Becoming an expert pole dancer takes hard work and repetition, and it also helps if you’re passionate about the sport. It is one of the few sports you can take up at any age and compete in if you wish. You may be disheartened, or your ego or body may take a bruising, if you are just starting. Don’t give up. Here are some tips to help kickstart your training and keep your motivation up.

1. Watch Tutorials

If you aren’t ready for an in-person class or just like to prepare, there are tons of tutorials online. They’ll provide education and motivation for beginners. YouTube and TikTok offer so many videos with how-tos, tips, and tricks. Keep a list of moves you want to master.

Start practicing the basic pole moves at home. They are the foundation of all the more advanced stunts you will learn in classes. By practicing, you will build confidence, which will translate to being a better performer. If you can flow easily through the basic moves, you can pick up more complex routines and learn new skills faster.

2. Join A Class

Now that you have the basic moves down, it’s time to enroll in a class. Classes are typically small, so you will be sure to get to know your classmates. You’ll meet people to encourage your skills, hone your technique, and have fun with in and out of class. You can enroll in online courses if you live in an area where classes are not readily available.

If you haven’t attended a class before, you might feel like dressing in your regular workout attire, like leggings. However, you need exposed skin to grip the pole and perform moves safely. High-waisted pole shorts are an excellent place to start. If you want more coverage, pole dancing outfits for beginners are sticky while covering your skin. For any exposed skin in class, make sure it’s dry. Any lotions or damp skin will cause you to slip and slide all over the place. If you’re concerned, Dew Point can help keep your skin moisturized while maintaining the grip you need for class.

Just in case, bring sneakers to your first class. Most classes are barefoot, but wearing shoes will help prevent the inevitable banging of your feet. The momentum swinging you around the pole can be alarming initially, causing you to fight it and walk away with a few bruises. Wearing shoes can prevent the worst ones, so your instructor might encourage it if it helps you move more confidently.

Once you’ve gotten some classes under your belt, try out some different styles. There are three main styles: pole sport or pole fitness, artistic, and sensual pole dancing. But there are many sub-types with different techniques and styles you can incorporate into your personal dance style. Yoga, aerial silks, and Lyra hoop are additional classes that can help you gain flexibility and confidence and build on your skills.

3. Train Your Body

Pole combines flexibility, strength, and grace, among other dance techniques like ballet, so you will be sore from using new muscle groups. Outside your classes, work on getting physically strong to make it easier to hold your body in the correct positions while maintaining your fluid movements and grace.

Have you ever been performing an exercise, and your muscles start to shake? It tends to detract from your dance and could lead to you losing your grip on the pole. Building your stamina will also allow you to work longer in classes and perform without getting tired.

Throughout the day, start to do posture checks. Practicing body awareness will improve your posture and ensure you are in the correct positions for class. When you are in class, practice moves on each side. It can become a habit to favor a side, but dancing on your non-dominant side will help your movements and strength. When you can dance on either side, you’ll be more flexible and allow for more variations in your routines.

4. Create A Routine

No matter what skill you are learning, practice leads to improvement. Practice at home and attend regular classes to see results. Stay motivated by celebrating your small victories. If you document your journey, you will be able to see the progress you’ve made that might otherwise be hard to notice. Refer to the list you made of the moves you want to master and see which ones you can tick off your list.

As much as practicing is essential, so are your rest days. When dancing and building muscle, you create micro-tears in your muscle fibers that need time, proper hydration, and sleep to heal and build bigger and stronger muscles. Be sure to give yourself time to recover, so you can get back to learning new skills and avoid injury.

5. Have Fun

You’re doing this because you love it. As long as you are happy, you will continue progressing at a perfect rate. Continue to express yourself through your dance and get creative. Remember that pole dancing is for you. Celebrate how far you’ve come, and continue to dream big. The only thing that may be holding you back from becoming a champion pole dancer is yourself.

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If you want to try pole dancing but don’t know where to start and you are reading this, then you are in the right place. In this infographic, you will learn some helpful tips on how to kickstart your training and stay motivated throughout your journey. Let’s get started! Read on.

 

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While the pole dancing community promotes all expressions through dance, the activity has long been synonymous with strip clubs. For some, there is a stigma that lingers. These enthusiasts explain the benefits of pole dancing for everyone, no matter your reasons or reservations for trying pole.

This is a crowdsourced article. Contributors' statements do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this website, other people, businesses, or other contributors.

(Adriana Aceves/Unsplash)

As we age, we experience decreased muscle mass, bone density, balance, and range of motion. Because of this, we are more prone to falls and injuries that we may never fully get over. Milestones like retiring or decisions to downsize your home result in less activity and strenuous exercise. As you slow down, everyday activities become more difficult, worsening the progression.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Strength training is critical to preventing age-related decline and maintaining your health and independence. The key is finding a hobby incorporating strength training and exercise that you can start at any age. May we recommend pole dancing? You might be worried that pole dancing isn’t appropriate for your age, but there are many reasons to give it a chance.

Pole Dancing Increases Flexibility

Have you seen how flexible babies are? We are born with incredible flexibility we lose as we don’t use it regularly. As you reduce your movements, you will feel stiff and lose your joints' full range of motion. If you favor an area, the rest of your body has to compensate.

Pole dancing is a gentle exercise that helps restore range of motion and encourages flexibility. You will practice stretching, bending, twisting, and rotating you wouldn’t encounter in your daily movements, leading to better posture and form and less aching and joint wear. This also helps your spatial awareness and sense of balance.

Pole Dancing Helps Balance and Coordination

While balance and coordination are crucial to preventing falls, fitness classes often overlook this component. They are the building blocks for movement, leading to better gross and fine motor control. Pole dancing relies heavily on both, starting the moment you have to balance your body on the pole. You will be impressed by how coordinated you become through practicing transitions through routines to music. If you are concerned about injuries during class or have encountered falls previously, look into pole dancer knee pads or pole dancing grip for sweaty hands. Depending on your needs, they will give you extra support and confidence to learn the new moves in class.

Pole Dancing Makes You Stronger

Don’t let your lack of upper body strength be an excuse. You won’t get stronger until you start practicing.

Even at a beginner level, pole dance is a full-body workout. If you don’t possess much upper body strength, learning to pole dance will help you develop it. You will work up to supporting your body weight with your arms, building your forearms, biceps, and triceps. The moves are dynamic and engage multiple muscle groups at once, so you will also see a change in your abdominal and back muscles. As you progress, routines will require more strength from your legs, so you will truly be toning your whole body.

The more you practice, the more you’ll see changes in your upper body, core, and thighs. But you will also work out a commonly forgotten muscle: your heart.

Pole Dancing Can Help Your Cardiovascular Health

While strength training is the most important to prevent mobility deterioration, cardiovascular health is vital to prevent heart disease, strokes, diabetes, and even some cancers. Pole dancing gets your heart rate up to tick both boxes. It is rare to find a safe exercise that covers everything, but each class will start with a cardio component to get you appropriately warmed up. After, you will transition to moves that will build strength and endurance. Because pole dancing combines cardio and strength training, you may find yourself losing weight. Even if you don’t see numbers on the scale change, your body composition will change to more muscle and less fat. You may get leaner, and you will notice your clothes feeling a little less snug. Increasing your muscle mass means a bump in your basal metabolic rate. Ensure you are hydrating and fueling your body with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and proteins.

Pole Dancing Empowers

As we age, it can be difficult to feel confident in our bodies and abilities. Pole dancing reinvigorates your confidence. Learning a new skill will give you feelings of accomplishment. As you get stronger, you will feel more free and independent. You may find some emotional healing through dance. It can be therapeutic, boosting your mental well-being and fending off depression and dementia.

Pole Dancing is Fun

Lastly, you will have fun. Being a grown-up isn’t always fun, and neither is exercise. But pole dancing is an exercise that brings out your inner child. You may feel like you’re a kid at the park all over again. You will feel supported by the community to learn and have fun. It’s incredibly tight-knit and accepting, encouraging everyone to learn new moves, improve, and enjoy time in and out of class together.

Maintain your strength and mobility through dance. Consistently dancing a few times per week will delay or prevent many age-related problems. Try pole dancing and watch your balance, coordination, and strength improve. You may find a spring in your step and improve your outlook on life.

               (Georgia de Lotz/Unsplash)

Exercise is a powerful tool for physical health but also mental well-being. Researchers have been touting the benefits of exercise for years. However, maintaining the habit or enjoying the activity can be difficult day after day. Going for a run or to the gym or exercise classes can get monotonous in a hurry.

Enter pole dancing—a fun, easy way to reap all the rewards of exercise while fending off boredom. And in addition to all of the physical advantages of pole dancing, it offers some unique benefits for your mental health:

1. Releases Stress-Relieving Endorphins

Regular dance classes increase the production and release of endorphins. They come from your brain and are feel-good chemicals. They protect you against feelings of pain and stress. They can also boost your mood, giving you a more positive and energetic outlook.

When you do something that releases endorphins, it’s the body’s natural reward system, making you want to repeat it. If you have ever encountered someone addicted to the “runners high,” you have at least seen how endorphins can make some people run some huge distances for fun. You can get those same benefits through dancing without all the marathons.

2. Promotes Healthy Sleep

Cortisol is a stress hormone that inhibits our ability to fall asleep easily or get into a deep, restful sleep. Since dancing releases those endorphins to combat stress, it will help you sleep better too. Dancing relieves stress and tension, calming your mind and body and promoting deep restorative sleep.

As with other cardiovascular exercises, dancing increases blood flow and body temperature. As your body cools and returns to baseline, it makes it easier for you to fall asleep. Dancing can help reduce the symptoms of Restless Leg Syndrome, which makes falling asleep harder, due to the increased blood flow to your leg muscles.

3. Helps Express and Regulate Emotions

Because pole dancing is both fitness and art, it teaches you emotional expression through your movement. You may walk into the room with some challenging feelings to process, but you’ll have released them while working through some complicated routines by the end of class.

If you take it a step further from class and choose to perform, you will find you can express a lot in front of others you wouldn’t have been able to verbalize. You may find a flow state, especially while performing, where your complete focus on your movements allows the rest of your problems and stresses to fade. You emerge feeling peaceful yet invigorated to tackle your problems.

4. Builds Confidence

Pole dancing is not an easy skill to master. Your motivation to improve and perseverance will lead to a sense of accomplishment that dancers feel when they master a new move or routine. By achieving your goals, you will feel empowered and confident. Dancing is also a social activity. You will develop feelings of connection with your fellow dancers, increasing your social confidence. Pole dancing has an incredible community, encouraging social bonds and reducing social anxiety. Pole dancing clothes, or the lack thereof, are often misinterpreted for sex appeal when it’s about safety. The more exposed skin, the more places you have to grip the pole. While daunting at first, a side effect is that you will feel more comfortable and confident in your own skin. But, you always have the option of pole dancing grip pants or whatever outfit makes you feel best.

5. Protects Against Anxiety, Depression, and Dementia

Because of stress relief and emotional regulation, pole dancing protects against depression. If you already struggle with depression, it can boost your mood immediately (even faster than medication, in many cases). The flow state you can enter through dance is similar to meditation, relaxing your mind and body from daily stressors. This phenomenon can prevent anxiety attacks. It also allows you to be more aware of your mental state and help you from heading into a depressive state.

Because dance requires learning new moves and routines, practice, and repetition, it strengthens your concentration and memory centers in your brain. Your pattern recognition skills also improve through dance. Since dance boosts these cognitive skills, it has been recognized as a powerful intervention tool for dementia. It has also been shown to help prevent dementia, Alzheimer's, and other memory-deteriorating brain diseases. The earlier you start dancing, the better. However, dancing is a hobby you can pick up at any time; there is no age limit. Dance has even been used as part of therapy routines for individuals with memory problems, improving their quality of life and slowing the progression of their disease.

Your brain and body are a holistic system, functioning better when you exercise both. Pole dancing is among the exercises that work out both, impacting your physical, emotional, and mental health. It combines artistic and emotional expression with physical exercise resulting in innumerable health benefits.

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For years, scientists have preached about the favorable effects of exercise. Discover pole dancing, a simple, enjoyable way to remain active. Pole dancing has distinct advantages for your mental health in addition to its many physical rewards. Numerous health advantages result from the fact that it mixes physical activity with emotional and artistic expression.

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No matter who you are, chances are you have felt like you are too little or too much of something: too fat, too thin, too flat, too curvy, too feminine, too masculine. You know the feeling.

So how do we push back? How do we cultivate body positivity for ourselves and others?

1. No Negative Talk

Stop thinking mean thoughts about yourself. If it’s something you wouldn’t say to your best friend’s face or vice versa, then you shouldn’t allow yourself to think it about yourself. Try to have positive, encouraging thoughts. When you look in the mirror or see a photo of yourself, try to find one thing you like instead of focusing on the negative. This small change can have a considerable impact on how you view yourself.

Beyond your thoughts, do not use body comments as a form of social interaction. You have more important topics to discuss and many other ways to bond. Don’t allow your friends or family to hurt each other with destructive talk.

2. Ditch Social Media Influencers

Whether it’s celebrities, fitness influencers, or friends that love photoshop and #humblebragging just a little too much, seeing distorted and airbrushed “reality” doesn’t help your self-confidence.

Even if you can’t unfollow everyone like this, remind yourself frequently that it’s not real. They are getting paid to sell you on the illusion. Maintain a healthy perspective. No one is perfect. Avoid skinny tea ads at all costs.

3. Don’t Let A Number Define You

Clothing sizes and BMI are arbitrary measurements that should not dictate your self-worth. Don’t fixate on fitting into a specific size or weight. If you’re focused strictly on numbers, you may idealize someone who stays trim thanks to unhealthy calorie restriction, caffeine, and smoking a pack a day. At the same time, someone with a higher BMI may be running marathons regularly. A balanced diet and routine exercise will impact the health and length of your life more than the size of your jeans.

4. Exercise For You

Working out shouldn’t be a punishment for what you eat. Food should not be your reward. If you are suffering through workouts, it might be time to find a different routine.

Thinking of working out as something you do as a favor to yourself. Move because you want to and check-in with yourself regularly. If something doesn’t feel good, switch it up. Exercise should feel challenging and strengthening, but not overwhelming. Depending on the kind of day you have had, what worked yesterday may not be the thing you need today.

If you’re looking for a new setting to put the joy back in your workouts, take time to get familiar with staff or instructors. Make sure that they are supportive and energizing. Taking a friend can help you feel safe and less vulnerable in a new setting.

5. Find Clothing That Makes You Feel Confident

Clothing has the power to make or break your confidence. You may be holding on to clothes from your past, making you set unrealistic goals for your body. Ditch them. You will look and feel more confident by getting a proper fitting or sizing up when necessary.

Workout gear can feel restrictive, unflattering, and uncomfortable. It’s not empowering when companies don’t make it with every body type in mind. If your body doesn’t fit the mold of sample sizes, you can feel less motivated and self-conscious working out. Seek out inclusive brands that make clothing for all shapes and sizes. Find clothes that make you feel strong and proud to be who you are.

6. Remember You Have A Right

Fitness spaces are not always designed with everybody in mind, which can be very offputting. No matter your shape, color, or identity, you have a right to take up space and get strong. Don’t let anyone or thing get in the way of your fitness journey. You are allowed to be there. If you feel unwelcome, you should look for more inclusive spaces.

7. Find Body-Positive Fitness Spaces

Walking into a gym, you can immediately feel the assumptions of others. From the elevator eyes and stares you’re getting to the outright judgment from fitness instructors and other gym-goers offering tips to lose weight or bulk up. If you can find a body-positive space, you can experience how fun it can be with the added benefit of moving your body.

At PoleActive.com, we love pole dancing because of its high emphasis on body positivity. Pole dancing fitness studios are relatively new, gaining popularity since the early 2000s. Because of this, they don’t have a deep-rooted prejudice about how a dancer’s body should look. They are a modern fitness phenomenon founded on inclusion culture. You aren’t “too” anything! If you have a body, you have a dance body. It doesn’t define your fitness or pole dancing journey.

Find a pole dancing studio that supports you for who you are, and invest in comfortable and sexy pole dancing shorts, leggings, body suits, and tops that make you feel like a million.

In the end, body positivity isn’t an easy journey. Your aim is strength and health. Make sure you’re getting fit for the right reasons. Shut out the distractions in the world around you, and make this one about you!

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You have undoubtedly battled against being perceived as either too little or too much of anything. Stop criticizing yourself inside. Never think about yourself or say anything about yourself that you wouldn't speak out. You shouldn't utilize fallacious metrics to determine your value. Don't obsess too much about your weight or size.

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