Pole Level 2 - The Journey Continues

After graduating from level 1 it was time to get stoked about level 2. If only I had realized the frustration that came with these new tricks.

Erica sent us an email welcoming us to the next level and telling us we can add her on fb. Heck yeah, this just got serious! Through creeping Erica's recent friend additions I was able to find two girls from class, so you know I added them.

You know how your first day of class you expect to be eased into the new stuff? Yeah, not the case with level 2. Erica showed us the dance, which is good. But then again everything Erica does looks good. I bet she could even work the macarena into her routine and make it look good. She then told us that we are going to learn the two hardest spins that day (OMG) so that we'll have 7 weeks to perfect them. Ok, that's actually a brilliant plan, but very intimidating.

We started with pole circuits which felt weird. I felt like I hadn't done this in forever, even though it had only been a week.

Then started with the new stuff:

• Pole climb. The first time I tried this was last summer when Jess and I took Cardio Pole. I was less than successful. I was wearing tights, and dripping in sweat, so I couldn't get a grip on the pole. It gave me flash backs to the days in PE when we had to climb the rope. I never even made it a foot off the ground. Anyway, I got up the pole with no problem. Cue false sense of security. I'm not saying I make it look good yet, but I made it to the top a few times and the only thing I lost along the way was some skin off of my foot.
• Roley Poley spin. This is where stuff takes a turn for the so hard I may have said some curse words and given my self a pep talk (don't be such a baby. you'll be fine!). You are basically spinning around the pole in fetal position, vertical to the ground. It's just really scary. What if my arms decide they don't want to hold me up? What if I lose grip and die? I can almost do it, but I get scared and spin out of it. I'm trying to convince my lower body to fall in line and stay wrapped around, but it's not having it yet.
• Side Winder spin. Similar to the Roley Poley in that you are wrapped around the pole and vertical, except your arms are more spread out, almost making a V, and once you master it, you will be able to do stuff with your legs. I, however, can't do this one at all! The position of my lower hand being turned pointing down makes it hard for me to hold. For some reason it doesn't want to grip the bar, and my arm gave out on one of my attempts.

I wish I could fast forward to graduation to see if I figure out how to do this or not!

I left class very frustrated. I don't expect to do everything perfect the first time, but I expect to be able to do something that's at elast close. That was not the case today.

Since I obviously need tons of practice, I hit up open pole on Sunday. I think I made partial progress on the roley poley, but I only stayed for 30 min because I was having trouble controlling my frustration levels.

I will def be adding in more upper body and ab workouts (in addition to what I already do) to see if that'll help me be less of a baby.