14 DAY TRIAL // Pole dancing is associated just with sexuality and striptease clubs, but imagine that after a long night of teasing, strutting and gyrating, the 650 muscles employed to do this will soar like after a hard fitness training. This fortifies them all, from abdominals to thighs and arms.
After years of being confined to dimly lit strip clubs during the twilight hours, pole dancing recently writhed its way into the mainstream as a bonafide fitness trend. In fact, pole dancing helps women feel more confident about their bodies while burning calories and defying gravity. "There are a lot of people about who need more confidence and pole dancing does that." explained one instructor. Now everyone from Cameron Diaz to Natalie Portman and Michele Rodriguez is exercising this.
But not only Hollywood is seduced by pole dancing's fat-burning benefits: Australia, Great Britain and Canada host "Miss Pole Dancer" competitions, in which the contestants wear actual clothing on! A British school offers its graduates diplomas in pole dancing.
Basically, pole dancing is gymnastics cubed. A class is a combination of aerobic activity and striptease moves, like spinning and dancing. The pole is a prop, much like a step used in aerobics or an exercise ball used for balance and isolation. The workout is more gymnastic and aerobic than erotic.
"It is an extremely physical challenge, but it's still feminine and graceful. Pole dancing is a mixture of dance, weight lifting, yoga and Pilates. It's a workout for your entire body," said Megan Ryan, a pole dancing instructor from Philadelphia.
''We provide a place for women to come and feel good about themselves, to develop their self-esteem,'' said Terri Kerr, former gymnast, who owns a pole dancing club in Toronto.
"This is a workout, not stripper training," explained owner Lisa Peklo, another club owner from Washington, D.C., and also a certified personal trainer, a graduate of Virginia Tech, with a degree in exercise science, and self-taught in this particular genre of exercise.