There's no denying yoga is tough stuff — have you ever tried to hold a pigeon pose for over a minute? Ouch. Yet, here in New York City, the fitness gurus at TMPL Gym decided to take the already challenging fitness class up a notch: Meet Holy Water, or yoga on a floating board, in the middle of a pool.
The harder-than-it-looks class encompasses aspects of yoga, Pilates and other strength and conditioning moves to target your core while toning your entire body.
I jumped into the pool thinking I would be able to pull off a fierce one-legged downward dog like this Holy Water expert:
But in reality I ended up quivering during warrior pose — and then falling face first into the pool. Not my most zen moment of the 45-minute class.
At the beginning, Bryan Jarrett, TMPL's group fitness manager, talked us through a warm up so we could find our balance on the board. Then we got started with the real work.
Keeping stable on the board definitely required a lot of focus. I wound up wobbling my way from plank to the "jump and turn." As someone with very little vertical agility, the prospect of jumping and landing on an unstable surface was a bit daunting. So, I started by jumping just an inch off the board ... But by the end of class I had mastered more of a leap!
Balancing on the board while lifting one of my shaky limbs was another fun (joking) part, but after muscling through the workout I was feeling pretty powerful.
Falling into the pool (it happened more than a few times) seemed a little scary at first, but after the initial shock of hitting the surface wore off, I let loose and gave into the likelihood that I would probably fall again ... And again ... And again.
Giving into the falls was actually half the fun!