portableninja
Forum Replies Created
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I live in a rental. Thankfully, our landlords are very hands off, so they haven't even been over to visit since we signed the lease over a year ago. We took down a ceiling fan in one bedroom to make room for my pole. At first I was kind of sad, because it was the only ceiling light fixture, and having a fan in the room would make it a lot more comfortable during workouts. Then in the process of removing the fan, my husband discovered that it was never anchored to the electrical box properly, and every time I used it there was a risk of it flying off. LOL… installing my pole actually made the house safer.
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Hi there! I just want to chime in and echo the importance of a warmup before stretching. I have struggled with my splits too. I have very flexible hips, but my hamstrings are holding me back. It's probably the same muscle Veena described. I experience the same pain on the inside of the knee unless I am very warmed up.
I take vinyasa yoga classes in addition to pole. A 90 minute vinyasa class is essentially like an hour of strength based warmup, with 30 mins of deep stretching at the end. I can stretch so much further at the end of a yoga class than I can at the start. I'm not saying you need to spend an hour on warming up, but definitely do your flexibility training at the end of a workout when you are warm and relaxed. Stretching while cold hurts and doesn't really lead to much improvement.
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Agreed. My TG pole can occasionally feel slippery, but a quick cleaning with either Windex or rubbing alcohol fixes it.
The right cleaning product depends on why the pole is slippery (from oil or moisture). I use Windex to remove body oils or lotion, and alcohol to dry up sweat. Once it's cleaned, I really don't have any grip issues. Of course I need to get stronger, but that's blamed on my muscles, not my skin. 🙂
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This is great. Some of my pole friends are plus sized, and I think they are amazing. First of all for practical reasons… thinking about how strong they must be to pull themselves up into an inversion! What's my excuse? And one of my friends is an incredibly expressive and passionate dancer, and it would be a shame for her to never have an outlet for fear of being too large to take classes. I also like your point that not all women start pole dancing to lose weight. I think the excessive focus on weight loss as opposed to overall health in the fitness industry is a bit unhealthy.
I'm actually pretty average sized (6/8) but I am large busted and curvy. I struggle with body placement in certain moves as well. No amount of weight loss would change the shape of my pelvis. And there are moves where I can't get my arms into the correct position without having to push a boob out of the way first, like you said about flag.
I agree that it's great to see pole instructors who don't have typical "dancer" bodies. My very first pole instructor was a petite pear shaped girl, and my classes had people of all shapes and sizes – tall, short, tiny, plus sized. It made me feel like I was welcome despite not looking like a ballerina.
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Yes, you can pay using Paypal with a credit card. This is the only way I use Paypal. When you get to the order page, just select Pay As A Guest and you can use any major credit card.
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I don't have kids yet, but when I do, I hope I can be as cool as Veena!
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I also find that my 7 inch platform Ellies are easier to walk in than my 3 inch job interview heels.
I think it's because it's easier for me to walk on the balls of my feet (which the pole shoes force me to do) than on regular or kitten heels, which put me in this weird sort of half point, half flex position that is really hard on my ankles and feet.
I wouldn't wear the 7 inchers to work, just because it would be awkward to suddenly grow 7 inches overnight. But I have an evening wedding to attend in April and I'm tempted to wear my Ellies!
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I think I remember reading on Karol's FB page that the only difference is the color of the fabric. Since it's a new product though, the offerings may be changing at a moment's notice.
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That is interesting! I never knew about that quirk of British English (and I'm kind of a language nerd.)
In Japan it can be considered offensive to refer to someone as "you" unless the context of the statement requires it. It's more polite to avoid using the pronoun or a person's name at all, if you can. And other languages have different forms of pronouns depending on how familiar you are with a person (like tu/usted in Spanish and du/Sie in German).
I've heard that Americans have a reputation for being informal. Maybe because it's not something we usually even distinguish in our own language. 🙂
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My experience has been more like Charley's. For me, brass is either painfully grippy when my skin is dry, or it's like trying to grab a playground pole while slathered in sunscreen when I'm sweaty. The inconsistency is what I don't like. Either I stick like glue or I slide dangerously. If TG is more "consistent" that that sounds better for me. YMMV.
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This is just my opinion – but I am also dry skin, very sweaty.
The reason I don't like brass is because I've used various brass poles at studios. I am not sure of the brand because they were one piece permanent poles (I obviously recognize a domed Xpert with adjuster holes when I see it.)
I have very dry skin, but I sweat a lot. Both when I exercise, AND when I get nervous, so pole makes it really bad.
So I stick to brass really, really well when I first start, up until the point where I start sweating heavily. Then I'm prone to literally slipping off the pole. No amount of squeezing between my legs or hands will stop it… it's like the pole has been greased. I'm not sure if it's the actual brass that I can't hold onto, or if it's whatever the studio uses to polish their brass poles. But the only time I've ever felt dangerously unsafe while poling was while I was sweating on a brass pole. It was like having sunscreen all over my body.
On chrome and stainless steel, sure I will slip a bit when I'm sweating, but if I squeeze hard I can at least slow down the slipping until I can get my shoulders or feet into a safe position. Brass is just too scary for me. I am thinking of getting a TG pole as my next pole because it sounds like a grippier version of chrome.
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A very good friend of mine was diagnosed with a digestive cancer with a near zero survival rate. We all knew it was just a matter of time until he passed – it's just not the kind of thing you get better from. Similar to what Steve Jobs and Patrick Swayze had.
But after receiving his first round of chemo, he was so miserable that refused to get any more, and instead tried special diets and other bits of pseudoscience not unlike what you've just posted. Since his prognosis was so grim, I'm really not sure chemo would have helped him in the end. So no one really stood up to him and just let him be. Sure enough, he passed away just more than a year after his diagnosis and got to have it his way.
But for so many other cancers, chemo and radiation are the only way save your life. Promising new research is being done with other types of treatments, including gene therapy. But if the research holds up in clinical trials, believe me you will hear about it.
Most pseudoscience comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of how the human body works (like your point about ingesting whole enzymes,only for them to be broken down into their components by digestion long before they would ever reach the cancer.) That's like saying that if you eat enough beef you will turn into a cow.
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Yes. At my photo shoot I had other pole girls there to tell the photographer when to take the shot. It was a lot of "ok is she ready yet?" "No, not yet!" "How about now…" "Wait… ok now!"
If you have poses in mind, it might be helpful to bring reference photos of other dancers, and framed the way you want it, so the photog has an idea of the image you want to create. Sort of like bringing photos to the hairdresser. A picture is worth a thousand words!
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Yup. I have literally had it happen in an instructor's face. I was attempting a straight edge from caterpillar and so she was right there behind me as a spotter. I never said a word about it and hope she didn't notice. But I respect her a lot for not saying anything about it to me! I'm sure instructors have had to deal with all sorts of unpleasant things…
It was terrible to think I was the only person that ever had this problem. Now if someone happens upon this thread they won't feel alone!
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Yes you're absolutely right! I learned how to avoid it by keeping the door shut, so to speak. It really is just a matter of focus and remembering to do it every time. Sort of like keep your shoulders engaged… keep the lady parts engaged.
When I'm upside down working on a new pole trick though, I admit that my mind is usually more focused on the mechanics of staying up than staying clenched!