Hello and welcome to a new episode of Science of Slink, the evidence based pole podcast! This week we are joined by Dr.Val Oliphant. Dr.Val is a DPT physical therapist specializing in dance, circus arts, and pelvic floor needs, a professional dancer and teacher. Today we are talking about how your pole teaching informs your PT & vice versa, the most common issues seen in pole dancers, the sneakiest (maybe not most common but hardest to notice) issues seen in pole dancers, Progressions,...

Hello fellow science friends and welcome to Science of Slink! Today we are touching into the topic of replicating studies, data reliability, Plublication Bias, and ‘Publisher Perish.’ These are important topics that shed light on the reliability of the data we read as well as of what influences some data to not be reliable. On the topic of replicating studies and data reliability we discuss that there is a strong correlation between earlier studies, before around 2010, being tested for...

Welcome to a new kind of episode with Science of Slink! We are begining a new topic on the podcast, research review! This episode is a research review of the "Longitudinal Effects of Pole Dance Training on Body Composition and Muscular Strength." Some important background about the venue and authors are, this is a preprint in review at Scientific Reports, which is an open access journal known as the nature journal. The Nature review is a well regarded research paper review which covers all...

Hello Pole Dancer, welcome to The Evidence Based Pole Podcast! This week we are joined by an incredible guest, Neesh AKA Pole Savage. Neesh is a pole instructor and physical therapist, her knowledge of physical therapy brings a niche understanding of teaching people and understanding how ur bodies feel most comfortable.  In this episode we have the opportunity to learn how Neesh's physical therapist knowledge has shaped her pole teaching and training and her tips for pole dance students. We...

Hello Pole Dancer and welcome to another episode of The Evidence Based Pole Podcast with Rosy Boa. This week we are discussing the important topic of shoulders and pole dance! Shoulders are particularly important as a pole dancer because of the uncommon amount of use, weight, and mobility we use in comparison to daily life activities and they are commonly injured.  Shoulders are tricky becasue it's all muscles, they're only attached to the bones at the clavicle. There are some common issues...

Trigger Warning: This episode contains mention of eating disorders.  Welcome to this weeks episode of The Evidence Based Pole Podcast. This week we are joined by Body Liberation Dietition, Reanna Peterman who specializes in eating disorder recovery and body liberation/protection for queer fat bodies. She also offers services for needs outside ed recovery, such as digestive issues, pregnancy/fertility, diabetes, and chronic illness. She offers individual counseling services to anyone...

Hello Pole dancer and welcome to a new episode of The Evidence Based Pole Podcast, brought to you by Slink Through Strength with Rosy Boa. Today we are discussing how to make exercise enjoyable and the motivations to move.  Lots of disciplines have looked at this; Panteleimon Ekkekakis at Iowa State is one of the main researchers working on this topic & developed the Affective-Reflective Theory of Exercise w/ Ralf Brand) One of the ways to keep the motivation up are to keep the...

In this weeks episode of The Evidence Based Pole Podcast, we are joined by Rob Gray, Associate Professor of Human Systems Engineering at Arizona State University. We dive into interesting topics such as: Major findings from motor learning/skill and feedback acquisition and how to apply them in your day-to-day practice, and Why just repeating a movement is NOT the best way to learn.  We explore how we must evolve our movement to account for changing environments so we have skills that are...

3 Things you NEED In Your Pole Practice  Sign up for Rekindle by the 18th for two FREE extra no-equipment pole conditioning classes (including recordings!): https://www.slinkthroughstrength.com/rekindle-your-passion-for-pole Welcome to this week’s episode of The Evidence Based Pole Podcast through Slink Through Strength. This week we will be discussing the 3 essential aspects of pole growth. The 3 things you need are conditioning, challenge, and PLAY. We will explore what to explore on and...

Welcome Pole Dancer to this episode of Slink Through Strength. This week we will be discussing the balance of Too Much vs. Not Enough: Consistency and Habit Building in Pole. How much is enough, how much is too much and what are some tips for building a consistent pole habit? For building habits, 3 hours/week for 6 weeks is a great start! ~~Two week Pole for Pleasure challenge starting January 8: figure out what you actually want and then Build the nourishing, feel-good pole practice that...

Welcome back from Thanksgiving! This is Slink Through Strength and today we have a long-awaited and exciting topic, Inversions and Our Pole Goals!  Goals can be great! Or they can make your pole journey unnecessarily stressful and lead to injury. We must ask ourselves why, specifically, do you want to do this movement? Is the reason around Challenge, prestige, it looks fun, to take another class, etc? It’s also important to ask ourselves if we can devote more time or effort to it than we...

Today we have the lovely Emily Scherb join us on Slink Through Strength! Emily is a Physical Therapist with experience and focus in Circus and some pole dancing. We discuss research and why there are gaps in it, Individual variation & sport-specific considerations, “Prehab,” and How to be Circus Smart. We also discover the importance of logging your practice with how you feel physically, emotionally, and mentally, on and off the pole, and recommend you journal each of your practices! Each...

You are probably, like me, a regular adult. Don’t compare yourself or base your conditioning on elite pole athletes! Think of aspects of fitness such as Strength, Flexibility, Balance, Endurance, and Power. In this week's podcast, I express how to be intentional with our workouts, with our limited time, and some training methods that improve our mobility on and off the pole.   One key aspect is balancing out and supporting what you do on the pole such as practicing pushing motions since we...

This week on Slink Through Strength we are joined by Elite Pole Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Frances Ann! We look through the lens of evidence-based methods and movement science for how we can evolve with our pole dance practice to ensure both safety and enjoyment. We go in-depth on Injury prevention, safety progressions, menopause, business strategy, social media, and listening to and respecting our bodies.  More Places to Find Frances website:...

Trigger Warning: Mention of Eating Disorders.  This week on The Evidence-Based Pole Podcast, we are joined by pole dance researcher, Dr. Kelly Cuccolo! We connect to discover the links between pole dance and body image, depression, anxiety,  eating disorder symptoms, and the impact on our gender identity. We dive deep into the world of body image, specifically with eating disorders, sexualization and objectification of pole dancing, men in pole dance, underrepresented populations, queer pole...

Join us this week as we dive in with Jessica Patching-Bunch, founder of Brain Body Resilience, who helps people find tools to manage their stress and tap into the body. We discuss the research validity, the stress response, how movement and stress are correlated, our individual variability, and tools for managing stress/nervous system regulation. Jessica brings a background in gymnastics, coaching, neuropsychology, and science communication, offering deep and well-developed opinions based on...

In this week's episode, we are joined by Circus Flex & Strength Coach Henri Hänninen as we dive into a multitude of interesting topics. We discuss avenues such as learning, motivation, pleasure, training flexibility, why skill training is not strength training, periodization, how the brain is impacted through minimal and maximal strength training, and Motor learning through the keys of agency, motivation, and variability of practice. You can find more of Henri Hänninen on Instagram...

In this episode we are joined by Kelsey Britt, who in addition to being a yoga teacher is also a somatic sexuality educator! We talk about her movement history, how she came to be a sexuality educator, and what her job is as a somatic sexual educator. Kelsey also shares ways to be present in your body and how to give yourself permission to explore! You can find Kelsey Britt’s here https://www.kelseybritt.com/ and follow her on Instagram for more great tips and education...

In this episode we’re joined by Dr. Tia Ukpe-Wallace, DPT, who in addition to being a pelvic health physical therapist is also a pole teacher! We talk about what the pelvic floor is, common problems (and what to do about them!), when to seek professional help and specific things for pole dancers to consider about their pelvic floors. You can find Dr. Tia and make appointments to work with her at https://www.selfcarephysio.com and follow her on Instagram for more great tips and education...

This week we've got a quick little bonus episode to talk about the effect that different body proportions have on pole dance: what moves are harder or easier if you have a higher or lower center of gravity? Or for shorter versus longer arms, torso and legs? If you're interested in finding your exact center of gravity, you can use this exercise designed for physics students. Stroink, Gerhard. “Center of gravity of a student.” The Physics Teacher 17 (1979): 254-255....

In this episode we're joined by strength & flexibilty coach Britta Paulin to talk about cross-training for pole. We discuss the relationship between strength and flexibility, off seasons, the psychology of coaching, what pole students should know about anatomy and cycles of pole tricks. You can find Britta online at on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/its.britta/ and on her website Athleticartsbybritta.com. The Evidence-Based Pole Podcast aims to help pole dancers feel better...

This week we talk about rest including what rest is, what counts as rest and how often you should rest. I also go into depth about some of the symptoms of overtraining (which in my experience is actually pretty common in pole dancer!) the fitness/fatigue model. A big thank you to everyone to submitted questions! Herring, S. A., Ben Kibler, W., Putukian, M., Berkoff, D. J., Bytomski, J., Carson, E., ... & Coppel, D. (2019). Load, overload, and recovery in the athlete: Select issues for...

This week we’re joined by circus researcher and physical therapist Stephanie Greenspan (DPT,OCS,NCS) to talk about her research, including a recently published year-long study of circus artists & injuries that includes polers! We talk about the current state of research in the area, what they’ve learned from the data so far and some (maybe surprising!) takeaways for polers. - Read the study: https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/9/2/e001551 - Consensus doc with the IOC:...

This week we're joined by personal trainer and functional strength coach Theresa Racicot, who has been helping train circus artists since 2002 (that's before the first pole studio even opened, depending on how you measure it!). We cover a lot in this episode, including discussing hypermobility, functional strength & diet culture. You can find Theresa and Reimagym at https://reimagym.com/, on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Also some citations for some of the things I mention: -...