For many different reasons, this has been a very difficult year for me. With regards to pole… I just gave up.

I got to about September and for one reason or another, I just couldn’t handle being around pole. I wanted to give up. I couldn’t handle watching it, or talking about it.

I turned off all the groups on social media, I set up new accounts that had nothing to do with pole. I even had to give up doing a competition. I stopped training.

But I tried. I tried to get on the pole. I tried to make my existing moves stronger, and work on new moves, but nothing was working. So I gave up. This might sound like it was an easy decision to make, but it wasn’t at all.

I stopped training for a couple of months.

A long while later I saw a cool move that I wanted to try and I gave it a go. From there, I really slowly started finding moves I wanted to try. Some were way too hard and wanted to make me give up all over again, others were not too bad.

Things I’ve Learnt

So going forward and going into a new year, I wanted to tell you all the things I’ve learnt to pick myself up again.

1. Don’t Put Any / Too Much Pressure On Yourself

So everyone thrives with a little bit of pressure I guess but when it comes to pole it doesn’t have to be intense. Don’t worry if you can’t get that cool move, or if someone else is more flexible than you. You will get to where you want to be at your own pace if you keep trying. Pole is meant to be fun!

2. Don’t Be Afraid To Take Time Out

If I’m injured (usually from something non-pole related) I am quite sensible in taking time out and looking after my body – I only have one after all.

When it comes to taking time off because you feel like you should or need to, it’s much harder. It feels like you’re letting yourself down almost, and you feel you’re going to lose all of your strength in one day.

I actually find that if I take time off I come back stronger, and mentally more ready for the challenge.

3. Step Back From Social Media

For one reason or another I got to a point where people on my social media feeds were really negative. There were lots of pole arguments and passive aggressive comments and I just didn’t need that negativity, so I took a step back. I turned off all pole group notifications, I set up new accounts for the non-pole aspect of my life. I was worried at first that I would ‘miss out’ on things but actually it’s made me feel heaps better. I’ve now separated my pole and non pole life so that if I’m not feeling too pole-y, I have that layer of separation.

It’s actually much better for me now as I can go and look for cool pole inspiration – and I want to!

4. Save Things For The Future

So this might seem like a slight contradiction to the previous statement, but when you are on social media, save, save, save all the cool pics. When I wasn’t training I saved so many cool things that when I came back to training I had a whole range of moves to try – rather than just the impossible ones. It’s nice when you want to come back to pole and you actually have some moves to try – especially if you can achieve some of them too.

5. Write Yourself A Training Plan

This one has been huge for me. I always roughly know what moves I want to train or try, but one of the key things for me has been planning my training sessions like I would do a 1:1.

I also make sure I have a range of moves on my list – I have spins to warm up, moves I can already do as strength moves and then I have new moves to try. Some are easier than others! I’m so much more productive now.

6. Accept That Not All Moves Are For Everyone

Following on from the above, this has been the hardest, but most important idea for me to accept.

There are some moves that I keep trying, and trying and trying and I just don’t seem to get anywhere. For example I’ve been trying a back flip on the pole for at least a year now, quite consistently. I can do it with a spot every time, but I just can’t do it by myself. I’ve been to workshops to figure out my problem too, and I’m still no closer to nailing it.

I then decided that I wouldn’t waste any more time trying it. As hard as it was to make this decision, it was super important for me to be able to move on from it. Now that the back flip is off my list, I can focus on other moves that I can actually hope to achieve.

I know that if you keep trying a move, you will get there, but I’m a slow and steady kind of girl. My body would rather train to deadlift everything rather than flip though moves. Believe me, I wish I could but there is something in my brain that just says ‘no’.

So for now, I’ve got a few moves that I’ll shelf. I may come back to them in the future but for now I’m okay with leaving them.

7. Be True To You

So this might sound a bit cheesy but it’s true! It’s so important to be you and to make sure you’re trying moves you feel safe doing and ready for, rather than doing the ‘next cool move’. Who cares if all you want to do is spin, or if it takes you a year to get upside down. I’ve got moves that have taken me years to get!

Pole is your own journey, so make sure you’re doing it how you want 😀 Xx