Feeling Ready
Hello Everyone, Over the weekend I was doing some reading about pole and came across this wonderful article by Irmingard Mayer. Who is Irmingrad Mayer? She is a New York City based pole instructor. She has background in gymnastics and theater. She began dancing in 2009. As her love for pole grew she became an instructor. Mayer believes that pole is a physically challenging sport as well as emotionally healing. She competes in many pole competitions, has appeared on TV shows and films showcasing her pole expertise. The article I read is linked below! It is a great read! 11 Things I wish Everyone Knew About Pole In her article she speaks of 11 things she wishes people knew about pole. Many of these things ring true to how I feel about pole. Pole dancing helps all its participants to build strength with your body and mind. Pole helps you reach goals you didn’t even know you wanted until you began to practice the art of pole. I never in a million years thought that I would be able to do a pull up. Now I can do a couple in a row! I am not saying that I am by any means super strong, but I am stronger now than I have ever been in my life! (YAY GO ME) I am continuing to work on my physical strength as well as mental. I found that through pole I am using the phrase “I can’t” less. My vocabulary is changing to “look what I have accomplished so far”. I am becoming a more positive person because of pole. Mayer speaks about the various types of pole. There are three major categories sport, art, and sexy as Mayer defines them. This is one of my absolute favorite things about pole. It has very few limitations as to how a person can express themselves. You can dress up in a costume, incorporate other forms of dance with your pole routine, and the list goes on! You adjust pole to your personality to meet your needs and goals. For me pole is a way for me to recenter myself and to relax, even on the bad pole days. I have been practicing my Inside Leg Hang Prone, This invert scares the living day lights out of me, but I was able to successfully complete the invert twice on my opportunity side. It has been something I have been working on for many months. I have also been working the Vortex Spin trying to make it more graceful. Take a look. I still have more work to do, but I have found that I am more comfortable doing this spin forwards rather than backwards. Grace is something that has never been my strong suit. For example, last week I fell down the stairs going to let my dog out, ended up with a skinned knee and a bruised arm. See not so graceful, but when I go to pole I feel like it helps pull what little amount of grace I do have out. As I continued to read Mayer’s article I found that I have yet to come out of my pole closet. I find that I need to be comfortable with a person before I share with them that I take pole classes. I am not ashamed that I take pole classes, it is that people may judge you regardless of knowing who you are and why your practicing pole. I am a teacher and pole for some has a negative reputation. I know that many instructors have faced similar situations. If the wrong person gets word of you taking pole classes, it could be the difference of losing your job or continuing to take pole. Before I became a blogger for Aerial Dance I had to reflect on if I was truly ready to make my poling hobby public. To be honest with you, I am still nervous to tell certain people, but I am becoming more and more bold. I absolutely can not wait to showcase my skills at the Christmas show. I feel that this will give me the boost I need to come out of my pole closet. My close friends and family will be there to support me as I continue in this journey. So I ask you this week, why do you pole? Share with me in the comments! References Irmingard Mayer, January 10, 2014 8:59 AM. (2014). 11 Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Pole Dancing. Retrieved September 25, 2016, from http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12243/11-things-i-wish-everyone-knew-about-pole-dancing.html
So you're a feminist?
I’ll be honest, I have no idea what feminism is. I thought it was about women gain rights and being free to make the decisions that best fit their life. But after watching the world the last few months I know that my definition isn’t right so now I’m trying to figure out what it is…. Is feminism about belittling a woman for choosing to leave the workforce? One of my pet peeves is when doing the “get to know you, what’s your name, what do you do” talk and a woman says “I’m just a stay at home mom”. Just? Where did we go wrong with feminism that a woman who chooses to stay home feels she is less than someone who made a different choice? Conversely, is feminism about criticising a woman for going to work and “letting someone else raise your kids”? Another pet peeve I hear often is that if a woman chooses to go back to work after children that she doesn’t love her kids as much. Or that something is broken in her as a mother because she doesn’t stay home. Isn’t feminism about allowing you to choose how you want to raise your kids and balance life/work/family? I would think that we should be supporting every woman in whatever decision she made for her family. Is feminism making fun of another woman’s clothing? Because I’ve seen my “feminist” friends post memes of Hillary Clinton in the famous “potato sack by Armani” with negative comments. At a time in our country when schools are requiring young girls to wear bras and specific clothing so male students aren’t “distracted” I would think feminists would be united in the fact that what a woman chooses to wear is her own decision. Is feminism saying you should vote for someone because she is a woman? I’ve seen pressure posts on Facebook with feminists saying even if you don’t agree with her policies you have to vote for Hillary if you are a woman. I thought feminism was supposed to give women the ability to think for themselves, form their own decisions, and vote. Is feminism holding women accountable for how a male views an activity? Last week there was a lot of angst over Take Back The Night and a proposed Pole Fitness demonstration. I’m not going rehash it here, but please educate yourself because this battle is ongoing and extremely upsetting. Today I see a feminist blog (I assume it is a feminist blog as it is call “Feminist Current”) writing “whether you like it or not, pole dancing perpetuates sexism” and I have to say it was hard to read. From my understanding, this author’s view of feminism is if a man finds an activity sexy and you participate in that activity you are perpetuating sexism. This is as ludicrous as saying that if whip cream is used in a porn film and you use it on your pumpkin pie you are a porn star. This type of accusatory thinking victimizes women, it keeps a women’s place as second to a man’s needs. I thought feminism was supposed to encourage equality. Instead of going off on the mis-informed author I will say this instead, feminism should be about supporting your sisters. No matter what decisions she makes, we should stand united that women are intelligent and are able to decide what is best for her. Judging her clothing, choices and activities does not in any way support her but instead says a lot about your need to feel superior. I choose acceptance, kindness, and support, that is my version of feminism. Wanna join me?
Do as I Say, Not as I Do
Remember the old saying, “Do as I say, not as I do”? Well last week I posted about listening to your body and not pushing your limits too hard. Guess what I did….. I did not listen to my body…. I was at my pole class last week Monday, working on the invert called Jordan. For those of you who do not know what a Jordan is. it is the invert on the Aerial Dance logo. Jordan and I haven’t been the best of friends. I am really struggling with creating muscle memory and strength to hold this invert. When I was in class last week, I was feeling a little more confident about executing Jordan. With the help from my instructor I was able to successfully complete the invert, but I was not able to hold it very long. I did Jordan on both sides two times and was very tired. I really wanted to try Jordan just one more time. I asked my instructor if we could try it one more time and she agreed. I went into an outside leg hang, put my hands in the correct position (or so I thought), began to deploy my leg and push away with my arms. That is when I felt the tingle in my trapezius muscle.The illustration below shows where your trapezius muscle is located. After I came down out Jordan, the small tingle was still there, but wasn’t painful, so I continued on with class as usual. (NOT LISTENING TO MY BODY) I am not quite sure how I injured my trapezius while in Jordan, but the next day, I was not able to turn my head to the left or to the right without intense pain. I went all of Tuesday in miserable pain. I was trying to rub my own neck and shoulder area to relieve the tension and pain. It helped a small amount, but I did not get complete relief. I was using warm muscle compresses, ibuprofen, and essential oils for muscle relief (which helped more than ibuprofen and warm compresses combined). I did take it easy for the next couple of days. On Wednesday, I remembered, that once after an Aerial Conditioning class an instructor mentioned using Pinky Ball or a tennis ball to massage sore muscles as well as using a foam roller. Guess what was in my amazon cart that same day!?!?!? Yes, I ordered a Pinky Ball and a foam roller off Amazon. I went to three stores looking for a Pinky Ball and could not find one! I also found a better deal on foam rollers on Amazon than in the store. Who doesn’t love Amazon! Only down fall is the estimated delivery date. 🙁 As I wait for my Pinky Ball and foam roller, I borrowed my dog Olly’s rubber ball. l washed it before I used it of course. Olly was not impressed that she had to share her ball with me. She never took her eyes off the ball. At one point she even hopped up on the couch to take the ball out of my hand. As you can see from the pictures below Olly loves, loves, loves fetch! After trying to massage my own neck and shoulder and failing miserably, my boyfriend was kind enough to roll the ball to massage my very tight and very sore muscles. It was very painful, but my mobility came back little by little. By Friday, I was almost able to turn my head all the way to the side on both sides. Saturday was better yet and now today I only have a small amount of pain when I look to the right. I am going to continue using the ball to massage those muscles. I just can’t wait for my Pinky Ball to come so I know that it has never been covered in dog slobber. Foam Rolling Earlier in my blog I mentioned foam rolling. If you were like me, you might not even know what foam rolling is. Foam rolling is a self-myofascial release (SMR) technique that is used by athletes and physical therapists to inhibit overactive muscles. To put it plainly, foam rolling is a way to release tension and tightness from muscles. I have found that if you are new to foam rolling it can be very painful. Please roll with caution as to not cause more pain or damage to your muscles. The instructors at Aerial Dance are amazing at teaching you how to foam roll if you are not comfortable attempting it on your own. I found two great articles that explain foam rolling, ways to roll, and the benefits of rolling. I have attached the links below. I hope you enjoy them and have a great week! What is a Foam Roller and Why Does it Hurt? https://www.masterofmuscle.com/us/top-7-benefits-of-foam-rolling-every-day/
Take Back the Night, but not with Pole
Yesterday Facebook and the online community really made me angry, then terribly sad. Take Back the Night (TBTN), an annual march and rally that is held in communities all over the world to bring attention to the issue of violence against women, came under attack from the London Abused Women’s Centre (LAW) because they had planned to have a Pole Fitness demonstration at the rally. LAW was then supported by the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia (CAT) with this post. And the Pole Community took offense. Yes, that is correct, this post says that Pole Fitness is comparable to the sex industry and that men’s violence against women is because of their actions. It’s no wonder that the internet blew up as thousands of pole-ers wrote in about the benefits of Pole Fitness and how it has empowered them. Dancers wrote about how Pole made them physically and emotionally strong. How Pole let them express themselves in a safe environment and that they pole-ed for themselves, not a guy. Pole Fitness has nothing to do with entertaining a man and everything to do with believing in yourself. (I’d share these comments but the post was removed…which is probably good because a lot of what was written back was plain ugly.) A lot of pole-ers wrote comments to help educate the masses about how pole saved/helped them after an abusive situation. As someone who re-found herself at the pole, I tried to educate by sharing my own story (which makes me super uncomfortable but I choosed to be part of the solution and not the problem.) I wanted to help those who don’t pole understand context of why so many of us are so passionate about this. And that is when I went from being angry that the sport I LOVE was being compared to the sex industry to becoming so sad. Because the painful stories shared weren’t read by the oppressors. I posted a link to my blog and humbly asked that any opposed to the fitness demonstration to read it to gain perspective, within a minute a women wrote back saying she didn’t had no problems with pole but didn’t want it there. Well first off, you must be the fastest reader on the planet. Oh wait, your response indicates that you didn’t read it. You just have an opinion and you’re entitled to it. Great. But EDUCATE YOURSELF. That is all I was asking. Learn. But this Meredith woman didn’t. She just attacked with her opinion. Absolutely she is entitled to it. But if she cares so damn much about survivors and had taken the two minutes to read my blog she would have known that the “r” word triggers me and now I need to go have a cry and a lorazepam. I totally understand that someone may not feel comfortable with pole but why can’t we learn instead reacting. Meredith, and a great many other people, never learned anything yesterday in the discussion. I learned a lot: We as a community of pole-ers were just shamed and judged. Through the events of yesterday, we as a larger community of women once again supported the idea that “she asked for it.” If you think Pole Fitness is an “action taken to normalize men’s violence against women” then you think that a woman’s actions actually create the violence. What she wears, the activity she does, that’s what causes violence against women, that is what yesterday taught us. So congratulations Take Back the Night, London Abused Women’s Centre and Coalition Against Trafficking for letting the world know that it is the survivor’s fault and not the man’s. Thank you to all the women who were against a fitness demonstration for empowering violent male offenders instead of your sisters because that is what your actions condoned. This morning I woke up to see that TBTN fell to the pressures of LAW and withdrew the Pole Fitness demonstration. Oppression won. I’m glad I don’t live in Canada or I would probably now go to Take Back The Night with a stage pole to protest. How can I feel supported by this group when they’ve told me that the thing that helped me recover isn’t welcome or appropriate. That makes me insanely angry. But I’m also really sad. The decision to not have an empowering demonstration means that somewhere at that TBTN rally is a women who’s nervous about being there. Who has likely never told anyone that she has a personal reason for being there. And she scared. And now when she’s there at an event that is supposed to show support and ways to cope/heal, she isn’t learning about an option that has helped thousands of women. She may not find Pole Fitness now. Her journey to re-find herself just got longer because TBTN didn’t stand up to a bullies and uneducated people and took away a demonstration that could have saved. This makes me really sad for that girl that need to find pole. And the bully, London Abused Women’s Centre, they didn’t reinstate their support for TBTN. So what did they accomplish? Shamed the millions of women who do Pole Fitness, took away the opportunity for survivors to learn about an empowering healing option, and gave strong credibility that a woman’s actions is responsible for the violence against her. Great work for a group that is supposed to support women. I now call to rally the Pole Community to unite to educate and find those women that are seeking a safe place to find themselves. Our journey is long and hard, so it’s a good thing we are so strong. PS – I believe the original image of the Pole Studio was Body & Pole and the incredible Marlo Fisken. Please forgive me/allow me to repost this image as part of this discussion. And I’m so sorry your image was used, without your consent, by the oppressors. ++++++++ UPDATE: Meredith apologized for triggering my by using the “r” word. Then actually read my blog and was kind. So
Listen to Your Body
Hello Everyone! Sorry I have been MIA I hope you had an enjoyable week/weekend. Yesterday was the start of a new pole term at Aerial Dance! I know that I am excited to attend classes again this week. As many of you know, there are classes that run in between terms. I had every intention of attending several classes, but my knee had other plans. I have been struggling with pain in my left knee for the past three/four weeks. I am not sure what I did to agitate my knee, but it was not happy. I have been icing it, taking ibuprofen for pain and swelling, and trying to work through the pain. I was attending my weekly exercise classes and suffering through the pain. That was up until last week, when the pain was so bad it brought tears to my eyes. I knew that I needed to take break from exercising if I wanted the pain to subside and my knee to heal. I took last week off and my pain has subsided. Yesterday I was finally able to go for a three mile walk with my dog and not have a burning pain in my knee. Many people injure themselves and do not allow their body the proper healing time before putting that injury back to work. I know that I am definitely guilty of it. We forget the healing process takes time. Time always seems to be an issue. As it would seem there is never enough of it. We are always rushing around trying to hurry up to keep up with time. We do not take a step back and look at ourselves. Our body whispers to us little aches and pains. If we listen to those whispers they do not become screams. I did not listen to the whispers of my knee and now am paying the price. It sure knows how to scream to let me know it is not healthy. I feel the image below is a wonderful explanation of the whispering I referred to. I have been trying to follow these 6 steps to help keep physically and mentally aware of the what my body is trying to tell me. Step #1 is huge for me! I don’t ever take the time to just close my eyes take a few deeps breaths and reset. I have found that by doing this simple step it reduces some of the other stresses in my life. Step #2 I complete while laying in bed in the morning before I get up. I am trying to assess what my body may being trying to tell me even before I start my day. Step #3 Last week, if I woke up and I had pain in my knee before climbing out of bed, I knew it was going to be long day of pain and rest. As I began to listen to my body the pain became less, because I understood that I needed to take the following steps to allow my body to heal. This required a lot of ice and elevation of my leg. I did go a little stir crazy as I am a very active person. Step #4 By becoming aware of the pain, I was able to understand what would cause more pain to my knee and what wouldn’t. This is helping me to prevent any further injury. step #5 I am still working on awareness of my whole body/mind. Self awareness skills are new to me and I am practicing them the best that I can. Several times I have consider taking yoga to help enhance this awareness, but find I run into a time issue. 🙁 Step #6 I have been following the pain sensations in my knee and I am working on making them disappear all together. Sunday and today have been the best two days for my knee in the past two weeks. I am nearly pain free, but know I am not out of the dark yet. I do have my pole class tonight, I plan to take it easy. I am slowly going to ease back into my exercise routine as to not re-injure my knee or agitate it worse. I am hoping that, it will continue to heal on its own as I follow those 6 steps. Please remember, you only get one body in this life. It is your job to take care of it. We may be young now, but the choices you make may come back to haunt you with age.
Ode to Leah
Today marks the 5 year anniversary from when Leah signed on the dotted line and changed her pole journey from that of student to that of instructor. I celebrate her anniversary on the day she started her training, instead of when she taught her first class, because becoming an instructor is extremely difficult, time consuming, and many don’t make it. And I can’t help but think it is crazy that my little company has been around long enough to have an employee work here for 5 years. Crazy how far we have come. Crazy how much has changed; when Leah started we had ~30 students a week now we have that in a night! Crazy that after moving 90 minutes away Leah still chooses to be here. When students first encounter Leah they see her as a magical creature with the most gorgeous fluid lines, strength for days, and no apparent pain response. They think that she was born this way and don’t recognize how hard Leah has worked. When Leah walked into Premiere Fitness and the hideous electric blue studio we started in she was weak (sorry Leah!) and had recently lost 50+ pounds. She still had the “fluffy” look about her with a very different body shape then the lean Leah you see today. Her first fireman didn’t last long, she slide to the ground with her bottom hand way too high, like all first fireman do. But she did have a natural grace about her. Leah took her natural grace and spent a lot of time and effort training for flexibility and strength. The picture on the left is the first cocoon picture I have of Leah, taken in 2013. Notice that her back flexibility is limited so the pole stays at her side. Her top leg is at a 90-ish degree angle and her grabbed leg has a large bend in it. The picture on the right is her cocoon a year-ish later. Her back flexibility has increased so the pole is now at her chest and her top leg is holding a much strong knee pit grip. Her grabbed leg has less of a bend. If you saw her cocoon today, it has improved and is even more impressive. Leah excels at pole because she works at it. Yes, she has a lot of natural ability and picks things up quickly, but she also has put in the time to excel. I’m so grateful that she is a gifted athlete that also wants to train hard! Becoming an instructor is an extremely large time commitment that never ends. If I had kept track, Leah and I have trained well over 1000 hours together. She has spent time learning about anatomy and different styles of dance in addition to all the aerial arts. Being an instructor didn’t come naturally to Leah, when she was first learning to spot she stood 3 feet away from me not wanting to touch the person she was spotting or “be in their way”. Like a good teacher, I “fell” so she could see how fast it happened. She learned and adjusted her own personal space needs to get comfortable being on top of the people she’s spotting. She has saved countless lives/injuries with her skills and continues to work on them. Her work ethic has made her a huge asset to Aerial Dance. Her first Christmas Show was in 2011. It was the first Show in our current location; the hardest tricks were leg hangs. Leah did a routine that was clever and cute but on the day of the Christmas Show last year I have to shake my head in awe at what she is now capable of. Her choreography is amazing and her tricks are truly breath taking. I’m already excited to see what she’ll come up with for her 6th Christmas Show performance this year! One of her greatest attributes is her humor. Leah is insanely funny. She has such a smart sharp wit about her. And I’m eternally grateful that she uses it to help me in the rough times. She is so good at defusing a hard situation or making me laugh at myself. Being in a small business that is in an emerging field has given Leah lots of opportunities to use her humor to support us. The things that fall out of her mouth are truly gems! There was a time when I was a “better” pole dancer than Leah. I know! Right! (As all our students reading this gasp in shock because those days are LONG past.) It was hard for me when Leah’s skills started to eclipse mine, I was nervous that I’d be jealous or resentful or no longer relevant. But Leah is such a humble person that she made it easy for me, she still consults me on new moves she’s working on and values my knowledge. She also has shown me incredible patience as I rehab from the injury du jour and she has to “re-teach” me moves that I once taught her. She’ll spot me, give me tips and then when I’ve succeeded truly celebrate my trip back even though we both know I could do it once upon a time. Then when it’s her turn to be spotted and she does some crazy flip thing she is so unassuming and modest that you can’t help but love seeing her accomplish and celebrating her amazing skills. But the main reason I credit Leah’s still being her 5 years later is her adaptability. Leah isn’t phased by changed, she embraces it. And as a growing company there has been a LOT of change. Her role has changed, she now teaches 4 apparatus, not one. There are now a ton more chores to do and students to email. Leah has always supported the change. The attitude she shares with me has always been “let’s try it and see.” I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am
