Pole Frustrations - The Motivation Blues
We’ve all been there at some point – one moment you’re living and breathing studio life and the next you’re struggling to find your inspiration. You know you WANT to go; you know you’ll feel better if you do, but your normal classes just aren’t cutting it and you are stuck on struggle street without so much as a street pole to pose on 😢
Lucky for you, we’ve asked our fabulous instructor Jenny from our Onehunga studio and she has shared her top tips on how you can get your groove back!! Say goodbye to the motivation blues and hello to your aerial muse 💙
How long have you been living the high life at Altitude Pole?
I joined Altitude Pole in Takapuna, Auckland as a student back in December 2018 and instantly loved it! I was already working towards becoming a group fitness instructor for Les Mills and knew that I wanted to instruct in pole as well. I trained as an instructor at the Takapuna studio and now teach at the Altitude in Onehunga. I have been teaching there since November 2019 and I absolutely love it!
I now teach a range of classes from Level 1 through to Level 4 as well as stretch, aerial yoga and pole flow.
In that time, how often would you say you've had the motivation blues?
There were times as a student and as an instructor that I struggled with motivation, especially when other things in life get in the way or take over.
Currently I struggle a lot with motivation of training and upskilling myself so I can provide more for my students. I tend to throw a lot of energy into teaching because I enjoy it so much and then leave not much for my own training. This is something I am currently trying to work hard on.
Unfortunately, I also tend to get frustrated with myself when I don’t get things quick enough as I can be quite impatient with myself so that can impact motivation as well!
How does it impact your training?
I find it difficult to find the push to train, I will book it into my schedule and then when it comes to the time, I lack the motivation to actually do it.
I do quite a bit of fitness stuff outside of pole as I teach and attend Les Mills group fitness classes which is helpful for pole but in the end, it is not pole training. This can mean I tend to hit a plateau where I am able to carry out the tricks, to teach the basic curriculum work but I am not pushing myself to learn new stuff to then bring back to my students and myself.
What are some things that have helped you push through?
Scheduling has been the key for me. I am quite an organized person and I like to plan, I have a colour coded planner that I actually look forward to filling out!
I do not give myself the choice to not do what is in my schedule. If I have scheduled a fitness class then I will attend that fitness class - I almost turn off my brain and say nope it is in the planner you are going to that class!
When I plan to do pole training, I make sure to plan the training session. I used to just try and wing it and trust me that does not work! Plan your training session and plan things that you enjoy doing, because doing something is better than doing nothing.
If you could go back in time to give yourself a piece of advice when the motivation blues strikes, what would it be?
Don’t be too hard on yourself. We all hit moments when we struggle with motivation and yes it sucks but you will get through it. And plan, plan out your schedule and stick to it, try to ignore what is going on in your brain and just turn off and do the work. Turning up and at least trying is better than doing nothing.
Do you have any other words of wisdom that you'd like to share with us?
Try not to let what you see around you impact your opinion of yourself or your motivation. Everyone goes through their own ups and downs when it comes to motivation but with social media as it is now, we tend to just see the ups which can make us feel like we can’t ever be that motivated. But we can, we have to push for ourselves and our potential and no one else’s.
