Hey there! Sooo excited to have the awe-inspiring Greta Pontarelli on for this edition of the Off The Pole Podcast – she started pole at 59 and since racked up 5 world championship titles. We go over artistry, her training regimen and how she keeps her body performing optimally.

Really hope you guys enjoy the 5th episode in the podcast series – you can subscribe to our pole podcast on iTunes to keep updated with all the latest episodes and it would mean the world to me if you could leave a review!

Hit play above or watch or read the transcript below.

Sarah:                      Well, welcome Greta. Thank you so much for being on my podcast and giving us some of your weekend.

Greta:                      Oh, it’s an honour to be here, thank you so much.

Sarah:                      Now I’ve done a bit of an intro, and I’m sure that many of the pole industry already know a little bit about you already, you’ve done lots and lots of things in our community. Am I right in saying, and correct me if I’m wrong, have you won five world championships at the masters level? Is it five?

Greta:                      Yes.

Sarah:                      That’s incredible, are you going to go for a sixth?

Greta:                      People ask me that, and I have to say, it really isn’t on my bucket list. I would like to use my energy to cast our net a little broader beyond the pole industry and show the world what a fantastic art form and a form of fitness this is. I think it’s more into trying to inspire other people right now, but, I’d never say never, maybe.

Sarah:                      You’re keeping it open. I like that, that’s fine. You’re not going to commit to too much. You’ve said, I’ve watched quite a few of your interviews and you’ve done some different videos and things as you say, you’re getting out there into not just the pole industry but into the wider world. And you’ve spoken how you can inch closer towards your goal, so it’s all the little victories that build towards something a lot bigger. So is there anything that you’ve been working on recently that you’ve had that feeling where you’ve triumphed over something that you’ve been working on for a long time?

Greta:                      Oh yes, deadlifts!

Sarah:                      Yeah?

Greta:                      Because, yeah, that was my nemesis move for so long. I would say, “Okay, I’m one inch higher today.” Or I felt more stacking in the muscles or something about it that felt better. Maybe the next day it went back again, but I’d say, “Okay, it’s probably… my body is recovering from yesterday, just give it a few more days. Let it rest,” and then it would come back and I would see if I could keep getting further and further.

I started expanding, I don’t use weights but I do like pull-ups and I found out by doing pull-ups and by really looking at the biomechanics of the move, it really helped me. So I really had to be a bit analytical and I really had to just look at it, watch and see how to stack my body because it is difficult at my age, it takes a tremendous amount of strength and people like you that make it look so effortless. I just look at that-

Sarah:                      Its difficult at any age I think. I think we all struggle.

Greta:                      It doesn’t look like it though, it looks like you’re just are weightless, seriously, and I love … That’s what’s so beautiful about that art form. It looks effortless and it looks like everybody’s flying,