Last Updated on February 8, 2023
How often should you practice pole dancing when you first start out? When you’re getting started on your pole fitness journey, you may be wondering how often you should practice.
Considering that pole dancing is a very intense form of exercise that works your muscles in ways you probably haven’t done before, it’s common to be cautious about over-working yourself.
This article gives you tips and advice on how often you should practice pole dancing depending on your level to help you find a pole fitness regime that’s right for you.
Whenever you’re practising or working out using the pole or any other equipment, always warm-up properly, wear suitable clothing and always put safety first!
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How Often Should You Practice Pole Dancing As A Beginner?
As a brand new pole dancer, for your first 3 months, you should aim to practice or attend a class once a week.
When you first start learning a new form of exercise, your muscles need to conform and adapt to the different level of activity. If you’re new to exercise, this might take a good few months for your muscles to adapt.
That being said, However, if you’re starting pole dancing as someone who is already very physically active then you have an advantage of being stronger to start with.
But – that doesn’t mean that you don’t need to bother learning proper form and technique, it just means that you may find you learn faster than those who are also new to exercise as a whole.
If you are already physically active, you also need to factor in your other workouts alongside pole dancing practice, being careful not to overdo it.
All beginner pole dancers are likely to experience some bruising, muscle aches and mild friction burns during pole dancing practice. For that reason, it’s a good idea to leave a week in-between pole workouts to allow your body to rest and heal.
Check out this guide on how to care for your pole dancing bruises, friction burns and other injuries!
After a good few months of weekly pole dancing sessions, you can start to increase your number of practice hours, if you want to.
Around this time, you may be thinking about buying your own portable dance pole to use a home, which is a great idea! Many pole dancers find that investing in their own pole majorly helps their progress.
How Often Should You Practice As An Intermediate Pole Dancer?
Now, “intermediate” is a pretty big category to be a part of. Many ‘intermediate’ moves in 2022 were considered advanced moves just a few years ago. The creativity and motivation of the pole community will never cease to amaze me!
For example, a Shoulder mount invert or a Superman were considered advanced moves for the purposes of learning pole dancing.
These days, it’s common for people to learn these moves after just a few months. I have seen beginners churn out trick after trick as if it’s some sort of tick-box exercise.
After your first few months of pole dancing, you probably love it already! If you don’t have your own dance pole yet, you’ll probably be saving up enough money to get the best X Pole!
You should definitely consider another form of strength-based exercise, in order to compliment your pole dance training. Here are some ideas:
- Yoga
- Pilates
- Aerial Hoop
- Trapeze
- Silks & Rope
- Circuit Training
- Weightlifting
- CrossFit
By participating in another form of workout, you’ll be working your muscles in more ways than one, which will have additional health benefits and positively impact your overall fitness.
Read also: 12 Other Workouts for Pole Dancers to try
As for how often you should practice when you’re an intermediate level, you can certainly practice at least twice per week, with at least one complimentary workout session thrown in too, if you’re really trying to step-up your pole game.
As you really start to notice improvement, for example, when you’re comfortable enough to do an aerial invert, it can be beneficial to start doing some pole conditioning exercises on a daily basis.
Daily Pole Conditioning Exercises for Intermediate-Advanced Pole Dancers
- Pull-ups
- Knee-raises
- Climbing
- Sit-ups (using the pole)
Try to spend 5-10 minutes per day honing your strength, incorporating the pole into your repetitions and you will soon start to notice a drastic improvement in your strength.
Always give yourself at least one day of rest per week, and remember to always warm-up and cooldown before and after your pole sessions, to reduce the risk of injury.
Read: Confessions Of A Pole Dance Instructor – What Happens If You Lie About Your Level
How Often Should You Practice Pole Dancing At Advanced Level?
Now it’s really time to step-up your pole game! As an experienced pole dancer, you can safely aim to have 3 pole workout sessions per week, with conditioning or complimentary workouts in between.
Many advanced level students will attend 3 lessons per week, but if you can’t afford this – there really is no better time to invest in your own pole.
As you’re now an advanced level pole dancer, you should aim to make your pole warm-ups and conditioning more challenging. For example, all your inverts should be done aerially (from off the ground).
You should also be able to perfectly perform all of the beginner-level and intermediate-level moves with ease. Often, the most impressive moves are not the most advanced, but ones performed with ease and grace.
At this level, you can workout as many days per week as you like, always have 1 or 2 days of rest per-week so you don’t suffer from pole burnout!
Read: How To Get Better At Pole Dancing
In Preparation For A Competition Or Performance
If you’re preparing for a pole competition or performance, you’ll need to stick to a very strict schedule in order to stay on track.
Before my first ever pole dancing performance as part of a Hallowe’en show, I practised every day for the week leading up to it. 2 days beforehand, I pulled a muscle in my arm.
It wasn’t serious, and it only took a day or so to heal (pole dancing makes your muscles very resilient) but I had to miss group practice and the final day of practice before the performance itself.
That made me more nervous about the actual performance than I should have been because I missed those final days of practice and I shouldn’t have overdone it.
As a Pole Dance or Fitness Instructor
As an instructor, it can be challenging to get a complete workout during a pole dancing class that you’re teaching.
When you’re teaching, there’s so much to think about – we’re often responsible for many different students and we have to spend time demonstrating moves over and over again,
It can be very difficult to get a full and complete workout when you have so many students to support.
Therefore, it’s important that busy pole dance instructors leave time in their schedules to practice for themselves. Perhaps you could meet up with fellow instructors to share ideas with each other too?
Coming Back To Pole After A Break?
Great news! After a long break from pole dancing, you should consider yourself a beginner for the first few weeks – just while your muscles re-familiarize themselves with the movement of pole dancing!
Not to worry though – your muscles have something called muscle memory, that won’t take long to return, so you’ll be back to your usual upside-down-self in no time!
All in all, it’s your decision how often you should practice. You know your body and its limits better than anyone else. As long as you don’t push yourself too hard and stay motivated!
Read more: Tips for going back to pole dancing after a long break
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