I remember thinking that I was going to absolutely destroy my body before I was able to retire. I thought the damage to my hips and knees would surely disable me to the point of needing a wheelchair to be mobile. I would leave work early because of the pain shooting up my legs, from my heels to my hips and low back. I would sit or lay down most of the time I wasn’t working. I would cry from the pain, take NSAIDs, use CBD infused creams and lotions- nothing returned any vitality to my life.
What I didn’t know back then was how to properly care for my body while actively and consistently working. Sure, I went to the gym, and I even tried yin yoga. Here’s what I wish I knew a little earlier in my career…
Mobility exercise in the most basic sense, just means moving your joint around in every direction. Hips are a ball and socket joint, and have 360 degree mobility. All this means is that we need to move our hips around the joint in circles. You can do this is a variety of positions, but the point is to move through our range of motion in a fluid manner.
Without enough mobility in the body, there’s almost no point in doing much else, physically. Lifting heavy is more difficult, and painful. Wearing heels becomes a chore, and they’re supposed to make us feel sexy, not irritated! Even daily movement can become hindered, difficult, and painful.
Our connective tissues in our joints need fluid movement to be at peak performance, so it is imperative that we make sure to get these movements in every day- or as many days as possible. Yoga is a great way to do this, but there are ways to add it into a gym routine, as a warmup or cool down, or both. You can even add some mobility into your stage set, but more often than not, it will be minimal and not the full range of motion needed to maintain healthy joints.
Sometimes, what we think is a flexibility problem, is really a mobility problem. If you were vacuuming and the cord got kinked up, and caught on a corner, you wouldn’t keep yanking on it and thinking it wasn’t long enough. You would un-kink the cord. If you did keep pulling, you would risk irreparably damaging the cord. Same for our muscles, we need to work out the kinks.
Strippers should be intentional about keeping a targeted mobility routine to combat the side effects of wearing heels all the time. Hip mobility is priority number one, but nothing operates in a vacuum- everything in the body works together. Keeping this in mind, strippers should also have some side body, and low back release stretches to follow mobility work. These will work in tandem with hip mobility to combat the tension caused by wearing heels all the time.
Although a stripper-specific mobility routine should focus mainly on hip mobility, it should also include other areas of the body, like the ankles, shoulders, and wrists if you are a polerina. Remember to work through all parts of the hip- inner, outer, all around that ball and socket joint!
As with any changes in life, I recommend starting small. Hip circles, and circling each leg individually both directions is a great place to start. You can always look up hip mobility flows on Instagram and YouTube as well!
Just a few minutes 3-5 times a week will create a change you will be able to feel fairly quickly, probably about a week to feel the initial effects. The more consistent and varied the exercises, the more you will feel the connective tissue in the joint and fascia begin to release and relax.
Happy Hustling 💕
