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Sarah Scott ‘Off The Pole’ Core Endurance online training
Ladies, put away your sequins and get ready to sweat it out with strength training. This, of course, is another pastime of all of our instructors at Irish Pole Dance Academy!
This week it gives me great pleasure to introduce Sarah Scott’s ‘Core Endurance’ programme. Sarah Scott has been my go-to-professional for most things pole ever since she trained me up to become an XPERT instructor in 2013 at IPDA. She never fails to deliver in her performances, instructor training courses and master workshops. Her online studio is no different.
The ‘Off The Pole’ video series is packaged as strength and conditioning for pole dancers and is wholeheartedly welcomed by instructors and sensible students throughout the pole community. The ‘Core Endurance’ programme is a foundation series that develops both ability and strength to progress to subsequent levels on your pole journey.
It provides a comprehensive range of exercises that targets 8 different areas that make up the major and minor muscle groups involved in most pole tricks and spins. There are over 60 videos graded for beginner, intermediate and advanced students.
The general idea is to select 2-4 exercises to work on at a given time. This programme can be completed by even those with the most hectic of lifestyles and limited time. A huge plus is that this programme is exactly what it says on the tin; it is literally off the pole, no additional equipment required and thus no hidden costs.
Most of all, I love that it guides the learner from poor form to correct form in most of its movements. One of the biggest causes of injury in any activity is poor form and so in addition to developing strength and helping to push you through the dreaded pole plateaus, the ‘Off The Pole’ series helps reduce the risks of injury.
Sarah also encourages training these exercises on both sides and even starting with the weaker side which gives this programme a huge yes from me. Training both sides produces stability in your body and lowers the risks of injury as well as preparing your body for those all-important combo’s that are the mark of an experienced and competent poler.
Sarah is one of the most humble and frank instructors I have met in my pole Journey. Check out her own insights into the core endurance programme below
Pros:
- Pole specific: The series will help to build a foundation on which everything we need in pole grows from. If your ‘Core Endurance’ is strong then you can control your movements better, reduce the risk of injury and move in and out of tricks safely and effectively.
- Equipment: You don’t need a pole in your house to do this program! You can do it at home, the gym or the studio with no equipment required.
- Level: It doesn’t matter where you’re starting from – this program has lots of progressions so you have lots of room to grow
- Time: You can choose 2-4 exercises from the program which you hold for 1 min each – making the workout quick and simple enough not to keep you away from the pole for too long!
Cons:
- It’s not pole dancing: We love pole as its fun and conditioning can seem a little laborious. That’s another reason why Sarah created this program! There is a huge amount of information out there, but it can be confusing and is not always relevant to what we need for pole. Sarah hopes the ‘Off The Pole’ site can be a resource for Pole Dancers to find what they need without quickly and get great results ON the pole.
- It’s an extra cost: Pole is an expensive habit – between pole classes, workshops, events, competitions and of course clothing! I know conditioning won’t necessarily be a top priority for people, until you realise how important and helpful it can be – potentially saving you time and money elsewhere – e.g. through reducing injuries.
- It’s online and not face-to-face: Pole is all about community and forming bonds. Doing an online program can bring in some difficulties in accountability and feeling a little lonely! Sarah has a Facebook Group called ‘Off The Pole’ to help and keep the community feel. Everyone is super supportive and helpful and its open to anyone regardless of whether they have the program or not – there is up to over 11,000 members there!
Overall, I just cannot speak highly enough of this programme, it is a must on every lifer polers investments into safe and progressive training. I have been stalking Sarah since my XPERT training and those of you who take my classes know how much I love to kill your bodies with conditioning kindness before I let you near our poles. This I did not lick off the ground ladies, your progress thus far is testament to this. For me, there are no cons to this programme.
As a mom and a teacher, in between my job and my family life and my pole life (aka: your classes that I teach) I don’t always have a lot of additional time to train for me. Therefore, it is really important that I maintain my body in order to avoid injury as an instructor. I do this by incorporating small key movements into my everyday life, movements that don’t take up a lot of space or time and that can be executed more or less anywhere… Yes, I have been known to do sneaky squats during trips to the bathroom, body rolls while waiting for the bath to fill to name just a couple. It never ceases to crack me up watching my son imitate me and even bust out a few of his own ‘movements’..
I am often asked by students what they can do outside of the studio to help them become stronger and you all know how I jokingly reference how some of the movements I put you through at the studio can be done while engaging in everyday home activities. Through your giggles, I do hope you take me seriously. In any case, let me reiterate this teaching by saying that this program is the ideal starting place for furthering your strength outside of our pole classes at IPDA. It is key to learning how to engage your muscle groups and fire up those stabilisers.
The road that Sarah is paving with her online studio is a path we can and should all follow. Your body WILL thank you for it!!!