ibelieveinunicorns77 started this discussion ·
hey gals! so i just started poling about a month ago,i bought a 50 mm stainless steel pole,its dual mode and overall perfect,no complaints......other than im a very very small girl (4'9") and needless to say my hands are tiny,so i'd noticed after poling my upper knuckles on my two middle fingers were.extremely sore and the joints were in pain
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I am not sure if your post got cut off? The pain is proabbly due to overgripping, which is common for beginners. However I know a lot of smaller girls who prefer the 45 or even the 40 mm poles. I do not however think this will change your fingers getting sore.
Agreed with chem, I used to get a lot of pain in my fingers on my 50mm, and it was because I was overgripping in spins. That is where your wrist and forearm curl around the pole, instead of being held in a neutral position. It was Veena's lessons that really pointed it out to me. As my hands got stronger, it was easier to avoid, but I still fall back into old habits when I try something new. If you find yourself with "pole burn" on your forearms, that is also a sign. Just try to keep a neutral wrist in everything you do - it will feel weird at first if you're used to overgripping. You can certainly break the habit on your 50, and you can definitely still overgrip on a 45. But I think there is less instinct to do it if your fingers can fully wrap the pole. I have small hands and I've been thinking about getting a 45 for that reason.
I found that I had the same issue on my 50 when I started out, but, as ninja just mentioned, realizing I was overgripping was a HUGE issue. Also, I started strength training my hands so they'd be stronger as I progressed with pole. Squeezing little stress ball things, and I have this little thing with springs under each finger that you squish to gain hand strength. I used the 50 for my first year and a half of poling. I'm waiting for my new 45 to arrive, anxious to get poling and see and feel all the differences.
I have been using a 50 for the past 2 years. I never had any pain issues though, but I noticed that my fingers weren't even close to touching! I don't know why it never occurred to me :-). I didn't realize how small my hands were until my six year old wanted to see our hands next to eachother - we have the same size hands lol! So I got a new 40 this month (my fingers don't touch on a 45) and I have fallen in love with pole all over again! I wish I would've gotten a 40 in the first place! Everything feels so much more natural for me now. I was scared at first bc so many people say that thigh and knee grips are difficult on a 40 but i actually found them to feel the exact same. I'm 5 feet tall and small too. I think having that 50 for so long has definitely made me into a gripping machine though!
I wish the pole manufacturers would send out "sample packs" of all the pole finishes and widths they sell. Even just a couple of inches of each would be enough to get an idea, and the shipping on it wouldn't have to be absurd. I'd gladly pay for it before dropping money on a pole, and I'm sure studios that sell poles would love to have them as well. I've thought about going to Home Depot and pulling out various widths of pipe to get a feel for the different pole diameters in my hands. Can't do much about the finish, but at least it can help with the width.
That would be nice, or at least, have sample packs at studios or vendor's store fronts or whatever if not available to send to anyone. I measured the different mm's and found things that were similar, like, the top of a soda can feels like a 50 lol. The 40s at the studio WERE nice, but just felt a little too thin when climbing and what not. The grip is different because at home its chrome, at the studio they have brass, so you can't really compare the grip factor solely on mm alone with them being different metals. People always recommend going to a studio to try out different sizes and finishes, but that isn't always available :(
I've been poling on and off for years. My wrists start bothering me when I use 50's. Check out my album with the diameters to help you determine which you should go with. I will be writing a blog about the different diameters soon FYI. https://www.studioveena.com/photos/view_album/4ee3f549-75cc-4e73-97b3-4f300ac37250
