A guide to solo pole practice.

2 Feb

Most pole studios will have time slots where you can go in and train by yourself. Its a great opportunity to get more pole time outside of classes however many students, especially beginners, aren’t sure how to effectively use this time so I have written a guide for you to get the most out of your practice time.

I am assuming for this guide you are below the level of advanced and the time you have to spend in the studio is unsupervised and will last about an hour. I am also assuming you are also taking pole classes with a knowledgeable instructor and you are not attempting to teach yourself.

Firstly, let's go through some quick do’s and do not’s of pole practice:

Have a simple, achievable goal for the session. If goals aren’t your thing then think of it more as a focus point. For example - I want to improve my outside leg and add it into that nice combo from class.
Write out a plan before going to the session. Include warm up and cool down time.
Check what your studio recommends in regards to safety, this will include whether you should be using a crash mat.
If there are other people in the training space say hello and introduce yourself. You’re both there to train so don’t think you have to keep up conversing for the whole hour but a friendly introduction can go a long way to improving the atmosphere of the room and could make one or both of you feel more comfortable.
It’s annoying but accept you might have to train with headphones in if you want to listen to music, especially if you’re learning a routine and listening to the same song over and over. If you’re the only one in the session you can do what you like with music but if you’re sharing the space be respectful. Most people won’t mind you putting some low volume background music on but make sure they can still hear their headphones or make an agreement to share the speaker time.
Ask a friend to train with you for motivation and support, but still stick to your own training plan.
Film yourself to get a much better understanding of your current technique. This is also important if you have an online coach so you have something to send them for review. (Plus you can tag us on the gram!)

DO NOT

Attempt to teach yourself tricks, especially if they seem difficult, dangerous or outside of your current skill base. This also goes for learning from other students or teaching other students who may also be at practice.
Show up without a plan.
Feel like you have to constantly be working, tricks are difficult and you should be resting between attempts.
Spend the entire time on your phone scrolling social media for inspiration, there is plenty of time to do that before you get to the studio.

HOW TO PLAN OUT YOUR SESSION

(A guide that you have most definitely written for yourself before you show up to practice)

Warm up - 10 minutes

This isn’t going to be the most educated warm up you’ve ever been given but its going to be the easiest to remember and the one you’re most likely to follow: Set a timer for 15 minutes and try to remember as many movements, cardio exercises, strength movements and stretches as you can from your instructors warm up. If you have any physio exercises you should be doing also make these a part of your warm up.

Don’t skip the cardio.

It goes without saying if you have a more comprehensive warm up (that as been written by your coach or instructor) do that instead, but at least this method is easy to remember and most people seem to follow through with this instruction.

Again, don’t skip the cardio and listening to some music never hurt anyone.

Train tricks and combos ~ 20 minutes

For this stage choose 2-4 tricks to work on, too many tricks and your training becomes an unfocused mess and too little to focus on can leave you frustrated without a back up plan if it's not working out for you. Write them down before the session and these will be your focus. I like to choose one difficult trick I can’t quite get yet, 1-2 newer tricks from class and 1 trick I’m good at that I can film and put into a nice combo to truly test my skills. Do tricks on both sides equally and put the same amount of effort into your non preferred side, don’t just do it for the sake of it.

Try to also do one small combo from class on both sides, preferably using the tricks you were working on. Ensure you’re also attempting to enter and exit the tricks with good technique and personal style every time you do them. This will make you a better pole dancer in the long run.

Attempt each trick on each side a maximum of 5 times before you move on. If you attempt both sides the maximum amount of times that is 10 attempts in total and I honestly think this is more than enough for one session, especially when you don’t have a teacher correcting what might be going wrong. Its unlikely you’re going to nail a trick when you’re really tired and without any new information to input. Repetitively attempting tricks, especially with inefficient form, will put you at a higher risk of developing overuse injuries so limiting the amount of reps you do in a session is a good way to reduce this risk. It will also make every attempt more focused.

Take breaks between attempts, especially for difficult tricks, these breaks may be up to 2-3 minutes long. For very difficult tricks that have a higher risk of injury I would even say limit your attempts to 3 on each side if the tricks are very new to you. I have this rule for tricks like the #pdjamilla and #pdstraddleinvert. Ask your coach for more guidance around this topic.

Drills (optional) 0-10 minutes

Doing some extra drills is a great way to fill in the extra time you might have at the studio without having to do tricks you’re not sure about. Choose a set of 3x different drills and complete as a circuit for whatever time you have remaining.

Drills can include pole, general strength or flexibility drills. With pole it's important to work on our fitness, strength and flexibility as well as tricks so the drill options are endless however it is more effective to work on our weak points.

The bulk of your practice session can be mostly tricks, mostly drills or a 50/50 split of each, just make sure you leave enough time for the next 2x sections.

Of course I understand that you probably don’t get a lot of pole time so you’re probably hesitant to spend your studio time not using the pole if you can help it. If you need extra help doing your off-the-pole conditioning at home we teach aerial conditioning classes that can be done at home via zoom. You can check out our zoom classes here.

Cool down 10 minutes

Spend 5-10 minutes doing a full body stretch. The purpose of a cool down is to initiate recovery and to bring the nervous system to a more relaxed state. This is your way of communicating with your body and letting it know you have finished exercising. Start you cool down with some gentle stretching, do both sides equally and hold each stretch for at least 40 seconds.

Gentle rotational movements (such lying face up on the floor with your knees tucked up to your chest and rocking side to side, I like to call this the egg stretch) and poses where you can focus on your breathing (like corpse pose and child's pose) are an excellent way to finish a cool down.

Pack up - 5 minutes

Clean your pole once you’re finished, preferably with your own cloth and whatever cleaning products the studio provides. Most studios need to run their sessions back-to-back to make them viable so make sure you start cleaning and packing up at least 5 minutes early so you’re out on time and you don’t disrupt the next session.

EXAMPLE TRAINING PLAN

Here is an example of what your warm up plan might look like and how I would write it out in my training diary:

TRAINING SESSION 01/01/2023 at Vertical Flex studios

Session focus: Improving my invert, especially on my non-preferred side

Warm up: 15 minute guide from my coach

Goal Tricks:

Invert (difficult trick) 3x attempts each side
Hello boys (new trick)
Hollywood spin (new trick)
Mermaid (trick that makes me happy)
Combo to attempt both sides: Spin climb - mount - hello boys - mermaid - scissor layout - land on knees to exit

Drills:
Repeat x3

Pole tucks x 5 each side
Pole rows x 10 each side
Candlesticks x 10

Cool Down: A full body stretch inspired by this video and a couple minutes in child’s pose.

*remember to clean the pole and be packed up on time

If you would rather dance in your training session try learning a routine like this!

If you want to be one of my clients I am currently coaching both online and in-person. Read about us here or apply here to become a member or just have a chat about training. Feel free to email me and let me know if you found this guide useful.

**About the author**

Elizabeth is a certified personal trainer, pole dance instructor and massage therapist from Melbourne, Australia. Her favourite exercise is the chin-up but loves a leg day.
Elizabeth can create you custom programs and give advice that will help you level-up your strength and flexibility training for pole.
If you want Elizabeth to be your coach online or in-person, get in contact with her here.

Elizabeth Wain