Zoraya Judd: Utah's Pole Fitness Champion
Janurary 11th, 2009

It's sleek, sexy, and one of the toughest workouts in the world

by Jacob Hodgen

Behind the doors of the Throwdown Elite alternative fitness center in Orem, you can learn kickboxing, wrestling, jujitsu, and train to be a cage fighter. But their most difficult class is one you might not expect: Pole Fitness.

Every sport and discipline has its virtuosos. In the fledgling world of competitive Pole Fitness, Utah has a new rising star.

Yes--competitive Pole Fitness. And before you start checking the settings on your Net Nanny web filter, hear me out: this isn't your grandmother's stripper pole we're talking about.

While its origins may seem questionable to those unfamiliar with the sport, competitive Pole Fitness is a rising physical discipline whose roots actually stem from the male-dominated art of the Chinese circus pole. In its Westernized form, modern Pole Fitness is one part rock climbing, one part Cirque du Soleil, and it is practiced by men and women of all ages as one of the most physically challenging and technically demanding workouts available.

Though Zoraya Judd has been only been practicing Pole Fitness for under two years, she has
already been crowned our state champion and has received profession sponsorship from numerous companies: Damaged Goods, Atlas Fitness, Studio Soiree, PFA, and Kalai. A wife, mother, active member of the LDS faith, and resident of Salt Lake City, Zoraya is the new local face of a unique sport and hobby.

I have to pull her off a exercise bike to sit down with me for an interview, and though she looks reluctant to leave her routine, she gets visibly excited when she begins talking about her passion. "It's like the best of yoga or Pilates, but you do it on a pole," she tells me.

A standard fitness pole itself is 2 inches thick and 12-14 feet tall, but poles of all shapes and sizes can be used. Much of a given workout routine comes from climbing up and down the pole and from holding poses, some of which are performed while only using one's legs--while hanging inverted!

Pole Fitness has been a hit at the Throwdown Elite training center in Orem, one of the locations where Zoraya teaches lessons. There she instructs both women and men who are often looking for something challenging to complement their mixed martial arts training with. She tells me that many of the same holds she applies to the pole are similar to those grapplers use in their submissions.

Zoraya says that since Pole Fitness is still so new, many people have misconceptions about her and her sport. One of the most frequent questions she gets asked is about the apparel, or lack thereof. She tells me that practitioners of Pole Fitness typically do show a lot of skin while they work out, but she explains that this is a matter of safety and necessity. "Cloth is slippery, while skin gives you traction on the pole. Without skin to pole contact, you'd never be able to get the grip you need to do some of the poses without falling."

After winning the first ever Utah Pole Fitness event, Zoraya is now preparing for national competition as Utah's representative of the United States Pole Dancing Federation, which will be held in New York this coming March. Since she has already reached the top of the sport locally, she now travels across the country to meet with her mentor, national champion and Cirque du Soleil performer Felix Cane, and receive training at the San Francisco School of Circus.

Watch Zoraya's State Championship-winning Pole Fitness routine.

Learn more about Pole Fitness classes with Zoraya at the Throwdown Elite training center in Utah Valley or Studio Soiree in the Salt Lake Vallley.

Throwdown Elite