Busy Philipps Is Learning Pole Dancing and Proving How Incredibly Hard It Is

Pole dancing is undoubtedly one of the most graceful, beautiful physical art forms. The sport pairs upper-body strength, cardio, and flexibility with dancing, all while somehow maneuvering your entire body along a vertical pole. Busy Philipps has recently been mastering the art of pole dancing, showing off her incredible progress in a new Instagram post.

In her post, Philipps shared a video that shows her crushing a one-legged spin around the pole, taking a few tries before nailing it — all in sky-high platform heels, to boot.

"Got to go back to my pole work today after healing my bruised ribs and I learned a new thing," she wrote in the caption. "It took a few tries but I got there!" She also gave a shoutout to her "pole guru," Yumiko Harris, a professional pole dance choreographer and instructor at New York City's Foxy Fitness and Pole

Comments quickly rolled in from Philipps' fans, followers, and friends applauding her commitment to the sport. "Looool girrrrl I love you. I remember that bruising. It's no joke. Keep it up tho," wrote Vanessa Hudgens, who had a pole dancing scene in the 2012 film The Frozen Ground. Another commenter noted, "I feel like people don't understand how hard that is," with others agreeing that pole dancing is "incredibly hard."

Despite the bruised ribs, it seems that Philipps is having a blast learning pole dancing. In February, she shared how she got into the sport in the first place, revealing on an episode of her podcast, Busy Philipps Is Doing Her Best‬, that it's all for an upcoming role. Philipps is slated to play a former pop star from a one-hit-wonder '90s girl band in Peacock's forthcoming series, Girls5eva, and when she learned that her character, Summer, had a pole dancing scene, she decided to master the skill of pole work, which she calls "incredibly athletic and real fucking intense."

"Sometimes in television shows, they will write things in [the script] and [the writing team] won't really think about the reality of what it will mean on the day [of filming]," she said on her podcast. "I'm super athletic, and I'm sure [the TV show's crew] looks at me and they're like, 'Busy does that LEKfit every day, I'm sure she can swing on a pole.'" While Philipps said she was confident in her ability to learn pole dancing, she said she was also aware that it would take a lot more training to perfect her performance than just a few hours of dancing here and there on-set during filming. So, she said on her podcast, she started training BTS and taking classes on her own at Foxy Fitness and Pole. She's since been working consistently to increase her strength and flexibility. (

Curious about trying pole fitness yourself? As Philipps shared, it's a true full-body workout that combines strength training, endurance, and flexibility — all in high heels, of course. Not only is it a killer total-body challenge, but pole dancing is also a great way to build inner confidence. "[Pole fitness] builds confidence and improves body image and the ability to tackle other seemingly out-of-reach goals in life," Tracy Traskos, an instructor at NY Pole, previously told Shape. "This confidence inevitably blends into other areas of your life, including relationships."

As for the Cougar Town alum, she shared on her podcast that learning pole dancing has been an incredibly rewarding experience for her. "I'm really proud of myself, and I'm proud of my commitment to my athleticism," she said. "Now I kind of want to be a competitive pole dancer."