New Post with Bad Kitty USA! The human body is a marvelous creation. No matter how challenging the workout, eventually the body adapts. Each week, we have a routine: we attend the same pole classes and for the most part work on the same moves or related moves. Of course this depends on the level, but once past the beginner realm it’s easy to get stuck. Perhaps class has gotten more difficult and you aren’t getting new moves as quickly as you once did. You feel like you are st

There are now three posts about the Thrower's Ten on this blog, but I promised I would write a post on the actual Thrower's Ten PT moves that I use for injury prevention in aerial arts and pole. The Thrower's Ten is a series of physical therapy rehab moves that strengthen and stretch the shoulder girdle. The moves were developed to rehab athletes coming from throwing sports like baseball or racquet sports like tennis. For pole and aerial arts we can use this series to help st

When I started with pole nine years ago, it was the dark ages, but we still had killer moves. To this day, I still teach beginning moves that I learned when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The foundation moves of pole, the dance, the spins, lifts are often shoved out of the spotlight by bigger flashier moves. Without basics many of us could not have built the strength or learned the movement of pole. Beginning students needs the basics to get strong, train muscle memory and movem

As an instructor for pole, I am always looking for fresh ways to incorporate core work into class. Obviously, students want core work and need core work, but being creative and making core moves part of a routine or choreo helps keep class exciting. Traditionally, the way of teaching exercise class was to insert core work at the end of class, but when core is treated like an after thought, it becomes an after thought. For pole, the core work is crucial for progression and st

Lately I have been re-obsessed with floor work and there certainly has been resurgence in the pole industry for coming back to floor work. Competition pole even requires some floor work and that's awesome. The trainer in me is always looking for ways to give students a workout. The dancer is me wants the workout to feel flowing and beautiful. I put together a few floor moves that accomplish both ideals. These floor moves are great additions to classes and provide a total body

This post is a follow-up to a post for the PoleCon Blog, which is a short tutorial on the Butterfly. The focus was on the Tuck position and getting the correct arm positions, shoulder engagement and core engagement. Learning the Butterfly with progression is critical, start with the tuck, then the Butterfly and finally the Extended Butterfly. After mastering the tuck position, then and only then is it time to try Butterfly. I put together a short video on how all the componen

Here is the follow-up post for Upper Back Imbalances for Polers and Aerialists. Basically we are going to look at some corrective exercises that can help work the underdeveloped muscles in the upper and middle back, i.e., the rhomboids and lower traps. As discussed in the first post, these muscle groups and the smaller shoulder girdle muscles tend to be underdeveloped while the lats and pecs tend to get overdeveloped. The upper traps may or may not get over developed as well.

The most common complaint, chronic injury, and biggest body question I receive in pole and aerial arts: what is this pain and knot under my shoulder blade? First off, I am not a doctor, but from years in pole and aerial arts and working with massage therapists, physical therapists, chiropractors and being a trainer, I know that most of this time this wonderful knot is from muscle imbalance. The primary movement patterns in aerial arts and pole involve inverting, doing contro

Many students need the strength work and many teachers are looking for ways to teach strength work in the aerial hoop. We wanted to discuss working eccentric movement exercises and how to work them in the aerial hoop. Quick Movement Discussion Isotonic Movement means that the working muscles shorten or lengthen. There are two types of isotonic contractions, concentric and eccentric. During a concentric contraction the prime mover shortens during the movement, an example is a

The Thrower's Ten is a PT exercise series commonly used to strengthen and stretch the shoulder girdle. This set of movement is often used with athletes of throwing sports, but it can work great for aerialists and pole dancers to aid in injury prevention. I use many of the exercises from the Thrower's Ten in my weekly workout routine. However some of the exercises are more effective then others, for pole and aerial. I promise to put out a post that takes the best of the Throwe