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Bikram (Hot) Yoga
Bikram yoga is a sequence of 26 poses and 2 breathing exercises created by Bikram Choudhury. You practice the sequence in a room that is about 105 degrees - which means you are soaked within minutes! I always feel like I haven't done a hard workout unless I worked up a good sweat - bikram is the first time that has happened with yoga. Even though I thought I would get a bit bored of doing the same poses, I found that I liked the routine. Each class, I would try to pick a pose that I wanted to improve - some of the standing ones were really tough to hold! I still haven't got the hang of the "standing bow pose"! Oi.
All the instructors follow the same script when describing the poses and that script includes some quirky sayings. For example in a standing head to knee pose they say, "fold like a Japanese ham sandwich" or while doing wind-removing pose they say, "this pose is good for massaging the descending colon". Ha!
Spinning
What a great workout! These classes are always so high energy that even though they are tough and I leave a sweaty mess, it flies by quickly. My legs were sore for two days after my class this week! I'm excited to do this more often!
Pilates
I feel like this one is pretty similar to yoga, but is much more focused on working your abs... and who doesn't want to define their middle?! Early in my marathon training, I bought a Groupon for a few pilates classes in town. Not only did I feel like I was working my core in this class, but it was a great way to do some leg strengthening and stretching. I totally want to try out this 8-Minute Pilates Workout.
One of the beauties of Pinterest is that tons of people are pinning all these great cross training/strength workouts. I'm so excited to do some of these! Also, did you know that strength training not only increases muscle strength but can also improve bone strength/density. Something I definitely need to work on!
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