6 Unexpected Benefits of Pole Dance Fitness
Discover six reasons pole dancing can be a fun and healthy addition to your workout routine!
Why Pole Dancing Is Great for Fitness and Fun
Pole dance combines performing art, dancing, and acrobatics around a vertical pole. It can be a great way to achieve your fitness quest. In the past, pole dance was commonly associated with nightclubs and strippers, but in recent years, more and more pole-dancing lovers have promoted it as a form of sport and exercise for fitness purposes.
Many gyms and fitness centers offer pole dancing training and classes and advertise pole dance as the next generation of workouts for both men and women. It's fun and exciting, helps burn a great deal of calories, and offers many other unexpected benefits along the way.
Here are a few!
Muscle building, flexibility enhancing
1. Builds Muscles and Flexibility
The core purposes of pole dancing consist of two major goals: strength building and flexibility improvement.
- Each lesson starts with strength-building activities including warm-up exercises, push-ups, sit-ups, and even some squats. You can build some muscles, lose some undesirable fat around your abs, and strengthen different parts of your body by choosing to focus on specific sets of exercises.
- The next part of the lesson is obviously learning to dance around a pole with basic dance moves, spinning, bending, tweaking and even climbing the pole. Although it might look simple, these moves engage a lot of muscles and employ many parts of your body, helping it to become much stronger and more flexible. You will be sweaty and red-faced all the time, and even the most simple-looking move will make you feel pain. However, the end result is totally worth it: If you work hard enough, it is estimated that pole dancing can help you burn 800 calories an hour.
2. Teaches Dance Technique
Pole dancing at its core is dancing, therefore it gives you an opportunity to be an artist creating your own talent show in front of your real or imaginative audience. You will be surrounded by music, feel the rhythm, and let the music guide you through every movement. Even if you are not particularly into those types of music, pole dancing can still become your little secret affair that is both challenging and thrilling.
Pole dance is for everyone!!!
3. Allows You to Meet Interesting People
Going to pole dancing class is also a good chance to meet interesting people who share the same interest as you. Unlike other fitness classes in which one instructor often teaches dozens of people, pole dancing classes tend to be smaller and more intimate, allowing you to get to know one another better.
In addition, it's a little controversial (although increasingly acceptable) so you are likely to meet more interesting and special people in the class. They can be adventurous people who love exploring new things, or they can be those who are a little mischievous and want to get things done in their own way.
4. Helps Fight Stress and Depression
When you work out, your brain releases endorphin, a hormone that makes people feel happy and enthusiastic. Therefore, exercising is a great way to fight depression. Exercising with joyful music and fun people around, like in the case of pole dancing, is an even more effective way to deal with stress.
Women, especially those who just have a baby, benefit the most from pole dancing since it helps them to get back in shape, lose unnecessary weight around unwanted areas, and overcome postnatal depression.
5. Makes You Feel Attractive
The charm and controversy of pole dancing lie in the fact that it empowers women to use their bodies in the most sensual and arousing way. The erotic components of pole dancing remain a hot topic of debate, but they also form a fundamental part of the art.
In addition, the usual stereotype associated with pole dancers is part of the allure for some women, making them feel like they belong to an exotic social group and possess secret, seductive charms while controlling their own bodies. Performing provocative movements can make women feel more attractive and confident. Besides, with regular practice and dedication, pole dancing also tones up the dancers’ bodies and builds up their self-confidence.
6. Provides Opportunity to Participate in Championships
As pole dance gains its status as an accepted form of exercise, amateur and professional pole dance competitions have sprung up around the world. Most focus on the artistic aspects and strictly prohibit nudity. The annual “World Pole Dance” competition was first held in 1995 and is one of the most prestigious of the sport's competitions. More than 11 winners, both male and female, were crowned from more than 26 countries, bringing widespread media attention. Some countries, such as Canada, Australia, and China have their own national competitions.
There is even an effort to add pole dance to the next Olympic Games, although such an addition is uncertain since there is no standard set of criteria and scoring for pole dance yet. If participating in a competition motivates you to work harder, you can certainly sign up for many local and regional events organized in your area.
This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.
