Improving Pole Dancing Skills: Your Questions Answered

In this Q&A episode of the Science of Slink podcast, Dr. Rosy Boa addresses listener questions about pole dancing, injury recovery, proper nutrition, the impact of environmental factors on performance, and the evolution of pole equipment. Key topics include self myofascial release and its effect on hamstring flexibility, optimal eating times for performance, new injury recovery guidelines emphasizing blood flow and activity, and the impact of body types on pole dancing performance. Dr. Boa also explores how temperature and grip strength affect pole dancing and provides training recommendations for general health and fitness.

Chatpers:

00:00 Introduction and Podcast Overview

00:38 The Science Behind Rolling Out Feet and Hamstring Flexibility

05:10 Pre and Post Workout Snacks

09:15 Injury Recovery: From RICE to PEACE and LOVE

12:41 Temperature and Pole Performance

15:46 Body Types and Pole Dancing

19:15 Optimal Weekly Training for Health

21:14 Understanding and Improving Grip Strength

25:03 Conclusion and Farewell

Citations

Fauris, P., López-de-Celis, C., Canet-Vintró, M., Martin, J. C., Llurda-Almuzara, L., Rodríguez-Sanz, J., ... & Pérez-Bellmunt, A. (2021). Does self-myofascial release cause a remote hamstring stretching effect based on myofascial chains? A randomized controlled trial. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(23), 12356

Dubois, B., & Esculier, J. F. (2020). Soft-tissue injuries simply need PEACE and LOVE. British journal of sports medicine, 54(2), 72-73.

Lenard, J. G., & Kalpakjian, S. (1991). The effect of temperature on the coefficient of friction in flat rolling. CIRP annals, 40(1), 223-226.

Lee, D. H., Rezende, L. F., Joh, H. K., Keum, N., Ferrari, G., Rey-Lopez, J. P., ... & Giovannucci, E. L. (2022). Long-term leisure-time physical activity intensity and all-cause and cause-specific mortality: a prospective cohort of US adults. Circulation, 146(7), 523-534.

Transcript 

Hello and welcome to Science of Slink, the evidence based pole podcast with me, your host, Dr. Rosy Boa. I teach pole online.  I've got a research doctorate. I am not a medical doctor. This is not medical advice.

Talk to the other type of doctor if you need that and this is the Q& A episode. So I asked y'all last time if you had any questions reach out to me and you definitely came through. Very excited. Some fantastic questions y'all came up with so let's get into it.

And these are in no particular order,  but I think I'm going to have time to get to everybody's question who sent one in, so yeah.  

First of all, really, really good question:

Does rolling out your feet have an effect on hamstring flexibility?

So if you're not familiar with rolling out or sort of the process of self myofascial release sometimes that'll be abbreviated to SMR. Basically, this is the idea that targeted gentle pressure can help to release connections between fascia which is like the, tissue. It's really membranous. It's very tough. It sort of overlies muscles and then myo, the muscles. And that through gentle pressure, you can help to, you know, remove knots, question mark.

I don't actually think that there's a  consensus about the mechanism of the effect, but there does seem to be an effect. And also, you know, kind of feels nice,  right? Like getting a massage is enjoyable. It increases circulation. Absolutely. It's a nice time and that's, you know, that's good. But one of the things you may have heard is that rolling out the bottom of your foot, so targeted self myofascial release with maybe a lacrosse ball or, you know, your hands to the intrinsic muscles at the bottom of your foot.

can lead to improvements in hamstring flexibility. What's that about? Is that real? Fortunately, there actually is a study on this. So this was done in 2021. It's in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Does self myofascial release cause a remote hamstring stretching effect based on myofascial change?

A randomized control trial. So what they did was they Bumped people into different groups and they were like, all right, some of y'all are gonna get myofascial release on different parts of your foot  We're gonna measure everybody's hamstring flexibility, pre post, all that good stuff.  And what they found was there did seem to be an effect  so after two minutes of myofascial release and they broke it down by like specific muscles, but  Frankly, if I'm using a lacrosse ball on my feet, I'm not doing that I'm just sort of like rolling it around and doing what feels good.

And they did find some increase in mobility in forward fold, right? And that degree of hamstring flexibility that lets you bring your belly towards the top of your thighs with the legs straight. And their proposed mechanism for this is that the So muscularly, there's no muscle that goes like from the bottom of your foot up to your hip bone, right?

But there are muscles and then fascia that connect those muscles that creates  what they call a myofascial chain, right? So there is a tissue connection that goes from the hamstring to the bottom of the foot. It's sort of similar to, we've talked before about how the, the muscles of the pelvic floor if they are tight, they can restrict your straddle, right, how far apart you can get your legs.

And that's not because there's a muscular connection between the inner thigh and the pelvic floor. It's because there's a fascial connection between those two. So when the pelvic floor muscles are tugging on that fascia, it then in turn tugs on the inner thigh. So if you can release your pelvic floor, you can get, usually.

You know, if that's the source of tightness for you, you can get a little bit more space in your straddle.  Same idea here they found that after a couple minutes there wasn't any really additional effect and I would expect that this would be a pretty short term effect Like, I don't think you can do it once and then, like, it works forever, I think it's probably something you're going to have to keep redoing and my recommendation for us as pole dancers, because we want to be able to move our bodies into pretty extreme positions, if you sort of compare to the general population day to day, what people are doing, is always gonna be, Thank you.

You know, active flexibility drills, a little bit of passive flexibility, you do need that, but mostly active flexibility to move ourselves safely into and out of positions, right? So great sort of anecdote there. I never train in my flexibility training, my front split with my crotch towards the ground, right?

Classic, this is how you do a split. People think about what a split looks like. That's what they're thinking of. I don't train that, period. But I have it, and it can show up in my dance, and it's more or less flat. And the reason is because what I train is the more active version of that movement. So I have the capacity to do it, even though I don't train that movement itself, right?

So anyway, those of y'all who've done flexibility training with me, you know, all my favorite diabolical front split drills, and none of them involve relaxing into your front split on the ground. Also, I have a lot of hypermobile students. Y'all know who you are. And that's not the type of training that I believe, as a fitness professional, to be the most beneficial to you and also the general population.

So,  really great question. Thank you. And there's always citations down there.  Alright another question.

Best pre and post snacks?

So, I'm not a nutritionist. I'm not a dietitian. I, I'm not going to tell you what to eat, but I will sort of give you general guidelines about when to eat and sort of things to think about.

And this is coming from my personal training certification and just sort of generally thinking about fueling and also for pole specifically thinking about nausea. Because, I mean maybe you're going upside down, maybe you're spinning, certainly you're doing some sort of physical activity.

For me, anything side bending and oblique heavy, like genie, cupids, side climbs anything like that tends to, make my tummy a little bit rumbly. So, timing and how much is really much more important for me. As for what to eat, Something that you like, something that you're not allergic to, something that you enjoy my personal belief is that food should be about pleasure just as much as fueling your body, and something that you have a nice  time with.

So, thinking about timings. Before I would say, if you're gonna do a full meal, aim for about three hours before you are ready to get on the pull. That's really been my sweet spot. That's gonna be enough time for your body to take, you know, those nutrients and have them available for you. If you're not doing a full meal, you're doing something like A  snacky sort of thing, I would say no more than an hour before and you do want to, if you're starting to eat closer and closer to your pull time really do focus on carbs and things that are going to be digestible for you, right, so things with sugar in them, basically so that could be like bread, oatmeal, granola fruit popcorn, I'm a big popcorn enjoyer Chips, right?

Chips are also going to have more fat in them. But don't avoid fat.  You still need that. It's really important for nervous system function. Don't not eat fat. But think about carbs, right? Because that's what your body is going to be able to take and have a sugar and really be able to use really quickly to give you the energy you need to move.

If you're eating within like 20 minutes of class, very light snack. Very, very light snack. I would be like, jello. Right? A banana. Something that's going to be very quick for your body to digest. And I will say that I have never been more miserable in a pole class than when I ate fried chicken within  two hours of class starting.

It was just very heavy. It took a long time to digest. I did not feel good in the tummy. Cannot say as I recommend it. So,  general recommendation, a little bit more carb heavy, that sort of timeline.

And then after, definitely water.  In general, if you have the opportunity, eating something about half an hour, you know, after class ends, that's great.

If you, if you sweat a lot, maybe also replenishing some electrolytes. That might be something you want to talk to a doctor about, though because you know that it interacts with other things, right?

In general, I don't recommend supplementation I think it is outside of the scope of practice of fitness professionals to recommend supplements, let me put it that way, so. That's sort of my general, general recommendation. Yeah,  eat. Eat to fuel your body. Also think about what you're going to be doing.

Oh, and the other thing caffeine. So if you are going to have caffeine, I would say a couple things to think about. A, will absolutely give you more energy. There's a lot of research showing that caffeine before a workout can really help you exert more effort.

It will make you sweat more. So if you are already very sweaty, I would maybe say no caffeine, right? And I would say a sweet spot is going to be about 20 minutes before you work out, a little cup of coffee. But if it's going to negatively affect your sleep, then don't do it because sleep is so important for recovery and for like the next time you come to the pole.

So just things to think about, right?  So, yeah, that's my just sort of general recommendations as a personal trainer about when to eat and, you know, if this is something that you can do, really try to listen to your body, right? If you are super hungry after you are done poling every single time, maybe you need to be giving yourself a little bit more fuel ahead of time.

If you are not feeling good in the tummy while you were poling, maybe change your timing or what you're eating. And yeah, if you got more specific questions, I would talk to a dietary professional.

What to do if you've been injured.

So and this is not like immediately after, right?

This is like, I'm recovering. What do I do from here? So, first of all talk to a doctor.  Talk to a physical therapist or physio. Those are the same things in different places. Not my, you know, outside of my scope of practice, but I will say, just sort of general knowledge for you to know, the recommendations have changed.

So you may have been familiar, particularly if you've ever done first aid training, with the idea of R. I. C. E., so Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.  That is no longer the recommendation for soft tissue injuries. Instead, the recommendation now is peace and love.  And so I'll go through that. So the peace part is like right after you're injured, like in the next couple days, and the love is over time, what do you do next?

So peace, P, protection, don't do stuff that hurts, right? If you are, you do something, you're immediately in pain, especially if you are not usually in pain, right? I know my, my chronic pain folks a different story, but you know, you know your bodies, you know what's up. If you're like immediately feeling pain.

Don't make it worse.  Give yourself some rest. Protect it.

Elevation. So, yeah, lifting above the head. As often as possible.

A, Avoid anti inflammatories, right? So these would be things like NSAIDs, like ibuprofen. You don't want to reduce blood flow. You want to make sure that you're getting the blood flowing around.

Compression still recommended, right?

 And then, you know, education.  Learn more about what's going on. And hopefully you're already working with a healthcare professional who's able, you know, And your team is able to help support you. So that's like immediately. And then longer term, getting back on the saddle.

What does that look like?

Load. Right? When people say listen to your body, what they mean is notice the sensations that you are feeling. Don't try to block out those sensations. So in this case, if you are doing something and your pain is getting worse, that's probably too much. If you're doing something and there's some discomfort, but especially like when you stop, the pain goes away, might be okay. Again, talk to a doctor.

For my folks who are, you know, not neurotypical, I know that this is something that is going to be different for you, than it is for the general populace. A lot of, different types of neurodiversity are also associated with different amounts of interoception, like ability to notice that you're in pain.

Also, you know, depending on your life circumstances, you have trained yourself to ignore that you are in pain. So reconnecting with that. Important, again, can be really helpful to work with a clinician here

Optimism,  be confident and positive that, you know, it will get better

V, vascularization, so you want to get blood into the thing that is hurt, and I think this is probably the biggest mindset shift from the rice stuff. So cardiovascular exercise that gets whatever it was that was hurt you get blood flow into that, wherever that is

and exercise. So not just stopping movement entirely, but continuing to move.

So those are the new recommendations. Again, talk to your PT, talk to your physio, talk to your doctor, just very general guidelines.

We're moving away from the idea of just sort of, like,  Not moving and trying to reduce blood flow towards trying to, especially after that sort of acute injury increase blood flow.  Talk to a doctor. How many times can I say, talk  to a doctor? But that is a really big shift and I think more folks should know about it because RICE was certainly something that I have been told many, many times in my life, and particularly as a fitness professional, it's something that, that came up in my, my early training that is no longer recommended.

Next question.

Does the temperature of the pole or the room affect performance? How do dancers adapt to changes in friction or grip due to cold or heat?

It depends. , it depends on the person, but yes, temperature absolutely has an impact.

In my experience,  the biggest sort of whole specific thing that has to do with temperature is sweat.  So, how much you sweat and, you know, how your sweat varies with, you know, day to day, right, we know that there's an influence of, particularly if you have a monthly hormonal cycle that will affect how much you sweat, but there seems to be individual variation there.

And of course, most people sweat more when it's hot just sort of in general. If it is hot and you suddenly stop sweating, that is a big deal. And you should rest immediately and cool yourself down. Period. That is a symptom of heat exhaustion. Definitely something to watch out for.

So, too cold, no sweat too hot, too sweaty, you sort of, you're looking for that Goldilocks zone, and what it's going to be really varies from person to person and day to day. Also, in general this is kind of an interesting thing, thinking about the temperature of the pole, I have found that more people tend to stick better when the pole is warm to the touch than when it is cold to the touch. And partially that could be just like, it's more pleasant to squeeze something that is warmer than something that is colder, certainly for me.

Particularly when it is chillier. But, very hot metal, like, hot enough to start, like, glowing, is slipperier than cold metal. And I had quite a bit of trouble trying to find more information on metal that was sort of like in the human touching temperatures that we're operating in as pole dancers.

But I did find one study from 1991 where they were looking at rollers and how the temperature changed the coefficient of friction. And what they found was that there was more friction as the, they were looking at aluminum but as the metal heated.

So within the human touching temperature range, it seems like hot metal is going to be a little bit more grippy than cold metal, and that follows with my experience.

How has the science and engineering of pole equipment evolved over time to improve safety and performance?

One of the big changes that's happened sort of as poles become more mainstream is that there are more companies that are focused on just producing pole equipment in the U. S. Expole's probably the biggest one in the U. K. and Europe probably Lupit is the biggest one, but there are other ones, there's like Gaia which I believe is more focused in South America there are also a lot more cheap knockoffs out there, certainly than there were when I started

 yeah safety and performance, I don't really know. There have definitely been changes so one big one is that the sort of standard size of a pole has moved from 50 millimeters, which for me, I've got small hands, is quite chunky, I have danced on 50s, I find them fairly hard to hold on to, to 45 Again, in the U. S. that's sort of the standard if you just order, like, a regular Expo, that's what it'll be. There's also 40s available. Those feel quite skinny. In general, thicker poles are going to feel better on your body and be harder to grip. And smaller poles are going to be easier to grip and feel more pinchy on your body because there's just, the pressure is in a, in a smaller place.

But, yeah, I don't know if anyone has more insights into the pole engineering process, I would certainly be interested in learning more.

Alright and then this, I actually have a podcast episode on already.

Are there certain body types or anatomical features that might give someone an advantage in pole dancing? Or is it more about technique and training?

Different body proportions and different body sizes will make different things easier and or harder, right?

So great example here, if you have long arms something like a bird of paradise is going to be easier because you don't need to move your leg in as close to get your elbow around it. If you have shorter arms, you're going to have to bring your leg much closer to get your elbow around it, right?

Something like being able to grab the whole pole behind your back. If you have longer arms, it's just going to be easier to reach. Right? Things like Superman. If you got longer arms, they're just going to be easier to reach.

But some things are also easier with shorter arms, right? So even something like a, a basic invert, if you've got shorter arms you, you don't, your levers aren't as long.

You get a little bit more mechanical advantage. Things like a press up. If you've got shorter arms, you're not having to move your butt as far, so you get a little bit more mechanical advantage. It doesn't mean it's easy, it means it's easier.

Also you sort of how much fat you have and where it is on your body.

We've actually just talking about this in class on Monday. If you have more fat on your sort of side butt area, you can use that area as a contact point with a lot less of your body on the pole than you can if you don't have as much meat there, right? Because you're just going to get a little bit less friction.

If you, you know, Thick thighs save lives. The bigger your thighs are, the easier a pole set is going to be, the easier it is going to be to find that friction, but the harder it's going to be to do something like sliding your legs down as you get into a superman, right? So  yes, body differences are absolutely going to change what's possible on the pole.

There's  definitely a bias in pole and competitions towards particularly people who have the build that we associate with being a professional dancer.  Those are generally the people who come to pole with a lifetime of dance training, right?

And who gets to be a professional dancer is definitely something that is gated to people with particular body types, at least in the U. S., at least right now. And those are the folks who are really coming in with an extreme level of fitness and preparedness and capacity and are developing movements.

So I think that there is, especially if we think about high level pole movements, there is a little bit of a bias towards movements that work really well for people with that type of body.

Doesn't necessarily mean that that is the best body for pole. I think there's a place in pole for everybody. It's just, you know, who is perhaps being the most celebrated, who is getting the most prestige and attention. And I would also say,  for me as a mover, particularly as I get older, I am personally more interested in quality of movement than I am in what someone can do, necessarily.

As an audience member, right, like,  listen, I've seen thousands of people do an Ayesha. Is it impressive? Sure. Does it look cool? Absolutely. Do I think it's bad to work towards? Not at all. Am I going to remember that you did one? Probably, but it's probably not going to be the standout part of your pole performance, right?

The things I remember are, like, a movement where you were really connected to the music, right? Where, you took a step and you looked down at your foot and that, like, attention change really, caught my eye and stuck with me. So the things that I tend to remember about performances and things that I tend to get excited about as a watcher of Pole and an enjoyer of Pole don't tend to be the big flashy tricks.

And also just in my own training, that's just not what I'm interested in.  And your mileage may vary, of course. There are lots of people, that's definitely what they're interested in, that's definitely what they want to work towards. Perfectly fine, just  Not for me.

What is the optimal amount of weekly training for a person who is just trying to get healthy movement, not advance in skills?

So a couple of recent studies on this probably the biggest one is that 2022 study from Circulation, Lee et al. And they were looking at all causes mortality. So If health here is just, are you less likely to die for any reason then they found that for moderate intensity exercise, about three hours a week will do ya. I mean, you can do more but you don't continue to see an increase in benefit in terms of reducing all causes of mortality.

So,  roughly three hours a week is my recommendation. And Coincidentally, that's about as much as my membership includes.   So if you're not familiar, Science of Slink is my pole membership. It includes everything that I teach live.

It includes two freestyle classes a week, including one on Tuesday that's, like, a little bit chiller, a little more of a recovery work. Monday we do our pole pathway classes, and then on Thursday we do Strength for Slink, which is my at home conditioning class followed by Feel Good Flex, which is my at home flexibility training class.

Really designed for all levels, and I say all levels. If you're, like, one of those people who are like, I'm going to learn every pole trick, I'm gonna be the baddest of asses.  Pheonix Kazree does teach online classes. I will teach you to be a weird little nerd who, you know, is able to tune in really closely to what they're feeling in their body and to move the way they want to move.

I'm not going to teach you a phoenix spin, right? Just not the vibes, right? That's not what we're here for. Yeah, that's the membership, Science of Slink.

Yep, about three hours.

Any more than that, you're not going to see an additional benefit.  And just like a sidebar here, if you're like, hey, I have to exercise ten hours a week or I feel bad. I feel like this is a requirement for me.  Maybe talk to a mental health professional about that.  That is not most people's experience of being in the world. Let me put it that way.

And finally,  last question but ended on a high note.

What is grip strength?  And what muscles increase grip strength? I've heard grip strength equals forearm strength. Is this true?

Yes and no. So grip strength is your ability to generate power in squeezing your hand closed.

It is used as a proxy for sort of overall fitness. Particularly if you've read much in the gerontology literature, it's used looking at older folks as just sort of a general measure of like, how are you doing in the body? You can measure it with like a grip strength measure.

I don't think it's really necessary, but that's how people take these measurements. And it's basically like, how hard can you squeeze? Obviously something we need for pole, if we are interested in beginning to take our body weight into our hands, things like spins, things like climbs some inverted movements like I mentioned Aisha, again, I don't teach Aisha, I don't train Aisha but if that's something you're working towards, grip strength is a component there.

As for where it comes from forearms, etc., yes and no. So we talked, actually, in the episode today, we talked about the intrinsic muscles of the foot, right? Those foot arch muscles. We have intrinsic muscles in our hand as well. So they're called the lumbrical muscles because they sort of look like little worms.

And you can actually feel them. So if you put your fingers into your palm and then you wiggle your fingers and you're gonna feel it more if you sort of wiggle them all together. You should be able to feel some like little sort of V shaped muscles in your palm.  You may need to dig around a little bit with your fingers.

So those are your lumbricals. Interesting thing about those, so the bottom part towards the wrist, they don't actually attach to bone, they attach to the tendons of the flexor digitalis muscle in the forearm. They do work, right? You are doing something in your palm, but most of the force is coming from the forearm.

So you've got the flexor digitorum superficialis, and the flexor digitorum profundus. You'll never guess what they do. They flex the fingers and they are on top, superficialis, and on the bottom, profundus. The profundus is the big one, right? That is the big meaty one. So if you put your hand on your forearm and you make a fist and you sort of like squeeze it, you should be able to feel them going, right?

Sort of right in here.  And again, depending on your body structure, you might need to work into a little bit with your hands.

So most of the work is coming from the big meaty forearm muscles.  How do we get better at that? Well I mean, pole, right? Squeezing the pole, holding the pole, definitely part of it. You can also squeeze a tennis ball or a lacrosse ball in your palm. They make little specific tools that kind of look like walnut crackers a little bit.

You can definitely use those, those are usually graded and like, they'll say like what the resistance is, you can do those.

Hanging, if you have access to something like a pull up bar just sort of hanging from your hands can help to increase your grip strength.

You can also do weighted carries. So a very common exercise is if you have like a weight plate, you hold it, you know, like a little duck face with your hand, and then you hold the plate and you carry it around.

So those are some ways that you can increase your grip strength. Something to think about and to know about, particularly if this is something that you're working on, is that your muscles will adapt much faster than your tendons.

And I mentioned in particular that the lumbricals here attach into the tendons, I believe, of the superficialis. I could have that wrong. My anatomy is just kind of okay. So. Tendons do not have a lot of blood supply. We talked about the peace and love, right? One of the things you want to do is you want to get blood into things if you're trying to get that tissue to adapt or to heal.

And they just take longer to adapt, right? We talked about this in the podcast episode about timelines. So, if it is something you're working on, don't start with that many reps, don't start with you know, particularly if you're also doing pole just like maybe three, four per side at the end of your practice.

And if you're starting to feel, you know, anything in your wrist, anything in your elbow, like in the joint, back on up and, and progress more slowly. So.  Grip strength.

Alright,  lots of really good questions today. I hope if I answered one of your questions, I answered it to your satisfaction.
I might do another  Q& A episode at some point. I think these were lots of really good questions and I always enjoy learning more about what's on y'all's minds, because y'all are, a curious bunch, you want to know stuff too.

Alright, so that is what I've got for you today. I hope this was a fun and enjoyable experience and you learned some stuff, you got some cool facts you can stick in your back pocket bring out at a party if you like and I hope to talk to you very, very soon and perhaps I will see you in one of my online classes.

Otherwise, I will see you next time. Goodbye!