@polebird: ❤️A home pole for @karensuestudios & friends! Intro to home pole!❤️

My sister @karensuestudios just told me the GREAT news! Her friends are getting a home pole so they can all play and pole jam together at the house! I am so excited for them to start on their pole journey :) Welcome to the pole fitness life Karen! Pole people are definitely obsessed with pole 😀. If you missed my earlier post, Karen came home for the thanksgiving holiday and learned some pole from me!

Now she will definitely realize that it is a pole new world! Anyhow, I thought I would share some thoughts and tips on starting home pole.

There are two big well known companies that make quality poles, xpole and lupit pole! A quality pole is important, because SAFETY first!! There are pressure mounted poles (the most commonly used for home poles) - such as mine that twist until they lock into the ceiling. Best to mount in on an area of the ceiling that has a joist and to make sure that it is straight. Also good practice, if you are using a pressure mounted pole to pull on it each time before you start poling because the wood in the house can expand and shrink with weather. Other types of poles include poles that can be mounted directly into the ceiling or stage poles! Stage poles are pretty heavy, but can be assembled anywhere that you can drag the parts and they tend to sway a bit since the top of the pole is not locked in. We used this stage pole in a photo shoot!

They also make mats for poles (I use a lupit mat), once you start tricking and going upside down, a mat is probably a good idea! Better safe than sorry, and they make for a great soft landing!

Also, when you get a home pole, be aware there is usually a factory coating that makes it more slick and harder to stick to when you are first using it. For pole we clean the pole off when it gets slippery with a mix of 50-50 alcohol and water. I keep mine in a spray bottle. We also use tack on the skin in order to stick more if needed. I apply as little tack as possible, because I don't want to rely on it too much. There is hand tack and body tack that can be applied! Here is what I am currently using. For tack and safety purposes its essential not to use lotions right before poling! It will be very dangerous if you are too slick!

There a some polers that are self taught home polers which is amazing- meaning that they don't regularly go to pole class. There are a lot of great youtube tutorials for spins and tricks, and also some online studios that offer virtual classes that are subscription based. Well known online classes include: Studioveena.com, Cleo's Rock N Pole.

A final important note I want to touch on here is the importance of warm up and stretching! It is so easy to pull a muscle as this can be an intense workout, even as a beginner! In class we stretch and warm up for about 20 minutes!

Happy poling @karensuestudios @acromott and Sacramento friends! I'm just so happy for you all!!!

❤️,
JESS