I think your bottom leg is too low making it harder. I had the most success when I put my bottom foot even with my shoulders and then instead of reaching the outside hand up and over I would just plant my hand in line with my outside shoulder so I could do the little shoulder shrug she talks about in the video with the bottom hand to get more stability (pic below). I also was way more successful when I straightened the bottom leg first before I tried taking the top leg off the pole, and by more successful I mean if I didn't straighten the bottom leg first I would just fall off the pole, so idk how you're staying on you're so strong 🙃

Sammie Jane Yes, I believe if something is important to me then I can make time for it! Luckily this past year I have been able to work from home 2 days a week, so I've definitely done things like a private pole lesson, flexibility, or conditioning during my lunch break 😂. In regards to using the app, the first time I watch one of Steph's videos I will watch it like I used to watch lectures for med school (lol) listening, visualizing, trying to get an idea of the content during a free moment that I might have been otherwise scrolling social media, watching TV, waiting for my next patient to arrive, etc. Then later when I plan on actually doing say the pole challenge or trying a new trick, I can turn the video to 2x and fast forward if I need to review, but I'm not wasting my pole time just watching videos. I also speed up the flexibility/warm-up videos and fast forward if I already know the set up (sorry Steph 🙃). Admittedly do not have kids and only do pole not aerials. 

Before Steph, I was feeling I had plateaued in my pole progress as an intermediate pole dancer after 1.5 years of pole dancing. I was not sure what moves to work on or how to achieve the advanced "dream" bendy moves that I wanted to achieve. After only 4 months of working with Steph on the Pole With Steph App, I have experienced exponential growth in my pole dancing tricks, flexibility, and strength. I was able to achieve numerous dream skills through her tutorials and personalized feedback such as Bird of Paradise, Janeiro, Russian Split, Eagle, Cocoon, Capezio, inverted libellula, and so many more. I've also enjoyed learning new moves and refining old moves during her weekly challenges as well as interacting with others in the pole community. There are many pole apps out there, but Steph's knowledge, personalized feedback, responsiveness, patience, and enthusiasm for teaching students is what makes her the best pole teacher with the best pole app!

Done. Ps sorry I wrote so much I'm just obsessed with you 😂😍

Omg 25lbs 😳😱as a superset. So strong 💪🏽

Stephanie Tallant I know you just tagged me in this for the jab at me calling my walk from the couch to my pole as my warm up when I want to try a new trick 👀👀👀 Susan Papp Mlodzienski isn't like me, but her doctor schedule is much better than mine so she has time to do full warm ups 😭

jamimah I have rheumatoid arthritis and when I was diagnosed I had to stop dance for several years. I found pole dance in adulthood after getting stable on medications. My medications make the pain A LOT better but the condition flares and the joint damage is progressive, so I know someday there could come a time that I won't be able to pole dance any longer or reach my goals. This sounds WAYYYY more dramatic than I intended, I'm not dying 😂but the idea of not being able to dance anymore is what motivates me to get my tired butt to classes and do the things I want to do right now and be consistent with it. 😬🙃also with RA joint stiffness gets better with activity so moving around actually makes me feel better too as long as I'm not in a flare 🥰

As for the 70 hours, I'm in my last week of residency about to start fellowship for 2 more years. My hours will get better after that and the fact it's temporary is what keeps me going there 🫠

Hiiiii,

My schedule is very chaotic and probably not representative of the average pole person. I work full time as a doctor 40-70 hours a week, depending on if I'm on call, so my pole schedule is "do what I can when I can" which sometimes means doing pole in the middle of the night 🙃😬I've been doing pole for almost 2 years, but I previously was a competitive dancer, so as a child I grew up doing like 15-20 hours of dance a week as a background so my hours of pole training probably reflect that. I do both studio and home training and also do competitions and showcases.

I train at my studio 4-5 hours a week with each class being an hour.

I use the app for my home training and to bring new skills that I want to work on to class at my studio because being so new to pole I just found myself not knowing what to work on, or I wanted to work on things and reverse engineering moves from instagram reels was getting too difficult.

For home training I do about 1 hour of back flexibility training a week, the weekly pole challenge, and then work on skills, running my routine passes, or conditioning at home maybe an additional 5+ hours spread out throughout the week dependent on my schedule (if I have days off work it's definitely more). I usually take at least one or two rest days a week. I also do privates 1-2 times a month. I do a performance or competition every 3-4 months as I like choreographing and performing. A typical schedule for me:

Moday- evening skills class 1 hour

Tuesday-rest or pole challenge/skills at home 1-2 hours

Wednesday-flow class 1 hour

Thursday-flow class 1 hour

Friday-rest or skills at home 1 hour

Saturday-skills 1 hour flexibility 1 hour

Sunday- work on competition routine, apply corrections to pole challenge or other homework I got from bothering Steph for help all week 🙃 1-2 hours

Bothering Steph for help is like a daily part of my schedule at this point, I'm so annoying idk how she does it 🥺😂😭😭

I don't do the gym program... I don't have a gym membership but have a home gym. I lift like once a month with my fiancé when he bothers me, if I had more free time I would consider maybe incorporating that more.... maybe.

"I'm trying to hold a human but I have a thigh gap and trying not to die" with that extreme leg cross at the knees 😂😭

Yes the arm is so much better reaching down! I'm gonna post a video of baby poler Vanessa teaching myself this move and tag you in it bc I think the nuance of the positioning of the contact points is super important in marchetti more than flexibility and you're doing the same positioning error I was doing back then.

Hiiiiii, idk about drills, but I believe your hands/body placement are backwards and that might make this a lot easier. I'm usually the "flier" (person starting on the ground in this scenario) so whenever I set up a trick I think of it as my torso and the bases torso have to face each other like we're going in for a hug. Then for the arm placement I put my hands up like I'm giving them a high five and we grab each others forearms. This is picture of me and my friend getting this correction at pole con and my brain conceptualized it as high fiving. The concepts are still the same even with basing from your inverted position go in for the hug, then high five as flier.