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Too old to join… Pole Dance, Aerial Hoop, Burlesque, Aerial Silks class

I was inspired to write this as I receive a number of emails asking  “is there an age limit at classes”, “am I too old to join a pole dance, burlesque, aerial hoop, aerial silks class” “Will I be the only one at 30, 40, 50 ortoo old to pole dance 60, in the class”.

I like the phrase we don’t stop playing when we grow up, we grow up when we stop playing. So if playtime is exactly what we need to stay young, then if you are asking the too old to questions then you are willing to accept this belief and get back to playtime. It may be that you need reassurance that there are others asking this questions, well my email inbox suggests there are. So if there are plenty of willing students looking to overcome the ‘too old’ barrier why are we asking the question? Who decides when you are ‘too old’. There are plenty of people/magazines, books etc out there to suggest you are too old, too skinny too curvy, too unfit, too fit. We can always find the one to justify the choice we have made, so if you are reading this my guess is that you are looking for me to somehow reasuure you you are indeed not too old. That would be too easy, so I decided to ask my students, who most probably once also asked that question:

I posted a comment on facebook page to challenge the too old to thought, and shared on our facebook profile, ‘like this post if you think our classes are for all ages’, between the two posts I received over 100 likes and the following comments:

“i’m 37 I love pole” “I am in my 60’s I do aerial hoop and burlesque and love it” “I am in my 40’s I do pole and aerial hoop” and “I pole am nearly 50 and two other ladies in their 40’s in my class”. It seems that age is irrelevant in classes, unless to be proud that you are training at whatever age you are. See the rest of the comments and the post on facebook

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Greta Pontarelli, 63 year old pole dancer. Started pole dancing 2 years ago after being diagnosed with osteoporosis.

Greta Pontarelli, 63 year old pole dancer. Started pole dancing 2 years ago after being diagnosed with osteoporosis.

Scientifically there are benefits too, pole dancing, aerial hoop and aerial silks all help increase muscles strength, endurance and lean muscle mass. This type of training alleviates, improves and reduces your chance of osteoporosis, common as your age increases. Greta Pontarelli is a 63 year old pole dancer who started just 2 years ago when she was diagnosed with osteoporosis.

Its not just osteoporosis strength training is recommended for, it will improve back strength, arthritis, heart disease, diabetes. If you are lucky enough to not need one of these to convince you to come, consider that this method of training will improve balance and co-ordination, reducing your likelihood of feeling frail and falling; it will increase metabolic rate, energy levels and joint mobility, which all reduce your chance of common diseases for older aged adults.

Finally, it will improve your mind set and wellness, such as with any physical activity; partaking in a sport which defys what the media, TV and friends suggest and places you with people who enjoy all the right benefits means you can answer your own question and could also be fit, healthy and happy. Like Mark Twain once said “Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” and certainly at Blush classes it doesn’t matter to us, our students and hopefully not to you.

Screen shots from the posts on facebook.

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Information and picture of Greta taken from Huffington Post article Photo Series of Seniors Shatters Every Aging Stereotype. Posted on 15/1/15 by Damon Scheleur and Yagana Shah See article here

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