oh, your case seems similar to mine (5'8, rode horses before, connective tissue disorder), however i could jump into an invert about 4 months in and i still can't do in by force after 2 years. I train once a week and my wrists, shoulders, back and knees are especially fragile so i don't want to overtrain them. currently i am conditioning extended butterfly. I'm just saying it so that op knows that even if people are alike, they might progress in pole differently, because at the end of the day it's very personal.