Grip aids?
kimclaws
Posts: 101 Member
What does everyone use for grip aids? I have tried multiple different things and nothing really works all that well, there are some day where my hands just won't stick. any suggestions?
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My teacher's banned me from using grip aids so I develop the grip strength, so I can't advise you much (apart from sticky PVC gloves which I once used, which are pretty useful, if you're doing inverts and stuff).
One thing I'd check is why your pole is getting slippery (or your hands!)... when I'm at university I have the pole in the same room as my coffee machine (I only have one room). When I made a coffee, the humidity in the air rose, causing more condensation to appear on my pole, making it impossibly slippery. Took ages to work that one out. Similarly make sure it's not too cold, as that also encourages condensation.
To warm myself and the pole up fully, I spin on the pole a lot (if it's too slippery for THAT, just rub your hands against the pole to transfer heat through friction), and do off-the-pole exercises such as vigorous ab exercises and push-ups/shoulder-taps until I've worked up a sweat. After that point I'm usually able to stick to the pole properly.0 -
yea I have gloves, grip aids of all sorts but nothing works great, by body sticks fine but when I am working on strength mods , like pencil, flagpole, iron x, my hands slip so badly, I guess its just practice and hand strength.0
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Natural grip is good, but for learning power moves, I still do like grip aids--that little extra security helps. Working on hand strength helps. My current instructor has us do this god awful jazz hands thing (hold your hands up at shoulder height and really flick out hard again and again), after like 90 seconds of it, your forearms hurt, but it does seem to help. Also, I find working on a lot of spins helps my grip.
I use FirmGrip (the spray, the paste I have problems with) for my hands, and either iTac or Dry Hands for knees and thighs. You have to be careful not to put too much grip on, or it actually makes things worse, LESS IS MORE.
I know a lot of people love the gloves but they scare me. A friend of mine had been using hers for a couple of months, then one day, her hand shifted a little in the glove and she fell. Just out of the blue. We couldn't figure out why, but it made me cautious of them.
One final note, Aerial Amy talked about pole size recently ( http://aerialamy.com/blog/2011/12/09/buying-a-pole-thickness/ ) she argues for buying a 45mm pole (Xpole now even offers a 40), because for women with smaller hands, this mean you can wrap your hand all the way around the pole, substantially improving grip. I'm not small (5'7) and have big hands for a woman, so I can get my hand all the way around a 50mm, but if you have smaller hands, you might consider a 45mm. (Although this doesn't help much if you already have a pole, and don't have more money than you know what to do with.)0 -
I get slidey hands if it's a move I'm not too confident with and I've tried a few thing. iTac is great for legs but I hate it on my hands, climbing chalk is just TOO dry but I've went back to Mighty Grip - it's a powder but get's slightly tacky in the heat. It's quite subtle but enough to stop sweat getting in the way.0
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yea I have thought about pole size, right now i have a 50 mm but I am about to rode a new free standing pole and I may try a thinner one, I am 5'3 and have small hands so that could be the issue, I will try those exercises too,
thanks for the info ladies!!!0 -
Aaah yes, that's another thing, I've had a 50mm for 2 years and I'm downgrading to a 40 or 45mm after xmas for my teeny hands!0
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I'm definitely a mighty grip fan!! Brilliant on the legs!0
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HA! i just asked this question on the introduction page!! I was wondering what other people were using. Where I used to go there were a lot of things that we used for learning new tricks. The main thing was keeping the pole clean, we would put hand sanitizer on it to clean it. We would also use barbasol which is really cheap shaving cream, I always thought that it worked better then dry-hands and it costs less money. I would like to work on my hand strenght and not use it but when I did things like table top I needed in on the inside of my elbow, just for mental support!!0
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I use Dry Hands. I buy it on amazon.0
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I use mighty grip I find it works good0
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I use three different aids for pole work. Two just for my hands as they tend to get really sweaty (can't think of their names right now as I haven't got them to hand, but one is a liquid that dries to form a skin on the hands, and the other is a talc)
The third is a very simple and very cheap product that my pole instructor told me about and think it's one of my best purchases: normal ladies shaving gel, honestly it works! Rub it into your legs dry until it disappears and you won't find anything better for grip at a more decent price, in my experience anyway!
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What does everyone use for grip aids? I have tried multiple different things and nothing really works all that well, there are some day where my hands just won't stick. any suggestions?
I'm a pole newbie and at 113kg, my main grip aid is a special blend of determination, hope and sheer terror! :laugh:
Mavis0
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