Crow poses, backbends and other stuff!

The latest body balance has been introduced at the gym and I've done it a couple of times now and am enjoying it, a new set of challenges and poses that I have 3 months to learn and get used to.

I always find the first couple of weeks quite hard and then it gets easier as my body adapts to the positions. The balance track is fun and has a real challenge towards the end, which I could do on my right side but not the left (3 months...) I always find the balance track amusing as the trick is to stare at one spot and also to use your stomach muscles, but if the class is quite full and we're all squashed in it can be hard to focus on one fixed spot and not be distracted by the people around you wobbling. If one person topples then a few will follow!

This time we also seem to have an extra balance track where there is just the crow pose

and the firefly pose.

I have never found these poses easy and in fact today I was attempting the firefly and had my hands on the floor and was thinking to myself 'I must have the balance wrong because there is absolutely no way that I can lift my feet off the floor.' Still it was fun watching everyone else try.

We have some killer hip openers that will be good for me and though I only did the 2nd class today, I could feel them stretching more easily than on Monday

At the moment I'm not finding the stomach track difficult despite the fact at one point we have to do a side plank with the top arm and leg raised and then pull them into a stomach crunch, so either it looks hard and isn't or (as of last week's entry) my abs have returned and are starting to earn their money!

The back track ends with a classic back bend and to my pleasant surprise I was able to lift myself into it really easily. Have not done one of those for many years, so well done my body!

Body balance always saves the most difficult pose till the end and I'm sure you'll all have great sympathy for me when I tell you that for the final track I had to hold this pose for a total of 6 mins and 52 seconds....

The Geriatrics

This is quite a cute group of gym regulars and they always impress me as they show that you are never too old to benefit from exercise.

They tend to be seen in the early afternoons and rarely in the evenings - I guess they like the quieter times at the gym. There are quite a few of them and they all seem to have their own little quirks, so let me introduce you to a few of them.

Walking Stick Man - he shuffles onto the gym floor and tends to use the cardio equipment, though he once appeared at the back of the studio to take a weight, but I never saw what he used it for. He hangs or props his stick up on the machine he's going to use and slowly inches onto it, then off he goes - cycling or walking. Then when he's done, he collects his stick and shuffles off to the next piece of equipment.

Steam Room Woman - she comes in practically every afternoon, does a little bit of cardio then spends the rest of the time in the steam room and pool. She does go very slow in the pool (and unlike the coven) is aware of this and will make space if you want to swim laps. The other day someone called her 'Young', which she adored and she kept on saying 'She called me young! Me! I'm 92 and she called me young.' She's obviously got to that part of life where you stop lying about your age and start bragging.

Mr and Mrs - they arrive in the gym at ten minutes past four every Tuesday. He helps her through the new barriers and then they leave their bags by the door and go around and say hello to all the geri's - and this being France - by giving the double kiss. It doesn't matter what exercise the 'greetee' is doing, they have to stop and be kissed by this couple.

Miss Rambler - who wears an outfit that would be more suited to a cross country hike rather than a gym - long trousers that zip off into shorts, walking trainers and dark glasses. To her credit, she does the classes and has improved in each one.

Mrs Black Hair - who is off the age where jet black hair is fooling no one - and spends her time in the gym chatting or checking herself out in the mirror. If you thought it was only the young gym bunnies who constantly check themselves out in the mirror, then think again....

The Gym Douce Girls - they turn up for each and every 'easy' class - bodybalance, aqua, gym douce, le stretch etc like a crowd of starlings and do their bit, moaning and flirting but getting stuck in. Then afterwards they chat away in the changing rooms comparing grandchildren, hospital experiences, gynecological problems, hairdressing tips the works, then suddenly all disappear again.

They are there, week in, week out. Maybe the gym is some sort of social life for some of them but most of them do come to exercise and you can see that it is helping to keep the active and is benefiting them all, whatever their level of mobility and fitness. I hope I can be doing that when I'm 92 too. 

The Staff 1

Time to introduce to some of the staff at the gym, so here goes.

First up are some of the gym instructors.

They do the weekend shifts on rotation, so today we had Cute Guy. Please feel free to blame one of my friends for the naming of the gym guys. She used to do Ju Jitsu here in Lyon and practically all her conversations would start 'So there was this hot guy at the gym...' We used to have code names for them all, in fact it was quite a surprise to occasionally meet one and find out they had a proper name. So this habit continued when I joined my gym and I was finally able to start conversations with 'So when I saw hot guy at the gym...'

Back to Cute Guy. He really is very sweet, has a lovely personality and you do just want to pick him up and put him in your pocket. He is one of the better instructors and is good at explaining correct movements etc and keeping an eye on everyone in the class. I regularly go to his body balance class on a Monday night. He is also honest if he can't do something (unlike one of the other instructors), for instance some of the advanced moves in body balance are a wee bit challenging and he can't make all of them. He moaned bitterly about the Crow Pose saying that on the training videos all the instructors would just pop up into it and he really couldn't do it. It makes the class slightly refreshing.
Cute Guy has also been known to shake things up a bit, like the other week when he changed the order of the body pump to make it more challenging, but I think I moaned commented about that in a previous post, so won't go about that now.
I think he's been on a Stretch course recently as today he had us doing some strange shoulder and arm stretches that I have never come across before and the other week he had us all lying on the floor with our legs up the walls doing bizarre moves to lengthen our hamstrings and glutes.
He does have a reasonable English accent and doesn't sound too bad when singing along to the lyrics of the songs. He does get the correct lyrics too, which is not always the case. I also like him as he will go and switch the aircon on when necessary and not have a great debate with everyone about it. The French seem to have some mortal fear of the aircon and really don't like having it on, but believe you me, when you have 30 people in a small room, all sweating - you need it!

There is also Petite Girly who was on duty last weekend. I only ever do her classes when she has the weekend shift, so don't really see her that often. She is tiny. I also am not sure if she is boarder line anorexic as she doesn't have an ounce of fat on her. She does have a set of abs to die for. She is very quiet and just comes into the studio, does the class and thats that. No chatting and interacting, just does her stuff. In some ways it can be refreshing, in other ways I don't find it very motivating.
She does have the annoying habit of dictating what weights you should be using in body pump and will, for example, frequently say that the women should use a small and medium weight as a maximum for the triceps, as I'm putting on the large weights on the bar (as encouraged to by the other instructors.)
I do feel a little sorry for her, as she has to do the body pump training but she only takes one class every 4 weeks, so the Sunday Morning Regulars always know the routine better than she does. Last Sunday she gave up the pretense and did one of the older releases and actually it was fun to be having a bit of variety, so I hope she does that again.

That's it for now, I'll introduce some more instructors another time! 

Improved flexibility

So in body balance on Saturday I was in a Hindi squat and then instructed to sit back on the mat behind me, and I have to admit I misjudged this slightly and landed with a bit of a bump. This caused the instructor to add 'délicatement avec grâce et finesse.' and smile at me. Bastard...

I enjoy body balance. In the dark, murky past I used to do Ashtanga yoga and Pilates and used to be very flexible and strong. I used to be a real flexigirl. The Ashtanga was very dynamic and was hard!

At the gym that I used to go to in the UK the guys on the gym floor were very good at telling all the 'muscle men' to do stretching and advising them to go to stretch classes. So every now and then one of them would appear in a yoga class, looking slightly nervous but at the same time confident that they would find a stretch class easy peasy. A few of them made it beyond the sun salutations, some even made the first half hour. I only remember 1 of them sticking with it and returning week after week.

My gym now doesn't do yoga but does body balance (a mix of tai chi, yoga and pilates) and stretch classes - imaginatively titled Le Stretch.

I've been working away at these and have got most of my flexibility back, isn't muscle memory is amazing. I do feel a lot better after each class, it's good to feel all stretched out. The only thing I have trouble with is my hips, I can do forward bends, and my back bends are pretty good, but my hips.... They always have been difficult, I have never been able to a lotus position for example.

The latest couple of releases have had some tough hip openers, and I began to notice a gradual change, which has been good. Then for the last 3 Sundays the instructors have again concentrated on doing hip opening exercises, and boy have my hips been painful. It has payed off and though painful, I can reach deeper into stretches and feel really pleased. Finally the hard work is playing off.

Still can't do the lotus position though....