Pole dancers are in way better shape than you [video]

If you didn't catch this piece on the pole dancing championships, you really should watch (yes, all 4 minutes and 48 seconds). Cast aside any of the dollar-bill-stuffing, janky-music stereotypes still hanging around your thoughts and take in the amazing things these women, now called athletic artists or aerial dancers thankyouverymuch, can do with the side of one thigh four feet above ground.

Holy core strength. There's an advanced-level instructor who does an inverted stair-stepping move that elicits squeals from her students. Even the lowly pole-cleaner hikes herself up with grace and a microfiber rag. And wait until you see the theatrics and calves of the woman who takes the crown for 2011.

It's taken a good long time, but I think the ill-repute basement pole dancers have gotten is beginning to shift. Who knows, maybe these athletes will be toting their Lucite heels to the next Olympics after all.




Now watch this:

• Oh, no! Drunk pole dancer ruins bride's big day
• Step aerobics still exists? Awesome videos, then and now
• The worst infomercials. Yes, ever.