Lately, I’ve gotten more into the pole fitness side of things. Here’s why I think pole fitness rules!

1. Not every workout needs to be a performance.

There are times when all you want is to practice your moves and maintain your fitness level and not worry about your expressiveness or performance style. That’s when a focus on the purely fitness aspects of pole is perfect. You can stay in shape, work on your technique, and still get a great workout – without the pressure of working on dance style. When I am tired or feeling pulled in too many directions, I love that pole lets me get a great workout, without requiring me to put in that added zing.

2. It would be hard to find a better upper body workout.

Sure, you can use free weights and machines, but unless you’re going for a specific, sculpted look, you’re not going to gain much more than you would lifting you own body weight in a thousand different positions.

3. Pole fitness uses ab muscles you didn’t know existed.

Ain’t that the truth.

I thought I had good abs from years of belly dance, but I don’t think I knew what abs were. Once you can hold yourself on a pole with your legs in a pike position, or even just bring them gently up into an invert, you know you’ve got rockin’ good abs.

4. It’s easy to see your progress.

With pole, you know when you’re improving. At first, you couldn’t lift yourself more than an inch into the air; now you can pull your whole body weight up. At first, you couldn’t get any momentum in your spins; now you fly.

I also like that you can’t fake it on pole – at least, not for long. Either you can do the move or you can’t. If you suddenly can, you’ve made progress. You don’t need someone to measure you. You don’t need to calculate some BMI ratio; you just instantly know. Easy.

5. You won’t find a more enjoyable way to work out.

There’s a reason why monkeybars are in every school yard: climbing and swinging are just plain fun. So how fun is it to have a workout based entirely on the thing you most loved to do when you were a kid? Super fun, that’s what.

6. You gain a real skill.

I may not often be faced with a sealed room wherein my only chance of escape is to climb up a pole and propel myself in a circular motion through a narrow window, but when such a situation occurs, pole fitness will have given me the ability to escape. Can your Zumba class say that?

7. You can still wear stripper heels.

Just because you aren’t in the mood to dance, doesn’t mean you aren’t feeling your oats. Sometimes it’s fun to get your strut on just for drilling technique!

Some people prefer pole dance and others pole fitness. For me, I find I like different aspects of each – and I love the flexibility to mix and match them to make the perfect workout for whatever mood I’m in!