Battered and Bruised

It has been a long time since I did any hardcore exercises. I try and do stretches via yoga thrice a week (for 20 mins max) and one day of badminton which keeps me a little bit healthy and fit. Heavy duty bodyweight exercises for an hour and a half: haven’t done that in a very long time. We (Mr M and I) signed up for the three-day workshop to learn something new, which involves a mix of all (cardio, stretch, bodyweight exercises etc) and today was our first day. It was brutal on us. Mr M and I had to drag ourselves back with so much effort. At least I got off light because I can relax at home whereas poor Mr M had to go to work for half a day. Wonder what will happen to both of us after the third day.

It felt good to do those extreme stretches which were part of the techniques taught. I could feel my muscles, especially in the legs screaming at me. If I am bedridden and don’t blog for a while, then you know what is the cause 😀 At least I will have time to recover before the school starts next week.

The Science Behind Yoga

An interesting video about Yoga and the science behind it along with its benefits.

Keeping it up

When I planned my trip to London, I wanted to ensure that I keep myself fit and not over indulge as I tend to do during vacations. I also thought that if possible and if there was an option to do it, I would go to the gym or some fitness classes whenever possible. And once I got settled down, I started checking out. There was a Sports Leisure Center close to my friend’s place. So I gave them a call and figured out that they are managed by Better and that there is an option for visitors like me to get a daily, weekly, fortnightly or a monthly pass and book the fitness classes we like or even use the gym whenever we want. The pool access is also included and for 5 days the cost was 28 £. I thought it was cheap because in other places each class was for 10 £. And for the past two weeks, I have been going to one or the other classes. I am not a big fan of the gym, but I love trying out the fitness classes. Tried to check out a Zumba class, but since this was much closer to home decided to go along with this. Loved all the classes, but the best of the lot was Yoga, Pilates and Total Body Conditioning classes. I loved them. I am feeling really good about doing it. I am leaving back to Bangalore today. Hopefully will make another trip sooner back here.

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Post for this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt.

Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “book.” Use any meaning of the word as your theme, or simply mention the word “book” in your post. Enjoy!

 

SoCS Badge by HopeFloats@ My Leaky Boat

Working it out

If someone had told me 2 years ago that I would be going to gym regularly and would fall in love with weights and the strength training exercises, I would have rolled on the floor laughing. But after a year of doing the strength training, reducing almost 10kgs of weight, not to mention a couple of inches, I am so addicted to it now that I feel that if I don’t do at least three classes per week I am committing a sin 😛 And my progress has in turn inspired my siblings to make sure that they take care of their health too (especially when my mom broke her back and couldn’t do anything about it because of her obesity also triggered a panic among us).

Last Sunday, we went to a very posh gym where we did a body pump class, as a trial run for our Zumba instructor, who is also an instructor for body pump. I think I will love that too, because it is more about music and weights. But with the schedule I have now, I won’t be able to include that but I am happy to do these trial classes now and then. Here are a couple of photographs I took with my phone from that studio.

 

And as they say,

“Fitness is not about being better than someone else…but it’s about being better than you used to be”

and trust me…it is so true.

I am not very good with diets. I don’t even try. I just can’t give up ice-creams or chocolates, no way! But the fact that I am in a position to not feel too bad (that means, I do feel a teeny tiny bit bad…) about it, is all because of these workouts. I always go back and tell my instructor that I did indulge a bit and she gets very happy because she can use my guilt to make me work harder 😉 She is cunning that way. But without her I wouldn’t be where I am. She knows when to push me and when to relax and never fails to encourage me. And I should thank my close friend too, who gave me the nudge by saying that I should at least try it and then go ahead if I like it. He probably knew that I would love it.

I am really happy that I got into this regular routine and hope that I can keep this going for a long time to come.

Posture

A good one to share. Going to gym, we are always reminded of a good posture/form with even the simplest of exercises we do. And at work too, especially working long hours using a laptop. I will be glad if I am able to follow 10% of what it says.