[Epsilonte]

Life is quite something right now.

School is crazy busy (tons of classes and one exam per week, plus I'm still working as well), the whole country is in lockdown (well except schools. And ski lifts. Because of reasons), I doubt my pole studio will open again this year... 

 

So all I can do is hanging in there, trying to survive the crazyness and come out of it somewhat sane and healthy. xD 

 

I still have my 150 activity minutes per week challenge going, but it's hard if you can't go to the gym (and don't really enjoy running), so I'll tweak it a bit: I'll take half the minutes I spend (pole)dancing at home as my activity minutes for that week. Why half? Well my sessions usually look like "try some thing, fail, watch the video, try again, fail differently, watch the new video, try again, nail it (or not)", so about half the time is spent watching myself to hopefully improve.  

So I aim for 300 mins of pure dancing a week (mostly pole, maybe belly (my classes finish this week and I'm not yet sure if I want to book new ones since it's all so busy now, I'll probably do one regular class and single units of another one, I think), maybe even finally some shuffling? ), which are about 4-5 sessions a week. That's quite a lot, but I need it as study break to keep myself sane.  

 

ETA: I decided to change the challenge. No more counting minutes, no more "have to do" x sessions a week. I'll jump on the pole when I feel like it (e.g. for the online classes) and have time for it. If it's just 5 minutes of bodywaves - fine. If it turns into a 2 hour tricks session - also fine. 

Also I recently remembered that I used to wear all kinds of weird and fun clothes while poledancing at home - skirts, dresses, costumes, sometimes fancy lingerie. I want to start doing this again. Bring some fun and spice back into our relationship after over 8 years of being married to the chrome. Maybe even treat myself to a new cool pole outfit for christmas or something. Just: making it fun again.  No pressure, just dancey dance. 

 

Other than that... same as usual, I try to eat a lot of veggies and I try to sleep enough and that's it because I don't have any spoons for more right now. 

 

 

[Mad Hatter]

That pose looks deeply uncomfortable. 😄

[deftona]

I think you assembled yourself wrong but that's a very impressive bit of pole work! 

[Epsilonte]

37 minutes ago, Mad Hatter said:

That pose looks deeply uncomfortable. 😄

 

14 minutes ago, deftona said:

I think you assembled yourself wrong but that's a very impressive bit of pole work! 

 

Might be, after the last few weeks I'm a bit brain dead.  

 

It's not that bad, I'm rather bendy in this direction, so it felt quite snug and secure.  (on both sides, picture is actually my second best side. ) 

[Alanna]

As someone who is also hanging in there this month (although not as literally 😆), I will be following along!

 

[Epsilonte]

26 minutes ago, Alanna said:

As someone who is also hanging in there this month (although not as literally 😆), I will be following along!

 

Welcome!! We can hang together

[Mad Hatter]

2 hours ago, Alanna said:

As someone who is also hanging in there this month (although not as literally 😆), I will be following along!

 

[MezzotheLefty]

whoa, you are super flexible! I love all your pole pics and Insta stories! 

 

Following along, even if it's in lurker mode.

 

[Epsilonte]

1 hour ago, MezzotheLefty said:

whoa, you are super flexible! I love all your pole pics and Insta stories! 

 

Following along, even if it's in lurker mode.

 

Thank you!!

Happy to have you here, lurking or otherwise

[Epsilonte]

Oh, I should write updates? Whelp... xD

 

Nah, don't have much right now... I had my last (for now) bellyclass yesterday, which was 90 minutes, so 45 minutes for the record. (Maybe, I'm a bit torn if I should count it... Though the class yesterday was a bit more active, so I lean towards counting it... xD)

 

School: I aced my exam today, now the rest of the week is "just" school, work, hopefully pole and waiting (I mean learning xD) for the next exam next Tuesday. Three to go until christmas! 

 

I spent this evening playing Guildwars (as I do on exam days... and most other days right now xD It's such a nice stress relief), though "evening" is a relative term since it was after 9pm when I got home from school. So two nice hours of playing. Now off to bed, school starts at 8 tomorrow... xD Which means I need to get up in 6 hours. Wasn't sleep also part of the challenge? Oops... xD

At least I ate plenty of fruit and veggies today.  

 

And I have a pole date for next week, visiting a friend. I'm very much looking forward to that!  I also have a little solo session planned for tomorrow evening, if time and energy levels allow for it.  I want to keep practicing my shouldermount (into brass monkey since I haven't done that in so long and it's such a basic move needed for many other things), try that bird of paradise again and maybe dragon tail. Wild mix, but all of those can be done quite well in my limited space and it's a mix of "used to be able to do it easily" and "wanted to try it for years". xD

[arcaneinvictus]

Congrats on acing today's exam! You've definitely earned a good rest! 😄

 

Ughhhh, shouldermount practice is the worst! Although one of my teacher's gave a really good drill that has paid off enough that I'm going to try Aerial Shouldermount next week! I absolutely love a good Dragon's Tail - those and Bird of Paradise make a nice mix of strengthy and flexy moves to work on! Good shout! 😄

 

Keep going! 😊

[Epsilonte]

Thank you!! And welcome!!

 

11 hours ago, arcaneinvictus said:

Ughhhh, shouldermount practice is the worst! Although one of my teacher's gave a really good drill that has paid off enough that I'm going to try Aerial Shouldermount next week!

Oh yes. Shouldermount is such a hit and Miss thing for me... it took me months to learn it first (almost all year from first try to it kinda feeling ok) and I lose it instantly if I don't practice it... used to be able to do aerial sholdermounts on both sides around 2017... then I hurt myself, took a few short breaks, the first lockdowns happened and this january I barely managed to get up there at all. XD now it feels kinda decent from the floor again  haven't tried it aerial yet (but I think it will take some time until it will be possible again)...

What are your moves to work on right now? Except for aerial shouldermount?

and do you have instagram? Mine is @epsilonte_rosenrot  

 

[arcaneinvictus]

Same! It feels like if I go two weeks without doing something with it, it sucks! That's incredibile that you've achieved it! I don't know about you, but I find relearning a move takes far less time than learning it from scratch 😊

 

Currently working on True Grip Ayesha (I can get legs off the pole, just working on the straddle part) and Handspring (I can stay there if someone spots me, but I'm really struggling with the kick up!) It's @parliparle 😄

[Epsilonte]

5 hours ago, arcaneinvictus said:

I find relearning a move takes far less time than learning it from scratch 😊

Oh yes definitely! This time around it was (or is xD) just a matter of lacking strength, first time it was my brain being afraid of the move... xD Now I know that I can trust my body and the more I practice, the faster it comes back.  

 

5 hours ago, arcaneinvictus said:

It's @parliparle 😄

Got you!

Oh Handspring is a big one.  Which grip? Twisted I guess? Or also true grip? I actually prefer true grip for my poor shoulders, but find twisted easier. Never liked cup grip much... Neigher for handsprings, nor ayeshas. 

 

 

 

 

I didn't jump on the pole today, I was too physically tired after school and work (and not enough sleep, oops). But I have a nice big session planned for tomorrow, where my day will be much shorter (and start a bit later, yay 1h more sleep!) in general, so I'll probably have more energy in the evening.  

[WhiteGhost]

On 12/1/2021 at 6:48 AM, Epsilonte said:

"evening" is a relative term since it was after 9pm when I got home from school.

Looks like we have very similar definitions of "evening"  

 

Going to hang here with you this challenge  

 

[arcaneinvictus]

8 hours ago, Epsilonte said:

Oh yes definitely! This time around it was (or is xD) just a matter of lacking strength, first time it was my brain being afraid of the move... xD Now I know that I can trust my body and the more I practice, the faster it comes back.  

 

Got you!

Oh Handspring is a big one.  Which grip? Twisted I guess? Or also true grip? I actually prefer true grip for my poor shoulders, but find twisted easier. Never liked cup grip much... Neigher for handsprings, nor ayeshas. 

 

 

 

 

I didn't jump on the pole today, I was too physically tired after school and work (and not enough sleep, oops). But I have a nice big session planned for tomorrow, where my day will be much shorter (and start a bit later, yay 1h more sleep!) in general, so I'll probably have more energy in the evening.  

 

I love the trust in your body that pole builds! 

 

See it's true grip for me, my shoulders are quite hypermobile, so I find twisted grip quite scary. Definitely haven't tried cup grip yet!

 

Ooh! Enjoy! Let us know how you get on 😊

[Epsilonte]

6 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Looks like we have very similar definitions of "evening"  

Usually I like to think of everything "after work" as evening, which is more like 5-6pm, 9 is already late to get started on things like dinner and stuff.

 

and welcome!

 

4 hours ago, arcaneinvictus said:

See it's true grip for me, my shoulders are quite hypermobile, so I find twisted grip quite scary. Definitely haven't tried cup grip yet!

Nice!! True grip is much better for the shoulders than twisted for sure. cup would be even better but it's weird and requires quite a bit more strength. 

[Mad Hatter]

It’s so funny because for me shouldermounts is the only more intermediate level trick I achieved and that came without much effort. It’s more of a fitness/weight thing for me. Ayeshas and handsprings I never even got to try! Maybe climbing strength translated better to brute force tricks than to anything technical?😛

[Epsilonte]

Soooo...

My session yesterday was not as big as inteded. But I showed up and did something (just freestyling basically. In leggings. So no tricks or anything fancy, but I did some shouldermounts in the end. I was feeling really down for some reason and wanted to dance it out. It helped a bit). So plus 45 mins.

 

Today I only did some stretches. We have a few online classes going on right now in the studio, and I decided to do one of the stretching ones. So I did an hour of stretching of which I will again count just 30 mins because only 30 mins of it were active. xD I much prefer active to passive stretches, but it was what it was. xD 

 

That brings me to a total of 120 mins so far this week. 30 to go! Hope to do them tomorrow, but I have a lot of other things going on, so we will see. Since it's just zero week, I'm not too concerned. xD

 

Somehow this week (or half of this week, it only started on Wednesday) thinking about dancing makes me sad. Kills my motivation. I'm pretty down over all, might just be a bit much going on. And there isn't even THAT much going on right now. xD It's weird. I hope to get out of this funk soon. 

[Mad Hatter]

It’s awful when the thing that usually makes you happy suddenly makes you sad! 😕Though it is one of the first signs of underrecovering, and you DO have a lot going on. For a long time too. Something to consider. Either way hugs to you, hope the sads go away quickly!

[juliebarkley]

11 hours ago, Epsilonte said:

Somehow this week (or half of this week, it only started on Wednesday) thinking about dancing makes me sad. Kills my motivation. I'm pretty down over all, might just be a bit much going on. And there isn't even THAT much going on right now. xD It's weird. I hope to get out of this funk soon. 

I hope so too! Got anything you could temporarily focus on that makes you joyful to think about?

[Epsilonte]

Aaaah I typed a really long response and my phone ate it. xD 

 

17 hours ago, Mad Hatter said:

Though it is one of the first signs of underrecovering, and you DO have a lot going on. For a long time too. Something to consider.

I think you might be onto something there. Thank you for the input and for the hug.  ❤️ 

Sadly I can't really change anything about it right now, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The next two weeks will stay intense, but after the 22nd I have two and a half blissfull weeks of nothingness, almost - no work, no school, no dance classes, but I do have to study for my exams in January. There is a really big and important one coming up, so I plan to use the better part of those two week for that, but still want to take a few days completely off.

 

6 hours ago, juliebarkley said:

I hope so too! Got anything you could temporarily focus on that makes you joyful to think about?

Thank you!

Dancing still makes me joyfull, it just also brings out all the emotions I like to keep bottled up all the time. xD I was legit lying (laying? lieing? I'm never sure how to write that one xD) curled up (ha!) on the floor hugging the pole and crying for a few minutes on Thursday. Then I closed my eyes, danced three songs and felt a lot better, but still. 

But I want to follow your example and go out to walk some more. Watching christmas lights and maybe stars (not many of those in the city here, but at least the moon looks nice and bright). We did a lot of walking in the evenings last year at this time, and I think it would be good to resume this. 

 

I'm already feeling a bit better today. I was cleaning the bathroom earlier today and listening to an audio book and got totally lost in this book, as you do. And forgot about everything for a few minutes and that was really nice.  

And mind you, my life is not bad at all, I still have the best husband, the cutest cats, my very own pole, a nice flat, enough to eat, warmth, a job that bends to my weird schedule and I'm going to school for something I really wanna do. It's just been a bit too much. If you count 40h a week for school (which is a very moderate estimate), I did have plenty of 55-57h weeks (10h of office work, 5-7 for teaching - and while it is fun and I love it, it's still also a job xD) since September. I think the last day when I didn't do anything for school or work was our wedding day. xD xD So yes, it will get much better after the 22nd. January won't be as taxing, I think, because while I still have plenty of exams, at least we won't have as many actual classes in between, so more time for studying and winding down.

 

Thank you all for reading. ❤️ 

[arcaneinvictus]

Ah man, that sucks that you've been having the dance blues - I concur with @Mad Hatter that it might be a touch of burn out?

 

I'm glad you're feeling better today! Roll on January! 😊

[Alanna]

10 minutes ago, Epsilonte said:

And mind you, my life is not bad at all, I still have the best husband, the cutest cats, my very own pole, a nice flat, enough to eat, warmth, a job that bends to my weird schedule and I'm going to school for something I really wanna do. It's just been a bit too much. If you count 40h a week for school (which is a very moderate estimate), I did have plenty of 55-57h weeks (10h of office work, 5-7 for teaching - and while it is fun and I love it, it's still also a job xD) since September. I think the last day when I didn't do anything for school or work was our wedding day. xD xD So yes, it will get much better after the 22nd. January won't be as taxing, I think, because while I still have plenty of exams, at least we won't have as many actual classes in between, so more time for studying and winding down.

 

 

That is a lot - I'm not surprised you feel tired and overwhelmed. What are you studying, if you don't mind sharing?

[Epsilonte]

27 minutes ago, Alanna said:

What are you studying, if you don't mind sharing?

I'm in my second (of three) year of becoming a physiotherapist. It's suuuuper interesting, but it's a LOT to learn and practice. And the third semester is notoriously the worst/most dense. First year was all basics and anatomy, physiology and stuff, this year is full of details and different clinical subjects (we have classes about neurology, paediatrics, orthopaedics, internal medicine, etc etc - what to do with different patients ), next year will be all about internships and final exams.

PT was something that fascinated me for some years, but I only just took the plunge last year and tried to get into the school - and somehow made it.  The first semester was also interesting, because I had been out of school for some years (finished school-school in 2007 and studied physics until 2012-ish (a bit longer, but didn't finish my MSc)) and had to relearn how to study. xD 

So there is an end in sight, but overall the next 1,5 years will still be a bit hard. (And I think it was the newest lockdown that killed me this time, I really need my pole studio and gym as an outlet and when those are closed I get grumpy. xD) It's totally worth it though!