[tielz18896]

Done!

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Yes. I still have the mat here.

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A big thank you to you, Veena, for being such an inspiration to me and helping me to learn what I have so far!!!

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Thank you both.
I also started poling late, I tried it in my mid-40s and packed everything up when I moved. I did nothing for 6 years then really got back into it. I got discouraged after I messed up my shoulder over working it. That set me back over a year. I purchased the mat to feel safer learning some basic tricks. I am not much more flexible than the pole is, so that can get discouraging, too. I will never be able to do the splits and cannot pike to save my life. I have arthritis in my back and super tight hamstrings, so that does not help anything. Pole has built my core and my arm strength so I try to stick with just doing what I physically can. I think that was the most insulting thing about that email. I do this for my health and because I love it.

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Thank you, Veena. I am still too embarrassed to even tell my family. They think that I am crazy for poling at 54.

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I think it all comes down to what grip aid works with your skin and the type of metal. I was going through bottles of the other stuff versus having this same pad for a year now. It helped that I bought a brass pole for home. That solves the sweaty hands thing for me. Brass just works for my hands. It would not be possible for me to do drops on it, but I don’t do those anyhow. I do have to clean and reapply any grip aid on chrome.

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Wiping with the alcohol/water cleans the oils off of it so it is less slippery. Just put a 50/50 mixture in a spray bottle, mist, and wipe dry.

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The Lupit pad is filled with a super fine powder. You don’t need a lot of it so you are not piling it on. Just wipe the pink side of the pad on your hand or the black side of the pad on the pole. It does not build up like other products do. Chrome is super slippery to my sweaty hands. For safety I will wipe the pole down with alcohol/water from time to time just in case and pat my hands on the pad again before resuming. I do best on brass, but in the colder weather I sometimes use the pad for extra grip. My pad is over a year old and I still have plenty of powder in side of it.

[tielz18896]

I had the same problem with sweaty hands. If I am working on a chrome pole I need grip. The one that works best for me is the Lupit grip pad. I do have to reapply it at times, but not as much as the other grips that I had tried.
I sold my chrome Xpole pole and replaced it with a brass Xpole. That was the biggest help of all.

[tielz18896]

Just saw this, so sorry my reply is so late. I have sweaty hands that work best on my brass pole. When I am on chrome at the studio I use Lupit grip. It is the only thing that works and that I don’t go through bottles of at a time.

[tielz18896]

Tiffany, I am in VA, but I sold both of my chrome poles on Ebay. Thank you for your interest!

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I have moderate scoliosis affecting my neck, mid back, and lower back. I am not very flexible and have super tight hamstrings. Backbends are not too difficult for me now that I have been working on them for a few months (the type where you hold the pole with one hand and go into a backbend while standing on the floor). Pikes I am nowhere near doing. My back does not like to bend forward as easily (or maybe that is my hammies…I am working on those suckers!).

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The clear plastic topped shoes do help.

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I think brusing is normal, but mine has varied over the past few months of learning to pole. They were worse when I changed from a chrome 45 to a chrome 40 pole. I have since sold those and bought a brass 45 pole and the brusing is much less. I don’t know if this has to do with my skin gripping better on the brass or if it is just my skin getting used to pole. I still get mystery bruises and if I am off the pole for too long (I hurt my shoulder so I am waiting and waiting for that to heal doing pole only a couple of days per week).

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Yes, this is normal as the other ladies have stated. I do core work in between poling and also found pole pull ups on both arms to be extremely helpful. Veena’s exercises have helped me a lot, too, especially the sexy workout one that uses the pole to do arm work on each side (I cannot remember off hand which one it is). The moves in all of these exercises do not have to be huge to build strength. Just keep going and you will get there.