October 29, 2026

Training both sides on pole: why classes make you use your "bad" side

Pole classes make you do every move on your "bad" side because almost everyone has a preferred side, and a move you can only do one way limits you later. Between them, the pole instructors we read give these reasons: transitions and combinations that start on one side can finish on the other, choreography someone else wrote may ask for your weaker side, and training only one side leaves you uneven. The research is less direct than the advice. Training one limb does make the other one stronger, a well-studied effect called cross-education, but only by a fraction of what the trained side gains. And studies of ballet dancers suggest that practising mostly on one side can deepen the preference rather than fix it. None of those studies were on pole dancers.

This post covers why the gap exists, what instructors say to do about it, and what the science says as its authors state it. It is not injury advice: if one side hurts rather than just feeling clumsy, ask a clinician, not this post. Every source was read on 24 October 2026.

Why does one side feel so much worse?

Because you learned it second, or not at all. April Rayne, whose author bio says she teaches pole at Jordin's Paradise in Washington, D.C., wrote in a 2017 post for the International Pole Convention blog: "Everyone has a dominant hand/side that we unconsciously choose to do almost everything in life and this includes pole dancing." She also explains why people let it slide: "Training your bad side feels awkward and it takes longer to perform techniques correctly."

Holly Munson, a pole instructor and the founder of the PoleFreaks blog, describes the same split from her own early training: "I definitely called my right side my strong side and my left was my weaker side." The weaker side, in her words, is usually "the weaker arm or leg – we have less control of it and for some reason we just don't like to use it as much."

It shows up early. A 2009 thread on the StudioVeena forum opens with a right-handed member who could spin clockwise but not the other way: "I have tried going the other way (counter clockwise) with my less dominant hand on top (left) and I so can't hold on." Veena, who runs the site, replied: "Its totally normal to want to favor one side."

The weak side is not always the side you would guess, either. A member in the same thread found her fireman spin "more clean when I have my left hand on the pole", even though the right felt more natural, because that put her dominant right leg on the outside. Holly Munson reports something similar in her own training: some moves turned out stronger on the side she had thought of as her weaker one.

Why do instructors insist on both sides?

The reasons the instructors we read give fall into a few groups.

Transitions and combinations. Holly Munson says the lesson hit home "when I was trying inverted transitions and realised that I started on my 'good side' and ended up on my 'bad side.'" Train one side only, she writes, and you "will struggle when doing transitions, combinations and routines."

Harder moves later. April Rayne asks: "How many advanced tricks require only the one side of your body to be strong? Not many." Her conclusion: "If you can perform basic techniques on both sides, moving into more advanced things will be easier."

Choreography. This is the one place a source we read connects both sides to performing. April Rayne points out that a sequence repeated on the second side doubles your material: "Take one sequence, repeat it starting on the second side, and you've just doubled the amount of your choreography without any extra work." She adds: "Even if you can't nail a trick on your bad side, you should still try it." We did not find a competition rule that scores which side a move is done on, so we will not claim judges look for it. Our guide to how pole competitions are judged covers what scoring systems do say.

Evenness. Veena's 2009 reply goes on: "If this is your only form of strength training I would highly recommend working with both sides, to avoid an imbalance." April Rayne goes further and says underused muscles can be at greater risk of injury. That is her view as an instructor; we found no study that tested it in pole dancers, so treat it as advice, not a finding.

Is it part of moving up a level?

At one studio we found, yes, in writing. In our post on the first five pole moves we found Rise and Climb Fitness in Jurupa Valley, California, listing the requirements for its pre-intermediate tricks class. Rereading the page for this post, the list still ends with "minimum of 3 climbs off the floor *BOTH SIDES*". Some classes build both sides in without making it a requirement: Alpha Studio Fitness, describing an all-levels basework class on its booking page, says it will work through pole choreo sequences "on both sides!!"

Most studio pages do not spell it out, so ask whether your studio's level checks look at both sides. Our explainer on pole class levels covers how levels differ.

Does training one side make the other side stronger?

Yes, a little, and this is the best-studied part of the topic. The effect is called cross-education. A 2006 review by Carroll and colleagues in the Journal of Applied Physiology describes it this way: "If exercises are performed to increase muscle strength on one side of the body, voluntary strength can increase on the contralateral side." Its updated meta-analysis of 16 properly controlled studies puts the effect at "approximately 8% of initial strength or about half the increase in strength of the trained side."

A 2017 meta-analysis by Manca and colleagues in the European Journal of Applied Physiology found a larger number. Pooling 31 randomized controlled trials and 785 subjects, it reported "a significant 11.9% contralateral increase", with gains for every type of training it looked at, and the largest for eccentric training (17.7 percent). But it also says "a high risk of bias was detected across the studies."

So the two reviews disagree on size, and they are not equally cautious. Manca's team concludes that unilateral training "induces significant contraction type-dependent gains in the contralateral untrained limb." Carroll's team is more reserved: most earlier studies "have not been designed well enough to show a definitive transfer of strength that could not be explained by factors such as familiarity with the testing", and the effect "is small and may not be clinically significant." The Carroll review says the transfer is likely to come from the nervous system rather than the muscles themselves.

Before you use this as an excuse: these studies trained one limb in a gym-style exercise and left the other untrained, not pole or any dance skill. Even Carroll's estimate is "about half" of what the trained side gains. And they measured strength, which the next section suggests may not be what your bad side is missing.

Is the weak side weaker, or just less practised?

The dance research we found points more to practice and control than raw strength. All three studies are on ballet turns (pirouettes), not pole, so read them as clues from a related art form.

Practice can deepen the bias. A 2013 study by Lin and colleagues in the Journal of Sports Sciences compared 13 novice and 13 experienced dancers turning on each leg. For the experienced dancers, "an improved performance is obtained when using the dominant leg for support", while for the novices "the performance is independent of choice of support leg." The authors' reading: "repetitive rehearsal on the preferred leg strengthens the impact of side dominance in experienced dancers."

Training may set the direction. A 2009 study by Golomer and colleagues in Laterality watched which way people chose to turn. Among untrained girls, "58% showed a leftward turning bias (LTB) and 42% a rightward turning bias (RTB)", while among the classical dance students "Only one dancer showed a consistent LTB while the majority showed a RTB". The authors say this suggests "a training influence for dancers."

No strength gap showed up in the legs. A study by Cullen, Hudson and Smith, published online in 2025 in the Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, tested eight highly trained female dancers. They landed "Significantly more successful pirouettes" in their preferred direction (73 percent) than the other (50 percent), yet single-leg jump tests suggested "no bilateral strength asymmetry between the lower limbs." The authors suggest the lower success rate "may be a result of postural instability or the use of a less efficient weight transfer strategy." Eight dancers is a very small sample.

Put together, with the caveat that none of this is pole: a weak side may be as much about coordination as muscle, and practising mostly on your good side can widen the gap. That fits what the instructors say from the studio.

How do you actually train the other side?

Here is what the instructors we read recommend, as they say it. None of it comes with a study behind it.

Set a number and keep it. Holly Munson: "I now make sure that I do each move 5 times on each side." She allows herself an exception: "sometimes when it comes to painful moves like a Knee Hold I allow myself to stop after 3".

Actually do it. She warns students against fooling themselves: "don't trick yourself into thinking that you are doing both sides if you are not!" After each move in her classes, she says, "I ask every student if they have tried both sides. If they say no, we do the other side."

Work each side at its own level. Equal effort does not have to mean the same move. Holly Munson: "I still make sure I work both sides but to my level." With spins, "one side might be one handed, and the other two handed", and with inverts "you might be working on hard tricks one side and can't get up on the other – and that's fine."

Start the session on the other side. In a separate PoleFreaks post on building strength, she suggests: "do you pole warm up all on the other side. You can just do a few simple spins but it'll start to get your other side stronger." Our guide to warming up for pole covers what a warm-up should include.

Keep the basics two-sided. Lindsey Love, who taught pole and flexibility in Indianapolis when she wrote for the International Pole Convention blog in 2016, puts it bluntly: "your 'basics' should always be done on both sides – spins, basic inversions, etc." She admits some moves "will just not work well on my non-dominant side – but we at least attempt them."

One student remembers a teacher who led with the left. We found no instructor source that sets this as a rule. One member of the 2009 StudioVeena thread remembered that her first teacher "very nonchalantly taught every single spin on the left side first", and praised her for it. Treat that as one student's memory, not a method.

Change what you call it. Holly Munson's post is titled "You Only Have Good Sides!", and she suggests dropping the label: "you can have a 'good side' and a 'greater side' or simply right and left." Her reason: "Negativity isn't going to get you upside down!"

If your off-pole work is lopsided too, our post on home pole conditioning covers what you can train without a pole.

Quick answers

Why do pole classes make you do both sides? The instructors we read say transitions and combinations can carry you from one side to the other, harder moves need both sides, choreography may ask for either, and one-sided training leaves you uneven.

Is it normal to have a strong and a weak side on pole? Yes. Veena called it "totally normal to want to favor one side", and every instructor source we read describes having one.

Will training my good side make my weak side stronger? A little. Reviews of cross-education put the gain at about 8 to 12 percent of strength in lab studies of one-limb training, a fraction of what the trained side gains. Those studies were not on pole.

How many reps should I do on my weak side? No study we found answers that for pole. One instructor, Holly Munson, does each move five times on each side.

Should I learn a move on my weak side first? We found no instructor source that makes it a rule. One forum member recalled a teacher who taught every spin on the left side first; another instructor suggests warming up on your other side.

Do pole competitions judge both sides? We did not find a competition rule that scores which side a move is done on. One instructor notes that repeating a sequence on the second side doubles your choreography.