Lose pounds on pole

Fitness Instructor Edith Aboul-hosn’s Wednesday night class at Lady of America gym on West Coast Highway in Newport Beach seems like a run-of-the mill workout class as women arrive in shorts and tank tops and begin stretching.

But all that changes when Aboul-hosn dims the lights and her students whip out pairs of platform stiletto heels from their gym bags.

The women practice twirls, spins and flipping upside down on two portable metal poles pushed to the center of the room to the beat of Justin Timberlake and Daft Punk.

“I’m addicted,” said student Melissa DeVito, who has been taking classes from Aboul-hosn for the past two months. “It’s given me more confidence, I’ve lost five pounds, and I’ve got more upper-body strength.”

The class is more about fitness than sex, Aboul-hosn said. High heels help tone the leg muscles. Spinning on the pole improves upper body strength.

Pole dancing has come out of the gentlemen’s clubs and twirled its way into gyms nationwide as a new type of workout.

As many as seven gyms in Costa Mesa alone offer pole dancing classes, said Keith Scheinberg, chief executive of Platinum Stages, a Newport Beach-based company that supplies portable dance poles to nightclubs and homemakers who want to get in shape.

  A NEW MARKET FOR A LOCAL BUSINESS

A small, nondescript office space in Newport Beach is home to what claims to be the world’s largest maker of dance poles.

Scheinberg, 31, founded Platinum Stages about seven years ago after drawing a sketch of a portable stage with a built-in pole that didn’t have to be mounted to the ceiling.

He soon had his college buddies convinced to invest in the plan. The company now fills orders for poles from all over the world and has a second warehouse in Europe.

The company cleared $3 million in revenue last year and accommodates the pole needs of about 80% of fitness instructors in Southern California.

“I originally thought it would be something for fraternity houses,” Scheinberg said. “Now it’s more about fitness. It’s becoming more mainstream.”

Scheinberg’s poles have since made appearances on “Oprah” and “The Sopranos.”

“We got into it way before the trend started, and now all of our products fall under a different trend, Pilates and people who exercise,” he said.

Scheinberg multi-tasks his way through e-mails, faxes, phone calls and text messages related to his various business ventures in his office at Platinum Stages headquarters.

A large airbrush painting poster of a naked woman hangs on one wall, Scheinberg’s law degree from Chapman University hangs on another.

Outside of his successful pole business, he also is senior partner at the Newport Beach-based law firm of Scheinberg and Stock and owner of Chronic Cantina Sports Bar and Grill.

People from across the country — many of them homemakers — have stopped by the Platinum Stages showroom behind the front office to check out the latest in dance poles and accessories, Scheinberg said.

The most popular product Platinum Stages offers for pole dance fitness enthusiasts is the removable pole, which can be set up in minutes with no screws, bolts or holes in the ceiling.

“Women can put these in their bedroom and take it down if they don’t want the kids to see,” Scheinberg said.

The portable pole ranges in price from $299 for a basic, one piece model to $329 for the multi-piece “Super Pole,” which comes in a metal box similar to a gun case for easy travel. There are poles that spin and poles that light up, even petite poles for women with small hands. The original Platinum Stage with its built-in pole also remains a big seller, Scheinberg said. Buyers can choose from a variety of surfaces for the stage, including mirrors or a floor that lights up.

“I’ve heard of people taking the pole out and using the stage as a TV stand for their plasma screens or as a coffee table,” Scheinberg said. “I don’t know how long this will last, but I’m enjoying the ride.”

 FITNESS AND FUN FOR ALL AGES

Aboul-hosn’s business card displays a photograph of her hanging upside down with her legs wrapped around a dancing pole. Back arched, she appears to be held up only by the strength of her thigh muscles.

“When I tell women I teach pole, they scream, they can’t believe it,” Aboul-hosn said. “‘I have to try it,’ they say.”

Aboul-hosn said she was the first instructor to teach pole dance in Orange County. She taught herself most of the moves using her background in dance and acrobatics, after her students started asking her for something new about seven years ago. Today, she and her instructors at From Mind to Body offer classes across Southern California, and she also has made a few instructional pole dance DVDs. Women from as far away as Mexico and Japan have traveled to Southern California to take her classes, she said.

“Woman of all ages and all sizes take my classes,” Aboul-hosn said, adding that her oldest client was 68. “The classes empower women through dance and make them feel more feminine and elegant. It’s the perfect workout.”

She’s fond of telling the story about how she got a 62-year-old woman to lift herself up and spin upside down on a pole.

“If you can spin, you can go upside down,” she said. “At first she said ‘No way,’ but after she did it, then she said, ‘I know how I’m going to die now.’”

 POLE PARTIES AND PILATES

Pilates instructor Nicole Leto began the Newport Beach-based company Pilates on the Pole a year ago with the goal of combining Pilates and dance in a way to make pole dancing cleaner and healthier for everyone involved.

“I pole dance on ‘Oprah’ and took some classes and thought ‘These women are going to get injured,’” Leto said. “They’re going to fall.”

After coming up with her own pole dance regiment, Leto had her moves evaluated by a professional dancer who used to work with choreographer Martha Graham and a chiropractor.

“I did it to make sure it was safe and women wouldn’t hurt themselves,” Leto said. Response to the pole dancing classes has been good, Leto said. She has even started offering private dance parties, where women can learn a complete dance routine. The classes are popular for bachelorette parties, Leto said.

“It’s mostly younger women who take the classes because its a big fitness trend, but I do have a few older ones.”

Pole dancing provides a good workout when combined with pilates because it improves posture and muscle strength, she said.

“It’s rewarding to see women feel good, get stronger and see their bodies change,” Leto said.

WHERE TO GO

Pilates on the Pole

pilatesonthepole.com(949) 675-5888

From Mind to Body

www.frommindtobody.com(949) 903-1867

Platinum Stages

www.platinumstages.com(866) 85-POLES

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.