Whether you are just taking up sports and dancing, or have always been super active, pole dance will be a real challenge for you revealing a whole new universe of body movements. With pole dance you are not left hanging in space. Right there next to you is the pole – your helper for drawing beautiful figures with your body. Figures your mind did not suspect could exist. Welcome to this aerial, flying world! Enjoy its magic!
What shall I accomplish?
Arm yourselves with patience! Being good at pole dancing is not easy, especially for those among you who used to skip gym classes in school or have not yet found the right sport for them. Your efforts, however, are to be rewarded. Pole dance classes will make you feel stronger, more flexible, more capable, healthier, more self-confident, and if you visit the studio regularly, drink enough water, eat well and provide your body the rest it needs, you will soon see in the mirror a more beautiful you, as well. The pole dance sport involves lots of sweating, but what matters is not to hurry and give the training enough time to have its positive effect on you.
What are you to expect at the beginning?
During the first classes of training you will not have enough strength to stay on the pole for long. Rest assured as this is quite normal, since no one hangs on their hands often in their everyday life, right? Do not be surprised when the instructor suggests you hung on bars in your neighborhood, for example – grab the bar, hang on it and try to hold in there for as long as possible. This exercise will strengthen your hand grip.
With every pole dance training in the studio you will be building up more strength, progressing on what you have learned, while we make you dizzy with dancing that will free your mind and drive your cares somewhere far away, for at least a couple of hours. Pole dancing is not just a sport but also entertainment and you are soon to be irreversibly in love with it.
Everything is in your hands
Pole dance training will help you cross the limits of your capabilities as you know them, and fly. In the studio you will be hanging upside down while spinning, you will be jumping higher, you will be smoothly and elegantly caressing the floor with your shoulders. Together with the pole you can create many beautiful movements decorated in your favorite music, as you experience the real pleasure of dancing. Everything in the pole dance sport is based on simple rules, and we, the instructors, will reveal to you the secrets to every trick there is. You are just asked to think it through and memorize it, so you can use it correctly during class and feel confident, flying with the pole.
Patience and breathing
Sometimes your body will slip down the pole, and you will not be able to have a good grip but do not panic! The efforts we make in training make our palms sweat and slip over the steel. However, when we gain enough hand grip strength, this problem will naturally drop out. Patience and repetitions are needed.
Even if you do not yet have the necessary strength to grip the pole, try the “Fireman” or the “Front Hook” movements – tighten up the whole body, think only of the beautiful figure you are drawing, and when you lower yourself down the pole to the ground, stand on your toes, shifting your weight on them and continue with the next move! And breathe, do not make the mistake of holding your breath, focusing on a trick performance!
Points of support
It is not only our hands that act as points of support in holding the pole. The feet, the inner thighs, the inner arms, the knees, the lateral sides of the torso above the hips, the shoulders – these are other key points in our body helping us “stick” to the pole. With perfecting our pole dancing, we find newer and newer points of support.
The secret is in push-pulling the pole in these points, a very tight body in the correct position, making the grip of the pole possible. It is important during class to avoid supporting ourselves with the bones but look for the soft body parts instead, to make the exercises as comfortable and as safe as possible. The Sonya Pole Studio instructors will show you the points of support – remember them and enjoy the ease of the routine performance.
The pain and the bruises
There is no way to spare you the pain, bruises and thickening of the skin on your palms, every pole dance beginner goes through this. At the beginning, every part of the body you are holding on to the pole with will hurt and there will be some minor skin trauma. Proper breathing is the only effective pain reliever.
If you have well-built muscles, their tightness will resist the hard steel and you may avoid the otherwise beginner-related normal discomfort of this sport. Pain is a sign that something is wrong, but when you make sure you are not doing anything dangerous to your body, it disappears, your skin gets accustomed to the specific touch of the pole, and you stop experiencing unpleasant sensations.
Bruises are small sub-dermal hematomas. They do not appear in one and the same place twice if you keep up with the pole dance training and, of course, if you do not have any health issues predisposing bruising. The unpleasant skin coloring will appear when performing new movements using places on your body that have never touched the pole before.
Over time, the body gets used, adjusts, and activates its defense mechanisms. Specialized literature says that, wherever we touch often the pole, a fine, sub-dermal layer forms protecting the small blood vessels in our skin, that’s why bruises do not appear in the same place twice.
If, however, the bruises are irritating and painful, you can treat them with pharmaceutical products or with natural treatments such as aloe vera, arnica, as well as a drop of essential cypress oil added to your favorite cream. A cold shower water stream strengthens the blood vessels, while working well against cellulite. When will the bruising disappear depends on the skin type.
If you are training in pole dancing, applying greasy creams and lotions before class is banned, as you will be slipping on the pole. If, however, your skin is too dry, massage it with water-based creams or with olive oil the day prior class. With time, you will find just the right skin care for you, without it getting in the way of your favorite sport.
You can do anything!
Forget about the words “I’m not getting it”! That’s why you are coming to the studio and to us – so that we may help you get out of your comfort zone. There is no way a movement you have never done before to come to you naturally and at the first try. Something very exciting happens during pole dance classes – we overcome our fears and learn a lot about our body’s capabilities.
Think it, imagine it, do it
If before performing you visualize the movement, your brain will have a clear picture, and will send the correct commands to your body’s musculoskeletal system. Charge yourself with positive emotions and think only of how you will do the pole dance tricks without any difficulty. Should you start off with “I cannot do this”, you are bound to fail. Think through the movement your instructor is showing you, and after a few attempts, you will do it without a problem. Do not give up if something does not happen right away! Sometimes it takes us more time to learn new things.
At first, the simple upside-down turn on the pole called the “Frog” will seem overwhelming, but after some persistent repetitions, soon you will not remember why you have underestimated yourself so much. The progression in gaining strength and qualities in pole dancing is an ever-ending process – you try and try to do a movement, and “whoa!”, suddenly it is conquered, thanks to your efforts and the acquired skills.
The human body is very adaptable. Give it time, work on it to strengthen its weak spots, make it stronger, and no pole dance trick will stop you! When you have worked on a given move and it does not seem difficult any more, then you are ready for the next challenge.
You will become more and more aware of how you acquire new qualities, of how new and well-functioning muscles appear. Our bodies need adequate care and lots of movement to be that living and breathing machine that makes us feel beautiful, healthy and capable of conquering the world!