Pole Dance Primer. The OM GYM!

By Aruna

Anyone who’s ever tried shimmying up a pole or hanging upside down on one knows it ain’t easy. If you’ve never tried but want to—let me warn you. It takes inner thighs like vice grips and triceps, biceps, lats & abs of steel. Of course, dancing on the pole makes you strong. But we all need extra help building the strength and confidence to get to that point.

I use an OM GYM to build extra strength in abs, back and arms—both for my own training and in all the pole classes I teach. This aerial yoga, fitness and inversion prop is easy to use, portable and comes in bright colors. (Check out www.omgym.com). It’s an attractive unobtrusive piece of equipment that sets up and comes down very quickly and stores in a backpack. (You can hang the ropes from eye-hooks, around ceiling beams, or even around a horizontal tree branch.)

My 2 favorite moves for pole strength:

1. Using just the handles (not the chair/sling) of the OM GYM, sit back into hips to make body L-shaped. Using lats and keeping shoulders down, pull chest up toward ceiling (keeping back slightly arched).

1. Again, using handles only, pull knees to chest and attempt to invert to vertical pencil. For more fun take legs horizontal over head. When you come back to your feet (THIS IS IMPORTANT!) – bend elbows. Don’t come down with straight arms. Lower legs slowly.

Inverting on the OM GYM is also a delicious reward for your muscles after all your hard pole work!