Who’s ready to spread their wings and take flight? It’s time to metamorphosise and emerge from our pole dancer cocoon with our fully fledged butterfly! As one of the original pole moves to come out from the clubs, the butterfly is not only fun to perform in its own right, but it is also a key move you will need to learn to unlock your Ayesha and eventually handspring! So fair to say it’s a foundation move! Once you’ve mastered an invert and outside leg hang, the butterfly is usually the next key move to learn.
Now there’s many ways of getting into our butterfly and a number of fun grip variations too that we will cover later, but first, strap yourself in as we break down this move in its full glory. There is no need to be shy about this one! Come out of your shell and let’s spread those wings!
Screening of a Butterfly
Before we start work on a new move, we want to ensure we’re strong and safe to do so. Our butterfly is an intermediate move, so we do need to know how to invert and push/pull through our arms to perform this move.
Whilst screening doesn’t directly replicate the demands of the movement, it is a helpful way to determine whether our bodies are up for the challenge. Screening our body for tricks ensures we aren’t putting our body in positions it isn’t ready for yet! And in turn reduces our risk of injury! But also screening shows us areas that we can work towards. So, before we get into our Butterfly, let’s ensure we’re strong and safe to do so.
To perform a Butterfly the key requirements we can screen for are:
- A confident invert (ideally straddle)
- Outside leg hang
- 180 degrees of flexion (of the bottom arm)
- Strong stable shoulders
- A strong overhead push
- A strong horizontal pull
- Anti-rotation strength
- Hamstring and gluteal strength
The extra requirements needed for an extended Butterfly are increased push and pull strength in the arms as well as increased gluteal and hamstring, as well as some leg flexibility. Same goes for our pike too! To unlock your butterfly, extended butterfly and pike, we encourage you to work on a range strengthening drills away from the pole.
When working towards your Butterfly (or any move for that matter!), consider the demands of the position you’re working towards! I.e, an extended Butterfly requires more flexibility than a regular butterfly. Working on nailing these movements away from the pole first to help you build your strength and flexibility will allow you to safely progress in your pole journey. Because if there is one thing we love – it’s nailing a nemesis move and staying injury free!
Right, it’s time to break this move down into its pure anatomy! Let’s get nerdy!
Push to pull!
Our butterfly is usually the first inverted move performed in a split grip position, and that often is a little bit scary when first starting out. So, hear us when we say, you better werk! But before we start thinking about what our arms are doing in regards to pushing or pulling, we need to look a bit deeper at the demands placed on the shoulder joint. Because this my friends, is key to understanding shoulder safety in pole dance.
Scapulohumeral rhythm
Let’s begin by talking about how we get into our butterfly setup to begin with, starting with getting our bottom arm onto the pole.
To perform any pole trick with our arm overhead (which is what the bottom arm in a butterfly does), we require 180 degrees of shoulder flexion. This movement does not purely come from the shoulder, but instead is a combined movement from both the arm and the shoulder blade referred to as the scapulohumeral rhythm.
This movement is a 2:1 ratio of the shoulder blade and the arm, meaning the shoulder (glenohumeral joint) performs 120 degrees of the movement and the shoulder blade (aka scapula) performs 60 degrees of this movement making up our 180 degrees of shoulder flexion. Both the scapula and glenohumeral joint are moving concurrently.
This movement is referred to as the scapulohumeral rhythm and is the first key to achieving efficient shoulder biomechanics and stability when setting up for our pole moves, thereby keeping our shoulders healthy and happy!
Our scapulohumeral rhythm is a key factor as to why we should avoid using any form of ‘down and back’ engagement cues when our arms are positioned overhead. When anchoring our shoulder blade down, we alter the biomechanics of the shoulder which is turn can increase stress and sheer forces loading into our shoulder joint, making for an unhappy shoulder! Instead, we want to think about actively lifting through the arm and pushing out of our shoulder blade.
The key muscles that help us with these movements are our upper and lower trapezius, serratus anterior, deltoid and supraspinatus muscles. If you’re someone who firstly struggles to achieve full shoulder flexion, a Butterfly may still be possible for you to achieve, however poor shoulder mechanics and flexibility do set us up for injury down the track. So, the sooner you address these issues the better! Our online team thrive on treating these sorts of pole issues, so book a session with them by clicking HERE to regain your shoulder movement!
Glenohumeral stability
Now, getting our arm into position is just the starting point. Once we have our arm in its position and we start to place load through it, we want to make sure it is able to transmit the force from our hand through to our torso, but also, we want to make sure it is stable, stays in its joint and doesn’t dislocate! The shoulder is the most unstable joint of the body, particularly in overhead positions, so you best believe every muscle is working overtime to keep that humeral head in its socket (anatomy words for shoulder in its joint!).
Our shoulder rotator muscles are pivotal here in helping the shoulder remain stable in weightbearing positions. These muscles are fondly known as the rotator cuff muscles. Our external rotator muscles particularly are most helpful here, as they place the shoulder in a position of biomechanical advantage to push most efficiently out of our shoulder whilst keeping the shoulder stable. They help to keep the humerus centred in its socket, so we love these muscles! And combined with our other bigger shoulder muscles, they allow us to function in extreme ranges!
Gravity is a b*tch
Look it sure is. And when we are upside down in any move, gravity is pulling us down too, creating compressive forces into the joints that they usually don’t want to experience. Increased joint compression increases the likelihood of injury such as micro-instability or even subluxation. And it is with joint instability, that the efficiency of our muscles to perform their role is reduced.
So to counteract these forces, our muscles need to actively push up and out of the joints. How do we do this? Using a combination of our scapulohumeral and glenohumeral muscles. When inverted, we encourage a push, drive or shrug out of the shoulders (i.e. think a push out of the hands when handstanding) to encourage scapula elevation and upward rotation.
Additionally, we use our external rotation muscles to further stabilise the joint and keep the compressive forces at bay. Our shoulder joint has a preference for external rotation when in flexion movements, so using our rotator cuff muscles combined with serratus anterior here to create a ‘wrapping’ sensation of the shoulder blade is helpful. Other great cues that we often use are to point the elbows forwards by screwing the hands into the floor or by twisting a lightbulb.
Find the right cues that work for you when it comes to shoulder stability, but don’t forget this is just one part of the picture. We still need to be strong to push and pull.
So now can we push?!
Yes – now we can push! Only when we have the scapulohumeral rhythm and the glenohumeral joint stability of the shoulder that’s required to perform our butterfly can we load it up effectively. And this is where our bigger pushing muscles really get to shine.
Our arm closest to the floor (aka bottom arm) in our extended Butterfly is known as our overhead pushing arm. The key muscles that assist here are our deltoids, pectoralis major/minor, triceps, trapezius, and our serratus anterior muscle. Of course, our forearm/wrist muscles are also working to stabilise here too, but the bulk of the movement is from the shoulder.
A strong push through the bottom arm allows for the torso to be pressed away from the pole which is key for progression to our Ayesha later on in our pole journey. Commonly an issue when first learning how to Butterfly is not setting the bottom up on the pole high enough to create space between the body and the pole, so this is your reminder to not extend your arm fully when setting up, but instead have a small bend in your elbow to then extend and push the body away from the pole
A correct stack of the bottom arm is pivotal in the set-up of a Butterfly. Whilst aesthetically keeping the arm in flexion may look lovely in a photoshoot variation, it is a less efficient position for our body to be in, specifically for our shoulder. You will find keeping the shoulder in full flexion and creating a stack of the joints (hip, shoulder and wrist) will allow for a better push and reduced compressive forces due to better distribution of forces.
What about our pulling arm?
The setup of our top pulling arm is very different to our bottom arm. Because our pulling arm isn’t in as much flexion, we don’t require a fully elevated shoulder/scapula, but of course we still do require good scapulohumeral rhythm and glenohumeral stability. When gravity is pulling us down, we don’t want to be hanging out of our top pulling arm passively. We instead need to use our pulling arm to lift our body up to counteract those forces.
So instead of thinking about anchoring the shoulder down and back which is a very unhelpful cue for our biomechanics, we’d instead encourage you to pull through your arm – think about bringing the pole to you. This helps to recruit our biceps, latissimus dorsi, teres major, rhomboids, trapezius, deltoids, pectoralis major, and coracobrachialis muscles which are all key for pulling. And this motion is further assisted with the use of our rotator cuff muscles and serratus anterior that help to maintain our scapula and shoulder position! Let’s not forget about all of those forearm, wrist and hand muscles that help us grip and pull too!
Let’s also not forget about the torso…
Oh no! We cannot forget about our spinal muscles because the torso is working hard! In our Butterfly setup every muscle in our torso is working. We have our spinal extensors contracting isometrically against gravity to hold us up. They also help create that arch in our spine too in conjunction with our hip muscles (to be discussed soon!) Our spinal rotators and lateral flexors are also working hard. They are contracting isometrically to ensure we are not tipping sideways or rotating out of the trick. If you’ve ever performed a Butterfly from an outside leg hang then you’ll understand you need to rotate into the movement against gravity. Well – guess what – our anti-rotators hold us there. And when they don’t, then we find ourselves falling back out again into our outside leg hang. Same goes with the lateral flexors too! Our external oblique, internal oblique, iliopsoas and quadratus lumborum muscles are doing the most to hold us in this position. Some individuals like to open their torso to the audience for this movement, giving the appearance of more flexibility.
Legs, legs, legs!
And lastly, we need to talk about these legs! Our back leg is extended behind us in a slight degree of hip external rotation (with a knee bend), meaning we require some flexibility in our hip flexors with an engagement of our hip extensors (glutes!) to sustain this position. Whilst in our front hooked leg our hip is flexed with the leg hooked around the pole. The hip is also in a slight degree of hip external rotation, with the hamstrings, adductors, gluteus maximus/medius and gastrocnemius working to hold this position.
Ready to progress?
To level up we can take our butterfly to our EXTENDED BUTTERFLY! When it comes to our extended butterfly the good news is that the difference is minimal, but it is harder. With our legs extended, our centre of gravity now sits further away from the pole meaning it is more challenging to hold. So naturally, we do require more shoulder pull and push strength to stay in this position.
The demands on our legs also change. Increased flexibility of the hamstrings of the front leg is required, as well as quad strength of the front and back leg to provide perform this movement with a straight knee line. Our glutes are working hard on our back leg to extend the hip and on the front hip with the hamstrings to keep our ankle hook on the pole. This change in leg position is coupled with spinal extension to create a very cool arch appearance.
And lastly, we commonly see individuals opening their torso/pelvis in an extended butterfly to mimic an open split position. This places the hips in an abducted position, meaning we load our hamstring and adductors to sustain this ankle hook hold, particularly our friend adductor magnus. For those who want to square their hips however, this is also equally as beautiful! It just won’t require as much hip abduction flexibility and adduction strength.
Ayesha Prep
Once secure in our extended Butterfly we can bring that back leg onto the pole, square the torso and hold our pike or inverted D position which is our pre-cursor for our Ayesha, aka our legs of inverted split grip hold. If you want to learn more about the Ayesha and breakdown it’s anatomy, then you can do so HERE
Got a question about your Butterfly? Not feeling secure in your setup? Or struggling with your shoulder range? Then make sure you touch base with our rehab and strengthening team to help you out.
Online telehealth appointments can be booked with the Pole Physio via our ‘Book Online’ page that can be found 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
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A butterfly/extended butterfly/pike should ONLY be undertaken if your instructor has deemed you ready to work on this trick. This information is general advice only and we are not liable for any injuries that may occur during training.
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