Stephanie Tallant YES! It was a lot of fun (the teaching not the cleaning. ;))

Pole related: I started teaching again! When I broke my ankle in 2023, there were three things I wanted to do - dance again, teach again & perform again. I hit dancing early, performed back in October & then just yesterday started teaching again. 🥰

Not-pole related: We got a new washer because our old one broke, and used it as an opportunity to clean out our washroom, and it feels so big and clean! Cleaning is a good feeling!

jamimah Oh gosh, no (I wish!) - I say "circus" when I talk aerial/circus arts (silks, hammock, pole).

There was a hashtag/trend on Instagram in 2018/2019 called #CircusEveryDammDay encouraging people to do circus related stuff every day (train, take a class, cross train, etc.) Impressionable new aerialists like me ended up overtraining & never taking rest days, and then not understanding why we were getting hurt. 

I think it's all about knowing your capacity, paying attention to your body & then balancing your load. 

I pole multiple days in a row, but it's always balancing act  - for example, if I have a heavy conditioning or challenging move day, or a mix of both, and I pole the next day, the pole work I do the next day is usually something lighter (like a "play day" or a lower level combo focusing on entries & exits).

If I'm increasing my load (something I'm doing right now), I'll also maybe increase the load on the next day and pay attention to how I feel on the third day. 

The biggest thing I try to be careful of is feeling like I HAVE to or MUST pole ever day - I got into the "CircusEverDay" mindset in 2018/2019 and that was...not good. :) (Oooh, edited to add - I also pay attention to what's going on in my outside life. Busy, stressful work day? Then I load my body less. Easy, light day? I can handle more load!) 

I was finally able to get some shoulder mount work into my training today - after 3 months off of trying shoulder mounts, I was pleased that I had the initial shape back, though I have to promise myself to go slow (and use the band for conditioning!) as I work it back into my regular rotation! (I also am going to note here that my plan is to also work toward mounting the pole once I feel stronger in this shape - this is something I was doing in 2023 before I broke my ankle, and had just gotten it back in July when I tweaked my arm. Here's to more goals! :))

I also just got the bands (and they came yesterday night)! I had a band, but have only used it for pull up training as it was a fairly heavy one - looking forward to playing with the different weights!

Stephanie Tallant I will! It's on the plan for tomorrow! :)

Congratulations!!!

My shouldermounts were pretty good - and I was excited to have them back after I started poling again after my ankle break -  until this summer when I had an overuse injury on my tricep & shoulder. It's getting better (thanks to an incredible PT) and I'm excited to test them again. It's funny that I had marked them for testing this week and the challenge came up! 

Stephanie Tallant It was so much fun!