Day Two: Yoga Flow

Today I woke up with abs on fire (seriously, I leaned over to turn my phone alarm off when I woke up and moaned in pain/joy out loud). Thanks, Pure Barre! I love you. No, seriously… I just bought a super-discounted unlimited month for future use (time to be determined… probably some time in the spring) because I know 3 classes per month (per ClassPass rules) won’t be enough for me. I loved it!!

Anyway, on to yoga.

Summary:

Class: Yoga Flow

Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes

Intensity: 2/5

Fun: 3/5

Relaxation: 5/5

Today I went to a yoga studio called exhale, which is a little over a mile from my apartment. I was planning to walk there because it’s been pretty nice out recently, but within 20 minutes of me leaving my apartment the temperature dropped 5 degrees and it started raining… so I took the bus. The yoga class was an hour and 15 minutes long, and was the perfect mix of relaxation and physical activity for my sore body. It was a lot of flowing from pose to pose, which was exactly what I was hoping/expecting from the name and description of the class. There was more upper-body stretching and work in my opinion, which was great because yesterday’s barre class made mostly my lower body and abs sore. I worked up a sweat, but not to an unbearable extent, and I left the class feeling very relaxed but also feeling like I exercised well enough to meet my personal goal/threshold for fitness.

The studio was really great, too. Very clean, you walk in the door, up a flight of stairs (or in an elevator, but I mean, you’re going to a fitness class….), through the shop/reception area, and back to the pristine changing room/shower area/steam room/locker area. There is water available and there are fresh towels for students’ (clients’?) use. One detail that I particularly appreciated was that there was a basket of new/unused yoga mats outside the studio, and the instructors have students put their used mats in a separate pile from those clean mats. So I felt very comfortable doing my yoga knowing that the mats had been cleaned from the past students, particularly if they sweat as much as I do (which is an unladylike amount, I’ll leave it at that). My only tip is for those new to yoga: if you’re not familiar with the different terms and ways that yoga flows through poses, this class would’ve been difficult to follow, since the instructor was walking around giving individual advice to students through a lot of it, and just giving verbal instructions. But that’s nothing a few youtube videos can’t fix!

Overall, I had a great experience at exhale Chicago, and I’ll definitely be back for yoga classes, and maybe I’ll try some of their other classes, as well. The location will be a lot more convenient once I start working down in the Loop, too, because it’s pretty much right in between my office and my apartment. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it to some classes during busy season… ugh. But enough of the dread, I’m feeling happy and grateful for my positive yoga experience!

Day One: Pure Barre

Summary:

Class: Pure Barre (pretty sure all the classes are the same idea, they just vary by instructor preference. Correct me if I’m wrong, though – I’ve only been to one class!)

Duration: 55 minutes

Intensity: 5/5

Fun: 4/5

My awesome roommate, Nicole, got me a month of ClassPass (unlimited fitness classes at dozens of fitness studios, gyms, etc., in a few major cities for $99/month) for my birthday, so I’m taking full advantage of it before I start working full-time. Today, I kicked off my membership with a class at Pure Barre – Old Town. I’d never been to a barre class, so of course, I googled “first time pure barre tips” incessantly yesterday (see the bottom for a few of my favorite reviews). All the tips online were spot-on (wear long pants, tight-fitting tops, socks (yes, sticky socks would’ve been really nice, particularly for the planks), bring water, and expect to sweat a lot). I got there a little too early (20 minutes) because the form I filled out was just basic information and took about 3 minutes. But it gave me time to ask questions before class. The instructor was great (Sara) and gave me tips and an overview before class, encouraging feedback throughout class, and answered all my annoying first-time-barre-kid questions after class without a blink.

The workout was killer. Another thing that a lot of websites told me before I went was that the point of Barre classes is to work your muscles to fatigue, so you’ll be shaking. SO TRUE. I’ve had workouts in the past when my legs or arms will shake, but never have I experienced my abs shaking from fatigue. Seriously. Think about that for a second – would you even think it’s possible? I definitely didn’t, until today’s Pure Barre class. Holy moly. But it was difficult just to the point where I thought I might collapse, and then we moved to a different section of the body, so the workout was obviously challenging, but it moved at the perfect pace for me to be able to do most of it fully.

Oddly enough, although it was kicking my butt in terms of physical fitness, and I was sweating like a pig, I really enjoyed it! I really like workouts that can pack a lot of punch (read: soreness the next day) into a short amount of time, and this class definitely had some punch.

Verdict: I’ll definitely be going back my allotted 3 times with ClassPass! And I’ll definitely be sore in so many places. Good thing I chose to sign up for a yoga class tomorrow….

Pure Barre First-Time Tips and Other Reviews:

Pure Barre’s own tips for “newbies”

10 tips from a Pure Barre instructor

This girl’s blog about her first Barre experience

And my personal favorite, this hilarious guy’s perspective on his first Barre class (please excuse some of the language… but it adds to the humorous effect)

My Plan and Overall Goal

Welcome to my spur-of-the-moment, I-feel-like-documenting-my-fitness-journey blog! Sorry it’s not too pretty yet, I’m still figuring out this whole WordPress thing….

I’ll start out by explaining what my overall goal is. This post is mostly for my own purposes, to check back every once in a while and see if I’m still aligned with my original goals and purposes, or to update my posts if things have changed. Honestly, I don’t anticipate too many people reading this blog… not even sure if I’ll tell any friends or family about it, but I think telling at least some people close to me will help me maintain accountability.

Anyway, my main goal for this 100-day personal challenge is to force myself to live an active lifestyle by habit. I’ve always valued exercise, physical fitness and health, but it hasn’t always been easy for me to stick to my ideal level of those three things. Once I get into a habit, it’s pretty hard for me to break, so I’m hoping to make a daily workout a habit, so that if I do miss a day, it’s a day of intentional rest, not me just being lazy.

I realize that working out every single day for over 3 months straight has the potential to be overdoing it. In this regard, I plan to alternate styles and intensities of workouts so that some days are effectively “rest days,” but I’m still forming the habit of going to a gym or class, or going for a run, etc. So on those days (probably 2-3 days per week, depending on how my body is feeling), I might choose to walk 3-5 miles, or go to a yoga class that focuses more on relaxation than on physical exercise. But I will still be practicing getting myself up off my rear-end and going to a place that is typically reserved for physical activity of some sort.

Along with working out, I’m hoping to pay much more attention to what I’m consuming – cut back on sugary foods and drinks, ramp up the whole foods and protein intake (protein is something I’ve always been bad at consuming, since I don’t eat too much meat), and just be more mindful in general of what I’m putting into my body.

Anyway, those are the main ideas of what I’m hoping to accomplish here. I’m sure I’ll have some updates to add or subtract ideas as this personal challenge progresses, but for now, I’m feeling good about my goals! Off to Pure Barre for day one!

As they tell me at Walgreens, be well.

Lissa.