We all know that pole dance is 10/10 the best dance/sport/thing (minus dogs and food) on the planet, but there are also many other almost as awesome hobbies that can not only supplement your pole training, but improve it tenfold too. I don’t know about you, but I have definitely reached that point in the year where my pole goals still feel far out of reach and the shitty, rainy weather has left me feeling flat and demotivated. Therefore, I took it upon myself to take to social media, to ask some lovely pole dancers what other types of training they do to try and dig up some much needed motivation…
“Rock climbing.” – Amy
“Stretch.” – Liz
“Weight training has helped me- my PT knows I pole and has helped me with exercises to complement that, and suddenly I’m progressing!” – Frances
“Yoga for flexibility and strength and weight training, primarily legs – to help gain strength and balance out my body.” – Vanessa
“Pilates and a gym based strength and conditioning program.” – Louise
“The pole flight (aerial pole) move called the dragon fly from the floor, someday dragon fly in air, headstands, handstands (using a wall first!), planks on pole, pull-up bar leg circle, Lyra, trapeze and silk training. Phew!” – Rachele
“There is a a pole program out called Pole Strong – it gives you exercises to do in the gym/at home with your pole to build up your strength specifically for pole.” – Shay
“I’ve been taking barre classes at Pure Barre, helps strengthen and extend muscles.” – Jessica
“Aerial hoop and yoga.” – Victoria
“Essentrics. You’re lengthening and strengthening your muscles without using heavy weights.” – Candace
“Climbing, silks, cirque physio for my flexibility, handstand heroes handstand training and going to the gym. I find that when I hit a plateu that I need to always mix things up, although looking at the list I think I need to sit down a bit. I also use HRV to help you understand when to rest, which is amazing.” – Jo
“We do warrior training. Basically we have a PT (Satan) who sets up hideous circuits for us. Every round it gets harder and we have to do it until we fail. It’s about building mental strength as well as physical strength. He often sets up circuits to help target the muscles we need for specific moves that we’ve told him about. It’s fucking hideous. If we stop for a rest mid set, the bastard adds extra reps or extra time on. We spend our session swearing at him and telling him how much we hate him. We also do gymnastics but that doesn’t help ‘cause we’re shit at it.” – C L Raven
“I do weightlifting and I’m starting CrossFit to supplement my strength. Honestly I started my barbell workouts three years ago with a PVC pipe to get the form down, and deadlifts are so satisfying,plus there’s something amazingly fun about swinging a kettlebell around haha!” – Emma
Disclosure: The link above is an affiliate link, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn commission if you click through and make a purchase.
“I take dance classes (contemporary, Beyonce and musical theatre) to help with musicality, posing, weight placements, coordination, choreography.” – Regina
“Weightlifting totally. It’s even helped with my crap hip flexor flexibility!” – Amore
“Strength training with free weights and body weight, stretching and walking everywhere (for cardio). I will take up running again more regularly when I’ve got the time. I think the holy trinity for pole support is some kind of strength, cardio and flexibility training! I’m an old lady now and need to do these things to prevent injuries and not cease up. (I feel ya Emma!) ” – Emma
“I do commercial and cabaret dance to help with my flow and musicality. I also enjoy a faster pace, so this helps me keep up when I’ve got my heels on.” – Jessie
“Pilates!” – Fiona.
“If I had more hours in the day I’ve like to take up a commercial dance class too to work on another aspect of choreo and cardio for my stamina.” – Chloe
“I do hoop and silks to mix up the training, The cross disciplines help to not overly exert any particular muscles and all builds strength I think. Oh and stretching/splits too!” – Carol
“Gym/weight training – leg day works wonders for them splits!” – Patricia
“I go to the gym doing weights etc, have a PT, Barre, yoga, body balance, core killer classes and swimming!” – Emma
“Hoop!” – Jojo. FYI Jojo is the absolute hottie in the hoop photo at the top of the blog. Doesn’t she look incredible?! Photo taken my the awesome ImageCella
“I used to do a kettlebell class which massively helped with my strength for pole. She doesn’t run the class anymore though so I need to self motivate and do it at home!” – Bethan
“Yoga! It’s great for balance for moves like Ayeshas, flexibility and strengthens your endurance.” – Tegan
“Sex! Embrace sexuality, be confident, it has other benefits cardio aside.” – Alice (I can 100% get behind this one Alice, wahey!)
“Kettlebells. I built up my strength quickly with that.” – Clare
“I’ve been doing strength training at the gym again over the last few months and have seen gains in my strength. Specifically deadlifts (lifting heavy weight from floor), pull ups and shoulder press. Also doing non dominant side only pushing and pulling movements with weights has helped balance me out!” – Amy
“I know it’s all pole, but I always make sure to train at different studios – always strengthen different ways! My new favourite is Barre classes, it’s basically two in one, muscle strength and lengthening to gain lean muscles. But also gym, running for stamina, and an abs class. And when I have time, do hip-hop and commercial classes for musicality and fun!” – Lilla
“I break dance.” – Dan
“Weight lifting and yoga!” – Dana
“Aerial hoop and silks help loads. They (silks) are rock hard and scary, it’s taken a year for me to be able to start to get moves on silks right.” – Stu
“Work is my exercise to keep fit. So horse back riding, cleaning stables and shuffling sawdust.” – Penny
“Doing workouts at the gym helps – mostly arm and ab workouts. At my gym they have boxing classes which are really helpful. Splits classes help with flexibility.” – Kitty
“Yoga for strength, flexibility and injury prevention and ballet/other dance for pointy toes, musicality and general movement skills. Sometimes other aerial; doing loads of straddle climbs on silks helped me to get my chopper!” – Amy
“I do Insanity twice a week, this makes me strong and enhances my stamina. I’m also very religious about doing yoga early in the morning – this gives me mobility like I never had before, enabling me to perform some flexy tricks on the pole. I also try to squeeze in flexibility training, anything splits, back bending related, and a little bit of handstands.” – Beata
“Acrobatics – solo and partner. It uses jumping, squatting and squeezing for legs. It also includes arm strengthening in different directions to pole moves and is excellent for your abs too! I also do lots of active flexibility training for legs (in all directions), back – including twists (again using all directions) and chest and shoulders. This tends to even things out and feels better afterwards. I also have personal training from Anna who makes me do all the things I won’t always make myself do, especially cardio and wall sits, pull ups, all kinds of things I find hard to self motivate with.” – Kitty
“I signed up for a trial Barre class. Looks like it would help me with Pole strength.” – Julianne
“I do yoga twice a week.” – Sondra
Disclosure: The link above is an affiliate link, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn commission if you click through and make a purchase.
Chrome Chronicles 