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Simone Muscat
Apr 15 9 min

Anatomy of a
Superman
Welcome to the Superman!! (or as
some polers like to call it Superwoman).
But genders and pole trick names
aside, we would like to introduce you to
one of the most painful moves you’ll
ever learn as an intermediate poler. It’s
a fun time they say… (it was not a fun
time).

POLE
PHYSIO

I
IS
UDAY
GYO
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ANATOMYOFA
Superman
In all honesty, the Superman is actually
now one of my favourite moves to
perform and a go to move. Yes, my legs
are now completely desensitised to the
pain. And yes, I’m now over my fear of
letting go of the pole and dropping to
my death (or a broken wrist). So I can
truly wholeheartedly now say that I love
Superman. But as you can tell, it was a
JOURNEY! Phew. Yes child, it was.

As I’m writing this blog, I’m recalling

with a few giggles the frustrations I had
with this particular move all those years
ago and that is for many reasons the
inspiration for this anatomy series – my
own pain. I remember so many students
in class around me at the time getting
their Superman with relative ease,
whereas it took me at least 8 months to
finally feel comfortable in it! And a lot
of tears. And a lot of help from
instructors and friends (thank you to
those – you know who you are!). So, for
those people in the back struggling
with their Superman – I see you and this
one’s for you!

Let’s break this bad boy down!

Your first Superman – Oh the pain!

As alluded to earlier, the main issue
people experience with getting into
their Superman is overcoming the pole
burn of the entry or maintaining the
hold. Let’s first talk about the science
behind this.

Our skin has thousands of light and

deep touch nerve receptors that send
messages to our brain for it to interpret.
To keep it simple, the brain will decide
whether the stimulus is pleasant or
unpleasant and has a potential to cause
damage. If it suspects it will cause
damage it will make our body do two
things:

1. Create a sensation of pain. And

the stronger the perceived
threat, the greater the pain. So,
any time the pole touches an
area skin that hasn’t been
conditioned to its touch, you will
experience pain to protect you!
Why? Because pain forces our
body to stop the movement. It is
our body’s way from stopping or
removing the threat.

2. Not commit to the Superman

entry. Ever found yourself trying
to Superman but next minute
you find yourself falling back into
a leg hang at the slightest
sensation of discomfort? Yes?
That’s your brain’s pain fear
response kicking in to protect
you. I tell you – our brain is pretty
damn smart.

The bad news? Our inner thighs have a

LOT of nerve endings which means
things are likely going to hurt. The
good news? Our body has this
incredible ability to adapt and
desensitise to stimulus. This is referred
to as peripheral desensitisation.

You’ve probably heard many

experienced polers including your
teachers say that the pain does go away
eventually. And that’s mostly true. For
some the pain won’t ever fully go away,
but it won’t feel quite so painful. It
becomes more of a light discomfort. To
be fair, we are gripping a pole between
our thighs to stop ourselves falling
down, so most of us are happy to
tolerate a light discomfort.

How can we speed up this process of

desensitisation or skin conditioning so
we can overcome our Superman
quicker? Well for most it takes time, but
working on movements like your back
crucifix may help and working on your
Superman or pole plank from the floor
will help to gradually expose your inner
thighs to this new sensation.

Effectively, we need to apply smaller

amounts of a painful stimulus to our
skin to desensitise the nervous system.
Eventually the brain will become so
used to the stimulus it won’t send out
the danger or pain messages to our
thighs. If you want to learn more about
pain science you should check out our
blog on ‘Hurt vs Harm’
Harm’. It really is
fascinating stuff!

Ok, now that we’ve explained the pain

science behind our Superman, let’s talk
anatomy!

Key requirements for our

Superman:
In simple terms to perform a Superman,
we require:

Forearm/grip strength to keep us

on the pole

Shoulder extension and spinal

rotation and extension to to
reach the pole behind us

Hip adduction strength to keep

our thigh squeeze

Hip extension, hip rotation, quad

and calf strength to create our
lovely long lines

But in reality, it’s a bit more complicated

than this. So let’s break it down:

The upper body

Whilst pain is sometimes a limiting
factor for entry into our Superman, the
next common reason why polers often
don’t make it into their Superman is
due to a lack of shoulder and spinal
mobility as well as strength from the
surrounding muscles. Let’s talk through
the individual requirements.

The inside (top) arm pull

As we enter our Superman (from our
inside leg hand), our top arm is
required to pull our body/hips up and
over the pole, whilst the shoulder
rotates from a combined position of
flexion/abduction to a position of
shoulder extension/horizontal
extension.

The arm position we end up in during a

Superman is not a common movement
required in our everyday lives. Sure, we
may reach over our shoulders a couple
of times a day (i.e to reach for a seatbelt
or to put a backpack on), but we don’t
usually sustain this hold for long
periods of time like we need to in a
Superman. And we can almost
guarantee that unless you’ve done
gymnastics/street calisthenics, you’ve
probably never put your body weight
through your arm in this odd position
before.

In our end Superman pose, our

shoulder is performing an isometric pull
to ensure we aren’t falling from the
downward force of gravity. This isn’t
quite the pull that we are used to
thinking about (i.e not a bend in the
elbow), but more so a pull through our
stabilisation muscles of the rotator cuff
and upper back discussed later. This
pull, or engagement for better word,
ensures we are not hanging out of our
top shoulder.

Shoulder extension

ANATOMYOFA
Superman

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SHOULDERFLEXIBILITY

H Y
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POLE
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There are a few key muscles that help

to extend our arm as we enter into our
Superman hold. Specifically, we are
looking at our latissimus dorsi, teres
major, the long head of triceps brachii,
and the posterior portion of our
deltoid. Once we are in position, all
these muscles work hard alongside the
flexors of our forearm (gripping
muscles) to keep us on the pole.
Without their strength and shoulder
extension mobility, we may find
ourselves feeling stuck as we enter into
our Superman.

Shoulder stability
When discussing shoulder stability, we
are referring to two primary areas of the
shoulder:

1. The glenohumeral or shoulder

joint

2. The scapulothoracic joint or

shoulder blade

ANATOMYOFA
Superman

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SHOULDERSTABILITY
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POLE
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When it comes to a Superman, the

rotation of our shoulder on entry and
the shoulder extension required places
our shoulder (glenohumeral) joint into a
vulnerable position of
subluxation/dislocation. So, it’s
imperative we have good shoulder
control, range of motion and active
stability before entering our Superman.
The glenohumeral joint is actively
stabilised by the muscles of our rotator
cuff to reduce risk of injury.

When it comes to our scapula position

during a Superman, this will depend on
the degree of rotation of our torso and
how much extension our arm is placed
in. As a general rule for our Superman
though, our scapula will be retracted,
anteriorly tilted and downwardly
rotated whilst our arm is in extension.
These scapula movements are
controlled by our rhomboids, trapezius,
pectoralis minor and levator scapulae.

The outside (bottom arm)

This arm is really only used when
transitioning in and out of this move. It’s
used to stabilise us through the
transition and to provide an active push
away from the pole once our hips have
found their way over the pole. This push
will help our hips slide down into place.

The Spine
Trunk rotation
As we are moving into our Superman,
our trunk will remain rotated with the
chest facing slightly side on. This allows
our arm to reach the pole behind us.
This rotation will primarily occur
through the upper back (thoracic spine)
but the lower back (lumbar spine) may
assist too.

ANATOMYDEA
Superman
TRUNKROTATION
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D QUADRATUSLUMBORUM

POLE
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If our shoulder doesn’t enjoy being

placed in extension/horizontal
extension or if you have a shorter arm-
to-torso length, you may find the
lumbar spine assists by placing our
trunk into more rotation. This reduces
the amount of shoulder horizontal
extension required and can feel more
comfortable on the shoulder for some
polers.

For those of us where the trunk is less

rotated and the chest is facing more
towards the floor, the shoulder is placed
in greater amounts of extension to
compensate. This may be seen in
individuals who have reduced upper
back flexibility or hypermobile
shoulders.

Rotation of the trunk is controlled

primarily by our external oblique
(eccentrically on the ipsilateral/same
side of the pole), the internal oblique
(concentrically on the ipsilateral/same
side of the pole), our erector spinae
muscles and our quadratus lumborum.

Trunk extension

ANATOMYOFA
Superman

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TRUNKEXTENSION

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GLUTEUSMEDIUS

POLE
PHYSIO

In addition to back rotation, our trunk is

required to perform a small amount of
extension too. Most of our spinal
extension arises from our lumbar spine
with a small amount of assistance
occurring from our thoracic spine.

Our erector spinae and gluteal muscles

are primarily responsible for this
movement and this movement is
stabilised by the abdominals at the
front of our torso, particularly the rectus
abdominus.

The Lower Body

Hip Adduction

ANATOMYOFA
Superman
HIPADDUCTION

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ADDUCTOR

ADDUCTOR
MAGNUS
AUDUCIOP
BREVIS

POLE
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When it comes to our Superman, there

is a very clear role for our legs to
provide a gripping point for this move.
Initially our body is required to slide
down into our Superman so we don’t
want too tight of a grip, but once we’re
in position our adductors need to work
to keep those legs together and our
body up the pole.

Hip Extension
In addition to our adductor squeeze,
our glutes and hamstrings work to
lower the pelvis down the pole whilst
keeping the legs lifted towards the roof.
Our calves and quads help to create
long lines of illusion here too by
keeping our feet pointed and knees
straight.

ANATOMYOFA
Superman
LOWERBODY

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* PANGYO UDA N

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E SEMMENDINOSUs

GLUTEUS SEMINEMBRANOSUS

POLE
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Hip rotation
The other thing to note in our
Superman is that the rotation from our
spine carries over towards our
hips/pelvis. On close inspection you
may notice the outer leg sits slightly
lower than the inside leg. This is for
multiple reasons including ease of
sliding into the Superman, reduced
extension required of our lumbar spine
and a more comfortable, easier leg
grip. Our hip rotation muscles and
abdominal rotators (obliques) help to
stabilise this position.

Grip changes
Like other tricks out there we can do
some pretty fun grip variations for our
Superman including (but not limited to):

Elbow grip

Armpit/upper arm grip

Double arm true grip

Twisted grip (in a figurehead

position)

Cup grip

Helix (funky) grip

The list could go on…

Each of these variations will place

slightly differently mobility and strength
loads on the body, particularly in regard
to shoulder extension and thoracic
rotation mobility. We won’t go into
each of these today, but we encourage
you to be aware of these different loads
if working in different grips. This blog is
purely discussing the demands in
relation to your true/straight grip.

Figurehead Variation

POLE
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DAN
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ANATOMYOFA
Superimoule
FIGUREHEADVARIATION

Whilst there are so many stunning

variations of Superman out there, our
figurehead is one variation that we
need to talk about. When first learning,
this can be a move that we somewhat
transition through to get down from the
pole safely by sliding our legs further
down the pole.

But when you’re in advanced levels, this

move and what comes after, is a skill set
on its own. From our figurehead
position we can transition to our next
move in so many ways, but the most
common seen is an aerial straddle or
shoulder mount. The reason why we are
talking through this move, is that our
figurehead requires a great deal more
lumbar extension than a Superman.
And this can be uncomfortable if you
don’t have the range of motion and/or
abdominal control. We encourage to
work with your instructor on modifying
the movement if you don’t have the
range of motion required, avoid
positions that cause lumbar pain and
working with our online team if pain
persists.

Screening for our Superman:

Did you know that screening for moves
helps us nail our moves quicker and
reduces our risk of injury! Now you
know what our Superman entails, let’s
see if your body is ready to handle the
demands of this move!

Passive horizontal extension > 70

degrees

Trunk rotation > 45 degrees

Trunk extension > 20 degrees

(cobra)

Anti-rotation strength: Plank hold

30 seconds

Active back extension strength:

plank hold + arm lift x 10 each
side

Modified (knee) Copenhagen

plank 30 seconds

Elevated straight leg bridge

Jasmine entry

Instructors: We encourage a Superman

to be taught from an outside leg hang
when first learning, so ensure your
students are comfortable in this trick
before teaching this entry. If that’s not
possible for your student but they are
pole smart and ready for the challenge,
then a standing floor Superman entry
can be taught.

Have you been struggling to nail

your Superman but not sure why?
Or are you noticing you lack the
thoracic rotation and shoulder
flexibility required to Superman?

Online telehealth appointments can be

booked with the Pole Physio via our
‘Book Online’ page that can be found
here
here. Assessment and tailored
rehabilitation are provided in
accordance with best practice and
evidence-based treatment to help you
unleash your 'poletential'.

Until next time, train safe.

The Pole Physio

Please Note: