Review: Bikram Yoga Harbourfront

My friend and I decided to try out this deal when she saw it on Groupon.

mouseover/hover over this image ↑  for the fine prints

By the way, I did a little research to find out more about Bikram Yoga. 

All Bikram Yoga Beginning Series classes run for 90 minutes and consist of the same series of 26 postures, including two breathing exercises. Bikram Yoga is ideally practiced in a room heated to 40°C (104 °F) with a humidity of 40% - Wikipedia

Wah... 40°C sounds pretty scary but 4 lessons of 90 mins Hot Yoga sound super worth it leh. Personally, I would recommend beginners to take up non hot class or just 60mins class instead as the heat might be overbearing for some. And maybe during the hot class, you are just rushing through the moves and not really learning the correct posture.

Anyway, back to my experience with Bikram Yoga Harbourfront.

Registering with them is quite a breeze. Here are some step by step guide for those who have Groupon vouchers.

1) Go to their website. Check out the schedule of classes and choose the one you want.

2) Click on the "Groupon Registration" at the bottom right of the webpage or just click on the link here.

3) Just key in the information and viola.. you are ready for your first class.

Psst.. You can book more than 4 classes to secure the slots, 

but you can only attend 4 sessions only! 

Now you are ready to start your first class!

After you registered at the counter, the counter staff will give you this kind of card ↓.. No, they are not your membership card. They are the locker key card! So high tech!

This is how the lock looks like. Once you put all your things inside, press once and tap the card. To unlock, just press and tap the card again. Simple :) But for my first lesson, I was struggling with this lock for more than 10 minutes. :X 

This are the 26 poses that you will do in the class. 

To be honest, I can't straighten my legs and my knee cap are always floating 

above the mat, not on it. So most of the postures, I have difficulties doing it. 

The studio is pretty spacious, as I witness some students moved their mat to the empty part of the studio. If it is in other yoga places, I think all the yoga mats are spread out evenly, so there won't be any empty spaces. Maybe because Bikram Yoga Harbourfront normally do hot classes only, the room smells kind of sweaty or it could be due to the carpet floor. 

The teacher will stand at the small platform at the front, giving instruction and talking about the benefits of some of the postures. Hmmm... So far, I have only attend class taught by Marcus. I was really surprised that he actually remember some of the students' names. I guess he really meant it when he said that they are like a family here. 

The heat in the room was acceptable to me. I saw some students can't take the heat and just sit there... Of course, most of the time, they are the new student in class. 

Conclusion

Personally, I feel that some postures in Bikram Yoga Harbourfront are for those laojiao experienced yogis. I enjoy pushing myself over the limits but sometime, I am not sure the pain I am experiencing is it due to my overstretching or wrong posture or both. Also, I enjoy the hot room, but the strong smell of sweat is a bit turnoff for me.

Will I continue to sign the package? Maybe, maybe not. As I still have package with Yoga Movement.

Row Row Row Your Kayak

After reading thesmartlocal post, I decided to jio asking him along X to go Kayaking with me.

Row, row, row your kayak, gently down the stream. 
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.

We went to Water Sports Centre located near Stadium MRT and Singapore Sports Hub. It is kind of difficult to find this Water Sports Centre, but it is so damn near to the MRT. Why? Because we reached there at around 8am, but we were lost for more than 30mins. For those who are going there as well don't make the mistake as us, when you exit the Stadium MRT (Exit A), just walked to the end of the covered/sheltered linkway, turn LEFT!

Anyway, this is their rates :)

My memories of kayaking were during Primary and Secondary School Camp. I think during Primary 5 (11 years old) and Secondary 3 (15 years old) that time. Not much impression about it except for the one during secondary camp. I remember I was too heavy that time, I have to partner with one of the bigger size teacher and the worst part was I was heavier than her. Anyway after 10 years, I am going to attempt this activity again.

So when we were sitting on the kayak, the lighter one will be seated in front and the heavier one will be behind. I get to sit in front! Finally! So the heavier one will get in the boat first. Please note this is a very tricky part. During those school camp, you get in the boat when the water is shallow. This time, you get in the boat like somewhere in the middle of sea! I admit I panicked and nearly backed out. I mean, what if I dropped inside?! But I manage to get on board after a while and getting impatient stares from lifeguards.

To be honest, kayaking is so fun and scary at the same time.

The fun parts are...

1) Scenery. It is like those Chinese painting with mountains and lake/sea, but here you get buildings and sea.

 

2) Away from the noise..... Okay, I lied. When we went there, there were some team training dragon boat and Standard Charter Marathon for Kids event. But I do enjoying seeing those dragon boat team train, nope, not because of the hunks or babes their movements are very in-sync.

3) Bonding time with your love one. Well, we saw a father-son duo kayaking together and some couples too. Seems like a more affordable dating place.

4) Best place to quarrel. Well.. you can paddle someone further away from the crowd and have some shouting match or just push him/her into the water.  Just joking!

The scary parts are...

1) The lifeguards/trainers will only give some safety advises, how to get on the kayak boat and then... OFF you go. No further instruction about how to kayak and etc. I guess you need to either ask them or just figure out yourself.

2) I don't know how to swim, so I have constant fear of falling off the boat and become fish food. Throughout the kayaking session, I keep relaying my fear verbally to X. His reaction is pretty similar to this image ↓. 

 

Lesson learnt: Don't trap in a island surrounded by water with me! 

We will be trying out hiking soon!  
soon = unknown future and most probably next year.