Crazy Planks and Music Yoga Flow

On Tuesday, I finally had the chance to try Music Yoga Flow at exhale spa. I wanted to try this class for weeks but always had scheduling conflicts. I was going to go only to that class, but the weather forecast was predicting 12 inches of snow for Wednesday. Knowing I wouldn’t make my Wednesday class in the snow, I decided to squeeze in a Core Fusion class as well to get my classes in for the week. I left work a few minutes early, which I never do, and made it to the SoHo location (my first time there!) for 5:30 Core Fusion to be followed by 6:45 Music Yoga Flow.

Both classes were with Erin J. I took her class once back in June and I remembered thinking it was insanely hard! Confession: that might be why I haven’t been back since then. Before class I introduced myself to Erin and told her about my foot injury (I’ve got tendonitis from running – I know, I am so injury prone) and she had had the same injury and understood. She knew exactly how to help me throughout the class. Perfect!

Core Fusion always begins with a quick warmup, and then the first things we do are planks and pushups. That is to be expected. What is not expected, however, is the way Erin teaches these moves. Whoa.

So we started in a forearm plank and alternated lowering each knee. Then we stayed still, and then we lowered both knees (burning abs!). But here’s where it got crazy. We went right into slow pushups without stopping. I thought to myself, “OK cool. After slow pushups we will do faster pushups and then be done.”

Um, no. After slow pushups, we went right into a straight arm plank. Again, no stopping! Once in straight arm plank we did even more movements and some side planks too. When we went back into a still straight arm plank I thought we were done.

Again, no. We went right into fast pushups. NO BREAK. This was so hard! I’d never done it this way before and it was such a great challenge. Just what I needed, actually. When we finally finished, my heart was racing!

Arms were especially good at this class. I think it is because I took a few days off from class and my arms felt refreshed. I felt very strong with my 3 pound weights, when just a few days before on Saturday I had to go back to 2 lbs because my arms were so tired.

During thighs is where I need to do different movements because I can’t go up on my toes with my foot tendinitis. Erin was on top of it, telling me what to do and making sure I kept up with everyone else. Butt was great too, and we did another straight arm plank before abs.

And then it was time for abs. I couldn’t believe it, the class sped by so quickly! The hour usually goes by fast in Core Fusion, but this was unlike any I’d been in before. I couldn’t understand how time was moving so quickly. The music was fantastic, which probably helped, but I don’t know! It just went by fast.

And I might have signed up for Erin’s class again on Saturday!  🙂

We did my favorite abs movement, with the strap wrapped around the bar. Love that! And during the C curve I really held my own! I was able to do most of it and I am getting better at staying lower down.

When class ended, Missy and Kristine arrived to take Music Yoga Flow with me.

Here is the description from the exhale site:

This class is geared for students looking to have a great time in a consistent flow from pose to pose. Set to great music, including rock, reggae, hip hop, blues and world beats, each flow class offers an inspiring message and a deeply relaxing finish.

The class was completely packed! Erin put the music on and I could not believe it – the very first song was the House theme song! Anyone who knows me (or sees my Twitter homepage) knows that I LOVE House. It is one of my favorite TV shows of all time. And I had no idea the theme song was a real song. I downloaded the entire soundtrack later that night.

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So right away I was happy with the music in this class.

Music Yoga Flow class was a serious workout. I was sweating and working hard to keep up. It was a flow yoga class, which means we move from pose to pose without stopping. There were a lot of very challenging planks and some pushups too. Kristine told me she finds the class relaxing, but I didn’t feel that way at all. It felt like a hard cardio workout! The music was phenomenal. I want to listen to all the songs Erin played. She has excellent taste in music.

I’m not really a yoga person, although I love Core Fusion Yoga because it is a perfect mixture of yoga, cardio and Core Fusion. I have also been enjoying Yoga Level 1 – which I actually do find very relaxing, and it teaches me the poses in a nice, slow way. I love the stretch I get from that class as well and find it helps my muscles when I run. I would probably choose those classes over Music Yoga Flow, but that’s just me. Music Yoga Flow felt a little too yoga-y for me if you know what I mean. That said, I’d try it again but I won’t skip a regular Core Fusion class for it unless I had extra time that week to take more classes. I definitely recommend trying out Music Yoga Flow and seeing if you love it – because I am sure many of you will.