A Pole Fitness Journey: polefitness

Conquering my ULTIMATE Pole Goal!

All hail the Jade Split!
I cannot even begin to tell you how long I have wanted to nail this move for! I've not felt this happy at achieving a pose since I managed my very first (read: slightly wonky!) Superman.

This was my first ever attempt after 1 hour of stretch class and an hour of pole, so I was feeling pretty tired. After trying it from a Flatline Scorpio (as taught to my instructor by the one and only Jenyne Butterfly! *Swoon*), I felt like it wasn't quite clicking and felt slightly unnatural. We tried it from an Outside Leg Hang - Bomb - Pike - Hip Hold Straddle and Voila.... I'd managed my Jade Splits!
Understandably, it doesn't currently look like the prettiest move in my pole repertoire but I can work on that!

A few more class photos - Flying Peterpan, Wonky Reiko Splits! , Straddle with nose to wall

Some poling out and about for Pole Social. We're holding another one this Thursday and I'll hopefully get more photos!
(So prepare yourself for another photo heavy blogpost ;) )

07:04
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Freestyle - Tips, tricks and Inspiration!

dance

I had a great pole session on Monday, a whole 2 hours of spinning, flexing, climbing and floating up, down and around the pole.
I don't have any new moves to show for it, but I have definitely rekindled my love for 'dancing' around the pole as opposed to be able to just pull out signature moves without linking them together. I've never really done any work with freestyle or routines, the pole classes I've been to have always been aimed towards getting particular moves and never really linking them together to create the dance element. As a warm up, we were asked to do a quick 2 minute freestyle... my mind went blank..

Those 2 minutes were the longest 2 minutes of my life! Right there and then I made a little pact with myself to practice trying to link my moves together and allow them to flow into a routine. I understand this will take a lot of practice and I am limited by the fact I do not have my own pole to practice at home, so in order for me to actually make this work I will (fingers crossed!) be purchasing my own pole!

My friend ( and instructor, handy!) will be popping round with her pole and hopefully we will find a suitable home for my very own X-pole in my little one bedroomed flat! Exciting stuff!

No longer will I watch a video on YouTube or daydream an epic pole combo in my head and have to wait a whole week to see if I can get it, or as usually happens, forget about it! Any tips or ticks you can give me with regards to increasing confidence and feeling more comfortable with freestyling, please, send them this way!

In the meantime, I'll just have to keep watching those YouTube videos! Here's not one but two I'm currently LOVING! Feeling very inspired!

07:27
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Pole Session in Pictures #2

bird

Another picture heavy blog post, but I'm loving all these new moves I'm coming out with! Continuing to push myself by getting a few hours at the gym between work and Pilates classes alongside my regular Pole classes. Definitely noticing a difference and I'm seeing progress for the extra effort I've been putting in, hopefully next session will be as productive as today's!
I don't have a pole to practice at home and I'm hopefully looking to purchase one in the next few months, no amount of time spent in the gym can cure me of my longing to pole dance more than once a week - so watch this space...

17:04
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Pole session in pictures

flexibility

Practising chopper and inverts with straight legs and controlled dismounts.

Straddle split partner assisted stretching, I just need one big pull but I'm too scared!

This was at the very start of stretch class before pole, you can see my right side is much tighter and higher on the wall than my left. May try this stretch again with weights. Continuing to work towards my middle split, feeling much closer now!

Scorpion stretch on my bad side.

Bridged Gemini

Working on Superman variations!

A pretty wonky looking Yogini, my stomach was starting to burn at this point after waiting for my pole buddy to take a photo!

No new moves this session, just working on strength and control. Did some practise of inverting on both sides as well as lots of core strengthening moves, and different variations on moves we felt confident with to make them a bit trickier. I'm working towards hopefully bagging myself a lovely set of flat abs with all this core work!

10:09
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My Pole Goals Revisited

Allegra box splits

If I'm honest, I've not had the opportunity to pole anywhere near as much as I would have liked to this year. With a hefty amount of studying, alongside a demanding job, pole was (sadly) put on the back burner. However, now that the Summer is here I'm taking full advantage of my extra time to fit in some much needed pole and stretching!

Coming up to a year ago I made myself a little list of certain moves and areas I wanted to target. Top of that list was back flexibility. I gave myself a task of 1 year of regular stretching and hoped to track my improvements, due to an incredibly busy year I wasn't able to focus on this as much as I would have liked.

This is were I'm currently at with my back and shoulders:

As I didn't put the time in, I don't really see any real difference with where I was last year. I don't seem to take to back stretches easily, I find them very uncomfortable and don't see many gains. I will continue with light stretches but I just don't see this as something that's attainable to me.

Leg Flexibility
I started off the year with a consistent right legged front split, and I still have it! I'm making serious progression with my middle split, (although I'm still about 3cm off the floor) and my left legged front split is still a way off, but I've definitely evened them out a bit more. I have approximately 5cm on a good day and 10cm on a bad day until I get my bum on the floor - regular stretching is going to be the key with this one!

My no hands cupid! It was really hard trying to stop my bottom leg sliding down the pole, my legs ached from being so tense but I now have it consistently - Hoping to try Allegra Box Splits next!

Poling out and about

Here are some recent snaps poling in a club while on holiday in Portugal, I even roped my boyfriend in to try out some moves! Also snapped a few moves on my local beach with my pole buddy :)