Lately, I've been tired and uninspired.
It happens every time I'm forced to take a break. First it was injury, and right after that I went on vacation, and came straight home to work-work-work. I feel like work really drains my energy down to zero, which is frustrating. How can I get better if I never have the energy to practice?
Luckily, these five videos always seem to help me out. Let me give you my top 5 list of youtube-videos that always gives me inspiration, ambition and a smile on my face!
no. 1 - Jenyne Butterfly at PolePressure 2011
This must be my favourite of all time. Gives me goosebumps all over my body. I love it from 00:00 to the end. The start, were she dances happy, free, seems even a bit clumsy, is perfect. You can see she is really having fun up there, embracing the moment and enjoying the dance. She then proceeds to the most hardcore tricks, all in pace with the music. Love it!
no. 2 - Anastasia Sokolova at Ukraine Got Talent
What I love most about this is how she managed to be herself, sexy girl, sexy costume, sexy dance to rock n' roll, and still managed to show the world her true talent. Sadly, as mesmerizing a girls sexuality may be, many people are also blinded by it, and aren't able to move their focus from her appearance to what she is really trying to show.
I love her style, it sexy, raw and powerful, but don't let it fool you! She's also strong, flexible and a talented dancer. Keep at it!
no. 3 - DirdyBirdy to Wicked Games by The Weeknd
This is the first video I fell in love with. Simple, graceful and also, it's improvised! I love that there are no big, scary, advanced super-flexy-so-painful--that-youregonnadie moves, but it's most about the execution of the moves, the movement itself, and, of course, pointing your toes!
no. 4 - Emma Haslam at Britain's Got Talent
You can't NOT love this video, it's impossible! Also, most of us have heard it before "I can't poledance, I don't have the body to do it". Yes you fucking do, you have a body don't you?! If she can do it, can't you? I mean, she's gotta weigh like the twice of me, and she can do an elbow-grip ayesha?!! Everything is possible if you work hard enough to get it!
The cherry on top - she also has the confidence to put herself out there, in minimal clothing, on a "stripper-pole", in our body-fixated world. Respect!
no. 5 - Yeva Shiyanova to Radioactive by Imagine Dragons
No, it's not poledancing, but you would love to do floorwork like this, wouldn't you? Yeah, I thought so too.
I can be sexy.... as long as there is silly laughter afterwards... I really lack confidence in this department of poledance. I just.... can't. It feels awkward, unnatural and silly, I have huge issues with taking my sexuality seriously. What to do? Work on it. A lot. Fake it till you make it. This video is my ultimate goal. Letting go, be dramatic, be sexy. I'm probably never gonna turn out a twerking-goddess, but a little bit of this wouldn't be too bad.
So, who did I leave out? Who's your favourite dancers, videos, your sources of inspiration and ambition?
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Friday, July 11, 2014
Let's talk injuries
The oh-so-boring part of poledance. Injuries. It's pretty common, if you haven't got injured yet, you probably will someday. A strained muscle or something. Or maybe it's not even pole-related at all. Maybe one day, at winter perhaps, you will slip on the ice, fall and break your arm. Even a bad cold could slow you down. That's just life, shit happens.
I got my first couple of strained muscles about one week after I got my pole. I'm a fast learner, my body adapts well, and my quick progress fed my ego and made me even more eager to train than I already was. I guess I practiced the first week straight before I hit the wall.
I hadn't paid too much attention to do everything properly from the beginning, and my first bad habit was holding my outside arm way too high in basic spins. I strained my deltoid muscle (shoulder) and it took three weeks to recover. I also strained one of my calf-muscles during a chopper, which took three weeks to recover as well.
This happened in mid-december. I was recovered in the middle of january, but something had changed. The progress I had made was gone. Suddenly everything hurt again. It hurt to climb, it hurt to invert, everything except the basic spins hurt. I basically had to start from scratch again. I exercised a few times in january, a couple of tries in february, but the spark was gone. I was utterly discouraged, nothing seemed to go my way. Everything hurt, the pole was slippery as f***, my legs never got warm enough to stick, I couldn't figure anything out. It was pointless. I gave up.
Until a day in late march. The boyfriend had just fallen asleep, and I was cleaning my room since I couldn't sleep. And the pole was just there. In the middle of my room, where it has been since I put it up. I took a couple of spins. Like, it was just standing there right? Why not just use it? Just for fun? Suddenly those couple of spins resulted in me having a little 30min workout. Put on my new, unworn pole-shorts from lulu lemon which the boy had bought me from his trip to the states. I had a blast. I had fun on the pole until my arms were shaking and sweat was dripping. I had finally found the joy in poledancing again.
Since then I've been practicing regularly, but with a couple of rest-days between each practice. I've learned from the mistake of exercising way too hard way too often. And I've come into a pretty good pattern. I usually work out on thursdays and fridays, because that's my days off work, and when the girls come over for lessons.
Unfortunately, I got injured again. Or I was on the way to get injured. I'm not sure what it is, but my forearms hurt while doing some types of moves, like the fishhook. It wasn't too bad at first, but over time it got worse, and last practice it was so bad I figured I had to take some time off before seriously hurting myself. Dang, I've been hitting some bad speed-bumps lately.... It's been two weeks since last practice, so I'm gonna try again today and see if it's gotten better. And avoid the moves that triggered the pain in the first place...
I got my first couple of strained muscles about one week after I got my pole. I'm a fast learner, my body adapts well, and my quick progress fed my ego and made me even more eager to train than I already was. I guess I practiced the first week straight before I hit the wall.
I hadn't paid too much attention to do everything properly from the beginning, and my first bad habit was holding my outside arm way too high in basic spins. I strained my deltoid muscle (shoulder) and it took three weeks to recover. I also strained one of my calf-muscles during a chopper, which took three weeks to recover as well.
This happened in mid-december. I was recovered in the middle of january, but something had changed. The progress I had made was gone. Suddenly everything hurt again. It hurt to climb, it hurt to invert, everything except the basic spins hurt. I basically had to start from scratch again. I exercised a few times in january, a couple of tries in february, but the spark was gone. I was utterly discouraged, nothing seemed to go my way. Everything hurt, the pole was slippery as f***, my legs never got warm enough to stick, I couldn't figure anything out. It was pointless. I gave up.
Until a day in late march. The boyfriend had just fallen asleep, and I was cleaning my room since I couldn't sleep. And the pole was just there. In the middle of my room, where it has been since I put it up. I took a couple of spins. Like, it was just standing there right? Why not just use it? Just for fun? Suddenly those couple of spins resulted in me having a little 30min workout. Put on my new, unworn pole-shorts from lulu lemon which the boy had bought me from his trip to the states. I had a blast. I had fun on the pole until my arms were shaking and sweat was dripping. I had finally found the joy in poledancing again.
Since then I've been practicing regularly, but with a couple of rest-days between each practice. I've learned from the mistake of exercising way too hard way too often. And I've come into a pretty good pattern. I usually work out on thursdays and fridays, because that's my days off work, and when the girls come over for lessons.
Unfortunately, I got injured again. Or I was on the way to get injured. I'm not sure what it is, but my forearms hurt while doing some types of moves, like the fishhook. It wasn't too bad at first, but over time it got worse, and last practice it was so bad I figured I had to take some time off before seriously hurting myself. Dang, I've been hitting some bad speed-bumps lately.... It's been two weeks since last practice, so I'm gonna try again today and see if it's gotten better. And avoid the moves that triggered the pain in the first place...
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| The fish-hook |
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