Wilton Mom’s Pole Fitness Success: Competition, Teaching, Health and Empowerment

It’s appropriate that there’s a move in pole fitness called the “superman” because everything about Wilton mom Aileen Senneff‘s experience in the sport makes her sound exactly like a super hero.

Over the last few years, Senneff, like a lot of women, yo-yo’d up and down in her weight. Although she was very active growing up doing dance and competitive gymnastics, and she had continued to dance into adulthood, she found over the course of five years that she had lost and gained and lost and gained weight–about 75 pounds total.

“When I took pictures, I felt self-concious. When I went shopping I felt self-conscious. When I was doing anything I was always feeling self-conscious and negative, feeling badly. It was too a point where I just said, I’m done with this,” Senneff recounted.

That was August of 2012, when she made a commitment to herself to take control of her health. Senneff started a very conscious, active program.

“There are things I’ve known work for me, and things I just know are good, period. I’m not the kind of person who will say, ‘no more sweets.’ As soon as you put a restriction on me I will say, ‘I’m going to eat 5-lbs of M&M’s and prove you wrong.’ I knew that I didn’t do well with restrictions. I knew I needed to eat healthier. I really believe two critical components are writing things down and moving,” she said.

Years ago Senneff said she heard the simple platitude, ‘Eat less, move more, be happy.’

“So I decided every single day to do those three things, to consciously be aware of eating a little less, even if it’s just leaving one bite on my plate; I’ll move a little more, even if it’s just parking my car at the other end of the parking lot; and I’m going to be happy, even if it’s just saying I did a little bit better than yesterday.”

She said the writing component made a critical difference. “I used myfooddiary.com. I started measuring my coffee creamer; I started counting how many Hershey kisses I ate and writing down every little thing. So I started making the connection if I only burned 200 calories on the treadmill and ate 300 calories in chocolate kisses, that’s never going to end up my way.”

She also started eating tons of vegetables. “I got a Vitamix and every day I just filled that with green things in the morning and reached for that first before the chocolate kisses. I just willed myself to make better choices, and it just snowballed. Once you get into it—I don’t want to say it’s easier, because it’s never easier—the more habitual it becomes.”

If it had been just that, you could say Senneff had made some really positive changes. But then she layered in something that made an incredible difference not only in her health and physical appearance, but in her confidence–especially because it’s so …different, and empowering.

She started taking pole fitness classes, and fell in love with it.

“A friend asked if I wanted to take a class at Vertical Addiction, a new studio in Stamford. Anything that’s dance appeals—I’ve danced with Christine Titus and Conservatory of Dance in the adult classes. I’m always trying to stay connected with dancing. So I said, ‘sure we’ll spin around, have a good time and we’ll leave.’”

But she didn’t leave. In fact, from the start, Senneff just felt something really special about the form of fitness.

“I got there and it opened my eyes to a world I hadn’t known about. There’s a very specific set of skills involved. You start at the bottom and it’s really hard. I looked at these women in the class—moms, varying body shapes, some had zero dance experience, and they were killing it.  They were doing spins, and climbing up the pole, they had this strength and beautiful movement, and I just said, ‘I’ve got to do that.’”

As she started becoming a regular at the studio, she connected with the other women who worked out there, and formed some really strong friendships and connections, based on supporting one another and working hard to master the moves.

“We have a good time, no matter what. I work crazy hard in every single class, and there’s always some new thing we’ve learned, and there’s always some sort of victory at the end—you don’t get that when you just go to the gym. We cheer for each other, we have these successes, but then I didn’t even realize it, it changed my body. I had been working out—elliptical, doing weights, you get healthier and get stronger. But this has changed my body in ways I never expected.”

So much so that in the year-and-a-half since Senneff really took control over her health, she has lost a total of 74 pounds, and has maintained that weight for more than a year. And she did it by becoming healthy, by adding in something that she has a tremendous amount of fun doing and by believing in herself.

But of course, there are going to be people that bring the subject down. Isn’t this really pole dancing, something that strippers do?

“When people say, ‘oh you dance on a stripper pole,’ it’s actually just a pole. It’s how you use it that gives it the adjective. But by itself, it’s just a metal pole,” Senneff responds. She’s right–truth be told, some people work out by lifting poles with weights attached; all Senneff and other pole fitness enthusiasts are doing is working out by dancing around it.

“There’s definitely that aspect when you take it into an adult venue. But really what we’re doing is aerial arts and circus arts. It’s vertical dancing and gymnastics, it’s a whole new sport. People who own a gun, I don’t say, ‘Oh my God, are you a gang-banging stud?’ If you say, ‘I need to take my allergy medicine,’ I don’t assume you’re a heroin addict. Anything you do can be taken to an extreme. Anything you do with your body can be sexualized or turned into something else. I’ve been to the Joffrey Ballet or Broadway shows where there is not a pole in sight but they are very clearly depicting very sensual activities.”

Come to think about it, there’s nothing wrong with an activity where you’re moving your body and taking charge of your own sensuality, something that’s part of the philosophy of the Vertical Addiction philosophy, Senneff said.

“If women get in touch with a more sensual style of movement, if they get more confident, if they leave feeling stronger and more empowered because they are learning to be aware of and move their bodies, then what’s wrong with that? You can get that in yoga, any time you feel powerful about moving your body, and feel better about yourself, it doesn’t matter what it is.”

Competeing and Teaching

Senneff’s commitment to her health has surpassed a level that surprises even her. She’s now laying the groundwork to begin teaching at Vertical Addiction this summer and has even entered two fitness competitions.

“This process has been such an eye-opener, and it’s so surprising when someone says, ‘You’re an inspiration,’ and I’m like, ‘Me??’” Senneff laughed. Her self-deprecating honesty and ready energy is infectious and you can imagine why students will flock to her classes.

“I’m over 40, I have 5 children, I have horrible joints and knees. I have every checkmark against me, but I’m still doing it. It’s that moment that came together that I wish everyone could find—you’re moving your body in a way that makes you happy. You’ve found people to do it with so it makes it socially satisfying, and it keeps your body healthy. When you find those three things come together, I just want to jump up and down and tell people, ‘Check this out!’”

Competing in the over-40 category, Senneff placed third at her first competitive effort, and then at her second competition, she won her category, taking first place.

“When you work and you work and you work for it, and then you go out there and do your best, that was all I was looking for, just to have fun and to say I performed to my absolute best. Just to know that I have things in my routine that I started out not being able to do, and that I nailed it, was huge and fun. But then when I got first place, that was icing on the cake,” she said.

It’s that natural inspirational vibe that made us want to profile Senneff in GOOD Morning Wilton, as soon as we heard about her story. Knowing she’s found something that makes her feel so great, strong and happy–let alone, healthy–and wants to share that enthusiasm is something everyone can find motivating and admirable. It’s something students will find in her class and anyone who reads her blog will discover.

“If there’s a way I can have a class full of beginner women who come in and say, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m not in good enough shape, why am I here?’ And I can be the one leading that class and they leave saying, ‘That was a blast!’ then I’m set.”