Pole Fitness is pole dancing with an emphasis on developing strength, conditioning, and flexibility.
Pole Fitness
When you look at the PoleFitness.nl website, you can read the following about Pole Fitness:
Pole Fitness® is the ultimate workout for modern women and distinguishes itself by combining cardio and strength training. Techniques on the pole with gogo aerobics also make your movements look graceful and streamlined. You’ll be amazed at the amount of muscles you need and how quickly you’ll master the techniques and movements. A complete workout where you feel yourself improving every week. After a specific warm-up, you automatically transition to pole techniques through gogo aerobics.
Pole Fitness: Calisthenics for women?
Before I delve into this, it’s important to note that a large part of the added value of any fitness trend lies in the motivating effect it has. This was also the essence of Mart Jansen’s article on the benefits of group classes.
Is Zumba, for example, the fastest way to lose weight or achieve a nice figure? No, but if it attracts women to the gym who otherwise wouldn’t engage in cardio or other training, then it certainly has value. With Pole Fitness, I see added value in the strength it requires, while many other fitness trends aimed at women mainly focus on the cardio aspect.
At first glance, Pole Fitness is not different from Calisthenics as we know it from the streets (or “street fitness”): Strength training with body weight as a form of resistance (instead of weights).
In addition, we see in both Pole Fitness and Calisthenics that practitioners are often engaged in training and developing certain movements where training the muscle is not necessarily the first priority. How cool it looks is often more important than how the muscles are trained with a certain movement. This can be seen as a negative point, but also as a positive point if it encourages people to continue developing. After all, there are plenty who don’t see themselves going to the gym day in and day out to do the same thing. Sure, it can be done with more weight, performed differently, but a bench press doesn’t become very exotic very quickly. The prospect of having learned or being in the process of learning a new technique motivates some much more than the fact that you can move a few more kilos.
Difference with pole dancing
The main difference between pole dancing and Pole Fitness is the goal: with pole dancing, the goal is to entertain the audience, while with Pole Fitness, the goal is to train your body. In practice, this leads to various differences in execution.
While with twerk fitness I may wonder if it’s possible to do it in a somewhat civilized manner (you can’t really make shaking your butt very dignified), I can imagine that Pole Fitness appeals to a much larger group of women. Whether your performance is sexy, even erotic, a demonstration of strength and balance, or a combination of these, is entirely up to you. It’s often a matter of how you perform the movements and transitions between them, while appearance and clothing choice also play a big role.
It (in terms of skill) certainly goes beyond seducing men by hanging upside down in a split wearing a thong attached to a phallic symbol, provocatively licking your lips. In fact, I can imagine that some men would be more intimidated by a Pole Fitness performance because they see women performing feats of strength and flexibility they lack themselves.
Although many practitioners of Pole Fitness often feel the need to explain that Pole Fitness is indeed very different from pole dancing and stripping, it still seems to be the expression of female sexuality that makes Pole Fitness more interesting for some than other fitness trends.
So it’s important to consider exactly what you want and to inform yourself. The terms pole dancing and Pole Fitness may not always clarify to what extent the sensual/erotic aspect is part of the lessons.
GoGo Gadget Cardio?
When I heard the name GoGo Cardio, I first thought of a hat from which a treadmill springs out when I actually need an umbrella. On the PoleFitness.nl website, this is called GoGo aerobics. Here we recognize the popular fitness trends that combine dance with cardio. Other names we encounter for what seems to be the same thing are striptease cardio and aerobic striptease.
Smart, in the sense that this adds a cardio component to the strength and flexibility needed for pole work, making it a more complete workout. However, “GoGo” is generally a quite sexually suggestive dance form. Women who do not appreciate this sexual aspect will therefore perceive it as a barrier. A statement I heard about this is: “GoGo aerobics makes it a bit more pole dancing and a bit less Pole Fitness”.
Although GoGo aerobics formally belong in the program, this doesn’t happen at every location where Pole Fitness classes are provided. In Purmerend, where I did the photoshoot, they do regular aerobics as warm-up, for example.
Core power and flexibility
When we talk about strength, it’s not hard to imagine that a lot of core power is needed, just like with calisthenics. A typical bodybuilder like me will notice that especially keeping the legs up using the abdominal and back muscles is the biggest challenge in many exercises. Moreover, it requires much more isometric strength where the muscle needs to be kept tense in a certain position. Very different from someone who is used to typical dynamic strength training.
The biggest difference with both regular fitness (strength and cardio) and calisthenics is the required flexibility. I couldn’t even do most techniques lying on a mat without a pole. Many exercises require a level of flexibility that you won’t achieve with five minutes of stretching after a gym session. It seems more like the flexibility needed for gymnastics and ballet. This can of course be a barrier if you’re as stiff as I am, but also an extra reason to do it. Firstly, apparently you could use some flexibility. Moreover, given the large number of techniques you can train, there are enough alternatives if one doesn’t work because you’re not flexible enough. So, this doesn’t have to be a major obstacle.
Pole Fitness in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, we’re lucky to have a Dutch name prominent in Pole Fitness. Denise Mulder won the world pole dancing championships twice and is the founder of current Pole Fitness.
There are said to be over 40 locations where Pole Fitness can be practiced in the Netherlands. Additionally, there are Dutch Championships held annually.
Pole Fitness for men?
Although choreographer Vincent Vianen now gives workshops after his appearance on TV, you have to be pretty sure about your masculinity, or rather your lack of masculinity, to do Pole Fitness. Not because it would be inferior in strength compared to the calisthenics we typically see men doing, and not because it’s less impressive, but simply because (in my opinion) it’s the feminine aspect of the movements that distinguishes it from other calisthenics. This despite the fact that some men approach Pole Fitness in exactly the same way as women while others opt for a more masculine approach (as far as that’s possible).
Moreover, the era of the metro man is already over, isn’t it? I don’t think you need to wear a pink shirt anymore to show that you’re in touch with your feminine side. I understand that it’s politically correct to say that there’s nothing wrong with heterosexual men doing Pole Fitness. However, there are so many alternatives for men that haven’t historically arisen as art to arouse men. I don’t understand how you would end up at Pole Fitness unless you lost a bet.
Conclusion
Pole fitness is a great way to get women into strength training who otherwise wouldn’t consider working with weights and such. The potential combination with (GoGo) cardio/aerobics makes it a balanced system. Is it the fastest way to a nice figure? No, but sometimes you need a good method that’s sustainable rather than a perfect method that you give up on quickly due to lack of motivation and/or discipline.
