Body Reawakening: Your First Week Back Pole Fitness Routine

Congratulations on completing your first week back to the pole! Whether you fully jumped in with all three recommended sessions or simply reconnected with your pole through gentle touches, you’ve taken the crucial first step in your comeback journey. Now that you’ve broken the ice, let’s focus on awakening your body’s “pole memory” and rebuilding the fundamental strength needed for a successful return.

This week was a very emotionally challenging week because I had to work through the emotional obstacles to resuming my pole dancing workout AND I had to iron out my eating plan.  My reawakening is definitely “happening”.

The emotional obstacles were a big one because it not only tied into doing my physical exercises and pole moves, it also tied into my resistance to eating healthy.

As I have said many times before, learning how to overcome the underlying emotional obstacles is THE MOST critical step to getting back on track to making significant real and lasting changes.

Making Time To Cook

One of my biggest underlying obstacles with my eating plan is that I really don’t like to cook and I don’t want to take the time and do it.  That’s just how I honestly feel on the inside.  I love shopping for healthy food, researching and understanding the best way to eat healthy, get lean, and physically fit, but I hate the cooking part.  This one obstacle can actually sabotage my good eating efforts because eating clean actually takes some planning and work.  Eating out all the time is easier (for me).  If you love to cook, please give yourself a big pat on the back right now because it’s just not the case for all of us!!!!

To make a long story short, I am working to overcome these obstacles by spending only one day a week pre-cooking food for the entire week rather than cooking every day.  I also keep a quick list of acceptable foods on my fridge so that when I am hungry, my inner resistance to cooking doesn’t cause me to forget all the EASY healthy options that are already in my fridge, hence preventing me from going out to eat again.

Making Time To Exercise

Another underlying obstacle was time to exercise.  I have a very busy lifestyle and even though I love pole dancing, the bottom line is that sometimes I only have 5-20 minutes to exercise.  My ego tells me that 5 minutes won’t make a difference in my body so why do it?  I had to just learn not to listen to that lie.  So I created a 5-minute workout routine that I can do anywhere, even in a hotel so I never skip a workout again (video below).

The goal for me is consistency rather than perfection.  I want to be consistent on my workout days.  I prefer to pole dance and workout for about an hour but if I can’t do that, I am not going to quite.  Don’t you quite either!  Every little workout and pole spin helps, period!

Here is a quick and short little 5 MINUTE workout that will work your abs, arms, and legs that I do and you don’t even need a pole to do it:

Listening to Your Body: The Morning After

If you’ve completed some pole work in the past week, you might be experiencing something familiar right now—the unique soreness that only pole dancing can produce. Those tender inner thighs, sore shoulders, and mysteriously aching muscles you forgot you even had? They’re all signs that your body is remembering what pole fitness demands.

This soreness is normal, but it’s also valuable feedback. Pay attention to:

• Which muscle groups are most sore: This indicates areas that need focused conditioning
• How long the soreness lasts: Recovery time will improve as you continue practicing
• The difference between soreness and pain: Soreness is diffuse and improves with gentle movement; pain is sharp, localized, and may worsen with movement

Remember, some mild muscle soreness is expected and even beneficial (it signals muscle adaptation), but extreme soreness that prevents normal movement suggests you might have pushed too hard too fast.

Rebuilding Your Pole-Specific Strength

Pole dancing requires a unique combination of strength, flexibility, and endurance that’s difficult to maintain through other fitness activities alone. Even if you’ve been hitting the gym or doing yoga during your pole hiatus, you’ll need to rebuild some pole-specific capabilities.

Focus Areas for Returning Pole Dancers:

1. Grip Strength

Without grip strength, everything on the pole becomes more difficult and less safe. Here are three exercises to rebuild your grip off the dance pole:

• Dead hangs: Simply hang from your pole (or a pull-up bar) for 20-30 seconds, rest, and repeat 3 times
• Towel grips: Hold a small towel over your pole and grip through the towel for basic spins and holds
• Grip trainers: Use a hand grip strengthener for 5 minutes daily (even while watching TV!)

2. Core Activation

Your core is your power center for pole dancing and critical for weight loss. These exercises rebuild the mind-muscle connection:

• Hollow body holds: Lie on your back, arms extended overhead, lower back pressed into the floor, and lift your shoulders and legs slightly off the ground. Hold for 20-30 seconds
• Side plank pole reaches: In a side plank position, reach your top arm toward the pole, touch it, and return to plank position. Repeat 8-10 times each side
• Standing core engagement: Simply stand tall next to your pole and practice engaging your core muscles while breathing normally

If you are not a fan of repetitious crunches and traditional abdominal exercises, then check out my Applause 3 Min abdominal workout you can “dance” through or you can also use the video above : )

3. Upper Body Conditioning

Those beautiful pulls, climbs, and inverts require serious upper body strength.  Here are some “off pole” exercises to help:

• Wall push-ups: Start with inclined push-ups against a wall, progressing to standard push-ups as strength builds
• Pole pull preps: With both feet on the floor, practice the pulling motion used in climbs
• Negative pull-ups: Jump to the top position of a pull-up on your pole, then lower yourself as slowly as possible

Get your upper body conditioning on the dance pole in this video here.

Your Week 2 Pole Routine

Now let’s put it all together with a comprehensive routine designed specifically for your second week back. This routine respects your body’s need to readjust while building the foundation for more advanced work in coming weeks.

Below is a general basic routine most anyone can do.   If you want a Done For You step by step 30 day pole fitness routine then definitely try my 30 Day Beginner Challenge.  Each day there are step by step instructions with videos to help you get consistency in your pole workout routine with ease.

Need a Done For You Plan?  Try The 30 Day Beginner Pole Fitness Challenge!

 

 

 

 

 

Warm-Up (10 minutes)

Never skip this part! A proper warm-up prevents injury and improves performance.

1. Joint mobilization: Gentle circles with wrists, shoulders, hips, and ankles (30 seconds each)
2. Light cardio: Marching in place, gentle jumping jacks, or dancing freely for 2 minutes
3. Dynamic stretching: Arm circles, gentle side bends, hip openers (30 seconds each)
4. Pole familiarization: Walking around the pole, gentle touches, and basic holds

Conditioning Circuit (15 minutes)

Complete this circuit twice, with a 60-second rest between rounds

1. Pole squats: 10 squats while holding the pole for support
2. Side planks with pole touch: 30 seconds each side
3. Seated pike leg lifts: Seated on the floor with legs extended, lift and lower legs 10 times
4. Pole pull preps: 10 pull motions while keeping feet on the floor
5. Forearm plank: Hold for 30 seconds

Pole Work (15 minutes)

Focus on clean execution rather than quantity or difficulty

1. Basic spins review: Fireman spin, back hook spin, front hook spin (practice each 3-5 times)
2. Sits and holds: Practice chair sit, basic sit, and side sit with proper engagement (hold each for 10-20 seconds)
3. Simple transitions: Practice moving between stands, sits, and spins with control
4. Flow practice: Create a simple 30-second sequence using 3-4 of the moves you’ve practiced

Cool Down (5 minutes)

Never skip this part either! Proper cool-down reduces soreness and improves recovery

1. Gentle stretching: Focus on shoulders, inner thighs, and hamstrings
2. Deep breathing: 10 deep breaths while seated near your pole
3. Gratitude moment: Acknowledge yourself for showing up today

Modifying for Different Fitness Levels

Remember that this routine is a template, not a rigid prescription. Here’s how to adjust based on your current condition:

If You’re Feeling Stronger Than Expected:

• Add 5 minutes to the pole work section
• Incorporate one intermediate move you remember enjoying
• Increase hold times by 5-10 seconds

If You’re More De-conditioned Than Expected:

• Extend the warm-up to 15 minutes
• Reduce the conditioning circuit to one round
• Take additional rest between exercises
• Focus on form rather than repetitions

If You’re Experiencing Significant Soreness:

• Emphasize the warm-up and cool-down
• Replace some pole work with gentle stretching
• Consider an Epsom salt bath after your session

Tracking Your Comeback Progress

The journey back to pole fitness is full of small victories that deserve celebration. This week, start tracking your progress with one of these methods:

• Pole journal: After each session, write down what you did, how you felt, and one thing you’re proud of
• Progress photos: Take simple photos (just for yourself) to document your journey
• Metrics tracking: Note how long you can hold certain positions or how many repetitions you can complete

What gets measured improves, and seeing your progress documented will provide motivation during challenging days.

Nutrition To Support for Your Comeback

Pole dancing is challenging and the body needs better nutrition and fuel to have enough energy to execute the move, especially the more advanced pole dancing tricks.

You also need to be eating clean if you expect to see the physical changes in your body to get that lean appearance.  Research has shown that your diet is about 80% of your success in re-shaping your body and causing weight loss.    You can’t eat junk food and expect exercise to change your body, it doesn’t work like that.

Your body needs to have increased energy, be an efficient detoxing machine (this prevents per-mature aging too), and it needs to burn fat as fuel, not pure sugar.

My “general” clean eating lifestyle consists of the following to lose weight and stay lean:

• Eating organic food every chance I can.
• Eating Lean Protein Sources
• Eating vegetables with every meal.
• Controlling Blood Sugar spikes my monitoring the timing of when and how I eat carbohydrates.
• Avoiding simple carbohydrates like sugar, white flour, most bread (yes even whole wheat), toxic beverages like soda pop, and not over eating fruit, etc.  Yes, I still love dessert!  I am a sucker for pancakes and pastries, here is a healthy way to have desserts guilt free everyday >>
• Taking good quality supplements to control cortisol (the fat storing hormone, especially in the mid-section) and compensate for nutritional deficiencies.
• Reducing my stress levels. (this is HUGE)
• Eating every 2-3 hours.
• And monitoring my protein intake through my body’s hunger signals.
• Limiting Dairy.

My Favorite Clean Eating Cookbook and Recipe Book that I use in my kitchen daily  is The World’s Healthiest Cook Book found here; it makes cooking and eating healthy Super Easy for me and the chapters are much easier to use when it comes to re-purposing leftovers versus other cookbooks I have used in the past.

I plan to talk a lot more about why I have made the dietary choices above throughout this weekly recovering series. 

As you increase your activity level, your body needs proper fuel to rebuild strength and support weight loss. Focus on these nutrition basics:

• Hydration: Drink extra water on pole days (aim for at least 3 liters total)
• Pre-pole snack: Eat a small carbohydrate-protein combination 1-2 hours before pole (e.g., apple with peanut butter or Greek yogurt with berries)
• Post-pole nutrition: Consume protein within 30 minutes after your session to support muscle recovery
• Anti-inflammatory foods: Incorporate turmeric, ginger, berries, and leafy greens to reduce soreness

Remember that restrictive dieting often backfires for active people. Instead, focus on nourishing your body for performance while maintaining a modest calorie deficit for weight loss.

Feed it with care and love, get regular exercise, and lower your stress levels because if you don’t, nobody else will do it for you and your will pay the price!!

Your Week 2 Challenge

Building on last week’s momentum, here’s your challenge for the coming week:

Complete the full Week 2 Routine twice this week, and add one “pole play” session where you simply explore movement without any structured routine.

The structured routines rebuild your foundation, while the play session reconnects you with the joy of pole dancing—both are essential for long-term success.

What’s Coming Next Week

Next week, we’ll focus specifically on rebuilding your core strength—the foundation of all pole movement and a critical component of weight loss success. You’ll learn targeted exercises both on and off the pole to reawaken those deep core muscles that make advanced moves possible and accelerate your metabolism.

Until then, be patient with your body, celebrate your commitment to returning to the pole, and trust that consistent effort will yield results. Your pole strength is still there—we’re just waking it up again!

How was your first week back to pole? Share your experiences, victories, or questions in the comments below!