Yoga in the Pool

Some participants doing the full cobra pose here in an outdoor pool setting

I take yoga classes regularly from my colleague, who is a certified instructor now -- we were his guinea pigs a few years ago when he needed to practice teaching, and I have continued since then.

The classes aren't too difficult and you only do what you what your body can withstand. But my favourite part is the benefits afterwards; I feel relaxed and less stressed after stretching different muscles I didn't know I had.

It takes getting used to keeping your balance and doing poses

This evening I went another level up to try pool yoga. Again we were guinea pigs for a new class that's being held at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental, where thick, inflated floating mats are tethered together by bungee cords and at either end of the 18-metre swimming pool.

The best way to be prepared for the class is to wear a swimsuit because you don't know if you're going fall in or not! Our instructor also encouraged us to get into the water as well... but I didn't bring my swimsuit and instead shorts and a T-shirt and tried my best not to fall in (I didn't).

Nevertheless, doing yoga poses floating in the water is an entirely new challenge, using your muscles more. On land the poses aren't difficult, but here the placement of the hands and feet have to be wider than usual to be able to keep your balance and do the poses.

Core muscles are used more in pool yoga

You use your core muscles more and I could feel the muscles in my back legs burning (in a good way), but overall the class didn't seem too difficult, except for having to be constantly aware of keeping my balance.

Afterwards I could feel the muscles in my legs were a bit sore because you don't usually use them in this way. The instructor said we may feel sore in the morning, but I don't mind! It was a very interesting experience and afterwards I felt very relaxed having stretched out my stresses away.

I also felt very hungry afterwards...