[kasanya]

I’ve had two major shoulder injuries due to pole. I lost 6 months to the first one and nearly a year to the second. I would strongly recommend seeking professional medical guidance rather than attempting to self diagnose. The shoulder girdle is an incredibly complicated joint and you run the risk of making your problem worse (or even permanent) if you try to treat it yourself.

That being said, there’s certainly a lot of things you can work on while you’re rehabbing the injury. The things you mentioned are all great ideas. Also, now is perhaps a good time to polish spins and other predominantly one-handed moves on the non-injured side? Just make sure you’re paying attention to what your body is telling you when you’re working out / practicing. If something’s painful or feels wrong, stop and move on to something else.

Good luck and I hope you have a speedy recovery!

[kasanya]

I believe Sweet Vixen Couture relocated to the UK a while back.

http://www.lightactivewear.com/ is Canadian and has a free shipping promotion for both Canada and the US. They’re also currently donating half their proceeds to the BC pole studio that burned down in November.

[kasanya]

I like the tutorials on Gymnastics WOD for basic tumbling moves. Good luck!

http://gymnasticswod.com/progressions?field_tags_tid%5B%5D=8&sort_by=title&sort_order=ASC&items_per_page=10

[kasanya]

I’m wondering if this is related to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program changes that have had the small-venue music scene up in arms lately. From what I can gather, it looks like a dance workshop tour would fall under the same rules as a small band tour — a $425 permit required for each and ever person on the tour for each and every location they stop at. I can see how that would make a workshop tour financially unfeasible.

[kasanya]

There’s a FB group that does that on a weekly basis. It’s called Freestyle Friday:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/351634521579593/

[kasanya]

I got married this summer and deliberately got my wedding band a half size larger than I would normally wear, just because I knew how often I would be taking it off and putting it back on. The ring feels a bit loose when I wear it, but my knuckles are thicker than the upper part of my finger so the ring doesn’t come off unless I pull on it. Maybe try getting your rings sized up a little?

[kasanya]

Comments abound on this thread:

https://www.studioveena.com/forums/view/Pole_Fitness_Society_Banned_by_Swansea_University_20131015042554

[kasanya]

I love this section:

"Although ‘pole fitness’ is sold as an empowering activity, we believe that women have been deceived into thinking this is a way of taking charge of their sexuality and their own decisions. Moreover we believe that it is just a further debasement of our culture and another sign of a creeping backlash against women’s true empowerment and a show of misogyny."

Apparently it is not misogynistic at all to imply that women are too stupid to realize they're being "deceived" into "feeling empowered".

Quite frankly, if I feel like something empowers me to "take charge of my sexuality and decisions", then it really does empower me. It is how I perceive it that matters — not some outsider's perspective. Although these outsiders appear to be doing their damndest to objectify and dis-empower any woman foolish enough to engage in a heinous activity like pole fitness.

This part is also nice:

"Female students have gender equality legislation behind them in allowing them a student experience free from inequality, sexual oppression and objectification."

So… That gender equality legislation makes it ok for an authority to limit women's freedom of choice in fitness and recreation activities? What's next? Banning the social dance club? Because, you know, tango and Latin dance forms involve dancing sensually on and around a man rather than an inanimate object…

[kasanya]

There's a lot of transition type moves that can be done equally well with a wall as with a pole. Leaning against it while you do a sexy squat would definitely qualify.

[kasanya]

I wear those shoes in a size 8. They were sooooooooooo tight when I got them. It took some serious work to squeeze my feet in and get my toes flat. I didn't want to go up a size though because the shoe itself fit my foot perfectly, it was just the plastic part that goes over the toes that was small on me. I squeezed into them and wore them for a couple practices and they ended up stretching out and molding themselves to my foot and now they fit like a glove.

[kasanya]

Koidragon said: "I was strong enough physically to do a lot of things with the wrong engagement, and thus am now paying for it."

That is exactly what happened with me. All the other girls in my class just slid down the pole when our instructor told us to do a particular move, but I was in the military and had the strength to brute force it even though I had the mechanics all wrong. End result = major injury (and not wanting to go see the military doctor, because I would have had to explain exactly what I was doing that resulted in said injury).

[kasanya]

I didn't actually realize the injury was that bad until 3 years later, when I finally went to see a physiotherapist for shoulder issues that kept flaring up every time I started hitting intermediate-advanced level pole tricks. If I had gone to a doctor in the first place, I probably would have seriously considered suing.

And yes, pokeyd is right. Education is definitely important and probably would have prevented my injury. But accidents can happen, so insurance is also important.

 

[kasanya]

For reference, I have a partially separated shoulder thanks to being improperly taught spins in a level 1 class at a studio. That is a life-long injury. The only way to fix it is surgery. I wouldn't skimp on insurance.

[kasanya]

I just flew with my X-Pole (original model) 10 days ago. I put the two long pole segments into their cardboard tubes, taped them together, and checked them. I put the top and base plates inside my checked suitcase. I had to pay $20 because I was checking 2 items and they only allow 1 for free on the airline I used.

[kasanya]

If the area is inflamed, start with rest, ice, and ibuprofin for a few days. Once the inflammation has started to subside, stick a tennis ball between your spine and shoulder blade and then roll up and down on it a few times. Do this several times a day (and on both sides!). That will help break up any adhesions and knots that may have developed in the area and will also help loosen up tight muscles. It may actually hurt too much at first to do this lying on the floor, depending on how tight you are, so you can modify it by doing it up against a wall to begin with.

If that helps but you still have lingering issues, you might want to look into trigger points. My rhomboid pain didn't go away until I dealt with trigger points in my neck and pecs that were referring pain to my back. (Weird, I know, but 8 months of chronic rhomboid pain and inflammation was solved in 2 days of self-treating trigger points, so I'm a believer!). "The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook" by Clair Davies was one of the best $30 I ever spent.

Next step is to modify your training so you don't continually re-injure yourself. Amy posted some great tips for this.

Hope that helps!