It is a shiny, new, chrome X-Pole and the newest member to our home gym. I am super excited about my new fitness pursuit! I just hope I have the time to devote to it. Sadly the closest place with a studio that offers pole dancing lessons is about 47 miles from where I live and I just cannot afford to spend the extra time on that kind of commute. So, for now, I am taking online classes from a website called StudioVeena. Veena is an ACE certified personal trainer and self taught pole dancer/instructor who stars in the instructional pole dancing classes on her website.  So far the classes are great!

 I do wish I lived close to my sister though. She taught pole dancing lessons when she lived in Tennessee and Alaska. Now she lives in Arizona. Still very far away! My goal is to at least devote one hour a week to this. It will replace my 2013 fitness goal that I was supposed to dedicate to strength training. So far I have spent about two hours on that pole and let me make this perfectly clear: It is not easy!

I don’t know if you have ever watched this sport but the women and men who do it make it look very easy. It is going to help me with my upper body strength and that is one area I really need to work on. It will also be great for overall body strength, toning, and flexibility.  In junior high and high school I took ballet lessons. A lot of the technique is strikingly similar. I am excited for the arty side to this workout!

For a while now I have hesitated and debated about how to introduce this on my blog. I don’t have any reservations about doing it and have the utmost respect for the men and women who do this professionally. It is not easy and I am completely in awe of people who do this well. But, in case you have not noticed, my blog is extremely conservative. And there is controversy surrounding the sport of pole dancing because some people perform pole dancing completely or partially naked in night clubs as their profession and many conservative people think this is wrong.

I do not believe it is wrong. Although, you will not see me taking pole dancing on as a profession. This is neither my backup idea in case I get laid off nor will it be my night job to earn extra $. Let’s face it; I am going to be 37 years old this year. This, in my opinion, is a young person’s profession. People just look better naked when they are young, like in their 20’s young. This is just a cold hard fact of life. If I ever do show any of my own personal pole dancing progress on this blog I will probably be dressed in ratty sweats and a T-shirt. And it will not be for a long time because this sport is very difficult and I don’t want to appear completely foolish. Sorry to burst yours, and my poor husband’s, bubble. Not that I thought you were getting all that excited.
 I tend to dress conservatively because I grew up in “the modest house”. I feel really uncomfortable showing a lot of skin. I think my parents were just more comfortable in a lot clothes and so they figured we might be as well. Plus we grew up in Idaho, it is really cold here most of the time. Come to think of it I could probably count on one hand the number of times I have seen my mother wear anything above the knees and I have never ever seen my dad in anything besides long pants!

Lastly, I just never want to make anyone feel bad/sad or embarrassed. I don’t mind so much offending people as I do making them feel sad in their heart. So if I am making you feel sad in your heart while trying to tone my muscles by means of a vertical fitness pole in my basement. Let me know we can talk about it, OK.

Watch this clip.  I’m pretty sure I will be able to do all of these tricks in probably six months or so.  Just kidding more like ten years!