The Science Behind Mixing Up Your Practice Sessions—and Why In-Person Classes Reign Supreme

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

You’re probably better off spending a half hour working on 5 or 6 moves than drilling the same one over and over, and here’s why: hoopthoughts.blogspot.com/2012/02/ironically-i-blogged-once-this-morning.html

(TL:DR: your brain shuts off and you only know how to do that one move in that one situation. Not ideal for freestyles or new choreo).

This particular blog is about basketball (and more specifically, performance in a game) but it’s very relevant to dancers who will hopefully be able to perform moves in more than one combination.

Looks like putting a bunch of move names in a hat, drawing 5, then practicing them in order (followed by reverse order) is a good idea for that next jam session! Just think–attempting a chopper right out of a spin or from a pole sit is different than giving it a go from the ground, right? These variables strengthen your skills and deepen your understand of a move.

Also interesting: practicing on your own without classes in between might not be a great idea. This has probably been apparent to anyone who’s ever attempted to try a move at home and was completely stumped on how to do it again, but, even if you’re able to fight your way through it alone, you might be missing important technique notes without a teacher present.

Most pole studios off “free pole” time (not actually free–they usually charge $10-15 and hour to use the studio), and this unstructured practice time often comes with an instructor present for safety. Take advantage of this and ask for feedback or tips! Bonus points if this isn’t your regular teacher. A different person might mean fresh perspective on what you can work on.

Does anybody practice at home? Or have you forgotten  you can actually use your pole and have started seeing it as a ceiling beam of some sort? (guilty).

PS. What are these called? I’m going with “stag leaps” until further notice. I FEEL LIKE A FRIGGIN GAZELLE YAS

human pogo stick

Making REAL Progress Part 2:

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

I’ve been having a series of breakthroughs out of nowhere lately, and I have some thoughts on finally making progress!

This is especially shocking to me because lately I’ve been feeling like I’m throwing everything I have at pole (getting up a little earlier to do 15-20 minutes of conditioning before I jump in the shower, abs/pullups/shoulder training on my lunch break, pole, flex, floowork or barre classes in the evening and on weekends. But the progress has been sloooooo0w.

Until suddenly it wasn’t. Suddenly the dots started connecting and trying (and failing) at a Jamila for several frustrating weeks meant nailing a violator on my first try in three years (an experience so traumatic in 2013 that I haven’t attempted it until now haha); struggling to get my outside leg hangs with that little leg shimmy (you know the one) suddenly got me aerial inverts, monkey climbs, and straight leg inverts (which barre REALLY came in handy for–that is serious quad work, holy crap).

Moves I thought were impossible for me are now (marginally) accessible and make some sense. And I’m feeling crazy inspired to tell you all immediately: DO NOT GIVE UP, because it might be just around the corner.

And it’s not linear. You don’t do X amount of work and get Y result within a set amount of time. I work out sometimes just to deal with anxiety, or out of habit. I stopped expecting it to pay off immediately quite some time ago. But damn, the results come when you least expect them. It’s just so important not to quit.

So here’s my continued list of progression tips:

1. Whatever you do, hang in there.

Learn to love the work. You never know when a jump forward in your skills is going to happen, but it probably WON’T happen if you aren’t hitting the studio, conditioning, and/or crosstraining. Take a break from one thing for a while if you get burnt out but don’t go inactive. I skipped pole classes for a week but kept doing my Core XTREEEEEEME (extra e’s mine) and barre classes, and then when I went back to pole I felt great and got a new trick.

I saw a girl in my level 2 class a few weeks ago who was brand new to the level. And she was struggling and clearly looking defeated and embarrassed to be struggling. And I just wanted to freaking hug her, because leveling up and 1. no longer being the best in your class in the lower level, and 2. suddenly being the worst in your class and everything’s hard and hurts is no small thing.

Also, at my particular studio (and in many, I’m sure) level 2 is miles away from level 1. The two almost have nothing to do with each other. In level 1 you spin, in level 2 you’re doing upside down. It’s almost cruel how big that jump is.

But anyway, mad props to this girl because in her freestyle–ie. the time to do easy fun stuff that you’re good at–she attempted a chopper and leg hang she JUST LEARNED, and bailed out, and looked so frustrated with herself. I wanted to give her a medal right then and there just for trying, because that’s the whole point.

Side note: I almost NEVER attempt upside down stuff at the end of a 1.5 hour class unless there’s a gun to my head.

(Hasn’t happened yet, but hey, this is New York).

So, retroactively:

2. Keep Trying and Failing at Hard Things.

Because failing at them is practice and conditioning too. And give yourself props for freaking TRYING and being willing to wipe out in front of Level 3 girls who are straight chilling in Level 2 classes because they don’t have your balls. #respect

3. Partner Up With Someone Better Than You

Last night I monkey climbed (ie. chopper, outside leg hang, aerial chopper, outside leg hang, drop exhausted to the floor). I didn’t know I could. I tried it because the girl I was partnered with (who also happened to be really friendly and chill, which is essential) did it first.

[Monkey climb see, monkey climb do! (hehe)]

Now normally I like to hide in the back and partner with somebody who’s doing their first Level 2 class so I can feel helpful and not totally clumsy.

But, this has definitely not been me to push myself (duh). Don’t be like me. Share a pole with someone who’s pushing herself. This is especially effective if you’re a competitive person! Your pole buddy can also give you helpful tips, like mine did, because she’s probably been there and already worked out the kinks with moves she’s mastered.

4. Record Yourself

I know I’ve said this before, but it’s so important for getting better. Pole can be hard when it comes to seeing yourself. We’re often spinning or upside down, so it’s hard to catch a good look at yourself in the mirror. That doesn’t excuse you from looking, though.

I have a good friend who’s much more advanced at pole than me. But she’s a “jump from trick to trick” type who’s addicted to progress. She doesn’t like doing the same move over and over–least of all Level One moves. But at her first major competition recently, she lost points from every judge over bent knees and sickled, flexed feet. (Something I feel guilty for not telling her I noticed, but one sort of looks like an asshole saying “maybe you should straighten your legs more” to someone who’s doing handsprings while you’re doing yet another pinwheel spin).

Don’t wait for someone assigning you points in a competition to read your bad habits. Video early, video often, and troubleshoot. Which reminds me…

5. Master Moves, Don’t Settle for “Good Enough”

If you’ve ever watched a non-poler watch pole dance, you’ve probably noticed that the stuff they’re most impressed by isn’t particularly hard stuff. It’s Level 1 skills performed with confidence, mastery, and expression that elicit the gasps.

So aim for that. Don’t check a move off and move on. Explore it. Try it big, try it small, try it in new combos, with different emotional notes, with different tempos and song choices. A dip turn can go 100 different ways–but each time you work with it, yours gets stronger and more versatile.

Work on new tricks, but aim for total mastery of your Level 1 stuff. And also (sorry, this is the longest post ever but I have SO MANY THOUGHTS): Level 1 mastery=the strength, control, and deep understanding of moves to learn to add on or do similar (but harder) variations of them in higher class levels. If you still don’t know how to get good momentum without jumping, or muscle your way through climbs instead of push-pulling, you’re going to struggling with tricks that build on theses elements (and possible get hurt trying to learn them).

How do you feel about your progress? What made a difference for you for a certain nemesis trick? What advice would you give polers on the cusp of giving up? And have you ever given up yourself? I feel like burnout combined with injuries makes for a lot of “ex” polers… Share below!

 

LAST CLASS EVER.

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

That’s a wrap on grad school!!!

I literally just finished my last class ever, and gave my last presentation ever. PRAISE BE.

I plan to celebrate with wine and a trip straight to the pole studio which has cobwebs on it, in my heart.

I think I told y’all before, but I did my final project in “Emerging Media Platforms in Journalism” class on SENSORS, and how they can be used in pole dance, I mean journalism.

Y’all can see the outtakes below, and god help me, I have a 4,000 word paper due on it soon, but this is the five minute presentation version I gave literally 30 minutes ago!

(Not sure how people felt about the pole stuff… but they can’t say they weren’t entertained ;D )

And then here’s some silly pics/video of us working on it. *SIGH* what a feeling to be done with this!!!! Whatever happens now, the rest of my life… I now know how to strip a wire and solder a circuit board. Pretty cool! No ragrets! ;D

 

Music Monday: The Love Jones Edition. PLUS: pull up-progress!

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

So occasionally, I’ll see something that costs more money than I actually have and go YASS LIFE IS SHORT and buy it.

I almost never regret these decisions, because I make them so seldomly, and because they add spice and flavor to my life that careful thought and reason would excise.

This happened with pole. I saw a Groupon and was like FUCK IT I’M IN, and my life has never been the same.

And then there are other times where I don’t do my research and just buy something and drag someone else and it’s not what I thought it was at all. But that’s also okay because ***mEmOrIeS***

The latter was the case with Love Jones: The Musical.

If y’all know me… you know I have a minor Musiq Soulchild obsession.

Which is a tough obsession to have because like… he’s not drake. There are not concerts popping near me yearly, you know?

So I saw this dude was in something near me in a week and I was like “Take all my money, I don’t even have questions.”

These was especially because Raheem Devaughn was in it too.

And Dave Hollister. (This song has been intermittently stuck my head from the first time I heard it, so roughly 4 years).

Chrisette Michele was also there, and ended up shocking me with her talent live. (Actually, a note on this: everybody’s talent live was pretty damn shocking).

So, onto the surprises: there was airport style security. I have never encountered this at a “musical” before. But I guess I should have expected it on Flatbush Ave in Brooklyn? Is that normal? I don’t know. But it was  pretty obnoxious to walk through a metal detector and have to throw my UNOPENED bottle of seltzer out. More disturbing was that the mostly black audience didn’t seem surprised or even to particularly mind being barked at by security guards on their way into an 80-dollar-a-ticket event. This gave me a lot of pause, but that’s probably a conversation for a different blog post.

But back to the show: this was a “jukebox” musical, not like… a normal musical. The music was definitely barbecue R&B jams from the early 90s, and I was into that. “Strokin'” made an acapella appearance, which was… a little shocking, honestly. But enjoyable?

Because of this, music was concert style, which meant I had tissue stuffed in my ears for 80% of it. Loud noises y’all. Bae’s ears were also in pain, which was confusing because nobody else at the venue seemed to mind. This leads me to believe that everybody else abuses their ear buds and is functionally deaf. Does anybody else ever have this problem??? #old

This was a fun show, and totally not what I expected, but as bae said on the way home, “this was not something I would have ever experienced in my life otherwise,” and I agree.

Musiq was everything I hoped he would be, the show was fun and totally different than what I’m used to, and it was nice being in a crowd NOT mainly comprised of  white people. Like wow, people were so chill, kind, and friendly to each other, and nobody was blathering on about their startup. I need more of this energy in my life.

Musiq:

Have you ever randomly gone to an event without knowing anything about it? How did it go?

I feel like I should be more careful lest I end up at something super weird or even religious… but so far being spontaneous has worked out for me.

OH and check out my dead hang pull-up progress!!!! I’m closing in on my end of year goal of 5 I think… whoop whoop

pull-ups

Gone Campin’ (a yearly occurrence)

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

So last week I was straight chilling’ in the Adirondacks with bae, but I bet y’all didn’t even know it because I SCHEDULED posts (muhahahahaha). Funny how I can’t seem to be this organized with school work but when it comes to pole I’ll put in that kind of effort…

It was terrifying to be away from the gym for a week, so I tried to do something physical every day we were up there (as I live in fear of losing my pull up gainz. I WORKED TOO HARD FOR THOSE PULLUPS).

So, we kept active. There was a lil’ canoeing….

canoeing

…A lil wandering around the woods pretending to be walkers from the Walking Dead (#obsessed) …And a little mountain climbing.

IMG_20160713_165312

This is significant because my family goes way back in upstate New York, and my dad and grandpa and great uncles all grew up hiking Bald Mountain, aka Rondaxe Mountain, about an hour and a half from my family’s house, and the house my dad grew up in.

IMG_5214-ANIMATIONBefore our camping trip, my dad told me about a boulder on Rondaxe that’s the backdrop for a family-famous picture of my Great Uncle Vin. It’s a bit off the beaten path on the mountain (past the official summit, and with no trail markers to find it), but makes for a great photo op.

Obviously my response to this was “CHALLENGE ACCEPTED,” and… drumroll… we found it!!

This is me planking that shit in 2016, and here’s my Great Uncle straight chillin in 1954. Pretty cool!

1954 vs 2016 dated

How handsome is my great Uncle Vin???

How weird is it that I paired a bikini top with a sports bra?? #readyforanything #bigbooblife

Speaking of style I’m also rocking my boyfriend’s sweats in this photo because I got lighter fluid all over my yoga pants. Camping!mountain

If you’re wondering how me and bae also got to do an extended photo shoot at the summit, it’s because we ignored thunder on the way up (and the streams of people running DOWN the mountain, rightly afraid of the storm) because we’re stubborn and dumb. Our idiocy and risk taking was reward with a mountain all to ourselves!

You can see the thunder clouds off in the distance in these pics, but don’t worry, they were heading away from us at that point. Never did get any rain, but had a great time dicking around up there all by our lonesome.

Overall it was a great trip… minus the chipmunks who snuck into our bag of marshmallows and shit all over them. (Literally. Chipmunk turds everywhere).

camping collage
Chipmunk: “I’m an asshole.”

How do you stay in shape on vacation? Do you even give a fuck? I almost did some pushups but then I was like nah and had a beer. Vacation has to stay somewhat pure, right?

OH, LOOK AT THIS TINY TOAD, THE END.

IMG_7490-ANIMATION

“Leg Tightening” Exercises, Courtesy of Child Gymnasts

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

Yup, I’m back at it again, watching auto-plays of gymnastics conditioning for things I’ll never do like “back limbers” and anything on the uneven bars.

Yet I cannot. Stop. Watching. And sometimes that comes in handy, because I’ll occasionally stumble upon something relevant!

“Leg Tightening” in gymnastics basically means conditioning to build the strength required to keep legs perfectly straight during skills. I’m sure a lot of you aren’t really honing a beam routine right now, but you probably DO want to get your legs a little straighter in pole sits. These exercises are for you!

And the best part: they require no equipment, and are  a great little warm up or cool down addition to stretching. I’ve been doing the “taps” without anything under my feet because I’m weak, but if you’re going to go that route, I recommend a folded towel.

For a “barre” try the back of a chair, a counter, or if you’re brushing your teeth like I usually am during any kind of ballet nonsense, your sink.

Happy tightening!

Body and Pole Bingo: Giddyup. (Also: teeny reviews on the new classes I just took!)

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

So here’s an optimal way to slack–I’ve been bad about blogging because I’ve been spending too much dancing!! :D!!!

Body and pole is doing “bingo” (complete with cards) where you knock out spaces on your card by completing class-taking tasks. Examples are taking class with a certain teacher, or an aerial art (pole, hoop, fabric). There’s also conditioning, flex, and time-specific tasks, like taking one before noon on a weekday, or after 8pm.

At first I was like, “whatever, I’mma do me–I don’t need a card to get my butt to class!” but honestly, seeing the progress on a card is completely addictive. I went from being like, “okay, I’ll black out 5 in a row and get 20% of a package” to “OMG I’M SO CLOSE, I can black out this whole card of 25 classes and treat my bellydance girls to a pole party!”

The promotion ended Tuesday and here’s what my card looked like:

Photo credit to Armando at the front desk who had to painstaking verify that I actually DID go to this many classes/have this much time on my hands. Thank you!!
Photo credit to Armando at the front desk who had to painstaking verify that I actually DID go to this many classes/have this much time on my hands. Thank you!!

You guys I was one space away from a free pole party. I WANTED THAT PARTY. But Brenna is a hugely popular  instructor and I couldn’t make it into one of her sold out classes 😦

But anyway, I took SO many classes–let me quickly give you an overview of my favorites while they’re still fresh in my head.

1. Liquid motion

This one was a HUGE discovery for me. I always stare longingly at pole girls who do fish flops and slinky split transitions on the floor, but like, in the same way I longingly watch gymnasts do kips and shit on the uneven bars: beautiful, but where the hell am I going to learn that?

HERE. HERE IS WHERE YOU CAN LEARN THAT. B&P has these classes in the big rooms so you have plenty of room to roll around and make it nasty. Not only did I immediately add tons of cute, stylish moves to my repertoire, I also got a nice lowerbody workout–re: a break for my calloused, calloused hands–and they have kneepads and stuff too, so you can have all the fun of oozing around on the floor but none of the rug burn or bruises. Highly, highly recommend. It upped my pole freestyle game after ONE class. (I took this with Emily Sanderson who can do absolutely no wrong in my book, but Jeni Janover teaches it too and I’ve only heard good things!)

PS. In case you doubt the power of mixing things up a little, here’s a three-day bruise tracking photo series that documents what multiple aerial classes for three days in a row looks like.

2. Pole Level 2 with Kelly

Remember what a hard time I was having with Level 2? How every time I get there it’s a bunch of Level 3 people and it’s more a “review and combine your moves” atmosphere than “literally learn where your hands and feet go for these moves” type thing?

Yeah, Kelly’s class was a huge game changer for that. For each move she gives three versions: the straight up version (a leg hang, for instance), a way to make it harder (windshield wipers), and a way to start working towards it (leg hangs from being on your back on the floor).

I mean, I always KNEW I could do leg hangs from my back on the floor to practice placement, but when the teacher doesn’t say that out loud and I’m the only one on the floor… that shit is embarrassing! It made the hugest difference to have legitimate options for everything so I never just had to stand there, hanging my head in shame, or feeling bored with a move I already had down. Fabulous, and exactly what my morale needed. Thank you Kelly!!!

3. Flex Level 2 with Isaac

Oh jesus, here we go. So, you’ll notice looking at the picture on my card that Isaac’s face is on there. He’s in the studio for only a couple of classes–mainly advanced flex and contortion. I was really trying to fill up this card, so, I swallowed my pride and attempted an int/adv. flex class that I had no business being in.

It was…. humbling. As you’d expect any flex class to be when people are doing chin stands and split bridges. But Isaac has a really relaxed, soothing attitude to flexibility (he said multiple times during the 1.5 hour class “don’t kill yourself, we’ve got a lot of minutes left”) and gives plenty of variations to make things harder or easier. Like with Kelly, I always had something to work on, even if I couldn’t quite sit my ass on my head like some people in class 😐

Funny moment: he came over to me while I was doing a foot-grab pigeon thing and said, “Are you an aerialist?” He was adjusting my arm/shoulder placement as he said this so I immediately blushed and said, “…yes” thinking he’s noticed my muscles. “Then we really need to fix this shoulder situation.” (ie. SHOULDER FLEXIBILITY DISSSSSSS). That’ll teach me to have an ego, haha. Again, #humbling.

BUT… the class overall was an incredibly intense, focused session and I think I’ll try to start going regularly. Isaac sets a very supportive tone for everything, and has a really nice way of encouraging everyone (later that same class he moved me to a better position and said, “YES! Now that will get you in the circus!” which is quite possibly the best compliment I’ve ever gotten in a dance class ever, haha).

If nothing else, this class really inspired me to try to hold poses longer and use breathing to get into muscles I’m targeting, because it really makes all the difference when you’re pushing your absolute limits (which I was… eek!).

Okay wow this post got long… I’ll tackle reviewing another three next time!

Here’s a teaser image of a bruise I got attempted hoop level 1 for the first time!

And a video of me taking intro to fabric! (REALLY REALLY FUN, HIGHLY RECOMMEND)

OH, and the Fire Blossoms are back in action because Maki’s back from her world tour of Silk Roads! We have a show this Saturday night–here’s a sneak peek of our routine 😉

Finally… how good is the Hollaback Girl portion of this video? I literally cried. (Disclaimer: the linked video is total nonsense and has nothing to do with dancing).

 

If straddles hurt your outer thighs, READ THIS

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

Hey guys,

Enjoying summer?

I’ve been taking some time out to do summer stuff and generally chill in my time off, instead of spending it hunched over my computer as during the work day. So pardon my hiatus!

I did want to drop a quick line though because I haven’t stopped training (though I’m mainly doing flex, ballet barre, and poleography–no hardcore pole right now because my favorite teacher hasn’t been in in a while and I’m STILL having bad experiences with other peeps. *SIGH* Just want to get through a Level 2 without wanted to cry y’all).  Anyway, I love my other classes, and as usual when I take class with my utterly fabulous, professional, knowledgeable, infinitely patient, etc etc teachers I I LEARN SO MUCH.

Our flex teacher (WHO I LOVE, OMG YOU GUYS, SHE’S THE LITERAL BEST) asks for requests sometimes, and I recently issued a weird one: butt stretching.

Here’s the background: I have a horrific time with frog/straddle stretches. I’m used to some intense stretching, but while other people say they feel these stretching in their inner thighs, they make me feel like my outer thighs as well as hips are being broken. Like, wishbone-being-pulled-apart style.

This cannot be normal, I thought, so I googled “are straddle splits impossible for some people.” Because it feels that bad to me, and I have seen NO progress, despite making visible gains in all my other flexibility–including shoulders, aka fixing my dinosaur arms. (whaaaaat? I know! Miracles happen.)

This is a T-band stretch.
This is a T-band stretch.

What I discovered from a gazillion message boards is, sometimes the issue with painful straddles is not necessarily the muscles that straddles stretch (inner thighs) but the opposing ones: hips, outer thighs, and glutes. By targeting these muscles with stretches like figure four or T-band stretches (I don’t know the name for them but they usually involved turning your leg out and pulling it across your body), you have a better shot at getting to the muscles you actually want to stretch: yo inner thighs!

Class was mostly the typical order of operations, with straddles at the end. I don’t notice anything different, except that our figure fours and T band stretches (I admitted to the teacher when I asked for “butt stretches” that I actually didn’t know any besides these, the ones we were already doing) came right before we went into straddles.

This is also a T-band stretch.
This is also a T-band stretch.

Then a miracle happened. My straddles/froggies hurt like a bitch (lol what else is new), but for the first time ever I felt the pain in my inner thighs!!! Then we did some rolling of the hips and weight shifts and sure enough, I was able to go a little deeper. ie. I MADE PROGRESS.

I asked the teacher after class what did we had done differently (because that was MAGIC), and she said nothing–we had just changed the order. We weren’t doing any additional or different stretches, we were just doing those outer hips and glutes ones right before center splits. The teacher said she felt a difference too, and that she going to do her class like that from now on, which made me feel like less of a wackadoo for asking for “stretches for your butt” while others were requesting classy things like “heart openers.” #elegance

Figure Fo'
King of the Butt Stretches: Figure Fo’

So what’s going on with y’all? I definitely didn’t bother with the flow challenge like I thought I would because my air conditioner has just not been keeping up with this heat. When I get home I just sit on my couch and pant like Jabba the Hut, it’s pretty attractive.

I have been learning some cute combos in class though–I’ll post some poleography clips in another blog. But for now, look at this HAWT routine I saw at “Shtick a Pole in It.”

Shtick a Pole in It is a combo pole/comedy show. No, the dancers don’t tell jokes and the comedians don’t pole haha–they alternate! The comedians were surprisingly hilarious and the dancers were top freaking notch. Like, SICK.

I had two favorites performances but in one of them the dancer (terrifyingly) fell so I don’t think they’ll post it. She was fine and actually resumed the routine after a quick break to wipe the pole down, but it was really too bad because she was obviously a pro and her performance was out of this world until her fall. To her credit she was doing an insane trick combo at the time, so I guess it just goes to show that a slippery pole can strike anyone at any time.

Anyway, here’s my other favorite. My friend said she’s a NY Poler and her name is Anna. You can’t see it in the video, but she had a really lovely ease to her dancing and cute facial expressions which took an already sick routine to the next level. I’m fangirling here but I don’t even care because it was perfection.

Check her out!

And if you’re New York in September, catch the next show! I think they said it would be the last Sunday of the month, but that have yet to post. Check the Facebook group, I’m sure it will be up soon!

Do this free barre workout later, maybe!

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

So I was bingeing on Dance Mom on Hulu when I found this. Thanks Hulu! Still not going to spring for the plus, but thaaaaanks.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/388613

The commercial breaks are annoying, and you’ll have to police your own form, but I for one am definitely bookmarking this class for days when nothing’s popping at my usual studio. A lot of these moves are very similar to my barre class at B&P (which is only once a week D: ) so I’m am with it. This is that dance conditioning ish! Meaning, this is the stuff that looks easy but is actually hard because it recruits all the weird little muscles you need for extended moves and balance. Gotta love it. And I promise you’ll start seeing an improvement in your lines with this kind of training, I know I have. #believer.

Also, I think I might actually be type A and film this on my phone off of my laptop so I can cut commercials ;D

Anyway, SPEAKING OF LINES, holy shit have you guys seen this???

I’ve basically been watching it on a loop. And listening to that sooooong tho. It’s like, perfectly crafted for pole and begging for choreo.

Somebody geek out with me on this because I caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan’t, so good.

Why leg raises can kiss my pelvicly tilted ass.

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater
Fuck. This. Shit.

I just left Angela an extremely long comment (sorry Angela!) and realized I have a LOT to say about leg raises.

As you all know from my bitching and moaning on here, I’m still recovering from a mystery back issue. It got so bad that I ACTUALLY TRIED YOGA.  I still don’t know exactly what went wrong because my insurance at the time was really shitty, and when I called them to find a doctor who would accept my extremely obscure plan. They told me I had to go to the emergency room.

So I self diagnosed. (And called in sick a lot when I couldn’t stand).

I know it’s bad, but, I did my own research, and my symptoms were most in line with a herniated disk. The pain here is unique in that it’s much, much worse to be sitting that to be doing just about anything else (except maybe like, weighted dead lifts).

Gentle movement, walking, and standing all felt okay, but trying to sit at my desk for a normal work day was complete torture. On my 1.5 hour commute home I’d have to stand or risk not being able to get up from my seat when my stop came on the subway because my legs had gone numb.

This has something to do with the position your lower discs are in when you sit–they’re much more compressed than when standing. And let me tell you… I could feel it. It was like on Seinfeld when George was sitting on his huge wallet–it just felt precarious and unbalanced and generally fucked up everywhere, no matter how I shifted around in my chair. And I think, as a protective response, the muscles all around my spine tightened and spasmed and did all other kinds of general fuckery to make my life even more particularly miserable.

The red part is medical code for “this area hurts like a bitch.”

Now, I have taken a good, hard look at my life. I was in constant pain for about 6 months. My back was always seized up, I had (mistakenly!) thought I lost all my hard won flexibility because I couldn’t so much as touch my toes anymore. Inverts in pole were completely out of the question (just trying to crunch my legs up was an immediately spasm in my back), and even gentle workout classes became embarrassing and impossible as soon as something as runk twists, toe touches, or planks were involved.

I thought it would last forever, and I thought dancing was done for me.

And I wanted to know why.

Funny enough, it wasn’t until I made an almost complete recovery (gentle stretching and cardio + listening to your body FTW!) before I made the connection between a certain movement and my pain.

Leg raises.

I have an idea. Let’s not and say we did.

Fucking leg raises.

It came it be in a flash: a month or so before my pain had first started (at first in waves of back cramps that would come and go, and then in a tsunami of pain that quite literally took me off my feet), I’d started a new class at my gym.

It was called “Ab Lab.”

Great cross training for pole, right? It’s at 12pm in the gym attached to my office, and it’s only a half hour long. A quick ass kicking AND time to eat a sandwich? Sign me up.

The workout–while intense–is very old fashioned. It’s also very fast paced. And the instructor–a totally lovely guy–takes no prisoners. He will call you out. That’s my kryptonite because I have an ego when it comes to working out. So I ignored how certain things felt in order to simply complete them. Like how series after series of extended leg raises, criss-crosses, scissors, and roll ups were making my back ache and burn, not my abs.

Dat curve.
Dat curve.

Now, I’m not dumb. I have been working out and dancing for a long time. I know that to protect my back in ab exercises, I have to pull my abs in and keep my lower back glued to the floor.

Unfortunately, that’s impossible when you’re working on a double time count and flinging a medicine ball around. In fact, it didn’t even work for me at half speed. (A pilates teacher last night walked up to me and grabbed my back and was like, “wow, look at that lumbar curve.” Apparently that can cause back pain during the ab stuff because anatomy?? So I was like HOLY FUCKING SHIT, MAYBE IT’S MY BODY AND NOT MY TECHNIQUE. Because it can’t possibly be for lack of trying. I really, really try to keep my back on the floor.)

Anyway, I don’t take the ab class anymore. And I don’t give a flying fuck what kind of side eye I get during other fitness classes I take when I sit out on the leg raises.

I do not do leg raises anymore.

I just fucking do not.

Some things I can do (like lower leg scissors) if I keep my hands under my back, which helps me get into the C position where my abs do the work. But other times, if we’re doing those full body V things, I just don’t. And I apologize to the teacher or point to my back and shrug, but I DO NOT DO THEM and I don’t not let myself be bullied into doing them.

Just to reiterate:

pilates
No.

Do you have a an exercise that’s your mortal enemy?

Are leg raises amazing and I’m some kind of mutant that can’t do them?

Pls explain.