Cross-trainings

Besides running, I am also doing some cross-trainings.

One of them is spinning. Spinning is an indoor stationary bicycle group exercise. It is conducted by a spinning instructor. In this group exercise, the instructor will use different music tracks (with different beats) to couple with different cycling postures and speed. It is very good for building stamina and endurance. It strengthens the knees and the leg muscles. Quite good work-out for the body parts that involved running.

The other being Yoga. I picked up Yoga last year. It is a good relaxation exercise. Basically you need to be calm and mindful of your breathing to be able to train your body to perform the Yoga postures. A lot of postures actually helps to strengthen muscles around the back, shoulders, calf, hip, etc. Little did I realise, Yoga actually helped to improve my upper body strength (e.g.Cobra posture etc.). This is quite important in running as we swing our arms throughout the race. The arms can get tired as fast as the legs. The other part of Yoga actually improve my mental aspect, helping me to focus and be calm.

Here is a pie chart showing how much time I spend on running, spinning and Yoga. Too bad I can't swim. Swimming is a good exercise for runners as well.

Yoga, some like it hot

It is public holiday in Selangor today, but I work in KL. To have a day off, I need to use my annual leave. So I did.

The day started with my darling and I went to try out the Hot Yoga session in True Yoga. Well, I am a beginner in Yoga, just started to learn in July. I have promised myself that I will learn something new every year. Yoga is one of the new things so far. (I may talk about my other new learning in my later blogs).

The special thing about this Hot Yoga is that the class is conducted in a room that is heated to 40 degrees Celsius. What Hot Yoga claims are many benefits, including better flexibility, reduces stress, helps to improve many conditions due to illnesses etc.

The instructor was a guy from India, he has a very strong Indian accent. I have difficulties understanding what he said in the beginning, but slowly catch on later.

The class was quite full with many people from all ages. It was nice to see many people in a class. It really motivates you.

I have been attending regular class in my gym. I was trying out this class to "sample" it.

Anyway, the class was not too tough, but I still have some balancing and flexibility issues. The instructor even come to my aid and literally "bend" me with one foot on my buttock while holding my up-stretched arms. (Sorry no illustration available). I guess I need practice, a lot of practice to improve.

In the end of the class, I sweat a lot. My T-shirt was really soaking wet and my darling told me that I really "smell" like a man. :-)

Maybe I will go try it out again later. Hope to post some photos later. Stay tuned.