Week Nine – Pole
Apologies for the belated post, it’s been an incredibly busy week at X-POLE HQ.
Anyway, after the usual warm up with Hannah (I must get it all written down and detail it for you guys one day) and some conditioning, we got on the poles and started the main portion of the session.
We started with Fan Kick in to Pole Sit. If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you’ll know that my Fan Kick isn’t the greatest: plenty of effort put in, but it looks a bit “limp!” Anyway, throwing caution to the wind, I really decided to go for it on the first attempt. It didn’t turn out too bad until my ankle connected soundly with the pole while sweeping round to get to the Pole Sit (another bruise to add to the collection)!
But after a few more tries it was more or less there, so I can’t complain too much and after the initial shock of the ankle smash into the pole, there was little to no pain (even now).
Then we moved onto Statue into Fan Kick, into Pole Sit. This was obviously a little more challenging than the previous moves, I think I’m 75% there with getting it nailed. Statue didn’t hurt nearly as much as I thought it would by the way!
After this, Butterfly with a Crucifix Exit into Flatline Scorpio. This proved a little too much for me and I didn’t even get close to finishing it in this week’s session.
Finally, we added spins to the end of the combo: Step Around, Fan Kick, Chair and Figure Four Spins; I’m happy with all of these, except the Figure Four, which doesn’t flow as smoothly as I’d like, but it’s in my head now, so I can visualise it more easily.
I have to admit, this was the most intense pole session I have done so far at the Aerial Attic, but it was also one of the most enjoyable; I was totally shot after this lesson, but also had a great feeling that I’d worked hard.
Week Nine – Aerial Hoop
Ellie started us out on our usual warm up and we had another go at completing the Harry Styles – Watermelon Sugar abs workout challenge from MadFit. The rest of the group seemed to nail it, but I think I ran out of steam around the 2:45 mark (it’s harder than it looks).
Again, if you fancy trying it, check out the below video:
We did our usual conditioning (Ellie went fairly easy on us this week in my opinion) and then started on Spinning Inverts. This proved more challenging than it looked for me, I think leading with one foot and then leaning into the spin was a bit hard for me to comprehend at first, but I got there eventually (with a lot more swinging than spinning I must admit).
Then once we were up, we added Side Hang Variations. These really tested my flexibility and I think I pulled something in my back, as it’s been aching a little since the lesson.
After this, we added Pull Up to Peter Pan, which was easy in principle, but making it look smooth and controlled is the key.
Then Man in The Moon was added to the routine, into Amazon, to Cradle, then on to the top bar for Secretary and finally, adding a move of our own choosing to finish off the routine.
Admittedly, I did pretty much everything bar the Cradle, and only once (very messily), before I had to take a break, as it had been a long week already it was only Wednesday night!).
On par with Monday’s Pole session, this was the most challenging session of hoop I have done so far, but it felt great to string a lot of things we have worked on in the previous nine weeks together into something fully formed. It was amazing to watch everyone else in the session too, they all performed beautifully and I was totally in awe of their stamina to get it all done and run through their routines three, maybe even four times before the end of our hour, big kudos to everyone involved!