Shakti yoga

Jag har länge älskat yoga, både som träningsform och som avkoppingsmetod. Jag har testat många yogaformer och yogastudios i både Sverige, Italien och London men den senaste tiden tränar jag enbart på Sats. På sats finns över 5 olika typer av yoga och flera av instruktörerna är väldigt duktiga men det går ändå inte att jämföra att träna yoga på ett stort träningscenter som Sats i jämförelse med en liten trevlig yogastudio. Bara det att man hör den dunkande musiken från gymmet bredvid tar bort en del av njutningen. 

Jag har flera gånger följt med Peter till hans yoga-studio Shakti Yoga på söder och stormtrivs. Yogan är på ganska hög nivå och jag får träningsmässigt kämpa ganska hårt för att ta mig igenom klassen. Sen är det lugnet jag känner bara jag kliver in på studion där man möts av stillhet, lågmälda och vänliga människor, gott te, mjuka soffor och toppenbra utrustning. 

Tyvärr ligger Shakti Yoga lite fel på kartan från både mitt jobb och mitt hem men jag kommer ändå fortsätta att gå dit då och då. 

xoxo

Yoga in Rålis

Jag blir allt sämre på att blogga. Sommaren bjuder på så mycket roliga sociala tillställningar att inomhusaktiviteter, som att blogga helt enkelt inte hinns med. Veckan har än så länge bjudit på två grillmiddagar hemma hos vänner och en parkhängskväll igår. Jag och Cicci möttes upp efter jobbet och tog oss till Rålambshovsparken för en timmes yoga mitt i den gassande solen. Helt underbart!

Det var en väldigt enkel yoga-lektion. Egentligen var det mer som en timmes streching och avslappning. Vi var runt 100 personer, på stora gräsmatten och mitt i solen och det otroligt kul och avkopplande. Hoppas på fler sådana yoga-tillfällen nu i sommar. 

And yea, sorry, I have decided to go back blogging mainly in Swedish again. I can see from the statistics that more and less half of my readers are Swedish, 1/4 are Italian and the rest are a mix of other countries. 

Above are pics from an hour yoga session in the park - a very enjoyable and relaxing evening with my great friend Cicci.

xoxo

Saturday yoga class

I went to yoga today. An advanced leveled yoga class at Sats Odenplan. It's been a while since I attended a really good yoga class but today's class was amazingly good. Both me and my friends can agree that Josefin Palmgren is one of Sats's absolutely best yoga instructions, too bad I don't manage to attend them more often. Now I just feel great, but fisically and mentally.

Now we (me and my mums dog Stella that is here) are just waiting for some of my girl friends to arrive for a cosy night in together at my place. What a great Saturday heh!

xoxo

Hot Mojo yoga

My loading kit before the Hot mojo class

Today was the last training session in our what Johanna and I called "our intensive training week" and to end it all in a hard, cool and hot way we decided to attend an hour of Sats Hot Mojo. 

Hot Mojo is a kind of Birkam yoga (yoga in a 38 degrees warm room) even if can say it is slightly different than "real" bikram. First of all it is only 55 minutes long while Birkam is always 90 minutes. Then I must say the exercises are a bit easier at hot mojo than they are at the regular birkam yoga session. However, hot mojo is one hour of yoga in a 38 degrees room and was challenging enough for both Johanna and myself. 

And... thinking about it, I can admit I actually prefer Hot mojo instead of Birkam, it is a little bit more on my own level as I keep fainting almost every time I attend Birkam.  

xoxo

Winter walk and yoga

It has been a quite cold but at least sunny day so my mum and I went down to Årsta skogen (Årsta forest?) for a long walk this morning. I am so happy that I found what I could call a massive park or mini forest close to my place and I am sure I will go for many many walks there from now on. 

This evening instead I went to my usual "Wednesday yoga" class and I was a bit surprised how fast the level is raising higher. Among some almost extreme stretching poses we are now supposed to know (or at least try to do) some really hard yoga strengths poses. I really need to practice more to keep up with this yoga course...

Tonight I met Cicci, ate a good pasta, made a really nice smoothie and made some plans for this spring :-)

xoxo

Yoga and dinner with a friend

I normally like going to my yoga classes alone. I already find it hard to concentrate and relax as much as I would like to during the yoga class due to the hard exercises/yoga poses. If I then have a friend by my side it is even harder to get the meditation out of the yoga as you obviously keep an eye of the other person. Instead, a positive affect of going for yoga with a friend could be that you trigger each other deeper down in the poses which could get better training results. 

Well, today a friend joined me to my usual yoga wednesday yoga class. It was the first class of the year and I found it easier than normal, more stretching poses and less strength. It was the first time my friend tried yoga so he found it quite hard instead. 

I think it is time that I take my yoga to the next level. Either I should attend the power yoga classes or find the courage to try aschtanga yoga...

After the yoga training we enjoyed a nice and healthy chicken salad and now I have decided to spend the rest of the day with a good book. 

xoxo

A good yoga and study day

Exhausted! 

Started off the day with a great power yoga class and already after the class my body was exhausted. But not yet my brain.

Met up Stephanie and together we went to the national library where we stayed for more than 6 hours studying. We had a quick dinner break at, hold you hat, mc donalds, and then we went on studying. When we finally decided to leave we both felt like dead men walking when heading to the subway. 

But I am satisfied. I have done my best today!

xoxo

Soma Move - Animal yoga

Pic from Sats website

Yesterday I tried out a new class at SATS called Soma Move. It was my friend Erika who made me curious about this (strange) group training class so obviously I had to try it out.

On SATS's website its written; "Soma Move is a strength and conditioning training that offers mobility, agility and balance. Soma Move is based on animal movements, so-called "animal workout" with a nice flow between the exercises. We do not follow music's pace but still using the music's energy to provide power and strength during class time." Interesting, don't you think?

However when I arrived at the training center I asked one of the personal trainers what he thought about the soma-class and he said it was kind of a quicker and funnier form of yoga. With those words I was convinced to try it...

It did remember me of yoga but it was still something completely different. It was like he said quicker and was mostly focused on strengths and conditioning not much mobility or stretching at all. It was very hard to be honest and I got really tired quite quickly.

I would absolutely not say it is neither funnier nor better training than yoga. But then I am a massive yoga fan believing that yoga gives me not only a great training and stretching but also relaxation and stress relief - kind of a meditation. Soma Move is a new and different form of group exercising which for sure gives good training results while having fun. I will certainly try it again.

xoxo

Back bending yoga poses

I have been practicing yoga for many years now but it was some time ago since I did practice it on a regular basis. Since a month I am now practicing yoga at least once a week and I am already feeling I am improving both my strengths, balance and flexibility.

What I am mainly struggling with, and what is my main challenge the next four weeks are the four back bending poses you see on the pictures below: the bow, the bridge, the camel and the king dancer. I have always been struggling with all different kinds of back bending yoga poses, I feel the stomach and throat stretch too much that I can hardly breath. I am kind of flexible or at least my legs are but my back and my stomach aren´t which makes the makes the back bending poses feeling very unnatural.

But they are not unnatural, they are actually very good for the body. The back bending yoga poses can be used to open up the front of the hips, stretch the front of the thighs, the belly and part of the ribcage. If they are done correctly you work your whole body.

On Wednesday when I had a longer yoga session than normal I felt really satisfied when I left the room. I realized I had managed to do things I couldn't do just few weeks ago. And I am sure that in four weeks time I will be able to do things I wasn't able to do today.

Yoga is all about constant improvement. It is not about comparing to the people you have next to you in the class - but it is a constant competition against yourself.

xoxo

First yoga session in almost three months

Yoga is one of the things I want to be part of my weekly life! Preferbly yoga but also body balance is good, so I just have to practise one of them at least once a week.

My yoga session tonight at sats was hard. Very hard. I knew how much I was able to push myself few months ago when I practised yoga more regullary but tonight I wasn´t at those levels and when I tried to push myself a little bit more I felt like breaking into pieces.

I was neither as strong, nor as flexible as I used to be so I felt quite crap actually. Well at least, good opportunites for improvements!

xoxo

Power Yoga with two matcho guys

I went to yoga today at at Audace gym, power yoga.

I warmed up running for 10 minutes and when arriving outside the yoga studio I meet two very big muscle gays in my age. They ask me if I have done the yoga class before and I answer no. One of the guys then informs me very seriously hat they have not tried it either but that they have heard that it is very very hard, the other guy then shows up his arm muscles saying that nothing could be to hard for someone with those muscles. I just smiled.

We enter the yoga studio and we all ends up next to each other in the front row next to the mirror and one of the guys looks at my skinny arms and says arrogantly "good luck to manage to do this class with those arms"...

The class starts, and I must say the teacher was very good and the whole yoga session was great. I struggled with a couple of poses but it was nothing in comparing to my muscles friends... they got cramp maybe 4 or 5 times each during the class. Was struggling holding every single pose more than two seconds and felt like two bags of sand down on the yoga mat when we were supposed to keep the balance for few seconds. They looked like to ridicules clowns and I even told them that after the class but embarrassed they just answered that yoga is only for nerds and they left.

The trough is that in yoga you use many many more muscles than when pumping only few big muscle groups like normal pumping guys does. Even holding a simple warrior pose was tricky for them even if they have legs only made of muscles.

Yoga is for heros, pumping is for nerds was my answer!

xoxo

Power Balance Yoga

Yesterday night I attended my last power balance yoga class. Just now when I am training hard to become both more flexible and get better balance skills. Too bad.

The yoga pose you see above is called "king dancer" and it is one of my favorites. One of those poses where strength, balance and flexibility has to work hard together to manage make the pose at least half as good as the girl above. This pose is also part of the bikram yoga session so I gonna keep practising it. I want to manage to do it just like the girl :-)

xoxo

And some yoga on top of that

Today is my forth day in a row I am working out. I feel great.

After a 15 minutes warm up of running I attended one hour of yoga. It was some time ago I did do a yoga class and I had almost forgotten how great it is. It is the mix of training static strength, flexibility and balance at the same time that I enjoy the most.

As I work out quite a lot I am getting stronger and I felt at its best while doing yoga today. As I carefully do stretching at least 15 minutes after each training session I am also getting more and more flexible and that also made itself visible today.

But there is one thing I really have to keep on training and that is my balance. Sure, it is not bad, actually better than most of the class, but that is not good enough for me. I have been better and I don't really understand why I struggle now? However, not balance training will be taking part in my everyday life. Lets see if in two-three weeks I will be getting any better...

After four days of training I feel more thrilled and motivated than ever. In training it is always the start which is hard, when the routine is on going it is harder to stop. At least for me.

My four days of training has been great thought.
- Hard total body group work out plus extra long stretching on Saturday
- Zumba dancing on Sunday
- Aqua (gym) combat on Monday
- And yoga today.
Try to beat that perfect variety if you can :)

xoxo

Starting the weekend off with some birkam

Roses in the bikram studio garden

Three weeks ago when I did a bikram course it went amazingly good. I was in a position in between two really good and hard working girls and that completely motivated me to do my best. I felt amazing when I got out as I knew I had given it all. 

Today that is not the case. Instead of doing the bikram class in late evening like I always do today me and my colleague Mando did it at mid-day. I thought that would feel better but it was just strange. As the room as windows the room was very light and I am used to have a dark room. 

Then I managed to get a position in between people that most of the time was just lying down. Two even left the room. A very important rule during bikram is that you should never leave the room during the class, but these two girls did. 

Well lets say I didn't managed to feel very motivated and therefor I didn't push myself to my limits and I don't feel at all satisfied today. But well, I am proud that I survived ;-)

xoxo

Pimp your bikram class with some salt and minerals...

 When the body loses too much salt we can experience tiredness, cramping, headaches and nausea.  This can easily happens when a person drinks big amounts of water or participates in activities that cause excessive sweating. 

I am not a person that normally drinks a lot a water but when training I do. And during the day of my bikram session even more. And I normally try to avoid salt in my diet. I have always thought that was good but then I learned it is not. 

Normally I believe the big amount of varied food I am eating would be enough when I go training but I have well learned that it is not when practising bikram as I keep sweating like never before throughout the whole yoga session.

So, yesterday I made myself a drink with extra sea salt, important minerals, vitamins and carbohydrate and I felt so much better after the yoga class than I normally do. 

For the rest the bokram yoga class was as painful and a wonderful as always. I still feel the kind of love and hate feeling against it but every time I go I feel so great afterwards that I would like to go back the day after, like a drug that makes you feel good so you want more of it...

xoxo

Power Balance

Tonight I wasn´t supposed to go to the gym but Silvia managed to convince me so I joined her to a class called Power Balance. Neither of us new what it was but we are both always happy to try new things so we went...

Power Balance is a mix of dynamic yoga, power pilates and few classic ballet postures. It focus to build up your body with real yoga poses but it using power pilates and classic ballet exercises to train your balance. I loved it. The instructor was a tiny, pretty, energetic and very motivating girl which obviously helped to like the class even more.

My plan is to do power balance every second week and bikram yoga every second week for a couple of months now.

In these days my work is very stressful and this kind of exercising is the absolutely best method to push away the stress and find the energy to go on.

xoxo

Slow yoga course

Tonight I went to a new yoga class with Silvia. It was supposed to be dynamic yoga but it wasn´ and I am not really sure what it actually was. 

The course consisted of some muscle warm up exercises. So far so good. But then we went on doing what I would call, more warm up positions and then some stretching and then relaxation and then the hour was gone. If I say that I was kind of freezing throughout the whole class you can understand that it was absolutely no training at all, just some stretching. 

The instructor however seemed to be very good. Before the class started he did some yoga poses himself to warm up and he was very good so I wonder why he didn't let us to any of those yoga poses? Actually, we didn´t do a single traditional yoga pose. 

Well, it was relaxing at least... and that was well needed after a very busy day at work...

xoxo

...and I suddenly start liking Bikram yoga

Yesterday I went back to the Bikram Yoga studio for another session of yoga in 40 degrees heat. I was not looking forward it. Maybe that was why I was very positively surprised, I actually liked it. What? It has been such pain every time and suddenly I kind of liked it. The heat is still the hard part and few times I felt dizzy. But for the first time I managed to concentrate on the yoga poses and there for I thought less about the heat. 

It was my third bikram yoga session this year. The fourth in my life. Everyone has always said that after 2-3 times you will start liking it but I refuted to believe them. That is why I was so surprised when I walked home feeling absolutely great about myself. 

Next week I can't go as I have a hatha yoga session booked on Monday (and I only do yoga once a week) but I will book Bikram for the week after and believe it or not, I am looking forward to it!

xoxo

Dynamic yoga

 

Dynamic yoga is a form of yoga which is much quicker than other forms of yoga. In most forms of yoga you hold the poses for quite some time while in dynamic yoga there is more of a flow between the poses. Each breath (slow breaths) brings you into a new pose and in only few of them you stay longer to stretch out. Dynamic yoga allows graceful movements in a perfect flow, increased heart rate, increased body temperature, improved body circulation together with the flow of oxygen within your body, building straights and flexibility to your bones and muscels. Like all other yoga styles it got enormous health benefits both for inner organs, breathing technique, relaxation and building up your body in a efficient but natural way.

Dynamic yoga centers on five principles:
- Pranayama: The type of yoga breathing that helps your mind focus on the movements. This is very important to put in practise as fast as possible as it is one of the main principals of the whole yoga class.
- Asanas: The word for the yoga poses themselves
- Vinaya: Another principle focusing on the breath - this one tells you to use your breath to get the right flow through the poses
- Bandga: The principle that focus on your energy and the muscle concentration you reach when entering the yoga poses
- Drushti: The fifth principle is all about your attentiveness where you should focus on being here right now, concentrate on what you are doing and nothing else.

Tonight the little Nordic team all together, myself, Mando and Alo went to the great dymanic yoga class close to Duomo in central Milan. Expect working together we share this great passion for yoga and it is lots of fun to do it together from time to time.

xoxo

How to survive 90 minutes of Bikram yoga?

My second lesson of Bikram Yoga in Milan was as tough, hard and "terrible" as the first one last week. Just after 15 minutes I started to feel dizzy, Few times during the class I felt like fainting and once I almost got panic. All because of the heat. But I wasn't alone in this. Some people just sat the whole class while some where more dramatic and started to hyperventilate.,tried to rush out (but was stopped by the teacher and dragged in again), someone (I guess?) vomited and some panicked but manage to stay inside anyway.

The teacher kept saying that people in much worse physical and mental shape than us has survived Bikram all over the world so why should't we do it? And I kept that in my mind, I am fit, I am light, I am quite strong and quite flexible so I just must be able to survive the Bikram yoga class and I did. I tried not to think of how hot it was even if it hard. Like last time I did do all

Suggestions says that during Bikram yoga it is important not doing any extra movements at all. The idea of Bikram yoga is to hold still each pose as long as possible and then catch up the breath during the resting pose (standing or lying still) that comes after each yoga pose. To do some extra stretching my yourself, fixing your clothes, your hair of whatever is just total waste of well needed energy.

Everyone sweats a lot. We are walking out in clothes and with a towel as wet as if they had been thrown in a pool. I actually sweat more than I have ever done in my whole life. But that is normal so no need to waste energy thinking about it, get distracted about it or try to dry it away with your towel.

Another important thing to keep in mind is to always keep the eyes open. It is easy to feel like closing them but it won't help at all, actually it can just make you feel dizzy and to loose your concentration.

Yesterday I felt much better after the class than I did last time. I think it was because I drank a water mix of salts and minerals both before and plenty of it afterwards. And thinking logically, with with the sweating we all loose not only liquids but also salt so some extra salts during the day might not be a bad idea. And then it is obviously important to both eat and drink well during the whole day both before and after the Bikram yoga class.

xoxo