How to Engage Your Shoulders for Pole Dance (and Prevent Injuries)

Preventing Pole Dance Shoulder Injuries

If you are new to pole, it can be difficult to know how to use your arms and shoulder properly.

Your pole instructor may tell you to “pull with your arms”, or that you need to “engage your shoulders”.

Often however, many new pole dancers have no idea how to do this.

In the video above, I show you how to do exactly how to engage the muscles that protect your shoulders while you pole dance.

It’s super-important to make sure that you use your arms properly to avoid injury. When we are new to pole it can feel like we are just holding on for dear life, and hoping for the best.

Quite often, I find that the positions our bodies are stronger in, require our bodies to be further away from the pole – for example getting your butt away from the pole in your Ayesha.

At first, moving yourself away from the pole may not feel as safe, but believe me, it’s better for your shoulders.

Try to make sure that when you are on the pole you are using your muscles, getting stronger, and not hanging through your shoulders.

Sometimes exercises such as shoulder shrugs – similar to what I do on the hoop in the video – may look like you’re passively hanging, but infact you should be focused on pulling your shoulder blades (scapulae) “back and down” and engaging the muscles in your back.

Once you are comfortable with what this should feel like, we can use simple exercises like these exercises to build strength in muscles like your mid-and-lower traps, rhomboids, as well as putting your shoulders in a better position for your rotator cuff muscles.

As a general rule, if you are on the pole, make sure you consciously focus on engaging the muscles around your shoulders and in your mid-back to protect your shoulder joints!

If you’re interested in more tips to help you build shoulder strength check out this post: Shoulder Exercises for Pole Dancers.