Nothing gets in the way of Lisa Mitchell and her pole dancing – not even a rapidly-expanding baby bump.
The Aberdonian fitness fanatic didn’t bank on getting pregnant when she took up the demanding sport to improve her strength and flexibility.
But when she and partner Dave Mathieson were given the welcome news just over a year later, Lisa was determined not to let her changing body change her routine.
Her determination paid off – her last pole dancing class was a mere SEVEN DAYS before giving birth.
“It was a Friday, and I said to myself, oh, my God, that was really difficult,” Lisa recalls.
“The following Tuesday I went into labour, and I was in labour for a couple of days before I even went into the hospital.
“I had a feeling, I was like, I don’t think I’m going to manage pole dancing this week. And then by the time it would have been my class, I had my baby.”
‘There’s just a taboo around it’
Oliver Blake was born on Friday March 24 to two delighted parents. But as Lisa recovers she is keen to share her pregnancy experience with others.
The 30-year-old, who works as an emergency control room operator, has almost completed her coaching qualifications and is about to embark on a career as a physical trainer.
She will take a course in pre- and post-natal fitness, and aims to teach women that pregnancy doesn’t have to put a full stop on exercise.
“There’s just a taboo around it,” she says of exercising while pregnant. “That you need to be sat at home and wrap yourself in cotton wool. But you don’t. You can totally do it.”
Lisa says keeping fit helped with the birth and the recovery. While pregnant, she trained at least once a week, and got in 10,000 steps a day.
But she also praises the mental health benefits. For her, going to weekly pole dancing classes was a vital escape.
“I saw my friends, and I got to do something that I love,” she says. “I don’t think I would have been in such a good position mentally had I not continued that.”
Pole dancing for fitness and mental strength
Pole dancing has surged in popularity as the exercise evolves past its exotic dancing roots to become a mainstream fitness fixture. There a numerous pole dancing classes across the north-east and at least two places in Aberdeen that run sessions.
For Lisa, however, sticking with the sport proved more challenging as her physique changed.
When it came to how much she could do she had to dial down her natural competitiveness and listen to her body.
“It was very humbling for someone that likes to push themselves each week,” says Lisa, who put on 16 kilograms through the pregnancy.
“There was regression rather than progression. But in other ways it was progression because I was dealing with the extra weight and my balance being off.”
As the pregnancy progressed, Lisa adjusted her pole dancing technique.
She had already dropped gym work after getting nervous about lifting weights. Pole dancing, in contrast, allowed her to feel in control.
“I was the weight,” she says. “I felt a lot more able to maneuver that way.”
Lisa says some did question her decision to pole dance while pregnant.
She admits it might not be everyone’s go-to exercise, but she never did anything that could have harmed the baby.
Equal in number, but just as wrong, she says, were those that told her she was doing something amazing.
She had a simple response to that.
“I told them, why wouldn’t I do it?” she says. “I’m not ill, I’m pregnant.”
