Pro-Sports

On Monday 16 October, I attended my first Yoga class at Fitfor2. They say that pregnancy exercise classes are suppose to be easy. Well, this Yoga class was still as difficult as I remembered Yoga to be the first and only time I ever tried it in a gym in Melbourne, Australia. The reason why I only ever did Yoga once in Australia was because I found it too difficult for my liking. Pilates is a breeze in comparison to Yoga.

Yoga calls for some serious balancing acts and I’ve already mentioned before that balance is something I really struggle with. It takes so much of my concentration to get the positions right that I don’t even remember if I was breathing properly.

My palms were sweating so much that I couldn’t get into the proper “down dog” position. I made a mental note to bring a towel the next time around. It just never occurred to me that I would sweat so much from just performing a series of stretching exercises! Good thing I never tried out the Yoga Zone class without air-conditioning - here I was already sweating in an air-conditioned environment…

I’m seriously wondering whether I should venture back into this class again…

Popularity: 9% [?]

I went to check out the place Yoga Zone at Plaza Damas a few months back. Yes, it took me this long to write about it because I was sitting on my behind procrastinating like I usually do when I lose the inspiration to write about a topic.

What prompted me to even check out Yoga Zone in the first place was because I was having trouble signing up for a pregnancy Yoga class at Fitfor2. It seemed that the class was fully booked every time I checked the reservations list.

I’ve read that Yoga is good for the pregnancy because it helps you stay in shape for the delivery and improve your breathing technique during labour. Being someone who’s always had a bit of problems with my breathing rhythmn - considering I can barely swim the length of a pool using freestyle, yet I can easily swim eighty laps with backstroke - I figured Yoga is a class I should not be missing.

The setup at Yoga Zone is quite impressive. The premises are comfortable and the changing rooms are clean and dry. They have adopted a “no shoes” policy around the exercise, lounge and changing room areas which probably helps to maintain the facilities. Mats are provided although you are welcomed to bring your own if you prefer.

There are four studios that accommodate between twenty to thirty students a class. Two of the studios are equipped for “hot” yoga - apparently some type of yoga performed in a heated environment. What put me off was the lack of air-conditioning in the studios. The purpose for this is to encourage sweating - something that is apparently quite important for those undertaking Yoga. I may not have much of an understanding on Yoga, but I do know that encouraging the body to heat up is not desired for a pregnant woman.

They have a variety of classes for different types of Yoga. Most of the various types of Yoga flew over the top of my head. They also had a few classes for those interested in Pilates and some on the hybrid exercise called Yogilates. The class schedules change weekly and updates can be obtained from the Yoga Zone website at:

http://www.yogazone.com.my

The website also provides background information on their instructors and their level of experience in teaching Yoga. Unfortunately, not all instructors are trained to handle classes with pregnant women, although Thomas Liaw (012-3719530), the person who showed us around the facility, recommended that I attend the classes of Prabhu or Tonmoy as they were the most experienced instructors.

They take reservations by phone for classes but they also leave some spaces for walk-ins. Walk-ins operate on a first come first served basis. If you are late for your reserved class, your reservation is released to the walk-ins.

Pricing structure falls under “per visit”, “short term” and “long term” as follows:

Per visit:

10 passes - RM300
20 passes - RM560
35 passes - RM988 (Passes are valid up to 6 months - which is really a ploy to encourage the user to upgrade to the short term package)

Short term:

1 month - RM388
3 months - RM688
6 months - RM988 (Payable in monthly instalments of RM65/mth)

Long term:

12 months - RM1488 (Payable in monthly instalments of RM124/mth with 0% interest if you use a Citibank, HSBC or UOB credit card)

They also offer some massage packages, but I didn’t really enquire too much about these. You can get a trial class for free if you request for it, although you are required to book in advanced. I think you can also get a free massage if you sign up with a friend - or something to that effect.

Something for me to consider post-pregnancy, but I think for now I shall stick to the pregnancy Yoga classes at Fitfor2.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Every athlete needs inspiration - be it a dream, a goal, an aspiration that we seek to attain. Sometimes, it comes in the form of an inspiring real life story. A friend sent me one such story in an email. It’s an amazing account about a father and his son demonstrating the power of love - that anything can be done if you desire it enough. How’s that for inspiration?

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Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who compete in races together. And they don’t compete just in marathons. They compete in triathlons as well - imagine running 26.2 miles, cycling 112 miles, and swimming 2.4 miles.

Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America. It’s a remarkable record of exertion - all the more so when you consider that Rick can’t walk or talk.

Eighty-five times Dick has pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he’s not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars - all in the same day.

Dick’s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. It sure makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much - except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

“He’ll be a vegetable the rest of his life,” Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. “Put him in an institution.”

But the Hoyts weren’t buying it. They noticed the way Rick’s eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. “No way,” Dick says he was told. “There’s nothing going on in his brain.”

“Tell him a joke,” Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? “Go Bruins!” And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, “Dad, I want to do that.”

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described “porker” who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. “Then it was me who was handicapped,” Dick says. “I was sore for two weeks.”

That day changed Rick’s life. “Dad,” he typed, “when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled anymore!”

And that sentence changed Dick’s life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

“No way,” Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren’t quite a single runner, and they weren’t quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, “Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?”

How’s a guy who never learned to swim and hadn’t ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they’ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don’t you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you’d do on your own? “No way,” he says. Dick does it purely for “the awesome feeling” he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 - only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don’t keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

“No question about it,” Rick types. “My dad is the Father of the Century.”

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. “If you hadn’t been in such great shape,” one doctor told him, “you probably would’ve died 15 years ago.”

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other’s life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father’s Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

“The thing I’d most like,” Rick types, “is that my dad would sit in the chair and I would push him once.”

Check out the video clips of the Hoyt Team…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1PxfW43fuk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AcsQ-NUPJQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D52rJd9GX10

Popularity: 6% [?]

About a month or two back, I caught up with an acquaintance that I had met during my climbing days. Back when I knew her, I had always thought she was like me - single and swinging and about my age. Little did I know that she was the mother of a 24 year old man until I chanced upon a couple of conversations.

Some mutual friends had mentioned that W and her son would go climbing and that was the first I ever heard of her having a family. It was a surprise, but not a particularly startling one. The immediate thought that came to mind was a toddler running around the crag by her side.

A few weeks later, another mutual friend described her experience belaying W’s son and she mentioned having difficulties because he was heavier than her. I wondered to myself, what toddler could be heavier than a grown woman? V is not a large girl, but neither is she petite and I couldn’t imagine any toddler being heavier than her unless he had a serious weight issue.

A new found admiration for W came over me that day. I was inspired by this woman who was a mother having a wonderful relationship with her son and still enjoying the passions of her life. I had always felt that any right I had to cultivate my passion for sports was loss the day I became pregnant and gained the title of “Mummy”. Yet here was W displaying a harmonious union between two very different lifestyles.

Perhaps there is hope for me, yet.

Popularity: 5% [?]

A long time back, I sprained my right ankle quite badly but I never rehabilitated it properly. Now the ligaments around it are lose and I find this ankle prone to twisting. Even though my ankle doesn’t hurt, Dr Gan from Damansara Specialist told me that the weakness in my right ankle is the reason why my right knee hurts from time to time.

The close interaction between the ankle, knee and hip joints mean that if one joint is weak, the other two will inevitably compensate for it. This can lead to pain or problems in the other two joints. Treatment simply involves exercises to strengthen the muscles that support each of these joints. The best way to protect a joint is to make sure that the muscles attached to it are strong so that they provide good support the joint.

I have been a bad patient. I did my exercises until the pain stopped although Dr Gan’s advice was that I continue to do those exercises for as long as possible. Now that I’m weighing my joints a little more (and additional ten kilos over six months), I find my right knee starting to twang again.

There is another reason why my knees are problematic and it’s a common situation for most women due to our anatomy. Our hips are wide-set while our knees are close together. This results in more strain being applied to the distal (surface facing away from the other knee) part of our knee joint.

For an athlete, there is another compounding factor. Our quadriceps are four big thigh muscles that attach to the knee. Three of those big muscles are attached to the distal surface and one to the medial (or inner) surface. Activities such as running commonly work the outer three muscles making them a lot stronger than the inner muscle called the vastus medialis. Vastus medialis weakness causes the knee cap to be displaced leading to knee injury - chondramalicia.

Based on my radiographs at the time, Dr Gan could see no evident damage to my knees. He did warn me to continue with the exercises to strengthen my vastus medialis or I would eventually land in trouble.

Exercises that Dr Gan showed me to help strengthen the vastus medialis involved performing leg extensions (without weights) with a fitball between my knees, and squats with my back against a wall, squeezing a soft ball about the size of a soccer ball between my knees.

Perhaps it’s time to dust off the old fitball… Unfortunately, I’ve misplaced my little soccer ball… There’s a place in Amcorp Mall that sells these balls but it was a number of years back when I bought them so I don’t even know if the shop is still open. Back when I was still climbing regularly at Summit gym, I saw another ball shop in the shopping mall there. Again, since I haven’t been there in a while, I’m not sure if it still exists.

Popularity: 12% [?]

I’m getting lazier. Blame it on the pregnancy… Getting up in the morning is becoming a real struggle and even though my exercise classes aren’t really that early, I still feel like staying in bed and skipping class. It is a good thing we’re required to book in advance or I’d probably never make it.

I attended my second pilates class at fitfor2 today. To my surprise, there were only five of us attending class and I’m talking about a class that is usually nearly booked out a week in advance. I thought it in rather poor taste for those people who sign up but can’t be bothered to call ahead to cancel their reservations when they can’t make it.

Two weeks before I attended my first pilates class, I had been trying unsuccessfully to sign up to no avail because the booking list was always full. I was even on waiting list but never got called - now I know why. It’s just common courtesy - not as though it’ll cost them an arm or a leg to cancel their reservations. Perhaps that’s what fitfor2 needs to do, start charging for cancellations?

Today’s class was fairly cruisy - nothing too difficult except for the standing leg lifts. It was better than the first time I did them, but I was still a little off-balanced on one leg. I noticed that the balance on my right leg was worse than my left. Probably attributable to a weak right ankle.

We also learned more about lateral breathing which involves engaging our ribcage. Most of us breathe mostly through the chest, but when you’re quite far into the pregnancy and the baby’s compressing against your diaphragm, it can be difficult to breathe. Lateral breathing helps you get in more air and oxygen which is necessary for baby.

Popularity: 9% [?]

After a week’s break from exercise, I finally got back into the routine with a fitball class. I arrived a little early so I could sort out my missing multiple-visit pass. Raymond promised to have my card ready by the time I was done with the class so I went in to talk to our instructor, Debbie.

When I stepped into the class Debbie was warming up with some funky moves on the fitball - nothing a pregnant woman should attempt, she advised. In my previous posts, I highlighted some concern about over-heating and wondered if my excessive sweating was a sign to tone down.

According to Debbie, so long as my heart rate isn’t too high and I can still talk during exercise without being out of breath, I’m fine. My over active sweat glands are a healthy sign of my fitness levels prior to the pregnancy. I have a very effective cooling system and there’s nothing wrong with that.

I figured that this was my license to take it up a little during the class. I always find fitball classes quite light and entertaining although today’s workout was a little harder on my thighs than I remembered. It is my third fitball class and I feel I’m starting to get the hang of the bouncing routine. I’m now less proned to losing my ball when we do the high bounce (I forget what the proper term for that move is called).

Pregnancy classes are a lot more relaxing than the aerobics classes I used to take but Debbie keeps reminding us that these are the only classes where we’re allowed to take it easy. After delivery, there’ll be no mercy when she whips our butts back into action.

I like the way Debbie takes the class. Her style reminds me of the instructors I used to have back in Australia. She takes us through the moves and prompts us before each change of routine. For a person with two left feet like me, that’s essential.

I find the local instructors too eager to show too many moves in one go, they hardly prompt and they expect you to remember the routine. That might be well and fine for those who are regularly attending these classes, but it is extremely off putting to be constantly out of step because you can’t remember what’s coming next. Even the instructors we had in the University gym were better than many of those I’ve encountered at any of the gyms I’ve been to around here.

I happily admit that I’m slow when it comes to remembering routines and moves and I need to be cued for what’s coming next or I’ll forget the steps. I don’t pretend to be an aerobics champion so I don’t mind if the aerobics instructor repeats the moves in such a manner that even an imbecile could follow them.

After class, I bumped into S. Although we were supposed to meet up again after our last lunch, she’s also been pretty busy and hadn’t been able to attend classes. She brought her three month old little girl to the mothers and babies class after mine. Perhaps I should try those classes with Gavin after he’s born.

Popularity: 8% [?]

With my brother and Dad in town, I haven’t been attending any fitness classes of late. I’m back to my sporadic exercise of walking around shopping centers. It probably isn’t such a bad thing since I’ve fallen into the bad habit of sleeping late and waking early. Even though I’d have loved an afternoon nap or two, I haven’t had the occasion to indulge that fancy as often as I would like. In this state, I look forward to an exercise class keenly as a reptile might look forward to running on a cold winter’s morning.

The staff at Fitfor2 have been very accommodating with reshuffling my bookings of classes, although I try to help them out by providing early notice of any changes. They were also terrific when handling my case after my recent pick-pocket experience where my purse was stolen (for the details click here). Unfortunately, my Fitfor2 multiple-visit pass was also in my purse.

I called the center and explained what had happened. Raymond, who took my call, told me they could replace my missing card the next time I came in. It was refreshing to be attended to so pleasantly. Pity I can’t say the same about some of the banks where I have cards. It’s bad enough to lose personal items. It makes a big difference to be treated with understanding while you try to replace those lost items.

Popularity: 6% [?]