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How to sustain your pole journey while traveling?
Traveling for work or leisure can be exciting, but how do we balance maintaining our pole fitness journey?
Although pole is a lifestyle hobby/profession that can be practiced anywhere you can face obstacles while visiting a different city or temporarily adopting a nomad lifestyle.
One of the pros to being a pole dancer is the flexibility in training and progress, which varies for everyone. Recently I have been away from my home studio while traveling for work and adjusting to a different schedule/living environment has forced me to be creative in the ways that I keep up with my pole fitness journey.
Listed below are some ways I keep myself motivated and work to avoid significantly regressing.
Exploration.
Being in a different city/location is a fun time to experience other instructors or explore other dance styles.
If you’ve been following your favorite polers on social media platforms this may be a great time to connect with them. Many instructors offer private teachings or teach group classes and social media platforms such as Instagram have made it easier to connect and book. Instructors also host virtual classes or sell previously recorded lessons.
Since the pandemic, there has been an influx of alternative methods to receive instructional videos and navigate in-person classes.
Cross training.
Time away from the pole allows you to focus on other body practices including flexibility, conditioning, and cross-training.
Pole is a demanding sport that requires us to challenge our bodies in ways that can be both shocking and rewarding. Cross-training allows our bodies to increase strength and recover while preventing injury and increasing mobility and range of motion.
Many polers have created easy-to-follow tutorials on how to increase flexibility, cross-training at the gym or home, and conditioning moves. YouTube is an abundant resource with videos for at-home/gym workouts to help target specific body parts we use in pole, i.e. shoulders, core, and hip flexors.
Visiting new studios.
Google can be a great tool to explore your surroundings and locate pole and dance studios close by.
Most studios have websites that allow you to read and review their classes and offerings. The websites allow you to book directly with the studio. Also, apps such as Mindbody allow the utilization of your location to determine fitness/pole classes close to you. If you already have an account viewing studio schedules and booking classes are as easy.
Revisiting the basics.
Learning new tricks can be a noteworthy part of our pole journeys but slowing it down and taking it back to the basics is never a bad idea.
With pole, we can become consumed with leveling up and learning new tricks which causes us to forget the basics. There is ease and fluidity that is gained when we incorporate repetition of movement in our training. Challenging ourselves can look like practicing different transitions, practicing tricks on our “not-so-great” side, or stringing tricks together to create effortless sequences.
Being away from your favorite pole studio doesn’t mean you have to put your pole journey on hold. There are great opportunities to practice your passion and continue to build your skills while navigating life.
Ingrid “Jaguar" Lyle is a pole dancer with a passion for writing and creative expression. She spends most of her time working in healthcare and traveling for work. When she finds the time she finds a studio or a gym to explore her body through movement.
Latest posts by Ingrid Lyle (see all)
- How to sustain your pole journey while traveling? - January 26, 2024
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