Great weekend... Yoga and Swimming

Continuing on my journey of fitness, and trying to ensure that I can justify basically paying for two gym memberships at once, I went with a friend to a wonderful Yoga class on Saturday afternoon (that is not me in the photo, but I did do that pose), at my swish gym that is large and has lots of facilities and is quite new and funky.  The class is called Vinyasa Flow and went for an hour and a quarter.  The instructor was very authentic and had a lovely Chilean accent.  Afterwards I felt very fresh, like I'd just woken up from a long nap.  Now I have a new mantra to use when appropriate. And I am probably spelling it incorrectly but it is a silent mantra to go with your  breathing.  On the way in you say 'So' and on the exhale 'Hum'. Very handy to know.  Actually I've just checked and and I have spelt it correctly and you can find out more about it here: www.swamij.com/sohum-mantra-108.htm

And on Sunday I met the same friend, went back to the same gym and swam. I found myself totally out of my comfort zone, dependant as I have become on my swimming aids (flippers and finger paddles), and in my dash out the door I had forgotten them and my goggles.  If I had gone on my own I would probably have decided to do some other kind of exercise, but it is amazing what a little peer pressure can do for your daring.  So I searched out a pair of goggles in the lost and found (probably not very hygienic) and swam like a 'normal' person.  The surprise being that I can swim quite well without the extras, somewhat slower but still with a nice stroke and without drowning or getting too out of breath.  Of course there is nothing wrong with swimming with all the gear, it actually just provides extra resistance into the exercise, but if more cardio if what you are after than less is probably more.  So I will be going at least sans aids at least some of the time in future.

The good times continued through my Monday - woo hoo.  I did a photo shoot for the GF I spent so much time with over the weekend for her to use in her PR for her company.  Gorgeous black and white portraits taken by a local lake.  And later in the day when I met up with my PT Paul, I find out that I am his 'Client of the Week'.

Getting back in the swim

Like most Aussie kids of my generation, I was taught to swim when I was in the first couple of years of school.  I never thought of myself as being particularly gifted.  My performance at subsequent swimming carnivals during my school years, was at best average and at worst pretty pathetic. My greatest swimming achievement is not drowning as a child despite having a backyard pool and a nasty big brother, swimming in huge surf, dirty dams and local rivers.

Not too long after leaving the school yard, medical practitioners started telling me that swimming was a good activity for me as it was perfect for my dodgy back (I blame genetics and horse riding).  To which I uniformly replied "I don't like swimming".  Simple.  Flash forward 20 or so years, after about a 12km walk with my girlfriends around the local environs, I became crippled by Plantar Fasciitis.  Long story short (if its not long enough already) I got treated, was given orthotics for my trainers and told to swim instead of walk.

So, I found that my Gym employed a fit young man who used to swim for South Africa at the highest levels and trained at the Australian Institute of Sport.  I signed up for three swimming lessons focused on freestyle and away I went!  And guess what?  I LOVE swimming now.  I find just being in the water relaxing.  I find doing laps meditative.  I love the effect that it has on my physique - when I do enough of it.  I still hate all the rigmarole with getting changed and showering and washing and drying my hair after.  But all in all I am a convert.

Having said that, it has been a while since I swam laps due to a minor operation on my shoulder at the end of last year combined with School Holidays and the pesky requirement to supervise my children while at a pool.  BUT today I went to the same swim centre that I have been going to for years with my kids, bought a pass that entitles me to 10 sessions in the pool and jumped in and swam 750m quite happily and I feel FANTASTIC about it.

What is the secret to my success you may ask (besides the aforementioned young South African man).  It is (training aids - which he and my chiropractor recommended).

And following on from yesterday's post, I did get around to ringing my insurer about the large Eucalyptus tree that is lying prone across my fence and yard and was told, among many other interesting tidbits, that if I claim for my destroyed 6 year old $200 trampoline that my premium will go up $110 per year ... fancy that!