A Practical Guide To Pole Dancing For The Everyday Women

Pole Dancing is the best! It accomplishes so many things all at once: it builds strength in your upper body and your core muscles, increases confidence, gets you exercising on a regular basis, allows you to meet other great women, and the music is hot!

Its very easy to forget that you are even exercising! But we are....and so we definitely want to decrease our chances of getting injured. Anytime you start a new fitness regime (or exercise program in general) there is risk for injury. But be smart about it and things will go a lot smoother.

So here are some tips to follow if you are new to pole dancing.

• I highly encourage you to find a local studio that specializes in pole dancing. This is the best way to learn. Just make sure to check out the studio and see what their experience is. Not all pole studios are created equally. So if they offer some type of intro class I would take that first....see if you like their pole dance style, ambiance of studio, and most importantly their teaching skills.
• Take it slow! In my experience pole dancing for everyday women is learned better through progression. Pole Dancing has an "aerial dance" component to it....meaning that your feet come off the floor!  I like to think of pole tricking as "adult gymnastics". So most women do not have a gymnastics background so your body needs to be conditioned for this type of exercise. Start with basic spins, then move on to climbing and sideways spins, then progress to inversions/upside down tricks. Try to find a studio that incorporates core/strength training/and stretching into their pole dance classes or offers a drop in style class that works on these things. I know that many of you want to go upside down immediately but you should not attempt this as your first trick :)  You got to crawl before you walk!
• When you first start pole dancing initially only practice 2 to 3 times a week....especially if you are not a very physically active person. Many women get so excited about their new found love that they practice every chance they get...which leads to the most common reason students get injured...overuse. Your muscles need a chance to "rejuvenate" themselves. On your off days try some cardio (such as exotic dance, walking, spinning class, etc...) If you must touch the pole(believe me I understand) use the pole as a prop and work on pole dance filler moves, transitional moves, and hip rolls!!! But no aerial spins!
• Pilates and Yoga classes compliment pole dancing a lot. Take some classes if you can. You will see a difference.
• Always warm up at least 10 minutes before each pole dance session. Again..another common reason that students injure themselves. Also at the end of each session try to have at least a 5 minute cooldown.

Pole dancing is so much fun. I hope these tips will make your experience even better!

Angela

PoleLaTeaz Dance Studio

Locations: Houston and Atlanta

Owner/Founder