Inverts & Leg Hangs
I started pole in February 2011, and learned inverts and leg hangs that year. I also started teaching that year and teaching these moves. I don’t have videos from that long ago, but I remember inverting fairly easily. I also didn’t receive a lot of instruction at that time, and mostly figured skills out independently. I would lift into inverts or sometimes swing a leg. There wasn’t much thought about the process at that time. I do remember a time when aerial inverts weren’t reliable, and it would be questionable if I could do them at the end of a routine or end of a training session.
Sometime after opening my studio in May 2014, inverts became a reliable skill at all times. I figured out intricacies of the hips rotating to make legs clean when spinning forward or backward, and utilizing tabletop inverts for inside leg hangs. The oldest invert video I can find is from 2014. I could lift into an invert, hold a straddle, and hook cleanly to an outside leg hang.
My inverts and leg hangs were reliable and strong coming into this IRC program. Even though I was able to lift my hips high, hold a straddle, and cleanly hook, I can tell now that my back is rounded, not excessively but still some, and my shoulders are not pulling enough. I had the strength to make it through even if all the parts were not working 100% correctly. I also tended to look up with my head.
Since being in this program, I can tell a big difference in my back and chest positioning. My back looks straighter from hips to shoulders, even a bit arched. It is probably not something noticeable to most people watching me, but internally I feel so powerful when inverting. While I can’t claim drastic changes, I do think the set of cues and actions I have now will allow me to pole safely for as long as I want to. The tiny bits of missing form could have eventually led to an injury, especially with how many reps I do every day, every week. My favorite cue now is to think about pushing the pole away from my head trying to bring it closer to my hips and away from my ribs.
My leg hangs are the same. I think I was naturally rotating the hips, but now I understand what is happening and am able to verbalize these actions.
Most importantly though, I feel that I have a set of cues and actions to actively think about when inverting myself and to use with my students. “Tuck and roll” was all I really thought about when inverting before, and that was fine for myself or other dancers with a good baseline of strength. It’s not enough for dancers teetering on the edge of enough strength, and especially not enough for those lacking strength. I enrolled in this program for that reason. I enrolled in this program to learn more ways to help my studenrs and staff. I feel I can do that now.
Pullups/Chinups
I have been training pullups/chin-ups since 2008 when I entered college. When I started pole in 2011, I could do 3. I remember this specifically because I thought climbing would be a lot easier because of the strength I had. For the last few years, I have trained pullups once a week very consistently. I do 3-4 sets of 10ish with a set each of underhand, overhand, and wide overhand. In 2022, I added a 4th set of neutral grip. 10 was usually the max I would achieve in an underhand, overhand, or neutral grip on the 1st set. Every so often I would get 11 reps. Max was 6 reps on a wide grip pullup.
I recently heard the term “nipples first” in reference to pullup form and that perfectly describes my previous form. I would definitely lead chest to bar in an arched back form and straighten at the top. I would also drop into my shoulders at the bottom of the movement.
Since working in the IRC program, I have focused on keeping ribs closed, exhaling at the start, breaking the bar, externally rotating through the shoulder, and minimizing sway in my body to move in a straighter pattern. Happily, I can report that my PR is now 13 reps in an underhand grip, 12 reps in overhand and neutral, and 8 in wide grip. Naturally, whatever grip I use in my first set has the highest reps. However, I am still achieving really high reps in the remaining sets of various grips just 1-2 shy max in that specific grip.
I attribute this recent gain to correcting my form. When I first started focusing on strict pullups, my rep numbers of course went down closer to 8, but throughout 2022, I have surpassed my former PR’s. I even trained weighted pullups for a period in 2020 and 2021, and still did not see the gains that I have with just correcting my form.
I also want to thank you for continually talking about strength training and pointing out that the strength must be there for an invert. There is no magic that will make someone invert if the baseline strength is not there. With strength and cues, it is possible. I have offered strength classes since opening Chrome in 2014 and have always known that is truly what is behind an invert. I feel validated in my beliefs and feel confident discussing this with students now. I always felt a bit as an “outsider” in the pole world because lifting felt taboo for a long time, and almost like it was insulting to suggest this to a student. I felt a bit intimidated trying to broach this subject before. With the support of Marlo though, I feel ready to work with anyone!