Definition for Ladies Spring 2014 Issue 001 April 2014 | Page 57

Pole works your arms and your back—you need to be able
pull yourself up on the pole (never jump!) and hold certain
moves. It works your legs—many, if not most, of the moves
require you to hold yourself on the pole with just your legs—
you better believe those legs are going to get strong as you
work those muscles to make sure you don’t fall! It works your
core—I’ve never had a better core than I’ve developed from pole
work. You need it in every move, lifting yourself onto the pole,
holding yourself in the right position, and finding balance.
And that’s just the physical strength. Being in the best shape
of my life is one reason I love pole so much, but another
is the mental shifts it brings. When one day you can do a
move you thought a month earlier “no way ever”, well, that
begins to seep out into the rest of your life. Pole provides
an easy platform to see yourself conquer new challenges
time and time again, and to start thinking, “Hey if I can do
this...” …maybe I can do all those other things I wasn’t sure
I could do. Tackling the “I can’ts” (a forbidden phrase in my
studio—big on encouraging that you can do anything once
you believe you can) is a major reason I keep returning to
pole time and time again.
The mental and physical training both have provided
incredible cross training for my other activities. I’ll never
forget the day I encountered a particularly challenging move
on the rock-climbing wall and instead of saying “I can’t”, I
consciously thought about a specific move in pole, thought,
“Hey it’s just like a shoulder mount, I got this,” and then—
I did have it. The pride in that moment… there’s nothing
like it. Better —it even felt easy, effortless. “Oh, I got this, no
big deal.” The strength that pole brings to my daily life—it’s
why I pole, it’s why I tri, it’s why I climb. There’s no better
feeling in the world. •
Find Esther online: Check out the Our Team page!

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