Sometimes, late at night, firemen slip into heels and dance with their poles, spinning, dipping, and stripping away cumbersome fireproof coats and burdensome notions of masculinity. With today's Groupon, you get a fireman's acrobatic workout with twice as much confidence. For $49, you get a four-week introductory pole dancing class (a $120 value) at Twirly Girls Pole Fitness in Pleasanton.

Pole fitness is a fun, empowering way to build strength, endurance, and self-confidence. Twirly Girls offers weekly 75-minute beginner classes for women of all ages, shapes, and shoe sizes. Sessions will focus on flirty floor work, graceful transition moves, and gravity-defying pole tricks. By the end of four weeks, students will have a new, sensuous routine under their sequined belt. High-intensity strength and conditioning exercises will tone your core and cause your muscles to tighten and flex every time you walk by a pole on the street, challenging its cold, doubtful stare. Select a class from the schedule and climb the heights to physical empowerment to discover that a pole can be decorated by much more than barber stripes and yard-sale signs.

Owner and instructor Bel Jeremiah has extensive safety training and more than 20 years of experience as a certified personal trainer. The private studio space at Twirly Girls has a strict no-dudes-allowed policy, giving ladies a much-needed sanctuary in which to let loose and plan their fantasy football strategies.

Reviews

Thirty Yelpers give Twirly Girls Pole Fitness a five-star average.

• It was so much fun that it didn't even feel like a super hard workout, but I am definitely feeling it today! – Jamie Z., Yelp
• You cannot get this kind of empowerment on an elliptical. If you are looking for a fantastic way of shedding some pounds, pole fitness is for you. Not only are you working towards a "better you", you are also bound to have a great time. – Paola B., Yelp