I was offered a 4 weeks pass at True Yoga by a friend who has signed up for their classes. She was super hooked on to them, till the point where she only feel shiok with either their hot yoga or bikram. Out of curiosity, I wanted to test for myself if these classes do make a difference.
Initially I was skeptical about having to share changing rooms, showers with tonnes of other ladies. Looking at their locker rooms, showers & toilet facilities, it kinda reminded me of boarding school or hostels with endless rows of lockers, showers & toilets. I'm not a fan of public shower facilities, but for those who dun mind, they do have quite abit of space around the lockers and shower for chit chats and changes. Not posh like country clubs for sure but definitely decent facilities.
Week 1:
Only managed to attend 2 classes, I was invited to take the basic, therapy classes as a beginner. So I went for Therapy Yoga and Basic Yoga. My friend also stressed that one must feel the strain, push my limits to get maximum benefit for each session. Pain is normal. So I cheong lor! Every position I also stretch and stretch, push and push. It doesn't help that I did my first jog in 15yrs the night before and with a whole body that is aching, I invited MORE aches & pains to my body.
With the aching body, it felt good that I had a workout heehee.... *happy* & looking forward to next week's sessions.
Only pity is that their schedules is only released on each Monday morning, so one would not be able to plan in advance. :(
Week 2:
After 1 session of therapy yoga, I found that the first instructor Adi was really good! He was clear with his instructions, precise with his timings, encouraging with his words. He tries to push our limits a little more with each repetition and that was pretty good.
So I decided that I was ready for pilates! Yeah! WAH, it was super tough! Especially when the instructor told us that the tough posture we did was 1 out of 3 sets! I want to faint! But since everyone in the class seems to be very PRO & ON, I kept a straight face and kept pushing lor. After the completion of each set, it is usually accompanied by a huge SIGH hahaha... (thankfully, I was not alone ;-D )
Week 3:
I had some time before my next appointment, so I decided to go for Yin yoga which lasts 1.5hrs instead of the usual 1hr. When I entered the studio, there were something different about it. Besides the usual mats all set up in the studio, the other participants went to one corner of the room to get cushions & ropes and walked over to the other end of the studio to get blankets! Wah, it looks like a pretty serious class... so much gadgets! Then instructor came in and started lighting a row of candles on the platform and also encouraged us to go forward to get some aromatherapy oil on our wrists.
Turns out that this "super long workout" session in my mind is meant for connective tissues! Not muscle toning! We did simple stuff like sitting on our feet like in a jap posture. But dun look down on that simple posture wor! After 2.5mins, I want to give up already! Tough leh!! And we had to tahan there for 5 full mins!! I can feel the sweat peeling off my forehead... just from sitting down... impressive eh?
For the 2nd session, I decided to get creative, took the Hatha yoga. But I did not take note of its difficulty level, it was M for multi-levels! Which means TOUGH again! Wah piang eh.... got hand stand wan leh! But the instructor noted that its my virgin hatha class, she came over when I was strangling to put my knees on my inverted arms... and told me that's enough for me! hahahaha I almost wanted to thank her for getting me out of this tricky situation! How in the world would I be able to lift my legs up using my non-existence abdominal muscles? I dunno. Just very glad that she ended the class then. Ha Ha Ha
Week 4:
Looks like my body is getting used to the stretching and postures, its not aching that much anymore! Could it be just me, the lazier version who dun seems to be pushing as hard? *Bleah*
We'll know tomorrow if the aches starts....
OK, tomorrow came and I'm bloody aching alot today!!! I went for core yoga which emphasized on building core muscles around the abdomen. It was some twisting and turnings, leg lifts and boat positions. I struggled for some bits of it of course but I did not expect the extent of the aches! I never knew that I have "muscles" just outside my rib cage! hahaha I think it was that release all the air in the lungs pose, combined with contracting the stomach towards the spine that gave me this ACHE!
Okay, dilemma now, should I go for morning sessions today which has siong-sounding dynamic pilates? Or take it easier with afternoon sessions?? Hmm....
Labels: exercise, hatha, Jen, pilates, True Yoga, yin yoga, Yoga
