#pole exercise

Look how good my Iron X is getting.

3 EASY POLEWORK EXERCISES | Get your horse fit for summer!

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Bella

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I never really ever expected to join the pole community. To me, it was always something the cool, strong, slightly dangerous and intimidating girls did. And then, in November 2014, I was feeling pretty low - not getting on with my housemates, my workload piling up and not really doing anything constructive. My mental health was suffering, and I knew I had to go back to doing something constructive - I’d given up riding, art, and spending time with my dog when I moved away to university - and finally got up the courage to sidle into the university’s pole exercise classes. It was difficult, but fun, and I never felt discouraged (now being an instructor myself, I know the dangers of over-critiquing a student) and despite the bruises, I came back twice a week, every week I could spare the time. Then I did something really stupid. I signed up to compete in the beginner’s category of an inter-university competition. I suddenly found myself spending every spare moment I could at practice, booking extra sessions outside classes with the other beginners, looking at endless tutorials, practicing my routine to the point where even now, a year later, I can remember it move for move. When I finally performed it, almost everyone from my club told me “your smile once you finished was lovely, it was so sweet”; that smile was 100% pure relief that I hadn’t fallen and made an idiot of myself or injured myself. But I was hooked, and continued to give pole everything I had. What with having had no pole at home until recently, and spending summer and Christmas back at my parent’s house, I’ve been poling for about a year, and I really do feel like it helps me be more than just fit - it gives me goals to work towards, a sense of accomplishment, and when I’m feeling low or just need to let some feelings out, a freestyle session always helps, even if it just tides me over to the next day. I have issues with body image, gender, mental health and rate of progression - a lot of the students I started teaching this year are outpacing me, as I’ve been hampered by a bad shoulder injury on my dominant arm for a couple of months now, and yet I keep coming back. I keep planning routines, working on moves, making notes about competitions in the area that aren’t for months yet. Pole has helped me immeasurably, and I want to pass that on to other people - I want them to feel the same thrill when they land their first spin or their fiftieth invert, and I want to expand my repetoire of moves and motivate myself at the same time. So, with that in mind, over the next year I will be blogging my way through an alphabet of pole - twice. Once with beginner and lower-level intermediate moves, and once with higher level and advanced moves. I’ll be releasing one or two tutorials a week, plus floorwork tips, reviews of various products, and articles about my life in the aerial art community. I want to inspire people, and show them you don’t have to look or be a certain way to pole, and that it’s okay to take it slow - even if there’s a tutorial on Youtube where the instructor is insisting that Superman is a beginner’s move (it’s really not). If you want to share your pole stories with me, your photos, videos, thoughts - I’d love to see them, and never be afraid to ask me something (just let me know if you want the ask kept private, and it will be). I first thought of this as a personal project, but I figured there are a lot of people in the same position as me, and polers should help each other out. Sorry for the long post - next week I’ll be releasing tutorials for three foundation moves, and the A of the beginner’s alphabet. See you soon!

I've never been seriously injured but I've pulled the odd muscle and obviously had A LOT of bruises in my time! The worst I've done is when I pulled a muscle in my shoulder when I first started doing extended butterfly- I must have just done it at a funny angle- and my right shoulder felt a bit weird for a week! But ~touch wood~ I've not done anything more serious than that 😊