Anatomy of a Janeiro

It’s that time again! Yes – you know it! Time to get nitty gritty and nerd out in another jam-packed anatomy series! Earlier this year we covered the anatomy of an Allegra, an absolute fan-favourite move and dream goal for so many pole dancers, and this time around we are excited to break down the anatomy of another organ crusher move - the Janeiro!

The Janeiro is one of those moves that polers often look at and either think ‘well that looks simple enough’ or ‘I am not that strong or bendy’. And there doesn’t seem to be any in between thoughts about it! Ha! So let’s just get right into it and break down the easiest way for you to nail this nemesis move!

Screening of a Janeiro

Before we start work on a new move, we want to ensure we’re strong and safe to do so. Our Janeiro is an advanced move, so we need to be strong enough and have the pole smarts to safely enter and exit this move before we even attempt it.

A reminder – 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 improving. So, before we get into our Janeiro, let’s ensure we’re strong and safe to do so.

To perform a Janeiro the key requirements we can screen for are:

• Shoulder mount (ideally aerial)

• Brass monkey star hold

• Shotgun grip Ayesha/pencil

• Shotgun grip flag

• Horizontal and overhead pushing strength

• Hip extension strength

• Spinal extension strength and flexibility

• Anti-lateral flexion strength and flexibility

  
  

When working towards your Janeiro (or any move for that matter!), consider the demands of the position you’re working towards! I.e, a Janeiro requires a great deal of side bending and strength to maintain this contorted shape. Work on nailing this movement away from the pole first to help you build your strength and flexibility to allow you to safely progress in your pole journey.

Let’s now break down this Janeiro into its key anatomy!

All good things start with a little push…

Our set up for Janeiro is key, and it all starts by ensuring we have a solid shotgun grip hold. In this shotgun hold, one arm is wrapped around the pole with the elbow by the side, and the other arm is extended and pushing overhead. Both arms are pushing the pole firmly into the ground. To enter our Janeiro, our overhead arm slides up the pole to have a bent elbow. This is the initiation of weight transfer towards our bottom arm which affectionately becomes our ‘shelf’. By saying it becomes our shelf, we mean that we will eventually rest our body on this arm to perform our Janeiro. To maintain a strong push, our biceps, pectoralis major/minor, latissimus dorsi, deltoid and coracobrachialis muscles are isometrically engaging. Additionally, our bicep and forearm supinator muscle are responsible for keeping our bottom forearm in a supinated grip. This supination helps the external rotator muscles of the shoulder (aka the rotator cuff) to engage as they perform a ‘couple’ movement. These rotator cuff muscles are key to keep shoulder stability. And if you don’t know this already, you do now! In our overhead arm, we start out by assisting the push and eventually once we’ve transitioned to our Janeiro hold, this arm reaches out to the side, primarily lifted by our deltoid/supraspinatus force couple. Naturally we are also using our forearm muscles to grip onto the pole.

All hands (or spinal muscles) on deck

Right, now we’ve covered the arms it’s time to take it to the torso where things get a bit more interesting! When we’re initially setup in our shotgun grip hold, our body is entirely vertical. We must pass our hips in front of the pole to the other side to lay our body onto our shelf in a horizontal fashion. So, how do we do this? Keeping our chest still with our sternum facing the floor, our thoracic spine performs a rotation whilst our lumbar spine performs a lateral flexion movement, resulting in a combined spinal movement. Now, our lumbar spine does also rotate but it doesn’t account for much, and same with our thoracic spine when it comes to lateral flexion. So, the whole spine really does need to work to get to where we want to go. The obliques are the primary muscles that control this movement, but they are also assisted by rectus abdominus, the paraspinals, iliopsoas, the adductors, latissimus dorsi and our quadratus lumborum muscles. If there is one key takeaway to understand from this combined movement, it is that to be able to hold our end position, our oblique muscles and latissimus dorsi that sit on the upper side of the Janeiro have to work hard to eccentrically lower ourselves into the position and then hold our Janeiro isometrically in a stretched out contorted shape. 

Now we’ve talked about the combined movement being lateral flexion and rotation, but there are actually three movements at play. The third movement is spinal extension and without it we couldn’t possibly hold our Janeiro. Extension of the spine occurs more from the lumbar spine compared to the thoracic spine, and our hips do extend here as well to help. The spine and hip extension are controlled by our paraspinals, gluteal muscles and hamstrings to wrap the body around the pole. By bringing our hips over to the over side of the pole and by bringing our legs into extension, we are able to bring our centre of gravity behind us, making it much easier to hold. If our legs were in line with our torso or in front of our body we would find our centre of gravity pulling us forward, making us fall out of the move. Bending the top knee can further help us to maintain the Janeiro by bringing more of our body weight to the other side of the pole.

And that’s all there is to it! Easy, right? 😉

In all fairness, the Janeiro is a challenging move to unlock. So be kind to yourself when first learning, use a crash matt , a spotter and grip up – both your hands and waist if need be!

Got a question about your Janeiro? Not feeling secure in your setup? Or struggling with your spine flexibility? 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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Please Note:

• Any artwork on this or other pages of https://www.thepolephysio.com is copyrighted and is not to be reproduced without written permission per the terms of use and conditions.

• A Janeiro is an advanced move and 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.

• This page has been created to provide wonderful knowledge with the pole community and sharing of this page to pole friends and pole related Facebook groups is actively encouraged.