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Avoiding Fitness Pole Injuries
By Susan Peach
Even if you follow all the well-known safety tips of our sport (no hand lotion, correct installation of equipment, etc.) injuries are still a very real possibility.
And while it's true that you can only do so much to avoid traumatic injuries like accidental falls, you CAN reduce your risk of preventable fitness pole injuries with these three tips.
Tip #1: Warm up adequately before each session
It sounds simple and obvious, but many people skip this important step in their enthusiasm to get started. Ensuring you're properly warmed up will minimize your risk of injury by giving your body time to respond to the demands you're about to place on it.
During your warm up, muscles become oxygenated, joints become lubricated, and your heart and lungs become prepared for the workload to come. A few minutes spent warming up will pay dividends, not only in injury prevention but in the quality of your workout.
Use movements that mimic what you will be doing on your pole, so that you'll be warming up the specific muscles and you'll be using, and putting them through familiar movement patterns.
Five to ten minutes of gentle movement and dynamic stretching is what professionals and fitness instructors aim for.
Tip #2: Cultivate a sense of body awareness, on and off the pole
Knowing where all your body parts are as you're spinning or inverted is extremely important in avoiding injury.
That's because when you know where everything is, you're more in control of your movements.
If you're flailing about, unsure of what goes where, or where your legs are in relation to your body, it's much easier to injure yourself.
Unless you've practiced before hand, it's easy to lose track of where you are in time and space when your body is in motion or in an inverted position.
One way to be in control of your body when learning a new move on your fitness pole, is to practice putting your body into the position it will be in during a spin or inversion, while you're still safely on the floor.
This helps to create the neuro-muscular patterns you'll need in order to make the moves appear smooth and effortless. In fact, they will actually become easier to do as a result, and this will help to reduce the chance of injury.
Tip #3: Quit while you're ahead
Many people love pole dancing so much that they don't realize how long they've been at it or how hard they're working. This fun factor is a real benefit of the sport, but the downside is that injuries are more likely to occur when you're tired.
So leave yourself wanting more, especially when you first start out. While it may be hard to stop when you're having such a great time, your body will thank you for easing into this strenuous new activity gradually.
Remember to always ensure your pole is installed correctly, treat it with a healthy dose of respect, and never, ever take you dance pole for granted. Oh, and have fun!
Susan Peach is an early pioneer in pole dance fitness and the voice behind Your Pole Pal, a long-running resource for the pole community. She taught dance & fitness for nearly 30 years, leading hundreds of classes and working with thousands of students aged 6 to 80+, and created original programs when formal training did not yet exist. She also produced one of the first pole fitness DVD series, along with instructor training and Latin dance fitness programs. Today, she writes and builds Your Pole Pal, still with a soft spot for Latin dance music.
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