I love my workout time and always feel like I got something out of my session even if  I can’t always train with the intensity I  feel I should.  It wasn’t always that way.  I used to only tolerate some of my workout, and as a result, routinely failed to complete the second phase of my workout.  I finally found a program for myself that I can stick with because I enjoy it.

My fitness journey began in 1996 when I was a lifeguard at the local health club’s indoor pool.  It was there I began a weight lifting and cardio regimen. I wanted to look lean and toned and to be able to see at least a hint of muscles. I loved lifting weights and quickly became exponentially stronger than I had been when I had no exercise regimen. I could perform a wide grip pull up for three sets of ten but I wasn’t so cut and lean because of my hatred of cardio. I lifted heavy weights 4/week for years but loving Ben and Jerry’s (cookie dough is my favorite) and hating cardio makes it a real challenge to maintain a lean to fat ratio that shows muscle definition. I wanted that definition enough to give up the ice cream but not enough to regularly do cardio.
Ten years later I walked into my first pole fitness studio to take my first organized pole dancing classes and was hooked. Right away I toned up (read: lost weight) because pole dancing is a cardio workout as well as a strength workout. In the fall of 2006 a new studio opened up in my city and I was hired as an instructor. 

​Before the pole fitness obsession took hold of me I spent a few years training at various health clubs learning from other trainers and exposing myself to unfamiliar sports (volley ball) and activities I'd never even thought of. While I quickly lost the interest in volley ball the experience taught me that there is a biomechanically effective way to move that will enable you to learn to engage in sports. The reason I couldn't play volley ball was not because I was an uncoordinated klutz but because I was untrained in the most effective way to move to hit the ball. 
After graduation I got a job in corporate fitness because I loved the concept of people having "gyms" in their offices and I wanted the steady income of a guaranteed work week. With little room for growth in that company I quickly moved on and out of corporate fitness into freelance work.  

Note the look of deep breathing on my face and the huge gap between my hip flexor (back leg) and the floor.

Though I had built a lot of strength with a foundation of weight lifting I was not substantially flexible. I had started a yoga and Pilates practice and was more flexible than I was a few years before I started doing yoga but I barely had a right split. The studio I taught pole fitness at also offered floor/chair dance classes and we as instructors were required to teach both classes.  I began to incorporate stretching into my floor/chair dance classes. Eventually the director of the location I taught for made my floor/chair dance classes into stretching classes and I made real gains in flexibility.

For me the best thing about teaching the art of pole dance is watching people who never thought they could do something actually do what they thought they couldn't. There are lots of reasons people tell themselves they can't do something. Maybe they are right. But maybe with the right instruction and method they just might be able to achieve that pose, hold or move. That's what motivates me to teach. I have come a long way in my skills and my favorite thing is watching another person start from just as deconditioned as I was and work their way to skills and poses they never thought themselves capable. My students and their joy is the reason for teaching pole and flexibility. A straight up weights and cardio routine while effective does not have the same joy producing moments as a superman pole pose. Nothing makes me happier than watching students take pictures of themselves in class and then seeing them on social media later that night, or the random text in celebration of a nemesis achievement. I don't know who said it originally but it rings true: pole teaches you to love your body for what it can do, not what it looks like.