Aching muscles, heaps of sass and some VERY tiny shorts… what happened when I became a real-life stripper like Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers – The Sun

IT'S NOT often I find myself hanging for dear life upside down, gripping a pole between my thighs, while wearing the teeniest shorts I've ever slipped on.

"Squeeze!" my pole dancing instructor reminds me – but gravity gets the better of me, and I slide to the floor with my bum poised to take someone's eye out. I blame you, Jennifer Lopez.

Four months before filming for the new Hustlers film began, J-Lo was preparing hard for the role of feisty stripper Ramona – not by fine-tuning her lines, but getting to grips with pole dancing.

The 50-year-old actress’ strip club routines in the critically-acclaimed movie – which has already received serious Oscars buzz, and banked a record-breaking £26million in its first weekend – have provided some of its biggest talking points, alongside the real-life Wall Street revenge storyline.

As she rotates around the pole and performs the splits in an array of sequins, alongside former real-life stripper Cardi B’s Diamond – and teaches protégée Constance Wu’s Destiny about "front hook, ankle hook, knee hook" positions – she makes it look effortless.

So how hard can twirling on a pole be? Turns out very – particularly if you want to look remotely sexy while doing it.

I head to London Dance Academy, who have been teaching pole dancing for 15 years – including at gyms such as LA Fitness, David Lloyd and Virgin Active – and who's studios FKA Twigs trained in for her recent pole-inspired Cellophane music video.

Melissa Gray, the unitard-clad director and one of the most flexible women I've ever met, recommends beginners do three Discover Pole classes (Pixie Geldof is a fan) before graduating on to more advanced sessions. 

It's not often I find myself hanging for dear life upside down, gripping a pole between my thighs, while wearing the teeniest shorts I've ever slipped on

When I turn up to their shiny seven-pole studio – tucked away off Old Street – my initial misconceptions about the type of person who willingly writhes around a pole on a Sunday morning were swiftly busted.

There’s two twenty-something women who wanted to try "something different” than a regular gym class, people of different shapes and sizes, and even a man.

I'm sceptical when one attendee – on her second class – tells us her first session left her with bruises, which didn't go down for a week. 

However, I soon discover why. Following an extensive warm-up, I'm expertly guided through a series of key pole dancing moves, which we are then charged with linking together into a mini routine.

It turns out pole dancing is far more technical than I had anticipated – and is much more than simply clutching the pole with both hands and hoping for the best.

'Squeeze!' my pole dancing instructor reminds me – but gravity gets the better of me, and I slide to the floor with my bum poised to take someone's eye out

During my pre-class research I came across mention of "back hook spin", "banana splits" and "bow and arrow" (there's also a move called the "bum up" which I think I sussed down Tiger Tiger already), but in the initial stages we're taught to get comfortable pivoting a few feet off the ground.

It's hot work in more ways than one – and I'm grateful for my sports bra and hot pants ensemble, a get-up I wouldn't normally feel comfortable wearing in public.

Melissa tells me pole dancing's barely-there attire is actually born out of functionality – not aesthetics.

Skin can grip the pole better (which is also why you’re told not to moisturise your skin on the day of class).

Also I challenge you to not want to shake your hips in dedicated pole dancing kit from the likes of – Pole Junkie, Off The Pole and Pole Emporium.

You’re constantly battling gravity and wishing you had the upper body power of The Rock

And the stripper-style platform heels give you some much-needed height so you can spin for longer. 

J-Lo recently said her virtually "naked" costumes for the film were rather "liberating" – and I agree. But even kitted up in pretty lycra, I’m less than graceful.

You’re constantly battling gravity and wishing you had the upper body power of The Rock – my weak arms seem to be the barrier between me and some fun-looking spins.

I'm baffled by how tiny Melissa is able to still smile as she climbs her way to the top of the pole before elegantly switching into a move resembling The Flag.

She reassures me lean strength will come – just as I'm wondering why I've spent a small fortune on gym HIIT workouts.

However, it's not just your arm muscles that feel the burn – those abs and legs will get toned too.

I question the description 'dance' given to one of the toughest workout sessions I've ever done

"You blitz through 400 calories an hour – it's a real all-over body workout featuring strength-training as well as cardio and coordination," Melissa tells me, as she patiently talks through the acrobatic positions.

"Many of the vital moves, even at the beginner level are focused around pull and push, especially through your upper body and arms.

"Going upside down without kicking requires a lot of core strength, and holding yourself up the pole will require bicep strength and similar muscles to those involved in pull ups and chin ups."

I question the description "dance" given to one of the toughest workout sessions I've ever done – but I don't mind, I've had heaps of fun, and while lifting myself off the floor for more than a few seconds is proving an Everest-scale challenge, I've got my sassy body roll and hair flick perfected.

So, is pole dancing keen to cast aside it's sleazy associations? Cardi B, 26, surprised Ellen DeGeneres when she admitted she "loved" working as a stripper in New York for three years from the age of 19 (in part because she had pocketed £160,000 by the age of 20, and used her earnings to buy an apartment and launch her rapping career).

Despite my inability to lift a kettle, I'm keen to get back to the pole

While I'm surprising myself by how much I'm enjoying twisting my hips in next to nothing, I'm conscious that the discipline has not exactly been synonymous with most people's idea of feminism in recent decades.

But the 1980s image of almost-naked women dancing, as J-Lo puts it "sluttily", in a strip club, with men putting dollar bills in their underwear – a portrayal explored in Hustlers – is not how the art form started out.

For starters, guys hopped on the pole first. “It dates as far back as the 12th century in China where male warriors would do tricks in choreographed unison,” explains Melissa.

“Then 800 years ago, in India the Mallakhamb saw wrestlers train with a pole.”

Pole dancing in its Western guise first popped up in the American Depression in the 1920s when dancers in travelling fairs would use suggestive moments as they danced around the pole holding up the tent.

In the days following my first pole dancing session, my shoulders are in such agony that brushing my hair and getting dressed require gargantuan levels of motivation

The first recorded instance of an exotic pole dancing routine took place in 1968 by a woman called Belle Jangles at the Mugwump Strip Joint in Oregon.

It then spread from North America to Europe, Australia, Asia and beyond – and the rest is cinema history. 

Now, pole fitness – around since the 1990s – is drawing new fans who have never set foot in a strip club before, and as an accredited sport with a campaign to get it into the Olympics, it seems unstoppable.

Which can't quite be said of my arm movement.

In the days following my first pole dancing session, my shoulders are in such agony that brushing my hair and getting dressed require gargantuan levels of motivation.

A series of Dalmatian-esque bruises also splatter my shins – which I comfort myself by remembering J-Lo complained of sore limbs during her six weeks training with Johanna Sapakie, the ten-year Cirque Du Soleil veteran.

“It’s rough on your body. It’s real acrobatics. I’m just trying to learn the mechanics,” the star said in a behind-the-scenes film for the movie, pointing out that it took Cardi B years to master the pole.

Melissa adds: "In the beginning everyone’s got bruises on their legs because you go into it quite forcefully and chuck your body on the pole in a jerky manner. You learn grace and control."

Despite my inability to lift a kettle, I'm keen to get back to the pole.

"It doesn't feel like a fitness class – it's fun and never boring," says Melissa, of the increased interest in the discipline. "And now that it's viewed as a respectable sport, it's becoming even more accessible to people."

She adds that it does wonders for your body confidence too – allowing women to embrace their femininity and sexuality.

"Pole moves require skin contact so you will often see all shapes, ages and sizes in tiny bras and sports pants," Melissa explains.

"You become accustomed to celebrating your body parts for the moves they can get you into, and forget about how it looks aesthetically."

I've left any hang-ups in the changing room as I try and perform a carousel spin for the 87th time before sliding to the floor.

It might not be everyone's vision of female empowerment – but it's mine.

Wearing: Top (Bypoler at Pole Emporium), Shorts (Pole Addict at Pole Junkie). Tan: Secret Spa

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