ENABLING YOUR PASSION FOR HEALTHY LIVING

Yoga Conditioning and Pilates Bootcamp

I woke up Friday morning at 5 am with pain in my right hip from being too tight. I knew I had to take a break from Bar and get in some yoga. At Bar, they say my hips are tight because I’m a runner but I haven’t really run farther than 1-2 miles in 3 weeks. Thanks arctic-like New England weather. I think I need to start doing extra stretching at the end of class when I get home.

I scoped out a few classes at Back Bay Yoga, Sweat and Soul Yoga, South Boston Yoga and Bikhram Yoga. After consulting Yelp, I decided to give Aaron Cantor’s Yoga Conditioning at Back Bay a try.

2013 01 25 12 22 04

I was warned in advance that it was not a typical yoga class. We began with out mats to the side and just a blanket folded on the floor. We did some lunges to start which felt great for my hips. We did some balance wobbling things. Then we sat on our mats and scooted our butts around the room. Then we laid on our bellies and again scooted around the room with our arms. Remember the squares on wheels from gym class? Basically, we did a bunch of exercises on the blankets like that. I was out of breath.

Then we formed lines and did different moves like walking high kicks with a backwards lunge across the room. The sequence progressed to include a mountain climber in-between kicking legs. By the end of this series, I was seriously out of breath. We finished with some handstands and tad of stretching. We didn’t do a single sun salutation. The class has a bit of a following. Members love the class. It was only an hour and I think I would have enjoyed it a bit more if there were 30 minutes of vinyasa at the end. For only $10, it was a steal.

BBYoga

It’s been awhile since I checked out Back Bay Yoga. They carry really cute clothes from brands I had never heard of as well as fun yogi drinks and snacks like Kombucha which of course I had to buy.

While I enjoyed the different class, I still needed a good stretch and decided to try out Christine Felstead’s Yoga for Runners DVD at home after lunch. It was a challenging video that was slow and good. It seriously helped but the positions in my opinion were held like 5 seconds all too long. It wasn’t really vinyasa either but a great stretch and will be keeping it handy for future references for sure.

In the spirit of mixing things up, I promised Jenn Phelan that I would check out her free Pilates Bootcamp in Fanuil Hall on Saturday at 9:15 am, a decision I regretted after staying out until 2 am Friday night. I pulled myself together and was one of the last to arrive but not late! The class was a 45 minute fun change of speed from my bar classes but similar in a good way. Jenn isn’t allowed to take Bar class since she is an Equinox Barre Burn instructor but her moves were eerily similar. She had me legs shaking within 10 minutes of class.

2013 01 26 10 05 54

She holds the class twice a month if you are interested in checking it out. The Boston Tone It Up community loves Jenn’s classes so I knew I had to take a quick picture with a few of them that I tweet with. It was Taylor’s birthday (on the right) and she brought two of her girlfriends to class to celebrate. Afterwards, they went to grab green juices from Juice in Back Bay! Mary Kate (on left) came to my event at The Bar Method. She took a second class with Jenn at Equinox a few hours later! Had I not had brunch plans, I probably would have joined them.  2013 01 26 10 14 11

Of course on Sunday, I went back to Bar. I hit up the new Flour on my way home for lunch. I always get the same 2 salads but decided to try something new. I got the grilled chicken with brie, caramelized onions and peppers 1/2 sandwich with the black bean soup made with tomatillo. Both were outstanding. I thought my sandwich was coming out on wheat but it probably was a switch that ended in my taste buds benefit. The soup with gluten, soy and dairy free so it would have been very Virgin Diet friendly! The sandwich not so much, hehe.

2013 01 27 13 36 02

Did you try anything new this weekend!?

Share the Post:

Related Posts