Yoga today

I love rainy mornings, and I also hate rainy mornings. I love rainy mornings because it always reminds me of winter and I hate rainy mornings because it disrupts my outdoor runs. Today was one of the days my outdoor run was foiled, nevertheless I was only too pleased to go to the gym. Woke up at 5.30am and realized it had been raining all night since I knocked off at 12.15am last night. Was pretty sure the rain wasn’t going to stop, plus the roads would be extremely wet. Sms’ed 4 of my running buddies and told them I’d be at the gym instead. The scary part was that they were all awake and replied (no I don’t think I woke them up, they are early risers).Arrived at the gym at 6.15am and decided I had to run extra hard to clock in my usual distance, as I had wanted to attend yoga class at 7am. (Ok I know I should not be doing yoga for spiritual reasons, at the same time I wanted to check out the class, but in the words of someone I know, never mind about that..)

Ran 6km on the treadmill. I feel that the button panel is too high, as there have been several occasions where my elbow came into contact with the emergency stop button. Or maybe I am too short! As a result, the machine came to a halt just as I had completed 4.65km so I had to restart. Therefore I could not measure my calories burnt today, but I estimate it’s about 500 calories.After my run and sweating buckets, I joined the yoga class. Good thing they switched off the air cond in the yoga studio or I would have been frozen to death.

The class was conducted by a Dr Dilip, and his approach to yoga was more scientific than spiritual. (But I do wonder at which point the spiritual element starts creeping in, as they say that you can’t progress in yoga without adding the spiritual element). We started by doing a series of progressive movements, which included poses like “mountain”, “cobra” and what seemed to be parts of “sun salutation”. First we had to do it really slow, repeating the whole sequence about 8 times, balancing between beginning on right and left feet. Then we had to do it fast, also repeating the sequence 8 times. The fast/slow movements are to improve the systolic/diastolic pressure of the heart.

Next we had to rub our palms together to create heat, and place them on our eyes. I wonder if that will do anything to reduce my dark rings? Next we had to lie on our backs, bend one knee while the other leg was straightened, and pull our chin towards our bent knee. This is supposed to improve the digestion in the stomach. Dr Dilip said it’s supposed to expel wind from our body, so we should not be shy to release some air, whether from the mouth or from the other end. Halfway performing it, I did feel like their was a great deal of air expelled. But I thought I’d spare the class from any distracting sounds or smells.And then after that, to massage the internal organs, we were to bend both knees (still on our backs) and pull our chin towards our knees, and then roll side to side. It’s a good thing I am well padded, because after a while I began to feel my hip bones pressing on the floor (even with the mats) and it was rather uncomfortable. So, this is the time I snigger at those anorexic looking women who don’t need to exercise. Haha! Too bad for you. Skinny people should also share in some sufferings.

Next, we got into one of the asana positions, which looks like this:

We had to hold for 1 minute each side, and ultimately we should hit 3 minutes each side. I felt like a got a really good stretch, especially on my hamstrings. Plus I usually tend to be more supple after a good run because the body is still warm. The only problem I had with doing this move was that I was already sweating buckets earlier, so everything became slippery and it was hard to hold the position and resist sliding.

There were other relaxation moves in between, plus breathing. Overall I felt very relaxed. Dr Dilip said he usually ends the class with some motivational message, and today’s message was “to give thanks in everything”.Sounds a bit New Age to me. I felt the stretches were really great for my body but again, I am not sure how often I’d do this,or whether I’d do it again, because I am only purely interested in the physical aspect of it..and who knows when it will dabble into the spiritual realm?

PS. Dr Dilip said 1 roti canai is equivalent to 600 calories, so there, I can only eat 5/6 of a roti canai today.