At Home Pole Related Strengthening Exercises

2 minutes

01 December 2016

Have to go away over the holidays and can’t make it into your pole studio? Or even, new to pole and want some at home exercises to do help get you stronger faster! Here are our top strengthening exercises that will directly help you with your pole dancing moves.

Remember to always first take at least 3 minutes to warm up your body and get it moving through your complete range of motion. Move gently through these positions 5 to 10 times each, increasing your range of motion with each one, then go straight onto the next. Try not to actually hold any of them. Just gently let your body move continuously.

Body twists - Just twisting your upper body gently side to side, trying to look behind you a little bit more each time.
Lunge side to side - gently reaching for the inside of your heel with the opposite arm.
Low leg swings - Use a wall or chair for balance and swing each leg forward and back, doesn’t need to get up to a full split, but start off low and try get a little higher each time.
Angry cat/Slutty Cat - On your hands and knees, opening and rounding your back.
Downward facing dog - From your hands and feet on the ground, stick that booty high up in the air, push through your hands to push your arm pits to the floor and your butt high, move back to a plank position before pushing that butt back up.

Alright, let’s get on with the workout! Remember to move within your own restrictions, these should be safe, simple movements that will help you increase that strength needed for pole dancing. The numbers and sets are a guide only, listen to your body and do what you can.

Shoulder shrugs - stand tall with arms straight up over the head, now just shrug up taller trying to bring your shoulders to squeeze your ears, and release back down. Then bring the arms down by your sides and shrug the shoulders up and down again.
- Aim for: 2 sets of 10 up/10 down

Turkish Get ups - these are awesome for the getting the whole body moving and working. It is totally worth taking the few minutes to watch the video first and really get the technique correct. While they are traditionally done with Kettlebells, it’s great to learn and move through the motion without a weight first. Here is the best explanation I could find.
- Aim for: 10 on each side

Floor Arm raises - Lie on your stomach starting with the arms straight up over the head.
With your palms facing each other, raise your arms as high as you comfortably can before releasing them back down to the floor. Do one set of these before moving the arms straight out to the sides perpendicular to your body with the thumbs pointing up, again lift your arms as high as you comfortably can.
- Aim for: 12 with arms up, 12 with arms out

Straddle Leg lifts - Sitting in straddle with your legs out as far as they can comfortably go. Place your hands flat on the floor in front of you and lift your heels up as high as you can. Aim to keep the hands as flat as you can. This might cramp up your hips pretty fast so stretch it out afterwards until it feels ok again.
- Aim for: 2 sets of 4