Calluses on the hands and feet of a pole dancer are a common complaint. In a world of beauty, we are taught that calluses are ugly, bad, an inconvenience, and anything but acceptable. Truth be told, calluses are your friend and as long as you care for them and your body correctly, then you won’t find them to be the nuisance they appear to be.  Now, I’m definitely not saying live with them, no woman wants ugly hands.  We all love soft skin.   What I AM saying is that there are several things you can do to lessen and avoid getting obnoxious calluses to begin with.   And, if you do end up with a few left over, I can show you how to have a love affair with them as opposed to a painful hatred relationship you may despise.

Calluses do happen naturally while learning to pole dance. It’s your body’s natural response to protect the skin from further damage and blistering. Blisters are painful and you can thank your body for creating calluses as a loving response to protect your from further pain and to help you endure future training with better ease.

Since pole dancing calluses commonly develop on both the feet and hands, we will tackle the topics separately.

How To Prevent Calluses On The Hands While Learning To Pole Dance:

1. The simplest way to keep from developing too many calluses on the hands is to use grip gloves for pole dancing during your longer training periods. Grip gloves are by no means a replacement for developing the strength in your hands to grip the pole with your bare skin, but they can serve as a wonderful tool to help you extended your training periods without sending a signal to your body that you need larger calluses in the future.
2. The best tip to reduce and even stop calluses on the hands altogether is to be sure you are using your legs as much as you can to help you execute your pole dancing moves, especially when climbing the pole. Its a natural instinct to rely on the grip of the hands to do your moves, however if you can consciously remember to deliberately engage your legs more in every way you can to help you execute your pole moves, it will take some pressure off your hands and reduce the need for you body to create calluses in the first place : )  When you use the inner thighs and inside of the calves to help you grip the pole more often, not only will the hand calluses reduce, but you will find executing moves to be a LOT easier.  The skin on your inner thighs and calves is a LOT less likely to callus as opposed to the hands.  You can learn an exercise about how to strengthen the skin on your inner thighs here =>
3. Remove your hand jewelry.   We have all forgot to remove that wedding band and something as simple as this can create calluses because jewelry can create a pinch or fold in the skin while you are dancing on the pole.

How To Prevent Calluses On The Feet While Learning To Pole Dance:

1. Where half sole foot shoes for dancers. Turn and spins on the ground like pirouette’s can cause the balls of your feet to callus.  This  mainly happens when you dance bare foot.  It doesn’t matter if you are on carpet or a hard surface like wood, calluses can develop on the feet due to the twisting and turning action of the foot while dancing.  Wearing protective foot gear will help tremendously!
2. If you are wearing pole dancing stripper heals, then blistering or calluses can happen where the edge of the shoes rubs against your skin.  Be sure that your heels are properly fitted.  If you have wide feet or bunions, be sure to buy a shoes that is for wide feet!  So many people think they can get by with an average shoe not fitted well for their type of foot and calluses or blistering is the consequence of making that choice.   Stripper heels for pole dancing can be expensive, but the extra cost is worth it in the long run for a well fitted shoe.  Shoes should fit snug but NOT TIGHT!   There should be NO slipping in the shoe when you walk or dance as well.
3. Don’t let your pedicurist take too much of your callus off.  I know, weird right?  Well the truth is, a little callus can go a long way in preventing painful blisters and excessive callusing.  If you constantly take ALL you calluses off in pursuit of perfectly smooth skin on your feet, then you body will work double fast to put the calluses back to protect your feet from damage while dancing.  Leave just a little callus there and you may find that those big ugly calluses never show up : )

Lastly, calluses are a proud dancers trademark. While the beauty industry does frown on calluses, to a dancer, they are a proud sign of hard work, achievement, and success. They are your friends in moderation : )   Even ballet dancers are proud of their hard earned bunions!

Make peace with your calluses and try not to unnecessarily ware with your body’s protective response.  In stead, accept your body attempts and loving find that happy “middle ground”.

Hope that helps : )