This blog series exists to challenge me to push myself outside of my comfort zone, explore new aspects of fitness and, to give all of you something to laugh at. Although OCR training is varied, it has become the training I am most comfortable with. But, in the aim to strive to show grit, I have decided I am open to taking on any fitness challenge thrown at me.
I would describe myself as a bigger dude. I weigh just shy of 90kg, my favourite obstacles are heavy carries, my ideal workout involves a loaded barbell and a high heart rate and my mobility is poor at best. So when pressured into taking a pole dancing class I figured the least I could do was try.
The class I attended, ‘Intro to Pole’, was hosted at Milan Pole Studio at 4pm on a Saturday afternoon. I’d booked into the class using the studios app which was super easy and when I arrived paid the fee for a 7-day unlimited trial ($40) which is steep for a single session but a bargain if you’re planning to make the most of it. The space was on the second floor in unit 11A, it was spacious and had plenty of space for the 7 of plus an instructor (and 2 strangers).
Our instructor started by introducing himself and cracked a few jokes instantly helping me to feel a little more at ease, he asked us to grab a floor mat and then lead us through a comprehensive warm up with a dance twist which I was terrible at, it turns out I don’t have hips that wiggle or a body that gyrates. After the warm up we set up and watched the demo for our first exercise in our beginner session, which obviously was a headstand against the pole combined with the splits while still upside down. I thought this was a joke but it turned out to be genuine and so I proceeded to fall over countless times as I attempted to stand on my head.
With some help I eventually managed to achieve the headstand, however no amount of help could provide me with the ability to perform the splits so I settled for just being upside down.
I spent a fair bit of time practicing this move and did eventually manage to get into the position by myself. The class continued and the others learnt other moves to do upside down while I just practiced doing headstands for a while. We then moved onto the next group of moves, a front and back spin, and the attempt to transition between the two. To see how these went you’ll have to head over and watch the video at the link at the bottom of this blog post (hint, it was not graceful or successful). The final moves were even more complicated and no matter how hard our instructor tried I was completely useless at but I gave it a good go nonetheless.
When we finished the class we were lead through a short but effective cool down and stretch and then had some time to take the obligatory Instagram photos and videos, play with a few of the moves we learnt, change or re-dress before heading out to allow for the next session to begin.
Pole dancing was very different in both intensity and difficulty to my expectations. I expected that, as I do with all things, muscles and grit would be enough to carry me through. I was wrong, core control, balance, co-ordination, mobility and grip strength were all vital. Lacking several of these made it way harder than I’d expected it to be and made for some hilarious falls and friction burns on my inner thighs. I’m not sure I could say I enjoyed it but it was better than I thought and having an incredibly personable instructor and great bunch of friends to do it with made the experience an alright one (which is more than I expected it to be).
So that’s that, I can tick pole dancing off my list. But it wouldn’t be a series if there was just one entry. Therefore I am looking for my next fitness endeavour. If you have any suggestions on other things I could try to push me out of my comfort zone let us know by leaving a comment below. As long as it’s accessible and feasible I’m unlikely to turn anything down. I’m not excited about it but I am willing to crush whatever you throw at me so let’s go!
The video is available on our youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGthH5dZ7yY&feature=youtu.be