This is the transcript of our Episode 6: Meet Paulina, Pole Coach and Performer from Pole On The Call that aired Thursday, February 10, 2022.
You can watch this episode on YouTube, or listen to it on Spotify, Apple Music, or your favorite podcast service.
Follow Paulina on Instagram: @russianamericanpoler
Paulina’s pole career has started in 2014 with an introductory class taught by Makeda Agada at the London Academy of Pole. She is the gold medalist at the Division 3 Northeast Pole Championships 2016.
Paulina trains with the 2015 National Pole Champion Maggie Ann at Paradigm Pole Fitness in Worcester and in MyPoleSpace studio in St Petersbourg, Russia. Paulina has also trained in studios in Moscow, Tokyo and Paris. She is a founding member of the UMASS Dynamic Motion Dance Team.
Mentioned in this interview:
Video of the Paulina's piece "Therefore I am / Следовательно я существую" https://www.instagram.com/tv/CP1G0Gqo-vN/
Paulina Reviews Different Hand Grips: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CRuMceaItND/
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Hey everyone it’s me Cris Rivers from Pole on the call and I’m Mændy Mac,
and today we’re going into episode six where we be interviewing miss Paulina.
Hi everyone I’m Paulina, I love it also so, Mændy do you want to start off and go into you can you can find Paulina on Instagram @russianamericanpoler and we’ll list her Instagram and all the other ways you can follow her. But Paulina is one of our amazing teachers at Pole in the Wall and she’s been with us from the very beginning, and even before then we’ve been pulling with her for so long and she’s just so amazing so we’re excited, to learn a little bit more about Paulina and what makes Paulina a pole dancer and other things as well.
Oh lord almighty so with that long intro, Paulina the first question how long have you been pole dancing ?
So I’ve been polling since 2014 which makes it which makes it essentially eight years in September which I don’t know where the time went it goes by so fast.
Yeah that’s amazing and did you always know that you wanted to teach pole or did you just like, where did you think pole was going to take you at the beginning.
Well that’s that’s actually one of my favorite stories about pole I um which starts not with pole at all, it starts with uh running I used to work a job that had really really long hours and I always liked a workout that not just makes you sweat it, makes you tired because then I sleep better and I had no other time but run and no other time but for running because you know it’s easy have your shoes and you just go essentially so I decided to train for a marathon. But I was not entirely body smart at that point so I didn’t do anything else I just run.
I was like no you know I’m not 30 yet I can just run and I actually ended up getting hurt I ran a marathon, but then I ended up getting hurt in my hip. I had like this sharp shooting pain where I couldn’t run anymore and so this big part of my life all of a sudden was removed right.
I really love eating and I love working out those, two things right so and you know the gym workouts weren’t cutting it and I started looking for something else to do and someone said hey you should try pole dancing it’s it’s a whole body workout I’m like do I look like a stripper to you I mean where are you trying to tell me to go the last time I’ve seen a pole dancer was in the club and my actually my boss paid for a lap dance at that time. I like I did not see an actual fitness person doing pole for fitness ever. I didn’t know that existed at that time and I was like not for me thank you.
Though I appreciate it so when I did get hurt I remember that conversation and I was living in london at that time and I went into london it’s london pole dance academy um near near the near not far from london bridge. And I took my first class and I thought oh my god this is like the best thing in the world, I don’t know why more people aren’t doing it. Everybody there essentially came to work out I mean it wasn’t a club right.
I entered I didn’t know what to expect I thought it was going to be a club with lights and everything no it was just like a bunch of people working out men women professional whatever like from all walks of life all shapes and sizes. I was like I can’t believe this is so amazing why isn’t everybody talking about it and I was like oh no people did talk to me about it, I just didn’t believe it existed .
I just got really really excited because it combined everything I loved right, combined movement of my dance, artistic expression, and it really was a whole body workout.
I mean like who knew we had muscles like right here and like right there and like on your back, like weird spots right, and like my whole body ached the next day.
I was like I love this, I want more of that so I i just, I i tried learning as fast as much as I could and then yeah that first class was like, I want to teach this one day. This is so much fun, I just love the way it was like how how well all the students were supported, and how excited the instructor was I’m like she really is excited, she loves this, I mean I love this too. I want to teach this one day so yeah it was like kind of love at first sight for me.
I love it, yes awesome thank you for sharing that!
Excellent, well you said that you got into it too from running, did you have a I think you had like a former background in dance?
I did do some dance.
I wasn’t one of those people that was like oh yes I did ballet since I was three, that wasn’t, that wasn’t me.
I always, was absolutely enamored by dance, but my family actually didn’t have that much money and means to put me through a dance schoo,
Even though I was born and raised in nursing, that’s kind of like what russians girls, do uh but we didn’t really have the right resource and a scout looked at me and said my bones were too big or too wide, and they’re like it’s not going to cut,like that’s not the look we’re afte.
Which actually, right now if you look back it would have been a pretty decent fit, because you do need a pretty good frame to be on point but in either case I didn’t. I didn’t it didn’t work out, and I wanted to dance the entire time, because I’m actually clumsy as a person, like I i will walk into that door if it’s open face.
Like right here, it will happen over and over again, like all the doors, all the furniture has known my wrath, I literally have bruises from walking into places, into things so.
I’ve always wanted to dance because I’m like, yeah I know I can move but you know I’m just, I was a little awkward and it wasn’t until we moved to the states, where I was a junior in high school, I started, you know there was an opportunity to play a sport so I started trying things out in terms of movement and in terms of a little bit of dance class.
Because when back when I was in Russia, unless you did ballet from age three,you couldn’t really do it recreationally. It was like you either do it to be a professional, or you don’t do it at all.
Right now it has changed but, back when I was born it was still soviet union, so it’s kind of like either you do it or you don’t at all. So when I moved here, I started exploring a little more dance and when I got to college, I started taking some dance class.
I also explored a lot of salsa, some ballroom, but I did salsa for a number of years and then I auditioned and got into one of the UMASS Amherst dance teams, that just started in fact like proud to say I’m one of the founding members of the dynamic motion dance team.
But that’s where I learned most of movement, because I had very little experience beforehand, so it was mostly in college. I would say that I started moving and understanding anything and everything about dance so I haven’t taken my first ballet class until I was like probably 22 or something 21.
That’s incredible, wow oh yeah, well Cris you want to take the next question
Okay so let me see.
What was the first, what is your competition experience, and I guess what was your favorite experience with competing?
Does this call have any like time limits? Because this might be a really long answer....
But okay, so you’ve asked what is say that one more time, because I just started going on tangents in my mind.
I guess like what kind of competitions have you been in, what do you have experience with and I guess what was your favorite one.....
oh did she disappear
I didn’t I’m right here. uh so uh let’s see so I have done quite a number. of PSO competitions, starting from level two all the way to level five. In terms of accolades, I’ve placed in level two three and four .
I’ve just yet to place on level five, and I think my very first level two competition, was actually maybe Mændy’s very first level two. I think Mændy and I both maybe was it, New York,
It was New York,
It was on the stage yeah yeah, when I was on the stage , I’ve always competed in artistic, or what used to be called dramatic, and I would say that you know probably the biggest rush, there’s nothing like the first time you take the stage right?
I mean it’s just, I think that’s that was the the biggest one in terms of, oh wow I should do that again , how many more times can I do it?
Today like I really want to come back, and you know if you weren’t hooked on Pole before, like and if then then you certainly are now, right?
I mean like if this doesn’t get you really in love with Pole, if you weren’t before then I don’t know what will because it’s just you know the community is incredible everybody’s so supportive. You know you get to explore your artistic self, you get to have an audience, and you get to really grow right?
Because there’s nothing like, knowing hey I have reserved this time in my life to train, to have this experience on stage, there will be people looking at me, also paid for my ticket. There’s nothing like that, to make you work and train harder, and more discipline.
Really everything else is like, yeah my New Year’s resolution, you know if you want a New Year’s resolution, sign up for a competition. Trust me you’ll work harder than you ever have before, so you know that’s kind of why I do it right.
I mean it just makes me a better athlete, and a better artist and a better mover. Just certainly you , you certainly won’t be bored right?
And then I guess my favorite, probably one of my favorite, routines was the one I did to Schindler’s List that was, I think level three a while ago. Just really a lot of things matched up, both like my tricks level was matching the level I was competing at, and I felt like the choreography really spoke, and kind of took it home.
It was kind of all in one, and then, yeah and I think like anybody and everybody who wants to grow, should at some point sign up to get some stage time. Because there’s nothing like it, there’s really nothing like it, definitely.
Thank you, yeah and and you’ve also coached a lot of students for competitions too, and you’ve led our competition session classes too. You lead everyone and help everyone for the big day.
What do you, what advice do you have for competitors, what is like one bit of advice you can give?
Well let’s see...
I think, do it for you is the one thing that I keep giving myself as advice, and everyone else really, I mean yes there’s going to be people, yes there’s going to be judges no matter what level you’re doing, but really you’re not really doing it for anyone else.
You know if you’re if the only reason why you’re doing it is to win, you may not be in the right place because you know it is really such a small part of what the competition is. Because the biggest, the biggest part of competing is the preparation, is all the run throughs, is doing it when you no longer feel like doing, it is you know, you know, pushing through one more time.
That is really what it’s about, and if you’re not doing it for you you’re probably not going to have as much fun but if you’re doing it for you and you’re doing it for your growth, you know for your own history for your, you know just growing to be a better poler you’re going to have a blast, because the trajectory is incredible and you’re going to be super proud and that’s really what counts.
Yes definitely I agree.
Do you have any more questions about competitions Cris?
About competitions....
About competitions, no, I don’t think so, you asked about advice, that’s it for competitions, yeah that was my last competition question.
Do you want to go into another one?
Yeah sure, so I know you have work with MyPoleSpace, can you tell the pole community, about that work?
Sure , so let’s see, so I’ve done some translation, for MyPoleSpace English portal, and I’ve been very fortunate to have been able to go to MyPoleSpace and actually take class there, and last spring I was out of this world fortunate to have been invited to their end of the year show in St. Petersburg and perform with a very very large paper roll.
Uh which it was probably by far the coolest number I’ve ever done, so if you’re talking about like what is my favorite time on stage, that was probably it, and it was also the longest it was over five minutes long. I believe maybe even six, so it was an incredible experience.
I mean everything MyPoleSpace does, it comes out pretty amazing, if you look at their teachers and their instructors and their students, everybody’s like feels like everybody walks in water , when you get there.
It’s kind of true because, it’s like people do amazing stuff there, but it’s a really great community, and it’s both you know online, and in person. They have two schools now one in St. Petersburg, one in Moscow and they do quite a bit of material online as well. Unfortunately mostly in Russian, but maybe one day that will change so yeah.
We could definitely add that instagram handle for other polers down in the comments below for anyone listening and watching.
Definitely, yeah there’s a lot, there’s a lot of tutorials there, that are super great both for heels dance and tricks and articles on just general body wellness and aerial wellness and flexibility and things like that.
Is that linked to your performance still available too ?
Yeah it should be on my profile, I’ve uploaded it into IGTV so it should be .
I definitely want to include that one as well, yeah if you need it let me know and then
so what is your favorite style of pole?
Uh probably contemporary for me personally.
But then I keep getting seduced into heels, it’s because it’s really hard to stay away so there’s always this once a year time where I’m like oh yeah.
I’ve been on heels for a long time this is fun, oh wow that’s a lot of work so I tend to go through these kind of moments but you know something that I just naturally gravitate towards is contemporary since you know it’s been a couple years, but I’ve done a lot of ballet work just so you know. For toning and understanding lines and things like that, and that kind of naturally brings me over to contemporary.
I feel like they’re very connected in many ways, and I feel like that’s just so transferable to pole, not that any other movement isn’t, every other movement is, it’s just something that I don’t know, just kind of like a natural fit for me .
Personally it’s like cross training what do you do besides pole, or do you do anything else well?
I do , I try to do at least three times a week, I try to do a flexibility session and I split it up by splits, middle splits and back flexibility so just allow an hour for each.
Something I should be doing it, but I haven’t so far but I’m doing a lot of should be doing a lot of rehab for my shoulders, and I’ve been kind of sweeping that under the rug a little bit. But I do need to come back to that and in my, you know with all things being equal I would do at least a half hour of rehab for each pole training session for my shoulders because they’re just really soft and they they have an easy time getting out of socket without me even knowing it happened.
So for folks like that you need to keep that joint nice and stable, and then I try to either take class or do ballet at home I actually have a bar I try to do that once a week mostly bar things just to get those muscles working nice yeah it’s fun.
It’s fun try it.
Lots of, lots of good stuff .
I love it yeah, I’m just I’m just a big fan of lines in general and I think that’s something that pole kind of introduced me to. I mean you can always go to a dance show or you know a ballet performance or a circus show and be like wow that’s pretty but understanding, wow that’s a beautiful line or understanding how an artist used the body to get their point across is just like a whole other level.
And I feel like with pole it allowed me to really start understanding body movement and, just in a whole other kind of like a whole new universe, so now when I go see any kind of performance, it has to do body motion I’m like wow, all right so there’s this whole other world out there that you’re just not aware of until you kind of start getting intimately familiar with it.
Yes I agree.
Well do you want to, I have a few more questions unless you want to go next Cris?
Yeah I could go, what is either your favorite pole trick or what was like your pole nemesis, and you’re so proud of?
That all right..... well two things come to mind and I’m going to have to do talk about two things, so because of my shoulders that are soft and probably if I was a little younger they would have been called double jointed ....but they’re definitely very soft.
I couldn’t jump into a handspring from a floor until year four in my training...... it was not just a nemesis it was just something I didn’t even know was possible for people like me . My shoulders would just wobble they couldn’t stay in place at all, and it took a lot of rehab it took actually an extra year of going to the gym and understanding how Lats work because I didn’t even know I had them.
I just could ....like all I had instead of Lats were Ribs like..... I could just feel my ribs through my back and that was it I thought everybody was like that..... but no that’s just me. So understanding how Lats work ....how to you know..... how to work the shoulder ......how to really feel it. Had a lot to do with that..... so there’s a lot of education in between and normally you know usually like people with regular shoulders would probably get into jumping into their handspring sometime in the first or second year.
It took me literally twice or three times or four times as long as some people so that was definitely one and then another move was Janeiro which had a completely opposite story . I got into it very fast like I tried it a couple of times and then I got into it ....that was before I had hand muscles or back muscles I got into it because I could just fold .......because again soft muscles in the back just kind of folded into it but it was......you know I couldn’t get out of it any other way ......but just kind of folding on top of myself and dropping on the floor .
Then once I started working on strength and really being mindful about how my body works all of a sudden I realized I was stronger but I couldn’t get into Janeiro anymore. I couldn’t get into Janeiro for a year..... I just I couldn’t understand it as if like I have this new body now...... or at least new awareness but Janeiro isn’t just a part of my universe anymore like...... he used to be able to get into it because he had no muscles now you have muscles but no Janeiro for you.....
And so it took a while .....it took a while to understand how to properly engage the back and how to get back into it . I don’t want to say that I’m now proud to like be an owner of Janeiro for the rest of my life..... but it’s just one of those things where I had it for a year, maybe two years and it was gone for a couple years..... just completely gone..... and I was really frustrated but it’s back this far. It’s back so far, hasn’t left yet.
I love it thank you for that.
Right though like pole is a journey though, like sometimes the moves are there and sometimes they’re not and like where do they go.
It just, you know I haven’t started until I hadn’t started poling until I was 30 and that’s after having two children and having run a marathon and have had a sitting job for a while so my body had a lot of things in its history that weren’t necessarily conducive to active movement in the air and you know I think each of us comes to pole with our own body history.....and we’re not always aware of it.
You know so when you’re giving a challenge like that.... that essentially you know I like to say Janeiro kind of moves your organs around , yeah it feels like the first time you get it right it’s you know it’s it just kind of puts your whole like physical part of your life in perspective I feel like.
Well that kind of leads into you talked a little bit about it but maybe you can get a little bit more about like your pole training style and your philosophy.
My pole training style, my philosophy let’s see.... it ain’t over until it’s over . For some reason the only thing that comes up into my mind right now, which I don’t even know why. But let’s see I really love routine for myself, personally you know I’m okay to get up at six in the morning on a Monday which is coincidentally something I do and just know that this is the time for me this is my pole time.
I can go and work really really hard and I feel great for the rest of the day, because I feel the body has worked. I feel like the day isn’t wasted ,you know. If I do pole that day, I feel like I haven’t wasted a day. I don’t know I know it’s crazy and a little bit insane, but that’s how it feels to me if I’ve moved in the air and if I touch the steel pipe I actually feel like the day was worth living .
I know it’s not the only thing that makes me feel that way but it just, I love if I can I love to train in the morning, for that reason because you know it takes, it takes up a lot of energy .
I also something I’ve added recently to my training is five minutes of movement improvisation right. Before I start it just really gets me being aware of every part of the body and I don’t know if it’s again me getting older sooner than I was expecting, or it just may be a very good warm-up tool or even a cool-down tool to really, just you know isolations are not, you know movement across the floor or not it’s just, you know if you put a song and think like,....... hey I want to just figure out how my shoulders feel today and just do that for five minutes or you know...... hey I just want to figure out like has there been a muscle I haven’t moved today yet and not worry about how it looks .
You’d be surprised not just how well you warm up especially now that it’s cold , you know you get a little sweaty which is perfect because you kind of stick to the pole..... at least for me they kind of stick to the pole a little bit and you’d be amazed . Like for me it actually helped my tricks quite a bit because I’m, I feel like warm head to toe I feel very warm, aware and kind of tuned in so that’s been helping quite a bit ......and then as far as the philosophy goes you know.....
I think I give better advice than I take myself so like, I will always say you know listen to your body make sure that you know if you’re tired you probably need a break there’s a good reason for that. I’m actually not good at listening to that at all and in fact I’ll go as far as saying that doing pole consistently teaches me that lesson year after year after year .....what it’s what I tell my students I can’t tell myself but I learn it because if I get injured .....I’ll be like you idiot.... don’t you know this you should know this by now.... it’s been eight years..... each year you learn the same damn lesson.
It’s like if you’re over trained you’ll get hurt because you’re not paying attention to things so I end up learning that lesson every year because I end up getting a minor injury somewhere around my shoulder or somewhere else every year . This year has been an exception thus far, because I’ve tried this new thing called uh rest a little bit so actually this Monday I drove to the studio I walked in and I realized I’m exhausted and I turned the lights off turn the heat off and drove home which was a true first .
I really didn’t know how to do that so it took me about eight years to.
But to be true to be told , like if you’re actually well recovered you will get to your dream tricks faster, than if you are training while completely exhausted. I know that to be true, I’ve seen it in students that is what I say to all my students and it’s just , I just I have a hard time doing that myself.
I really do and that’s kind of my main challenge, and I feel like you know I won’t get to where I need to get in pole until I really learn that lesson so maybe maybe this year is it maybe maybe, that’s what will happen right, know the rest is practice right?
Right I think discipline and practice is key consistency, is key absolutely but again understanding that you know our progress is never this way it’s always this .... like kind of you how you have the dips and it’s important to know once you’re in a dip you actually may need to skip a practice and sleep for more than you thought, because actually you know depending on what you train, but if you train a lot of tricks that are scary for you, you actually need even more sleep, because that takes up a lot of energy, is doing things that are like actually actively like super scary and that could be different things for different people .
But it was like if you if you got out of the train, you’re like wow that was an emotional workload . You probably need an extra hour sleep that night.
Yeah I agree Paulina, I’m glad you shared that with us because I’ve you’ve always been an inspiration for me.... I always like the way that you have advanced so much in pole and I I’ve seen you, you know we’ve grown together and you just like it’s so amazing to just watch you ....
And to you and to be able to see you from you doing heels, man what you do in heels I love watching I’m like that looks amazing and that took so much work that that was incredible and still is.
Well what are your plans for the future in pole?
Oh boy so let’s see, I am in school and employed full-time and also have two teenagers in the house so my number one goal is to not stop no matter what .
I just, you know I not that I can’t live without pole but truth to be told, if I don’t pole I do get pretty depressed.... so I just love it too much to stop. I really want to continue the road, the trajectory that I’ve been on.
But you know one thing I’ve been really curious about, and I think Mændy you and I talked about it a little bit is really finding that your own voice, your own style and movement and combining it aerially has been a focus this year ....and I just really would like to continue exploring it .... you know and if I was to guess that probably will appear somewhere in between pole and contemporary fusion .
But it’s hard to say and you know it just feels so many things become more true, if I may say you know so many tricks just kind of really land on nicely in a body ....once you’re aware and once you’re speaking of your true self, right once you’re not just like oh this trick looks amazing on instagram I must do it too ....right, once you don’t come from that space but once you come from a space of.... let me see what feels good and perfect that right, and obviously, obviously you do also need to train a certain base level of tricks that just makes you grow as an artist as an as an athlete because you know if you’re not growing in strength you may not be able to do all the things you like and really want to.
But I think when you’re doing both that’s really key and I focused a lot on tricks last year and I i want to, focus more on like movement exploration this year and then we’ll see what happens. I kind of look at it year after year right, because I have a couple of performances in the year and I’m like yeah that feel good that that felt like a groan or yeah that was I did my best but it didn’t feel like me, so I want to add some things and see kind of how that goes yes I hope that answers your question .
I guess my next question, because I don’t want to take up any more of your time is can you go into a little bit about the difference that you’ve seen in Russian pole dance, like pole dancing in Russia and pole dancing here in the United States.
That’s a really good question I and I’ve been thinking about it for some time and if I may.... I’m going to add one more dimension to it ...
Of course ,there’s a really big difference between dancing in a big city and dancing not in a big city. When you’re in a big capital type city, there’s just so many more levels and there’s just so so much more, so many more options to choose from .....and I feel like you know, anybody and everybody who loves pole at some point should go to a city that’s , you know big and tried just different pole studios because......
I kind of that’s what I do when I travel, it’s really fun it’s just like oh yeah let’s check out what they got for both here. But you know if you’re, and so with that in mind you know we’re in Springfield, Mass.... and what we do for pole really differs say what New York does or LA does or like Melbourne, Australia does.
Right , so in that sense there’s that difference right, because when I when I do go to Russia I tend to go to either Moscow, St Petersburg, which are you know arguably you know capital type cities. But what I have noticed you know if you were to compare say you know poleing in New York and poleing in Saint Petersburg...... I noticed that because Russia has a subsidized set of schools for kids that are essentially mostly financed, by the state, where say if you’re six years old and you’re like yes I want to be a rhythmic gymnast, you get to go to this like olympic prep school and it’s affordable right?
It’s not like here where you have to like drive to the gym for like 45 minutes, out no the kid in that city can get there by public transportation after school and even if they don’t get to be a part of like the olympic reserve they still have, they they have grown so much as an athlete I mean the methods may be questionable but that’s the fact .
Like there’s this huge base same thing for ballet yeah if a kid is like I really want to do ballet seriously there’s a prep school for that for sure, and then now with you know Russia being in a very different place than when I left in the 90s . There’s a ton of recreational stuff that’s also really affordable and it is consistently available .
Like it would in any big city but specifically for Russia, there’s a really strong background in rhythmic and in ballet.... so I’ve noticed that a lot of those people matriculate into pole later on so they decided to not go into the industry, or maybe they didn’t do it because they wanted to do it perfect, whatever but they tend to find pole and or you know otherwise trained professionally in dance..... and oh my gosh I mean the things they can do there is truly incredible .
There is also however this whole new movement in fitness industry in general that has realized like hey you can’t actually do the same thing you do to kids say in ballet and rhythmic as you should do to adults in fact maybe what you do is not good anyway , you know all those like extreme methods but to adults you certainly can’t do it because they’re skilled and it’s developed so you can’t like force them into a split right, and that is also kind of making a really informed practice with like this already amazing level of kind of like body awareness that that people have.
So I feel like you know the finance of performance is, I’ve consistently seen it to be on another level like even in competitions, a lot of people do IPSF there, and but artistically also like a lot of there used to be this, art competition in Cyprus where a lot of people from Russia would go and you would see some just incredible outstanding artists..... and again because of this like general level of I don’t want to say fitness, but like artistic movement awareness because of a huge network of schools .
I feel like like the whole level is just like it’s just a different, it’s just a different ballgame in a way , which again is a joy to be around because when you do go it’s like most people are there to teach the adults who haven’t done anything at all which is great because you know you can learn so much.
That’s awesome thank you for sharing that .
That’s yeah
Yeah we’ll set up a trip, I’ll lead it .
I was gonna say especially for those of us who can’t travel, yeah I’m yeah listen ....
I’ll I’ll I’ll set this all up no problem yeah I would love to experience pole studios in other countries and everything. That’s awesome I feel like here it’s not talked about like it should be, well I mean another thing that’s really important Russia actually recognized pole as an official sport.
Wow that’s awesome ...
It happened with us here, say that again ....what’s wrong with us here you sure this call is not timed because if we start on that next year’s movement.... yeah and you know there are there are athletes who train pole specifically for international competitions .
That are kids that instead of going into rhythmic or ballet or maybe they did some of that at first they go into pole and they, you know they show some amazing results too ..... definitely....
Right like can you imagine if because I have a similar story Paulina that there was no resources available for me to train, when I was younger even though I wanted to be a dancer but can you imagine if there was we would be so good.
You know I just
I don’t know if i’d want it as much if I had it though you know as well, I don’t I don’t know , but I’m just grateful to be able to move you know and at 38 kind of where I’m at it’s like ....
Yeah I’m pretty sure I can do things that most 38 year olds can't, you know got to be happy with that because it’s not like you’re getting another body and like oh in 10 years here’s a new one that’s all you got so you could do, half people half your age can't right.
That’s true that’s so true.
Yeah you said you had a funny question, does it involve it?
Like a wrap it up question since you brought it up earlier, Paulina and he was representing your your relations to pole what is your favorite pole grip, that you like to use and how do you use it ?
So I do like dry hands as kind of the everyday um similar I brought this up.
This one seems to work really well, as a base layer for my feet because believe it or not but anytime I learn a trick on my right foot. It’s okay but my left foot just sweats, because I’m not as confident um this is what really good for me.
Personally as a base layer now I don’t have particularly super dry or super sweaty skin, so it’s kind of average. And I think for everybody it’s it’s different I’ve used also this in the past which is a grip I brought from Russia, a liquid chalk and that, that tends to dry a little too much for me but sometimes again on the feet it works like a charm.
So kind of going in between these three, but right now in the winter my skin has turned to be drier than usual I don’t know if we’re having a drier winter, but to be honest I’m also carrying an oil-free lotion with me, so if I’m sliding especially in my knee pits, because I can’t grip, because it’s too dry, that does the trick too.
It just sticks me right to the pole, so I know it’s not a grip and I know we normally say do not use lotion, that is all true however if you have extremely dry skin that may that may do trick too yes.
And I know you also went into super in depth about different grips in another like an instagram story yes, I did,I think it’s IG tv on a MyPoleSpace English page about grips, and we talked about all kinds of grips.
I actually got a sample of all of them, before we started and yeah I think that’s still available.
Oh perfect I was gonna ask, and then we can link up that too, definitely excellent because I know a lot of people like that DUI liquid chalk that you had and it’s yeah, I would say like you know if you’re talking about you know the difference between polers in Russia and polers here in the states, that’s one thing that I see widely being used in Russia that I don’t see a lot of here.
Its a grip based on magnesium, I don’t see a lot of it here, but I see a lot of it this type of grip and you can see the ingredients, the it’s magnesium carbonate is one of the first ingredients or just magnesium something.
It’s that drying agent that’s the chalky type, I don’t see a lot of people use here use it here, I don’t know if there’s a reason for that but just the grips are, you feel like you, get you get to a Russian pole studio and the grips are totally different.
Also poles we have 48 millimeter poles here in, mistake I think oh 45 yeah 45 we have 45 millimeter poles, but in Russia a lot of people train on 42s, yeah I’ve seen that they’re smaller , and they’re great well if you’re training any kind of like strength tricks, amazing like if you’re training handsprings, your hand wraps more and it actually you’re like ,wow I’m so strong is this the airplane ride that did it.
No it’s the 42 millimeter pole but, like 45s anything that’s like based on a knee grip or an armpit grip anything, that’s thicker that it is like oh yeah this is way more comfortable when you have like a grippy trick, as opposed to a strength-based trick. That would make more sense, because I’m just spoiled using the 45 millimeter like all the time and not thinking that there would be other ones to use for different purposes.
Well I mean it depends you know, like I think also 42 millimeter is really popular in other countries, in Europe as well,I think a lot of people like it and a lot of people you know also do spin only on on 42 for some reason.
But yeah yeah it’s nice it’s a nice change, when you train strength based tricks to be like oh yeah wow this really feels different it’s amazing how much like three millimeter difference ultimately, right because like I remember the 50 millimeter I started off, the leg felt great on that, it not no I couldn’t climb or anything ,I was just like but when you when you are in your leg hang, it feels like I guess so yeah you’re not gonna go anywhere but like try doing a shoulder mount with both cups on a 50, is going to be terrible right the reverse is true for 42, you’re like doing a shoulder mount like wow I’m so strong.
So good yeah that’s funny.
Well I think that’s that was all my questions Cris,
Yes I think that’s pretty much all mine too we were kind of going back and forth.
Thank you guys so much for having me it’s a true joy to talk about something I love so much with you.
Yeah we’re excited, I was so pumped to learn more about you and definitely get you out there, we’re gonna have your link to your classes below in the comments For any online or come in, this was so much fun.
Definitely likewise yeah thank you for coming out and taking the time to talk about... absolutely ....thank you guys so much.
All right have a good day you too Paulina.
Say hello definitely I would love that, thank you so much you guys thank you thank .
So thank you so much for for listening to this episode everyone, I’m Mændy Mac and I’m Cris Rivers and we are signing off!