On Saturday, Rockit Pole Fitness, a pole dance based workout studio within the City of Oakley, will be hosting an free Open House from 6-8pm which will include promotional pricing, raffles and demonstrations.
Amanda Downey
According to Amanda Downey, owner of the business, the event is aimed to allow the community to learn about the services, showcase ability, and highlight the atmosphere of what the studio is all about.
She admits there is a stereotype because a pole is involved, but it’s really about building confidence, improving health and wellness while welcoming people of all shapes, sizes and ability.
“The idea is to showcase that there is no stereotype of who takes these classes. We want to get away from the stereotypes and allow the community to see who the actual students are. They include stay at home moms, professionals, college students and those who have retired,” explained Downey. “Rather than focusing on what one can achieve years from now, we hope to showcase what someone can immediately achieve in our routine classes.”
Downey says by design of the classes, its aimed at allowing everyone to participate because it’s about building confidence and achieving goals whether its to strengthen the body or lose weight. Most importantly, shes says it’s also about having fun while doing it.
“Working out on a pole, it’s much more effective not because it’s a better workout in general, but because you see immediate results in the milestones you hit such as spins, but you also get that full workout,” explained Downey. “At the gym, you work, work, work and see very little results and it’s unfortunately a slow process. Here, you are hitting milestones and mentally it’s quicker and you keep coming back.”
She also highlights that what she tries to build in the studio is a culture of encouragement for all students.
Photo provided by Rockit Pole Fitness
In fact, she says the encouragement becomes contagious because people get hooked and people want others to succeed.
Still, Downey understands that people are fearful of a pole, don’t believe they can do it, or are somewhat embarrassed. She encourages people to come in and try it one time.
“As soon as someone comes in, they will see we are very supportive. There is no judgement and so many people come in try it. They can’t believe they were so scared to try it. Like anything new, people are nervous but this is a whole new type of nervous because it’s a group of girls and they think they will not look good doing it, but it’s not like that,” explained Downey. “For those who may be nervous, we do offer private lessons to try it out until the confidence is built.”
Rockit Pole Fitness opened on March 21 and have classes throughout the week in the mornings and evenings and they even have pole parties on Friday and Saturday nights.
“Pole fitness has been around for a while and is not considered a trend, it’s a new way to work out that many are not familiar with,” says Downey. “Even though it’s been around a while, people think pole dancing so it’s about getting over that. But it’s also a good way for women to meet other women if your not in college or a moms group while burring calories.”
Downey highlighted that the entire session is high cardio, but for beginners, it’s a lot of upper body muscle building right away because you are lifting yourself onto a pole and then as you advance, your core strength is heavy at work because you are pulling yourself up and holding onto a pole. The more advanced students then get major lower body work because they are holding themselves onto the pole by their legs.
Downey says it’s a complete body workout in about 50-minutes time.
She noted that one student lost 60-lbs in 15-months doing the workouts saying that she never thought she would excel, but then become addicted and made progress as the workouts are designed to tone really quickly.
“It’s the reverse of going to the gym because on the pole you are doing cardio and weights at the same time,” says Downey. “We have 50-minute classes with a 10-minute warmup and cool-down. Most classes are 4-to-9 women. “
During classes, one thing Downey has noticed is a “culture of encouragement” being built with women really offering encouragement which has built up a lot of confidence, especially when personal goals are met because people are cheering for successes.
“We try to create a culture of a like minded community building studio. I get so excited when people hit their goals. The first step is coming in and checking it out. We have a variety of classes so if you’re not comfortable doing a full routine, you can take a pole fitness to just get on the pole which is a beginner class and tame. We have different types of classes at different levels of expertise,” explained Downey. “We have something for everyone depending on your goals
She further highlighted that sometimes people say they want to lose weight or get in better shape before coming into the study, but she argues this is how one loses weight.
“You wouldn’t wait to go to the gym until you’re really fit or skinny so just come in and we can talk about it,” says Downey. “It’s very important to me that people are comfortable and that is my number one goal. When people are scared because they have not been here, they can come in and we can talk about it or try it and they feel comfortable about it. If you commit to it, its one of those things where you cant even imagine what you will be doing.”
If you go:
Saturday, April 30 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Rockit Pole Fitness
1625 Main St, Oakley
925- 470-7991
For more information, visit www.rockitpole.com
