Science of Slink: The Evidence Based Pole Podcast with Dr. Rosy Boa – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome back pole dancers to Science of Slink! Today we have a guest I’m very excited for, Dr. Melissa Koehl, a DPT and Pilates Instructor - Specialist in Hypermobility, EDS/HSD, POTS, MCAS and co. This episode is packed with valuable insights into hypermobility and its unique challenges, especially for dancers like those in the pole dance community. Dr. Melissa Koehl's personal experience with hypermobility and her professional expertise bring a deep, nuanced perspective to understanding conditions like Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), dysautonomia, and mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS). The discussion on the "trifecta" and how hypermobility can lead to issues like fatigue, dizziness, and GI problems is especially relevant to those managing complex symptoms.

Dr. Koehl’s emphasis on strength and stability training is critical for hypermobile dancers to maintain joint health and prevent injury. The mention of fascia’s role in hypermobility, and the potential connections with conditions like long COVID, opens up interesting possibilities for future research and treatment approaches.

If you're involved in the pole dance community or working with hypermobility, this episode seems like a must-listen for gaining practical tips on managing these challenges while improving movement, proprioception, and overall body awareness!

 @dr.melissakoehl.pt of Chimera Health 

Movement classes: https://www.chimera-health.com/chimerafit-classes

"Navigating Healthcare as a Hypermobile Human" course: https://www.chimera-health.com/NavigatingHealthcare 

Slink Through Strength Email Sign Up:  ⁠http://eepurl.com/iimjnX⁠

Join pole instructor & personal trainer Rosy Boa as she chats with experts about the evidence-based practices you can introduce to your pole journey to improve your pole journey and feel better. The Evidence-Based Pole Podcast aims to help pole dancers feel better on and off the pole by talking with experts and diving into relevant scientific research to find evidence-based insights we can apply to our pole journeys. It’s a production of Slink Through Strength, the inclusive, evidence-based online pole studio, which can be found online at slinkthroughstrength.com.

Edited by: Simone Rossette 

Simone.rossette77@gmail.com

Sources: 

• Yang, M., Logarbo, B., Courseault, J., Wickramasuriya, N., Bix, G., & Longo, M. (2024, April). Long COVID and the Diagnosis of Underlying Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders (P5-4.014). In Neurology (Vol. 102, No. 17_supplement_1, p. 2478). Hagerstown, MD: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Welcome back pole dancers to the Science of Slink Podcast. This week we are going to discuss mental blockages and how to overcome them. We will define mental blocks, contributing factors, and techniques to try to help overcome mental blocks.

So what is a mental blockage? When the obstacle keeping you from your desired movement goal is emotional and/or mental rather than physical. Mental blockages can arise when learning new things and/or doing a skill you already know how to do. As an instructor, I often see blockages arise when people are working on what they consider their weaker side.

What factors can lead to mental blocks? Some contributing factors can be your environment being your classmates or teachers, anxiety, and trauma. When trauma is involved a specialist can be particularly important.

Some great techniques to try to help overcome mental blockages are working with a specialist- like a sports psychologist, some evidence suggests EMDR may be effective, Notice if the reaction is mainly physical sweating, heart racing, muscle tension or mental rumination, racing thoughts, perseveration. For the former, physical relaxation techniques may be more helpful, for the latter mental refocusing & restructuring. Another technique worth a try is Vergence which is to look at your pole for 5 seconds, then behind the pole for 5 seconds, then try the skill. Additionally, try monitoring your HRV as a tool.

Lastly, some Recommendations from Dr. Chelsea Pierotti, a sports psychologist specializing in dance, https://passionatecoach.com/mental-toughness-overcome-mental-blocks/ Determine that the obstacle is mental/emotional and not physical notice & reframe negative self-talk; "what if..." ... "so what"Reframe or modify the skill to reduce the challenge/fear seek additional support if needed

Science of Slink Email Sign Up: ⁠http://eepurl.com/iimjnX⁠

Join pole instructor & personal trainer Rosy Boa as she chats with experts about the evidence-based practices you can introduce to your pole journey to improve your pole journey and feel better. The Evidence-Based Pole Podcast aims to help pole dancers feel better on and off the pole by talking with experts and diving into relevant scientific research to find evidence-based insights we can apply to our pole journeys. It’s a production of Slink Through Strength, the inclusive, evidence-based online pole studio, which can be found online at slinkthroughstrength.com.

Edited by: Simone Rossette Simone.rossette77@gmail.comSources:

-Maaranen, A., Van Raalte, J. L., & Brewer, B. W. (2019). Mental blocks in artistic gymnastics and cheerleading: longitudinal analysis of flikikammo. -Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 14(3), 251-269.

-Manuel G. Calvo & Pedro M. Ramos (1989) Effects of test anxiety on motor learning: The processing efficiency hypothesis, Anxiety Research, 2:1, 45-55

-Harris, D. J., Wilkinson, S., & Ellmers, T. J. (2023). From fear of falling to choking under pressure: a predictive processing perspective of disrupted motor control under anxiety. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 148, 105115.

-Bennett, J., Bickley, J., Vernon, T., Olusoga, P., & Maynard, I. (2017). Preliminary evidence for the treatment of performance blocks in sport: The efficacy of EMDR with graded exposure. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 11(2), 96-110.

-Hanton, S., Thomas, O., & Mellalieu, S. D. (2009). Management of competitive stress in elite sport. International Olympic Committee sport psychology handbook, 30-42.

-Bowan, M. (2008). Treatment of panic attack with vergence therapy and unexpected visual-vagus connection. Journal of Behavioral Optometry 19, 155-159.

-Yu, G., Chang, K. F., & Shih, I. T. (2022). An exploration of the antecedents and mechanisms causing athletes’ stress and twisties symptom. Heliyon, 8(10).

Hello Pole Dancer and welcome to another episode of Science of Slink. This week we are joined by a special guest, Dr. Cat Liang, Psy.D, who studies dance therapy. She has just published a great research article, The use of dance and movement for the embodied healing of interpersonal trauma in women and girls. We will be discussing her findings in her research and what movement therapy can heal. 

We talked about dance therapy and how when movement and joy are incorporated into your healing practice, specifically for healing trauma, students have a greater retention rate. This means that when we incorporate joy into the healing process, we can associate our trauma with new feelings and move past it rather than sitting in it more easily. We also see that people are more dedicated to taking a long healing path because the healing modality being used is bringing us joy beyond just healing the trauma, but also our relationship with our bodies as a whole while enjoying the process. 

The key findings of Dr. Cat's research ia that through dance therapy people's physical ability increased including but not limited to strength, flexibility, and mobility. She also found that their emotional capacity increased and there was a mind, body, and integration. This helps to push past dissociation and creates a sense of safety, allowing them to process in a safer and empowering way. When dance therapy was done in groups, people felt empowered in the community and people felt more safe with others including outside of the dance circle. Last but not least, people had lots of fun which helped people get out of the slump of reliving trauma and into a place to explore the emotions and needs of our bodies and minds. 

Dr. Cat's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drcatliang/ 

Slink Through Strength Email Sign Up:

⁠http://eepurl.com/iimjnX⁠

Join pole instructor & personal trainer Rosy Boa as she chats with experts about the evidence-based practices you can introduce to your pole journey to improve your pole journey and feel better. The Evidence-Based Pole Podcast aims to help pole dancers feel better on and off the pole by talking with experts and diving into relevant scientific research to find evidence-based insights we can apply to our pole journeys. It’s a production of Slink Through Strength, the inclusive, evidence-based online pole studio, which can be found online at slinkthroughstrength.com.

Edited by: Simone Rossette 

Simone.rossette77@gmail.com

Sources:

Paper: Liang, C. X. (2023). The use of dance and movement for the embodied healing of interpersonal trauma in women and girls: A systematic review. Pepperdine University.

The book I mentioned:  Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness by David A. Treleaven (clinician)

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, and Regressions. Val discusses how a focus as of recent has been bridging the active/passive flexibility gap. She has discovered over her years as a physical therapist that exercising flexibility during training strengthening is the most applicable to real life, especially with an exercise like pole dance. A recent discovery that we explored was how stretching has evolved as research of the nervous system has recently come to light. One example of this is when we think we are stretching our hamstrings but we are pulling out sciatica nerve. Nerves prefer gente motions back and forth with fewer reps. The sneakiest issues seen in pole we think are elbow, shoulder, and wrist tendon issues created from trying to progress without the background of strength and mobility needed. Another common issue as you progress is only working one side. So what are Progressions and Regressions? This issue began with the isolation of learning to one move at a time rather than seeing the progression of learning. This issue stemmed primarily from social media and a lack of a standardized guide for building pole proficiency. Regressing is something that is very natural in pole and comes with the journey of our lives and changes in how we interact with and set goals in the pole space. Regressing isnt necessarily losing quality, it is changing how we move with the goal of being comfortable in our practice. Val and I like to frame injuries and changes as “de-loading” which is a term typically in sports. This deloading time allows us to explore more sustainable ways to practice and move forward. Where to find more of Val: Rose Physical Therapy Alchemy performing arts Pole Pressure https://www.instagram.com/valpolephant/ Slink Through Strength Email Sign Up:  ⁠http://eepurl.com/iimjnX⁠ Join pole instructor & personal trainer Rosy Boa as she chats with experts about the evidence-based practices you can introduce to your pole journey to improve your pole journey and feel better. The Evidence-Based Pole Podcast aims to help pole dancers feel better on and off the pole by talking with experts and diving into relevant scientific research to find evidence-based insights we can apply to our pole journeys. It’s a production of Slink Through Strength, the inclusive, evidence-based online pole studio, which can be found online at slinkthroughstrength.com. Edited by: Simone Rossette  Simone.rossette77@gmail.com

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 replication and no correlation being found. Replication is when you do a replicate a completed study to examine if you can find the same data or if the data is different. Today we are referencing studies such as menstrual cycles related to mood and medical replication studies.We touch on the likelihood of publicity based on the interest or “wow factor” of findings, also known as Plublication Bias. One example of publication bias is, if there is low correlation or no effect you are unlikely to get published. Publication bias tends to lean towards more extreem results and findings. This is one reason that human studies are harder to find, there is more variation between people than there would be for a purely scientific and mathematic study. Our last topic is something called “Publiher Perish” and this is when a researcher may fall into scientific misconduct. A researchers primary job is plublsihing scientific papers as frequently as possible, making them as interesting as possible. Due to publication bias and the fact that not all research is going to be interesting enough to publish, there is pressure to create something more interesting which can incentivize scientific misconduct.

Slink Through Strength Email Sign Up:  ⁠http://eepurl.com/iimjnX⁠

Join pole instructor & personal trainer Rosy Boa as she chats with experts about the evidence-based practices you can introduce to your pole journey to improve your pole journey and feel better. The Evidence-Based Pole Podcast aims to help pole dancers feel better on and off the pole by talking with experts and diving into relevant scientific research to find evidence-based insights we can apply to our pole journeys. It’s a production of Slink Through Strength, the inclusive, evidence-based online pole studio, which can be found online at slinkthroughstrength.com.

Edited by: Simone Rossette 

Simone.rossette77@gmail.com

Sources/Helpful Links: 

General overview of the replication crisis in psychology: 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/replication-crisis

The replication crisis (overview and what's changed since then): https://www.nature.com/articles/s44271-023-00003-2 

Replication in evo psych specifically: 

https://replicationindex.com/category/evolutionary-psychology/ 

Helpful pop-schi overview of some of the issues with ovulation research in evolutionary psychology

https://slate.com/technology/2018/10/ovulation-research-women-replication-crisis.html 

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 areas of the natural sciences, psychology, medicine and engineering.

This article is written by Agnieszka Nawrocka, Arkadiusz Mynarski, and  Zbigniew Pawelak. Important note, this appears to be Zbigniew’s first research paper. Additionally this appears to be a continuation of Agnieszka Nawrocka & Arkadiusz Mynarski’s work based off their prior research in 2016 together, their previous research is linked below. 

Their Research question was “What are the measurable longitudinal physical changes associated with pole dance training?” Their Methodology was as follows: 20-week study of new pole dancers, Looking at body composition & hand grip strentch, one 70-minute session each week. Their Conclusions are that there is an Increase in grip strength and a change in body composition. 

Slink Through Strength Email Sign Up:  ⁠http://eepurl.com/iimjnX⁠

Join pole instructor & personal trainer Rosy Boa as she chats with experts about the evidence-based practices you can introduce to your pole journey to improve your pole journey and feel better. The Evidence-Based Pole Podcast aims to help pole dancers feel better on and off the pole by talking with experts and diving into relevant scientific research to find evidence-based insights we can apply to our pole journeys. It’s a production of Slink Through Strength, the inclusive, evidence-based online pole studio, which can be found online at slinkthroughstrength.com.

Edited by: Simone Rossette 

Simone.rossette77@gmail.com

Sources: 

Longitudinal Effects of Pole Dance Training on Body Composition and Muscular Strength in Women by Agnieszka Nawrocka, Zbigniew Pawelak, and Arkadiusz Mynarski (Preprint, in review) https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3990731/v1

Link to article: 

https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3990731/v1

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10706424

Agnieszka Nawrocka & Arkadiusz Mynarski, 2016: "Effects of exercise training experience on hand grip strength, body composition and postural stability in fitness pole dancers" https://europepmc.org/article/med/27385549 

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 dove deep into pole performance and competition tips and what to do before and after you perform! We also talk about best practices to prevent injuries & what to do if/when you get one. Furthering the discussion was the note that the evidence has changed on prevention and recovery of injury! 

Some of the ways we have discovered to prevent injury is building muscle, exercise flexibility, and joint mobility. An interesting part of the change to injury care that has changed is that resting and icing are no longer primary recommendations for healing. We used to term loading the tissue to rebuild after injury which means how much force is being applied to the area. This should be guided exercises by a physical therapist. 

Follow Neesh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/polesavage/

Slink Through Strength Email Sign Up:  ⁠http://eepurl.com/iimjnX⁠

Join pole instructor & personal trainer Rosy Boa as she chats with experts about the evidence-based practices you can introduce to your pole journey to improve your pole journey and feel better. The Evidence-Based Pole Podcast aims to help pole dancers feel better on and off the pole by talking with experts and diving into relevant scientific research to find evidence-based insights we can apply to our pole journeys. It’s a production of Slink Through Strength, the inclusive, evidence-based online pole studio, which can be found online at slinkthroughstrength.com.

Edited by: Simone Rossette 

Simone.rossette77@gmail.com

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 we see in the shoulders such as frequent Impingement. Another influential factor to shoulder health is rhythm of movement; we should go in the order, First your arm bone, Then your scapula (they need to move!), then Slight shoulder elevation. 

Things get even more tricky when raising your arms above your head. This motion is commonly too much on the lats and lack external rotation. This can lead to Upper trap tension (especially in moves like apprentice); I recommend to move your hand down.

Slink Through Strength Email Sign Up:  ⁠http://eepurl.com/iimjnX⁠

Join pole instructor & personal trainer Rosy Boa as she chats with experts about the evidence-based practices you can introduce to your pole journey to improve your pole journey and feel better. The Evidence-Based Pole Podcast aims to help pole dancers feel better on and off the pole by talking with experts and diving into relevant scientific research to find evidence-based insights we can apply to our pole journeys. It’s a production of Slink Through Strength, the inclusive, evidence-based online pole studio, which can be found online at slinkthroughstrength.com.

Edited by: Simone Rossette 

Simone.rossette77@gmail.com

Citations: 

• Emily's book: https://www.thecircusdoc.com/book/

• Nicholas J, Weir G, Alderson JA, Stubbe JH, van Rijn RM, Dimmock JA, Jackson B, Donnelly CJ. Incidence, Mechanisms, and Characteristics of Injuries in Pole Dancers: A Prospective Cohort Study. Med Probl Perform Art. 2022 Sep;37(3):151-164. doi: 10.21091/mppa.2022.3022. PMID: 36053493.

• Małolepszy, M., Kwas, K., Defińska, K., Smyczyńska, U., & Kwapisz, A. (2022). Epidemiology of injuries in polish pole dance amateurs. Issues of Rehabilitation, Orthopaedics, Neurophysiology and Sport Promotion-IRONS, (41).

• Lee, J. Y., Lin, L., & Tan, A. (2019). Prevalence of pole dance injuries from a global online survey. The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness, 60(2), 270-275.

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 seeking to improve their relationship with food and their bodies and is open for booking currently. 

Reanna and I discussed what diet culture is and why its a problem affecting so many people today. We explored Anti-fat bias & how it shows up in fitness and pole dance, fat liberation/body liberation, Body neutrality vs. body positivity, Health Anxieties, and Eating disorders. Weight affects what it feels like to move your body (especially in pole!) & we feel pole teachers should know how to deal with that in a safe and liberating way. 

Reanna Peterman (she/they) Body Liberation Dietitian

Name: Reanna Peterman, MS, RDN, LDN

Pronouns: she/they

Contact: Email: reannardn@gmail.com

IG: reannardn https://www.instagram.com/reannardn/

https://www.reannapeterman.com (taking new clients!)

Slink Through Strength Email Sign Up:  ⁠http://eepurl.com/iimjnX⁠

Join pole instructor & personal trainer Rosy Boa as she chats with experts about the evidence-based practices you can introduce to your pole journey to improve your pole journey and feel better. The Evidence-Based Pole Podcast aims to help pole dancers feel better on and off the pole by talking with experts and diving into relevant scientific research to find evidence-based insights we can apply to our pole journeys. It’s a production of Slink Through Strength, the inclusive, evidence-based online pole studio, which can be found online at slinkthroughstrength.com.

Edited by: Simone Rossette 

Simone.rossette77@gmail.com

Sources: 

Anti-diet https://christyharrison.com/book-anti-diet-intuitive-eating-christy-harrison

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 intensity a bit lower. Medium intensity is more pleasurable than high intensity exercise, especially for folks who aren't already exercising often. If you are going for more intensity, don't go too long without a break OR decrease intensity over time. Research shows for men who weren't already very active, pleasure in exercise dropped off quickly the longer they did a high-intensity exercise and the ended up disliking it. Decreasing (rather than increasing) load over the period of exercise was waaaay more pleasure for participants--even though the total resistance was the same (put your hard tricks at the front!)

Another form of motivation to exercise is through developing Self-efficacy. This means believing that you can achieve your goals/desires is especially important at lower intensities. For me as a teacher: making sure that there are interesting and fun options for different capacities and abilities. A huge factor in motivation is to exercise to music you enjoy!

Slink Through Strength Email Sign Up:  ⁠http://eepurl.com/iimjnX⁠

Join pole instructor & personal trainer Rosy Boa as she chats with experts about the evidence-based practices you can introduce to your pole journey to improve your pole journey and feel better. The Evidence-Based Pole Podcast aims to help pole dancers feel better on and off the pole by talking with experts and diving into relevant scientific research to find evidence-based insights we can apply to our pole journeys. It’s a production of Slink Through Strength, the inclusive, evidence-based online pole studio, which can be found online at slinkthroughstrength.com.

Edited by: Simone Rossette 

Simone.rossette77@gmail.com

Sources: 

• Stults-Kolehmainen, M. A., Blacutt, M., Bartholomew, J. B., Gilson, T. A., Ash, G. I., McKee, P. C., & Sinha, R. (2020). Motivation states for physical activity and sedentary behavior: desire, urge, wanting, and craving. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 568390.

• Decker, E. S., & Ekkekakis, P. (2017). More efficient, perhaps, but at what price? Pleasure and enjoyment responses to high-intensity interval exercise in low-active women with obesity. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 28, 1-10.

• Frazão DT, de Farias Junior LF, Dantas TCB, Krinski K, Elsangedy HM, et al. (2016) Correction: Feeling of Pleasure to High-Intensity Interval Exercise Is Dependent of the Number of Work Bouts and Physical Activity Status. PLOS ONE 11(4): e0153986. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0153986 View correction 

• Hutchinson, Jasmin C., et al. "Increasing the pleasure and enjoyment of exercise: a novel resistance-training protocol." Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 42.2 (2020): 143-152.

• Zenko, Z., Ekkekakis, P., & Ariely, D. (2016). Can you have your vigorous exercise and enjoy it too? Ramping intensity down increases postexercise, remembered, and forecasted pleasure. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 38(2), 149-159.

• Ekkekakis, P. (2003). Pleasure and displeasure from the body: Perspectives from exercise. Cognition and emotion, 17(2), 213-239.

• Hutchinson, J. C., Jones, L., Vitti, S. N., Moore, A., Dalton, P. C., & O'Neil, B. J. (2018). The influence of self-selected music on affect-regulated exercise intensity and remembered pleasure during treadmill running. Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology, 7(1), 80–92. https://doi.org/10.1037/spy0000115