Many pole dance maneuvers require you to lift and hold your own body weight, making it ideal for strengthening your back muscles, biceps, triceps and forearms. Even if you attend a class without much upper body strength, you'll soon develop it by pole dancing. Strength training for pole dancing is very important. When most people start out, they think that they are not strong enough to pole dance and it is difficult for them.
If you attend pole dancing classes, you will naturally grow stronger and stronger without needing any additional conditioning. Throughout my time pole dancing, I thought that some movements were completely impossible and that I would never achieve them. After half a decade of bruises, struggles and then the satisfaction of success, his own pole school, Firefly Poles, was born. Holly is also a Level 4 advanced personal trainer and ambassador for the use of Dragonfly sticks, and she also writes regularly for the Dragonfly blog.
Instead, most of us want to develop the toned, slim and sexy look that is synonymous with pole dancing. As you advance your skill with the pole and begin to invest, it is essential to have the necessary strength for the movements you perform, so that no injuries occur. Much of the control and good form that pole dancers have comes directly from a strong core, I mean that the trunk holds the whole body together, so it makes sense that it would be used a lot while dancing. While it's important to make sure you do your strength training, this shouldn't take anything away from your real pole dancing.
However, to improve on the bar, it's very important to include elements of strength in every barbell workout you do. I've had girls who are approximately 75 pounds overweight come to class with the strength of their upper body to invest immediately and maintain their own body weight on the pole with ease. It's very common for women to feel discouraged or worried about how the lack of upper body strength will affect their decision to use pole dancing as an exercise, especially when working out at home. This is because you're constantly keeping your body weight on a vertical pole, performing a variety of tricks and maneuvers in sequence.
At first, this effect of getting stronger simply by practicing pole movements is why specific strength training is overlooked. Pole dancers tend to do conditioning exercises to maintain their fitness and strength in order to achieve pole movements as they go. As a beginner pole dancer, it's unlikely that you'll have your own pole to practice between classes right away.
