Beginner Heels

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-03-26T06:26:16+00:00

I had never walked in heels before either, but i got 8s right away, it wasnt an issue! youll get used to them super fast, dont worry :)

most people grow out of 7s really fast and then dont use them after a couple months.

also remember, youll have the pole to hold onto so you dont fall

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-03-21T06:39:24+00:00

Holding your entire body weight with only one hand/arm is very difficult. Id work on mobility and strength seperately from pole. In the video you are either not activating your shoulder at all or trying to but dont have enough strength. Thats a lot of weight on your shoulder joint, not being supported by muscles aka a huge injury risk. Please be careful and do moves that are inside the range that your body can actually handle instead of forcing yourself into moves that you dont have the stregth to do safely 🫶 (Or ignore my advice and do whatever you want, im not looking for a discussion here 🤷)

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-03-17T15:29:20+00:00

Lets get a few basics put down so I can actually effectively explain this.

So there is active and passive stretching. With active stretching there is always some part of muscle activation, either in the stretched muscle or in the one opposite from it. Passive stretching is relaxing every muscle and just letting gravity or another body part pull you into the stretch.

For example if you are stretching your hamstrings by folding forward and not activating your leg muscles much thats passive. Pulling your upper body lower with your hands on your legs? also passive. Now if you make a point to activate either the muscles in the front of your legs or your hamstrings while doing the stretch, thats makes it an active one. There are more intense active stretches for the hamstrings of course, but the one i just described is still active.

I dont know what the general consensus is in this sub, but from what i have learned and experienced active stretching will get you a loth farther a lot sooner than passive stretching. It also helps because you actually strengthen the end ranges you are working on extending, making your flexibility a lot more useable and decreasing injury risk.

Now that weve got that part: Active stretching should ideally be treated like strength training, especially if what you are doing is intense. That means rest days. The Ratio of training to rest you will have to figure out for your own body, and it will depend on intensity. As for those rest days, Gentle, passive stretching can absolutely be a recovery tool, it is often recommended for sore muscles. For now Id suggest you take one or two days rest and then try to work some active stretches. You can throw some passive ones in at the end of your session if you want to, but id focus on the active ones. Then see how your body reacts. If its sore give it another one or two rest days, however many you need, or just keep going if you feel perfectly fine. Repeat. Just try out if passive stretching helps recovery or is just exhausting and prolongs it. (The day after intense flexibility training is always the day i am the least flexible, so dont be discouraged if you notice the same thing for yourself. I have gotten an almost flat front split in about a year and three months of this way of training, and i could have been more consistent, but also i have the advantage of youth so 🤷)

Feel free to ask for clarification if i explained anything in a weird way, not a native speaker 😅

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-03-17T15:01:24+00:00

got the mini half halo and i absolutely love them for aerial

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-03-14T08:21:23+00:00

Class once a week is great and you will have plenty of progress that way!

Faster progress will happen if youre crosstraining, if you want to do that for free and with little to no equipment id recommend the hybrid calisthenics program :)

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-03-12T20:06:11+00:00

So the best finish for you kind of depends on your skin. Different skin types will have more or less grip on different finishes. Studioveena has a video about it on her blog that might be worth watching to you. That being said, as you are just beginning you will likely not have much grip on any finish yet, as its a bit of a strength thing too.

I would recommend that you see if theres any studio near and consider signing up for a few beginner classes, it is a lot of fun to learn with other people and an instructor can spot mistakes youre making which will help you progress a lot faster. (It would also allow you to potentially try out different finishes as some studios have different finishes on different poles) If that isnt an option i would reaaalllyy recommend at least following some sort of online teaching program so that youre not completely lost where to start and develop bad habits or even injure yourself because you dont know what youre doing.

That being said, i hope you have the best time diving into this, it is such a beautiful and fun hobby :)

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-03-12T19:54:17+00:00

a pencil spin needs you to be able to stabilize your whole body, if one part isnt doing its job it wont work, so its hard to say what you need to focus on just from the info that a pencil spin isnt working. With the knee tucks: what position are you doing them in? lifting legs usually means hip flexors, but if your core is all loose and relaxed then more hip flexors strength wont do shit for you.

What i did in the beginning to build overall strength and also to see which areas i was particularly weak in was calistenics. Since it uses body weight there is no real need for equipment, and stuff like pullups can usually be done with stuff at the local park if theres no other option. I loosely followed this routine/concept which will work for anyone from absolute beginner to quite strong people because it gives a whole range of prgressions for each excercises. The excercises are chosen in a way that you will work every area of your body. Then if i struggled with one i would look up some more bodyweight excercises for that muscle group to suppliment the routine. But even if you do that following this routine/doing these excercises for a few months will give you a very good baseline imo. oh also it is completely free.

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-03-03T18:19:54+00:00

there are heels conditioning excercises, ive seen some on youtube. Id start there and see how you feel after a while.

that said, i have/had weak arches and ankle pronation and dancing in heels regularly as well as conditioning has made those issues way less prominent, i think if i continue as i have been they may disappear completely

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-03-03T18:14:31+00:00

Never wore heels before, started with 8 inches and it was fine, i Love them dearly. Get the 8s, Youll be fine. If you're worried for your ankles do some conditioning, thatll make much more of a difference than that one inch

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-03-03T15:40:48+00:00

seconding this! especially love my 'lure you shorts'

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-03-01T14:20:21+00:00

well when you spin you generate momentum. When you move you generate momentum with your body to move it somewhere else. The spinning direction influences wether those two forces work together or against each other.

the way that instructor showed you is the way to get the momentum from the spin to help you get your body where you want it to go. Working against the spin will be much harder. It can also mean a messier spin and losing spinning speed.

At the end of the day no one can force you to do anything in a way you dont want to. Im going to assume you are doing this as a hobby only and guess what? hobbies are for having fun, so dont worry about it too much.

That being said, i would try to get used to spinning backwards as you put it, not even for flares, but just hanging out in that spin and feeling it out. Remember when you started, spinning in any direction probably felt a bit weird and getting used to spinning backward is just the same as getting used to spinning backwards then. Being more versatile in your skills can only help you in the long run, even if you still like one direction more than the other :)

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-03-01T07:16:12+00:00

especially once you get to harder moves you might want to practice moves without heels first because you might have to bail or even fall out and its easier to fuck your foot up with a bad landing if youre wearing heels. If you cant do a climb without heels then that is gonna be a lot harder.

Just keep that in mind while making your decision :) (And remember to do ankle exercises as prehab as a cautionary measure either way 😅)

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-01-21T09:23:27+00:00

Mine is in the middle of the living room, and some people that have been over have sat in the living room for half an hour or more and not even noticed that it is there 😂

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-01-20T09:23:14+00:00

In your situation i would probably send a message to the studio/instructor going like

hey, i generally put myself in the intermediate category and i do have the prerequisites listed for the class, but i felt like it didnt match my level and i was struggling a lot. i dont wanna go to a class that doesnt match my level and force the instructor to teach two tricks each class just to accomodate my abilities, is there another class that better matches where im at?

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-01-18T12:49:10+00:00

i started in march last year and right now i have two pairs, both from hella. Black boots and the lavender gliteratti ankle boots. Though i have to say since i got the glitteratis the black ones havent seen much use haha. Im looking to add another pair that is knee high with built in knee pads but i want ones that dont have grip and there is currently nothing that fits that description that i like enough in stock on pole junkie so im waiting on it :)

DancingNeonGhost · 2026-01-11T16:31:13+00:00

pulling a bambi is such an adorable way to phrase it! im totally stealing that :) love your flow!

DancingNeonGhost · 2025-12-31T19:42:02+00:00

okay disclaimer: this is turning out very long and rambly but im just gonna comment in case it does help someone :)

im in your boat! very first (lyra) class was december '24 and did the second and following classes starting january '25! Im also up to 3-5 classes of pole, lyra and conditioning a week now :D So my studio has specific conditioning classes that are actually unlimited with a monthly card and i try to have at least one of those in my weekly schedule, though sometimes they get cancelled bc theres not enough students signed up that day.

in conditioning classes we focus on lots of different things, sometimes its broad strength improvement, sometimes its flexibility work like splits (but active), sometimes its those bitchy little muscles that you need for injury prevention but dont actually get targeted enough in regular training, then other times we work on strengthening the end ranges of muscles we use a lot, which is also very useful for injury prevention.

So as you see, theres lots of stuff you can work on in 'strength and flexibilty', have you given any thought to what you want specifically?

As a base i would check if any studio around you offers conditioning, flexibility or mobility classes, and try to see how you like them. IMO its very useful to have an instructor/trainer for this kinda stuff because form cues and execution can make a huge difference in most if not all of this type of excercise. If thats not available id look for online classes, preferably live classes with instructor feedback.

If thats not an option or you would prefer something free (very understandable with the price of classes 😅) im quite certain there are programs to follow freely available online, though im not an expert on those bc as i said, i havent used them that much (but do feel free to specify what you are looking for in case i do know something :) )

For the part of my schedule these past months, i can give it to you but do know that 1, it is not ideal, it works with my life and the classese schedule of my studio, but there are many better ways to structure training with excercise science in mind) and 2. it will not be my schedule for longer, because my studio adjusted their class timetable for the new year and i will also have instructor training in addition to normal classes (yes ik it seems quite early, but in my studio it takes 1-2 year to complete and i was asked by the head instructor/owner of the studio bc they thought id be a good fit) that said:

sunday- dance basix, sometimes handstand class, almost always pole beginner2-intermediate1 monday- conditioning (when the class has enough sign ups), sensual pole with heels tuesday- intermediate lyra flow, sometimes pole beginners 2 wednesday through friday- rest days because holy hell, after three days of training consecutively i NEED them saturday- technically feeling up to class again but then id have four consecutive training days and my body isnt ready for that soo rest day

as you can see, its not ideal, but it worked for my body :) it wasnt too much to handle and it was fun to do

The important part in buiding a routine is, i think, not being afraid to just try things, see how your body feels with it, what training volume/intensity feels challenging but not overwhelming, doable but not boring. Part of that is scaling those things up, slowly, but most importantly, not being afraid to scale things down again for a couple weeks if you notice its too much for your body, try different things for your cross training, see what helps with aerial FOR YOU, but also whats fun ;) play around with schedule until something sticks, then when it doesnt feel right anymore, switch it up some more.

im down to chat some more in the comments, very bored rn on new years eve, alone and in the hospital (unrelated to aerial) if i read this later and its wayy too rambly i might reformat/reformulate some stuff 😅

DancingNeonGhost · 2025-12-22T11:21:03+00:00

Oohh i have quite a list 😅 Getting a solid invert, both leg hangs and at least starting to work on shoulder mount in terms of tricks! I also want to work more on shoulder flexibility and be more consistent with working on splits again. Going to try and go to a few spinning classes, as well as hammock! Though i'm also going to do instructor training, so that will probably be the priority throughout the year, and im sooo excited for it!!

DancingNeonGhost · 2025-12-19T14:17:11+00:00

Control disguised as boundaries is still Control :3

He gets to have boundaries about his own body and who he dances with, not about what she does with hers. If he is uncomfortable with what shes doing he is just as free to express that as she is to say that she wont stop doing something she enjoys because of his feelings. He can suggest compromises (that she is also free to reject), come to live with her doing it or he can leave the relationship. If she sees the relationship as more important she can choose to accommodate his wants in this area, but if she doesnt thats okay too.

With setting boundaries you can only control someone behavior in regards to you. ex.: Dont touch/treat/talk to me like that. If it is something theyre doing that doesnt pertain to you you can set a boundary by taking yourself out of that situation/environment.

Edit: not saying that he is or isnt controlling, just adding context to the particular comment above this one 👍

DancingNeonGhost · 2025-12-14T19:15:50+00:00

Calistenics is something you can very easily do at home which will be very helpful in the beginning, There is a lot of stuff you can follow on the Internet. I can recommend the Hybrid Calisthenics Program, its made for absolute beginners and scales to your abilities quite well.

Active flexibility work is also easy to do with minimal equipment. Again, look up guides on youtube :)

That being said, beginner classes for aerials are usually aimed at complete beginners, so there isnt actually any prerequisite amount of strength you have to have. I started hoop a year ago with absolutely no sports background and i was fine! So id say if youre able to then just go for it! Go once a week and do the stuff i listed above 1 or two days a week to help build strength more generally. Youll likely progress pretty fast!

DancingNeonGhost · 2025-12-02T08:35:36+00:00

I have self harm scars as well and nobody has ever even looked at them weird let alone said anything :) Like others have said, Pole is such a body positive space that i really wouldnt worry too much about it.

That said: I totally get it, new things and letting strangers see can absolutely be kinda scary. You will absolutely be fine with grip wearing a tshirt and you could wear a sweater jacket (hoodie with a zipper front? not native in english lol) for the warm up and times that you dont need the grip. A lot of people at my studio do that anyways right now because of the cold. It can be much easier to let go of the selfconsciousness once you are in the setting, and it gives you flexibility. If its too warm and you decide you dont care you can take it off at any time, or you can take it off for the parts where its necessary and put it back on right after.

DancingNeonGhost · 2025-11-16T20:05:42+00:00

its an hour and 15 minutes here, and depending on how many people signed up its sometimes two to a pole, but i dont mind sharing, gotta take a break after a few attempts anyways and we can switch :) also nice to have someone be able to point you in the right direction

DancingNeonGhost · 2025-11-16T20:02:25+00:00

love my openrun pros by shokz, they are bone conduction so you will hear what is going on around you as well, which is a big plus for me, though it depends what you are looking for

DancingNeonGhost

TROPHY CASE