Recently I’ve been feeling the pressure to post my pole journey on Instagram more often. I’m not entirely sure where this feeling originated from (probably using IG too much), however after delving into it somewhat I have come to the conclusion that feeling like this is not helpful and is, for me personally, a load of old bollocks.
This blog has been inspired by posts from the wise and wonderful Dree, Lottie and Nyavka, who all mentioned the pressure to post on IG, focusing more on getting aesthetic tricks recorded as opposed to a nemesis move conquered privately and IG distorting our own expectations of what’s both post worthy and achievable.
First off, I want to state explicitly that I don’t think there is anything wrong with getting a stunning, well-crafted video out there on the ‘gram, especially if you’re an instructor or studio owner and your business depends on it. I’m the first one to appreciate a cracking pole video, complete with fancy lighting, a right banger of a song playing over it and the dancer in some badass pole wear, however that is not an honest depiction of what my training looks like. When I’m training, I’ve often got greasy hair scraped up in a messy ponytail because having it down does my fucking head in, I’m wearing a trusty old tried and tested pole set, the lighting is whatever is going on in the studio that day and I have all manner of clutter going on behind me, which usually consists of my water bottle and an assortment of snacks.
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I’d often look at both the aesthetics and content of my videos and deem them in some way not social media worthy. Either the video itself wasn’t the most visually pleasing or the combo and moves I were doing were far from perfect and very much a work in progress. Consequently, I put a firm end to this behaviour when I realised the following golden nugget of info, mainly thanks to Nyavka’s post;
Instagram is a big bag of shit and distorts our view of reality.
Not only does the ball ache of an algorithm promote videos which are of a higher quality, it also reveals a wider amount of content to us which we wouldn’t normally be exposed to. For example, there are so many talented pole dancers on IG doing insane tricks like a Bird of Paradise on the regular, that if you’re not careful you can end up going down a comparison wormhole and feel like your own achievements aren’t worth celebrating, which is horseshit. Speaking from experience, I definitely don’t celebrate my own pole wins for long enough before moving on to the next milestone to conquer. Basically, achieving any pole move does not mean it’s no longer fucking difficult and we must not let social media distort our perceptions of our hobby and our own progress. And life in general to be honest, but that’s a whole other convo altogether.
Thankfully, my former habit of analysing how instagrammable my videos are has long since passed, as I’ve decided I’m going to keep my account as genuine as possible (minus the odd sparkly effect on the video which makes me look like a fairy). However, I still found myself feeling somewhat compelled to post to IG. During class even if I couldn’t get the combo, I would film what little of it I could do just to have something to post. Now, whilst it was obviously nice to have something to whack on Instagram, I became well aware this wasn’t the healthiest of habits, so I set myself the challenge of having a practice session where I wouldn’t have anything to upload. This practice session consisted of two utter bastard strength moves which I at present I cannot conquer, both the elbow and cup grip Ayeshas.
Could I achieve either of these moves in my practice session? Hell no. Did I have a lot of fun training them on the other hand? Definitely. It was liberating to be training for pure enjoyment and my own progress as opposed to feeling the need to create something to post. Everyone’s reason for pole dancing is different, and for me the whole point of my journey is to get out the house, see my pole pals and most importantly to enjoy my hobby, not whip up perfectly curated videos for the dopamine hit of a few likes and comments. Fuck it, I’ve even started popping my phone on do not disturb mode whilst training so I can be as present as possible.
Getting back into training for my own enjoyment and not for documenting it has trickled over into other fitness pursuits too. At long bloody last I have created a semi-decent routine for my perpetual flexibility mission and I’ve started running again. Apart from posting the odd story about them on Instagram, I haven’t been documenting either of these activities on social media and it feels glorious.
Whilst Instagram can be a great source of inspiration for training, it’s important to remember that it’s not real life, and how much content you managed to record is in no way a metric to measure how productive your training session was. These days, if I have enjoyed myself at pole then it’s been a great session, end of. If I manage to record something decent that I’m chuffed to bits with and want to post then great, but I don’t sweat it. Posting because I genuinely want to, and not feeling compelled to, is where it’s at for 2024.
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