CASE REPORT  OTHER AREAS 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2017 April;57(4):496-503

DOI: 10.23736/S0022-4707.16.06081-3

Copyright © 2016 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Physical and physiological demands in women pole dance: a single case study

Bruno RUSCELLO ^{1, 2, 3, 4}, Sara IANNELLI ¹, Filippo PARTIPILO ^{1, 5}, Mario ESPOSITO ^{1, 3}, Laura PANTANELLA ^{1, 3}, Mary B. DRING ⁶, Stefano, D’ OTTAVIO ¹ ✉

¹ Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, School of Sports and Exercise Sciences, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy; ² University of Rome “San Raffaele”, School of Sports and Exercise Sciences, Rome, Italy; ³ Federazione Italiana Danza Sportiva, Rome, Italy; ⁴ Sport3.0foundation, Bologna, Italy; ⁵ Doctoral School of “Advanced Sciences and Techonologies in Reabilitation Medicine and Sports”, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy; ⁶ Department of Kinesiology, California State University, Chico, CA, USA

We investigated the physical and physiological demands of a pole dancer’s performance studied during a simulated competition, lasting 3 min 30 seconds. One single woman pole dancer (age: 22 years; height: 1.56 m; body weight: 52 kg; BMI: 21.4 kg·m-2; estimated HRmax:192.6 bpm) participated in the study. Physical data pertaining to accelerations and rotational values were collected by the means of a tri-axial accelerometer device integrating three gyroscopes. A complete video footage was recorded using four video cameras, using different sampling rates. Blood pressure (BP), heart rates (HR), breathing rates (BR), blood lactate concentrations (Bla-) were recorded during the performance. Accelerations (positive and negative), along the vertical axis reached ≈2G and rotational movements around the pole, reached ≈400°/s. BP values ranged from 120/75 before and to 145/58 mmHg at the end of performance, respectively. HRs reached a peak value of ≈96% of the maximal estimated heart rate (HRmax) and a mean %HRmax of 92.85±3.15% during the simulated competition. BR reached a peak value of 37 bpm and a mean value during competition of 31.87±3.42 bpm. Bla- ranged from 10.2 to 10.7 mmol/L measured at 1 min and 5 min after the completion of the competition, respectively. The results of this case study confirm that the Pole dance is a performing art requiring heavy physiological and physical demands on the performers. Specific training routines should be designed in order to cope efficiently with this physical activity, taking into account the performance model we provided with this study.

KEY WORDS: Exercise test - Athletic performance - Dancing