side effects

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I have a fair bit of extra skin, especially round my tummy (I call it my cat tummy 'cos when I'm on all fours, it kind hangs down like an old cat's belly does!:)) and tbh, extra skin tends to stick more rather than less! It doesn't always look so nice but it's really about working your angles if you're worried about the look or saying "Who the f*** cares?!" if you don't:) If I stopped pole dancing when I saw how other bodies looked doing pole, I would never have discovered the things that I make look amazing! Or had nearly as much fun trying…

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I have a few exercises I do (calf raises, closed eye balance, leg lifts) as physio for some leg imbalances that I don't do with a warm up (do after I get up in the morning or before I go to bed) and I think that's fine. Things like that are relatively gentle but also dynamic and warming in their own right so I can't see why you'd need a separate warm up. I think warming up before doing actual weights is a bit different, presumably because of the more intense muscle action? I can't give you technical reasons but these things seem logical to me:) The only thing I would say is that, to me, sometimes exercises seem harder without a warm up though but that could just be 'cos the old body's not as young as it used to be;p

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I would think that if it's pulling that easily, you may either not be utilising the right muscles when you're doing some things or the muscles have got shortened for whatever reason (cycling? running? genetics?). I find hammies can be a particularly fussy area but maybe, once you've healed, it might be a good idea to do light stretching and strengthening of the hammies to try and stop it from happening again. Maybe getting a teacher to look at your technique for the moves that are particularly causing you grief could help? Or making sure you're really warm before you do things? Having said this though, I know people with well stretched hammies who just through one random wrong move, tweaked it painfully. Re the foam rollers, I think they're good for working on knotty muscles, which is not really what happens when you strain things. Although maybe, if you're particularly knotty in one area, you may compensate through another area and cause strain? Sorry, this has turned into a bit of a brain storm about the issue but hopefully you can get it sorted 'cos a stretched hammie is annoying!

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I was just about to post that that story is from Plato's Symposium and then I saw you'd linked to the yahoo answer anyway:) So, technically a philosophic story rather than mythological but still a nice idea:)

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Also, the dress is stylised classical-esquen but not the traditional peplos or chiton and she appears to be holding a sun on one side and a moon on the other – the Greek goddess of the moon is Selene but sun deities in Greek mythology are typically male (Helios, Apollo). Unless it’s some interpretation of Leda, the mother of Apollo and Artemis, the latter who is sometimes associated with the moon? She’s much more likely to be shown with a swan though, referring to her affair with Zeus in that form. Sorry to geek out on this but I’m curious now as icononography in ancient art was a particular interest of mine:)

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I have an honours degree in classics and it doesn’t match any iconography I can think of. Re multi-faces, There’s a two faced god, Janus, in Roman mythology but Janus is male; like someone said above, Hecate is known in a triple persona; and There’s also a 3 bodied giant, Geryon, but again male. Are you sure it’s not just someone’s interpretation of something else?

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Even if it does turn out they were just some weirdo going round stalking people  on fb to make themselves feel better, NOONE has the right to say that kind of thing to you! 

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I think for the one leg at a time version, you need to have your hips away from the pole a bit, to give you that kind of room like Amy talks about. I side climb that way on one side and side climb the two legs at once way on my other side because each works best on the respective sides, I don't know why. For the two legs at once, I brace my inside/lower arm grip against my forearm and use it to help push out, which seems to work quite well.

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Ah funny, I was about to post about this too 'cos it's my current project move too!! I used Marion's tutorial as a guide but went in from a BM instead of the layback because I find it a bit more secure. I've managed to get to a position that I feel like is the right one and can remove my hand but have only got pics of my not so good ones. What I seem to be struggling with is not so much balancing but looking at the photos, the pole is not quite in the right position across my butt/back (in the photo, it kinda lines up with half way along one butt cheek when I should be more sideways and the pole past the butt towards my back) and I'm not sure if it's just because it's not my good version or if I'm just wrong in general!! There's a good thread here on SV with tips in it too – just do a search:)

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Ooh I hope those ladies at least post their dress rehearsal-y vids! I love Michelle's stuff especially:)

 

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I hate to say it but some of that might actually be pole muscle, which, of course, you don't want to get rid of! I notice that now when I try on new bras, I get what I call my "pole wings" – a certain amount of overhang shall we say. I have a certain amount of jubbliness elsewhere but my back is fairly trim in that area, so while some of it might be a bit o' fat, I'm fairly sure the rest is muscle (I also asked some of the girls in one of my pole classes and they said they have the same problem!). Pole dancer problems 

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My boyf is a poler – I took him along to an open night at my studio one time and I could see him eyeing up the pole so encouraged him to give it a go. A couple of years down the track and he loves it as much as I do! He's performed in shows and is looking at entering one of the national comps next year. I can vouch first hand that the boy's got some serious muscle going now! I also know a couple of other guys that go to one of my studios and my class at the other studio I go to has at least 3 boys in it at the mo'. Pole for boys is definitely fluourishing in my city! In some ways I find the vast range of kinds of boy poling (ie how they choose to do it) to be more interesting than the range of girls!

 

fyi Trixie, I asked him about the Chippendales thing and he said no, 'cos he's not pretty enough:)