When I have a great shift, I feel it in my body. The difference between a great shift and one that is just okay the preparation. Although I will be giving you five tips for a great shift, there are only two main things to remember: regulate your nervous system, and prepare your body to do work!
Regulating Your Nervous System
Vitamin D
There are numerous ways to regulate your nervous system, but getting enough vitamin D is one that I strongly recommend for strippers. This is especially vital to monitor in the winter months. In sufficient vitamin D can cause mental fatigue, bone and joint pain, muscle aches, and more. There are a few way to increase your vitamin D intake, including sun exposure, eating the right foods, or taking supplements. I recommend supplements as a last option, because your skin naturally limits the amount of vitamin D absorbed through sun exposure. 1
Sleep
A simple and effective way to help regulate your nervous system is to get enough quality sleep. Blackout curtains, a sleeping mask, and the right appliances to create a cozy sleep atmosphere no matter the season are some ways to get closer to a quality sleep. You can supplement your sleep with naps, too.
Remember that alcohol and caffeine affect sleeping patterns, so be mindful of how much and when you are consuming both!
Preparing Your Body to Do Work
After you have gotten an amazing, restful morning’s sleep and some early afternoon sunshine, it is time to prepare your body to do work! Make no mistake, even a slow shift is work. One stage set? Work! One dance? Work! Walking around in platforms? WORK!
Regardless of the stigma surrounding our job, sex work is work, and stripping is sex work. Stripping is also the most physically laborious branch of sex work. Stripper knees are infamous for a reason.
Fueling Your Body
The first step in preparing is to fuel our bodies. Hopefully, you ate some breakfast and drank some water when you woke up and got some sunshine! If not, it is time to do that now.
I change up my breakfast every few weeks, but I rotate between avocado toast, greek yogurt with berries, honey, and granola, egg toast, and a fruit smoothie. The egg toast is more favored when I am getting less sun and or working out more, as it has protein and the yolk has vitamin D. If I have feeling more dehydrated, I crave fruit or a fruit smoothie. (Side note- smoothies are a great way to get nutrients and supplements, like collagen and extra protein!)
It is very important to know what you are putting in your body so that you can make sure you are meeting your nutritional needs, but tracking everything obsessively is not healthy either. My philosophy around food is that we should know how to fuel ourselves so we can be strong, healthy, and vital.
Vitality is the name of the game when it comes to eating for fuel. The feeling of vitality when I am well fed, hydrated, and regulated is unmatched. When I began to think of food as fuel as well as an enjoyable sensory experience, I started to get even more pleasure out of eating. I no longer felt shame about eating snacks or dessert, nor cared about a couple extra pounds. Vitality exudes from a person, and customers can definitely tell!
Personally, I like to eat smaller, more frequent meals throughout the day and night, especially if I am also working out before heading to the club. This allows me to maintain a steadier metabolism and blood sugar level, as well as have enough energy readily available to do work (move).
Hydrating Your Body
Hydration is the most important quality in a healthy and vital body. We want to avoid flushing our bodies of nutrients by drinking too much water, while drinking enough to stay hydrated. Using mineral drops can help retain essential minerals and optimize your overall functionality.
Personally, I get filtered drinking water and re-mineralize it with Eidon’s Multiple Mineral Drops, and sometimes the Electrolyte Drops if I have been working out a lot, or going to any hot yoga classes.
Moving Your Body
The final step for a great shift is to move your body. Mobility exercises are just movements that increase our range of motion, and thus our capacity to do work. If following along with a mobility instructor isn’t your thing, there are other ways to mobilize the body. Most forms of yoga are mobility movements, yin being the exception as it is very static.
In order to optimize our energy use and maximize results, I recommend targeting the hips for mobility, the glutes and core for strength, and the low back for static stretching. Luckily for us, there are a few exercises that compound two or more of these, and can be done every day!
Dead bugs are great for core strength, but can also help correct an anterior pelvic tilt, something that happens over time when we wear heels for long periods.
Lay on your back with your hands and legs in the air, legs bent at a 90 degree angle. Make sure that you are pressing your low back into the floor! Lower the opposite foot and hand to hover, bring them back, then switch sides. Always keep your low back pressed into the floor.
Glute bridges with a resistance band are great for stabilization and activation of the glute muscle. Our glutes can become under utilized if we are not actively strengthening them (with correct form) because the incline of heels does not allow the glute to be fully active while stretching it over our pelvic girdle. The resistance band ensures that we are keeping our knees in alignment and has the added bonus of strengthening our IT band.
Glute bridges also dynamically stretch the front hip flexors, by way of reciprocal inhibition, meaning that as our glute muscles engage, it relaxes the opposite muscle(s). This is a form of hip mobility, and is limited to one directional plane, but it is the direction most affected by the chronic wearing of heels.
Lay on your back with the resistance band around your legs, just above the knees. Tickle the back of your heels with your fingers to ensure proper spacing. Engage your glutes and push your hips forward, grounding through your heels. Press your low back into the floor when you return to the starting position; if it feels like your back arched during the upward push, think of drawing your belly button into your spine, and focus on engaging the core to keep it stable during the next push. Glute bridges also strengthen the core and low back, secondarily.
Rocking Frog pose is great for hip mobility, deep core muscle release, and low back release. If you have never done this before, try it static first, with a bolster or pillow under your belly. You can do half frog rocks to target hip mobility and for the ease of getting out of it.
Begin with a bolster, pillow, or foam roller under your belly, knees wide, ankles and knees in alignment. You can rock slightly with your prop, but to get the full range of motion, you will need to take the prop out from under you. Remember to tuck your tailbone while doing these! This will help combat the misalignment of the coccyx (tailbone) that occurs when twerking on the floor and wearing heels.
If your knees hurt too much, or it is hard on your low back, try half frog rocks with a prop, and a deep yogi squat, with a block underneath your tailbone.
Child’s pose is a common static stretch for yogis, and great for low back and hip release. I recommend starting with your knees wide, toes touching, but you can bring your knees together if that feels good for you. Come out of it slowly!
If you have never done child’s pose, start by sitting with your legs folded, knees wide, and then slowly bring the front of your body down towards the floor by crawling your hands out in front of you. If you have limited hip mobility, try using a prop under your belly.
Reclined butterfly pose is a great one for days that you do not feel like moving, or for after work. It is great for strippers who have danced for a while, and feel tight and stiff regardless of the rest of the stretches you do. Butterfly pose targets the outer hips, one of the most highly affected areas for strippers, and one of the areas that many instructors or trainers will not spend nearly enough time on for our needs.
Lay on your back with the soles of your feet touching, knees out wide. Use a prop under both knees if needed. It is more important for your low back to remain pressed to the ground than your knees to touch the ground. If you need to use blocks on a higher setting do not be discouraged! It takes time to build up that kind of stiffness, but with patience and consistency, you will be able to feel relief and become more mobile!
Have a Great Shift!
Now that you have regulated your nervous system and prepared your body to do work, you are ready to have a great shift! It might seem like a lot, and it is! It takes a lot of work to stay healthy, fit, and exuding vitality, especially when doing our job is actively working against all of that simply because of the hours and physical requirements. Stripping is more than a job, it is a lifestyle and a career. It takes dedication and working smarter to maximize the benefits while optimizing our energy, and maintaining our health.
Happy hustling!
