[Rachel Osborne]

Floating v: doesn’t float, does hurt https://www.studioveena.com/videos/view/54d7d501-ade8-4029-9dd5-272f0a9aa0eb help 😢 please?

[Rachel Osborne]

I have 55 seconds of bum twitching on tape
😂😂 no way is any of it going on IG. I’m in two minds about sharing it here.

Last night was a riot chez Villa Tropical what with trying to put leg behind head for yoga challenge and then butt spasms…

[Rachel Osborne]

Reverse elbow spin thing http://instagram.com/p/y1pXg5HVMn/

[Rachel Osborne]

Big thread for you! https://www.studioveena.com/forums/view/522e88ee-74ec-4e6f-8c92-47360ac37250

[Rachel Osborne]

Oh no I just deleted all the vids!
I will try again next week, I’ve bruised my toe quite badly and think I had better stop trying fancy tricks for 24 hours! Thanks Veena!

[Rachel Osborne]

Floating V. I’ve tried for three days. It hurts my wrists like crazy and I can’t get my legs up. I can float my legs up in locust asana, I can do a flag on the pole with ease, I can do split grip for ages, and I think my core is pretty strong so I don’t think it’s a wrist strength issue or core strength thing. I am very puzzled. Can anyone help? I do have hypermobile wrists and hands.

[Rachel Osborne]

What if you don’t want to drink protein and juice? I train/pole/yoga between 20 min and 2 hours daily 6 days a week but I don’t use any protein supplement at all. I just eat protein instead.

So – full fat Greek live yogurt with raw almonds and seeds and berries for breakfast with cups of tea and coffee

Half a chicken with raw spinach and tomatoes and olive oil for lunch, or ham and spinach omelette

Apple, raw nuts and cheese, or carrot and broccoli crudités plus hummus snack if hungry (but I rarely am)

Shrimp/ fish/chicken/steak/plus broccoli and peas and spinach for dinner

And a glass of dry wine; that’s it. I take a vitamin and cod liver oil when I remember. Should I take extra protein? I hate the idea of drinking shakes; they make me gag and find juices are too sweet and and make me hyper then crash. And I don’t like sweet things so vanilla, choc etc flavoured supplements taste awful to me.

I grew up in a family where it was the norm to walk/cycle everywhere then walk dogs 5 miles twice daily, then ride and muck out 3 horses, carry hay bales, clean tack, mend gates and
push wheelbarrows about, then cycle 4 miles home and eat, then go to dance class then walk/run 3 miles home again and nobody ever thought they needed protein supplements: so the idea of a special drink after an hour poling and stretching feels weird to me!

[Rachel Osborne]

I’m 44
I’ve been poling 3-4x week since October 2013 and I’m a beginner at some stuff and intermediate at some stuff and advanced at others. It’s a cliche but we can’t all be good at everything and even pole megastars do not make it their business to nail every trick, combo, strength move, aspect of poling because it is impossible.

Find what you enjoy and do it lots. Me, I am a spin pole flow woman, that’s my bag. I work on combos and floorwork because it’s good to try these things, and I do yoga to balance and strengthen both sides. I can’t do everything but I will give stuff a shot. Then I will fly about on spin mode with my eyes shut because that is what pleases my soul. You might be a trickster. You might be a sex bomb. You might be a power pole machine. You find your thing and enjoy it. It takes a while. Enjoy the dance. And it is a dance, a flow, not a race.

[Rachel Osborne]

Can I reques flowy seductress female power/S factor style and heels? 👠💋

[Rachel Osborne]

I live in the Caribbean. I just walk about with bruises showing. Nobody mentions it. They either don’t notice or care, or they don’t want to mention it. Mostly I think people just don’t look that hard.

[Rachel Osborne]

I have a pretty rock solid split grip when I am upright, can butterfly easily and combo it up on spin but can I extend butterfly from caterpillar or do inverted D? Nope. The caterpillar is a nemesis position for me, and anything that starts from it – ayeshas etc – I hate and do not feel secure in. I think it is because I am never properly lined up straight against the pole so I tip and tilt, then fight gravity which is so much more exhausting (and scary) than balancing in a nice straight push-pull triangle

[Rachel Osborne]

I find immersing myself in scientific rationality helps with weird fears.

So – if it were me freaking about the artery bursting during shoulder mounts I would
Watch a trillion shoulder mount videos of people doing them and not exploding in a splat of arterial blood

Get technical with the anatomy and physiology of the shoulder mount; what exactly are you doing? The pressure is a rolling of the pole over the large muscles of the shoulder: read up on exactly what muscles and look at diagrams
This is a good start http://www.poleathlete.com/posts/why-shoulder-conditioning/

Finally, I would look at all the Veena lessons on shoulder conditioning, do shoulder slides, side planks, handstand presses with
legs on pole and pull downs, flies, press ups all the dynaband training stuff, to reassure myself my shoulders and core were strong cos shoulder mount is actually more core than anything else – and then pay for a private with a good spotter and just do it. Film yourself doing it. Even if you just do it once. Then watch it til you’re desensitised to it and actually slightly bored of it.

That’s what would work for me, based on how I’ve got past crippling fear in the past. But I’m not you. Hope you find a way.

And the shoulder mount is not essential. You can be a lovely pole dancer and not shoulder mount. So try not to beat yourself up about it. When you’re ready to try is the best time to try.

[Rachel Osborne]

I did the half cradle spin partial split grip and the full cradle split grip on my IG vid if anyone doesn’t have the SV lessons and is confused

[Rachel Osborne]

Dakini

It’s like figurehead meets titanic crossed with the doll by way of Rocketman

http://instagram.com/p/yX7Y0yPgni/

[Rachel Osborne]

Elbow things http://instagram.com/p/ycpXwDSTQW/