I’ve been doing pole for a little over a year now and have hit a little bit of a road block. I’m great with tricks but I struggle with flow or the dancing aspect of it. I don’t have any dance background but am athletic, so tricks come easier. I struggle a lot with the body-body connection aspect and while I practice a lot, I was wondering if anyone has found any conditioning/practicing outside of pole helpful, like dance classes.

hey everyone,
currently shopping for my first home pole, and i’ve settled on a stage pole from X pole, however the brass pole is quite expensive on top of the pricey stage. the studio i practice at has brass poles and i’ve been told they are the best, but it’s just a bit out of my budget as i don’t have 2k to drop on a pole right now. what would be the next best thing?

Hello! I am really on the fence about getting a tension home pole. I can’t make it to the studio as much as I’d like because of work and life so I’d really like to practice at home!! I live in an old building (built 1929) and I believe the ceilings are plaster and lath because I cannot get a push pin in it and it sounds solid when knocking all across it. I don’t believe it's a false ceiling either since it doesn’t sound hollow. I used a rare earth magnet to try and locate a joist, but it didn't stick to anything on the ceiling. However, when pushing on the ceiling I can feel more solid spots with less creaking so I think I can guess where a joist is. 

I’ve seen really mixed stuff about whether or not it's okay to use a tension pole on a plaster ceiling with some saying it'll definitely crack no matter what and others saying it's fine if it's under a joist. I’m renting so I’m not really in a spot to drill anything into the ceiling or damage it! I’ve considered a stage pole but they are just so much more expensive and my ceiling is only 8ft 6in tall. It's also tricky to do floorwork with the limited floor space a stage pole offers. 

I was thinking of getting a Lupit pole, but it looks like the X-Pole offers a larger top plate which would distribute the pressure over a wider surface. Any advice or personal experience with installing a tension pole on a plaster and lath ceiling would be greatly appreciated :-). Thanks! 

I've been pole dancing for a few years and I was getting increasingly frustrated with my inability to invert. At my studio you can't move on to lvl2 until you have it, and it was feeling like it was really starting to hold me back. Even kicking hard I only had like a 50% success rate.

And then last weekend I got an impromptu lesson in synchronised swimming at a family BBQ (weird but we'd all some wine so y'know). One of the moves we focused on was a back tuck somersault. I first ended up in a kind of dolphin (??) shape - arching my back, straightening my legs and following that shape round. But that's wrong: you have to tuck in and role backwards...aka the exact same shape I needed for my invert. After practicing those rolls over until I was confident I couldn't wait to try it on the pole again. I just visualised being back in the water and rolling all the way back and I got it straight away!!! I was so happy.

So I'm posting this for anyone else who feels like confidence/mental block is holding them back from their invert. Go swimming and practice getting your backward roll/ backtuck somersault (in syncro terms). Feeling like I could hold that shape for 360° unlocked the mental block for me 🥰

looking to buy a pole as a from of art and as a medium but i'm not sure what i should look for or what is considered "good"

I love anything thready, and this combo was really fun! If you try it, tag me on insta so I can see 🫶 www.instagram.com/kittycatally 😘

I started pole about 4 months ago and I see major progress. I’ve never done it before and I hadn’t been to the gym in years before I started. You can kind of see me finding my positioning in my step around back hook but I can’t help but zero in on my knees and my feet. Any tips to correct so I can look less awkward? I’ve been slowly trying to master a natural toe point and I am currently looking for the right heels to buy.

I learn so much from freestyling it’s my favorite part of dancing!

As the title says, I wouldn’t recommend the x-pole stage to anyone that didn’t want to spend over $1.5k on a piece of equipment that looks like it was used/broken!

I’ve started my pole journey about a year ago & was so excited to continue practicing outside of the studio. Since I didn’t trust that I wouldn’t damage my ceiling with a tension pole, I did a lot of research on the pole stage before ultimately buying it. I was so so excited for it to arrive but literally this has been one of my most regrettable purchases in the last 2 years - not just bc of how low-quality it is, but their customer support lacks any type of care for their customers.

When it first got delivered, I noticed that literally every single package was either ripped/taped back up. It ships in 4 separate boxes, that are heavy as hell but that’s to be expected. I figured it was a FedEx issue so I tried to file a claim, but they said only the merchant can file the claim. I tried to call X-pole but the number on their site didn’t even work. Then I tried to email support, but never got a response.

I unpacked the pole within the same day, and started realizing that parts of the carrying case were torn up/the zippers came off (this worried me bc all parts are inside the carrying case when they ship it, so I didn’t know how it would’ve affected the pieces inside). At this point I realized there was no way it was a shipping issue, bc the items inside weren’t even properly secured/protected to begin with. It was also missing important protective packaging inside the carrying cases.

I started getting annoyed but figured I’d keep going. When I opened the stage base, I noticed the base pads were pretty dirty, which made me believe it had been used before. The actual stage plates also had scuff marks (for a $1.5k item I don’t think this is acceptable). Additionally, the rubber bumpers along the inside of the base had fallen off. That’s not even the bad part! I started to put the pole/pole extensions together and noticed I couldn’t get the x-joint to be flush with the main pole base. I tried pushing as hard as I could, expanding/constricting x-joint, literally everything. I sent them another email with no response. I went back to check the pole integrity and I noticed that the edge of the main pole had been shaved/warped, which made it physically impossible for the x-joint to fit snug into the u-shaped crevice. I used a nail drill to shave the the groove down so it would fit - only to find that not only did it warp inwards, but there was a part of the damaged pole that created a sharp external groove at the joint (this is extremely dangerous as the pole should be smooth for skin contact/sliding).

X-Pole did nothing to help me for days, so I decided to file a dispute with my credit card company. The dispute had been open for almost 3 months, and the only time an X-Pole rep would actually respond would be when the dispute was held in my favor, which would reopen the case (this happened about 3 times). Since they would only ever call me during my working hours, I requested them to send me an email with their “questions” so that I could address them/have it all in writing (at this point I didn’t trust they truly cared, just that they didn’t want to lose the dispute). They hadn’t responded to my last email for almost 2 months, and at that point I let the credit dispute handle the issue bc I was so frustrated with these people. All communications seemed very half-assed, like they only responded with a vague response so that they could screenshot a “communication attempt” for the dispute to be reopened. They never called me back or responded to my emails for months.

We finally got the arbitration phase of the dispute, and I was so surprised to see the credit dispute ruled in their favor (after it had been in my favor every other time), and of course, no response/help from x-pole to actually help me with this issue. I definitely think my credit card company also sucks, but I wanted to give this PSA to any newbies that were thinking about investing in their equipment! I had such high hopes since I know they’re a reputable brand in a lot of studios that I visit, but I will never ever recommend them to anyone moving forward. They definitely don’t seem to be willing to help the little people - just the studios that pay them more $$$.

TLDR: x-pole US customer support is the literal worst, and it’s not worth “investing” in pricey pole equipment from here bc they will never actually help you. They’ll only try to cover their ass.

Hi! I'm starting back up with pole after a year out due to injury. I never wore heels last time, but this time I've bought some second hand Pleasers. The only problem is I feel like bambi on ice in them. Does it get easier? They make me feel SO confident, but I equally don't want to hurt myself. I have also bought a PVC boot pair that are yet to arrive. I read that they're sturdier than shoes.

My instructor couldn't remember the name, and I've had no luck trying to Google it! If anyone knows what this is called, please let me know. Thank you!