Pole Fitness: Introduction to Pole Fitness

 Acknowledgement of (reference) literature, class material or other sources of information
that informed the design of each session

Start of each session

• Warm up- run down and up stairs
• 10 x push ups
• 10 x star jumps
•  Dynamic and static wrist stretches . 

The running up the stairs and star jumps allows the blood flow to your muscles which in turn means you are able to get more out of your stretches.

• Session in the introduction course consisted of refreshing the previous weeks movements you learnt. 
• End of session-ab exercises and stretches. 

Flexibility an important aspect of pole fitness. 

• It is important to keep your back muscles strong and flexible as doing this can help prevent injury and help you to preform twists and movements on the pole (Soul-POLE, 2015). As part of the cool down we did hip bridges and cat stretches. Hip bridges help with 
• 3. Record statistics or detailed information about what was completed

 Reflect on how the session design influenced learning

When you say to someone that you do pole dancing or pole fitness, people often jump to the conclusion that you are a stripper however this is very stereotypical. Burnbridge, 2012 described pole dancing and or fitness as 'an art, a science, and a sport'. Pole fitness can fit into the category of holistic exercises as the body, mind and spirit are integrated. it requires a person to be very focused on their body position and movements when practicing and mastering even the most basic pole fitness exercises (Burnbridge, 2012). My friend suggested that I should try pole fitness for this assessment and I was immediately hesitant due to the stigma around pole dancing. As I began reading up on it I released that there were comments about how you get bruises, callouses and that it requires a lot of strength and that it really wasn't all that sexy. Pole fitness can be self taught through YouTube videos however I chose to do an introductory course at Vertical Aerial Dance Studio (VAD). I have not chosen a specific skill to do this assignment on but rather looked at the progression I make through doing an introductory course and self directed sessions.

Overall I have learnt that keeping variety in session is important to say motivated.  Over the 12 sessions I learnt a variety of pole dancing skills with mainly focusing on the back hook spin and fan kick.  A negative aspect of learning so many skills across 12 sessions is that I didn't really master any but gained improvement in most.  For future reference for designing sessions when learning a new skill such as pole dancing I will just practice one skill until mastered before moving on to the next one.

Referencing: 

Burbridge, S. (2012). Pole Fitness. American Fitness, 30(3), 18-20