Stylist Challenge 2012: Susan Riley - People - Stylist Magazine

ABOVE: Low lit side plank - so you can't see my grimace

April 24

I’ve had two more yoga sessions on the Power Plate to build up my strength – holding a plank across two vibrating Power Plates, and then moving from there to downward dog and back again. It’s a lot tougher than on a mat but it works (my muscles ACHED the next day).

I’ve also had a lot of classes where we’ve been lowering down the floor from plank and then back up – like a paltry press-up – which I find challenging (especially with one foot stacked on top of the other) but I’m not collapsing and I’ve managed to hold side planks for about 10-15 seconds. I have also tried – and failed – a crow pose for the first time.

ABOVE: Crow Pose. I'm not sure I will ever manage this without breaking my nose but hey, I'm game

April 9

It has been a long-standing joke among my friends that I have weak wrists. My friend Vicky has told me that I’m a weakling who would never have made my teens if I’d been born in an earlier century and my friend Sally once bought me wrist weights as a secret santa gift (which I couldn’t lift, incidentally).

Which brings me onto the topic of this entry – strength.

Last week the Stylist team had motivational expert and personal trainer Dax Moy to come in and, erm, motivate us. This is because some of us – I mention no names, but obviously feel free to check out their empty blogs – are doing NOTHING. With me (somewhat smugly) attending my 2-3 a week yoga and pilates sessions, I skipped Dax’s session. So I was pretty surprised – read miffed – when my Stylist colleagues reported that he’d told them I’m “doing the wrong things” to complete my 1-minute hold of a side plank.

Confused, I emailed him for more details. Did he think my yoga training wasn’t giving me the strength I needed? Should I be focusing on weight training to build up my upper body? Do I need ‘Arnie arms’ to complete my challenge? (if so, I am doomed).

ABOVE: Don't worry, this isn't me. But how much strength do you need to hold certain poses in yoga?

His reply was as follows: “I wasn't suggesting it's about upper body strength (though that IS important too!) but rather that 'core strength' is not a generic quality. It's a specific set of measurable variables, which, in turn, require specific conditioning. For example, you can crunch, crunch, crunch all you want but may never get good at bridging/planking. The plank requires a specific period of training in actually holding the plank, specific periods of 'anti-rotation' work through isometric activity and training. Yoga will add some general core conditioning but is not specific to the plank.”

Still a little perplexed, I asked Nahid, my yoga teacher, to wade in to the debate. “You are doing the right things because you are the only one with a regular practice! Yoga and Pilates as well as the Power Plates all engage the core AS WELL AS build strength in your whole body. In yoga you are shifting your body weight in 3 dimensions, working with a wide variety of movements which in turn activate and strengthen the groups of muscles that make up the “core.”

The integrated approach of yoga where you work with the whole body in movement rather than isolated muscle groups means that you will see an all round improvement in balance, mobility, flexibility core engagement as well as strength. Twisted lunges, balances, revolved positions as well as the Pilates exercises we do in class all involve anti- rotational movements, which, dare I say, are a lot more satisfying than limited movements with weight machines.”

Having digested both sets of advice – and it’s interesting to see how different the approaches of a personal trainer is compared to a yoga instructor – I’m sticking with what I’m doing (and enjoying). 100 press-ups before bed just will never be my thing – wrist weight or not.

April 2

Today three things happened that have never happened before...

1. I got out of bed at 6.08am with relative ease. Does this mean – despite my birth time of 12.04am and being a renowned night owl - that yoga is helping me to become a morning person at last???? I have my doubts.

2. I teamed wide legged tracksuit bottoms with my Whistles waterfall coat. Don't try this look at home.

3. I did a side plank. On a Power Plate (well, a lazy version of one anyway - see below).

ABOVE: Could I look any more serious? Could it hurt anymore?

The merging of yoga with Power Plate is something new I'll be doing once a week for the next few weeks to really build up my strength so that I can hold poses for a period of time, rather than just flowing in and out of them. This morning I spent 25 minutes on the Plate, doing tricep dips, half press ups, the plank (front on hands; side on forearms) and balancing on one knee and hand from all-fours – different to a normal power plate routine and focusing purely on key yoga poses.

ABOVE: And the other side… Grinning, although I'm not sure why

Finished off with 30 mins in the studio moving in and out of poses on the mat. And now my arms hurt.

March 19

Hmm. Attempted a side plank this morning (NB this is my 'target' move – to be done for 1 minute on each side by the end of June) for the first time and crumpled in an undignified, weak-armed heap on the mat. Oh. Dear. On the bright side, I can now flow rather nicely from downward dog to plank and back again. But yes, there's work to be done on the SP. And on my breathing. As sometimes I forget to do it

March 18

For fellow beginners or for those thinking about taking up yoga, I asked my trainer Nahid de Belgeonne for a few starter tips... If you have any other specific questions you'd like answers to, leave a comment and I'll come back to you with her advice.

ABOVE: My trainer Nahid de Belgeonne

• What to wear: loose clothing that you can move around in, you probably don’t want to wear too tight underwear or anything that constricts breathing.
• Try not to eat at least an hour or two before a class, lying on your stomach or twists can feel awkward if your belly is full.
• Try a range of different types of yoga to find one or a few to suit you and your moods. All physical yoga in the west derives from hatha meaning forceful. Vinyasa flows synchronise movements with the breath, Iyengar is very focussed on alignment of static poses often with props, Ashtanga is a set series of poses always performed in the same sequence at a dynamic pace. Power Yoga is a fast paced yoga with no set series. Restorative yoga is often holds, stretches and releases supported by the floor. Choose a different class to suit your energy levels on different days.
• Yoga is different to “exercise” as it’s led by the breath. Don’t get overly concerned about how to breathe or where to breathe - just breathe!
• Generally, you inhale as you lengthen and exhale as you contract back into the body, although there should be no rules! Play with your breath in different poses and see how it feels.
• If your breath becomes restricted in a pose, you are trying too hard. Bring it back a little and allow the breath to flow freely. Use the exhale and gravity to allow you to deepen into a pose rather than muscle strength and force.
• NEVER lock out knees or any other joint - give joints space which in turn will allow for juicier movements
• Use your muscle strength to keep space in the joints, and keep a little bit back. Don’t go 100% for the full pose from the get go, ease your way into and keep registering how it feels.
• Don’t focus on making the right “shape”; really feel every part of your body as it evolves with care and attention from one pose into another.
• If Sanskrit confuses rather than enlightens go find a teacher who speaks the same language as you.
• Find a range of teachers that you love. I am great believer in the cult of good teaching rather than the cult of the teacher. Learn from a range of good teachers to benefit from their different teaching styles and language.

March 16

Thanks to West Coast jetlag and a lovely bit of food poisoning, I haven't done any yoga in the two weeks since I returned from my holidays. BUT I haven't been a total slacker and have done two sessions of glow pilates to build up my core and one session of Power Plate - something I haven't tried since my first (and very ache-ridden) attempt back in January.

Above: The mighty Power Plate. Please be gentle...

For those of you who haven't tried it, the PP is a vibrating device that activates nearly all of a person's muscles. In the 25 minute session (so really easy to fit into your lunch hour and STILL have a shower and put your make-up back to how it was...), you basically do lots of stretches and squats and repetitions while standing or sitting on the Power Plate. The vibration of the plate does feel odd at first but you get used to it quickly. Your legs also feel really wobbly afterwards, especially going downstairs, and sitting down is a little 'ouch' on your thigh muscles for a couple of days when you're a beginner but it feels effective almost immediately (for promised benefits, see here). I really recommend it to do alongside yoga to build up strength and muscle.

Above: A (rather steely faced) me before we start the class. In the after photo I'm a little redder and knackered looking

March 4

Hypothetically speaking, if I was in a YA* meeting, right now I'd have to stand up and declare: "My name is Susan Riley and I've not been to yoga for 2 weeks".

That's because for the last 10 days, I've swapped my 3 times a week sessions of vinyasa flow yoga in a heated studio in London's Covent garden, for snowboarding on the 1600-metre high (and very powdery) slopes of Whistler, Canada.

For ski/board enthusiasts, if you haven't been, PACK NOW! Over the two huge mountains that make up the resort (Whistler and Blackcomb), there are over 200 trails, 37 lifts, 16 alpine bowls and absolutely no queues or rude nationalities (who I won't name and shame here) pushing and shoving you to get on a chairlift. They even have sniffle stations to blow your nose and whipped cream at café tills for your hot chocolate (key I find). Oh yes, and the apres-ski snacks are basically all the oysters you can eat.

Anyhow, after 7 days back to back boarding, my legs were pretty shot – particularly my right thigh – but I did find generally that my legs had a lot more strength (thank you, 'horse' pose), and that my posture was better as sat on my board. Proof for me that yoga can help me in other sports. As for me, my Burton Feather is back in the cupboard and it's back to the mat…

*Yogaholics anonymous

On the slopes of Whistler… not a suitable location for a downward dog

February 3

I’ve been getting jip (retro 80’s word for you) from the rest of the Stylist team that I have the easiest challenge. EXCEPT I seem to be doing more work than anyone else. Just counted and I did 13 yoga classes in Jan, with today being my 14th. Progress-wise I didn’t break a sweat (for the first time) in a beginner’s class and am now ‘flowing’ – flowing from one pose to the next and this week have gone from downward dog to plank and back again. Get. Me.

Here’s a shot of where I’m bending and flexing, the very cosy Glow yoga studio....

My trainer Nahid shows me what I WILL be doing in a few months - side plank for 1 minute

My downward dog...

What a downward dog should actually look like - by Nahid

January 19

Sport aficionado as I now am (cough), I’m in New York for two nights with Nike for the launch of their new, well, something (such has been the secrecy that none of us know what exactly until we’re ushered into the event in the Meatpacking district).

Turns out we’re there to try out their nifty Nike+ FuelBand – a stylish wristband that records all activity: walking, netball, boxing etc. and translates them into daily fuel points (for full story, click here)

ABOVE: From my seat at the launch of the Nike+ FuelBand. Left to right: pro athletes Kevin Durrant, Carmelita Jeter and Lance Armstrong. And… Jimmy Fallon. Bizarrely.

I ask if the band successfully measures more controlled activities like yoga, and how my results would compare to action sports like running or basketball… It’s not good. The FuelBand responds to hand movements, so it’s automatically biased to certain activities (even cyclists are at a disadvantage); great for some sports, but not for yoga/me.

However… I did have a great time testing the band out on some more suitable (read arm-waving) pursuits, including a very cool hour practicing my backhand on the swankiest tennis court in Manhattan (www.vanderbilttennisclub.com). Tucked away above Grand Central Station – you get there via lift - with a window that overlooks Park Avenue, execs pay up to $210 per hour for the pleasure. Me? I felt like I was in Gossip Girl just being up there.

ABOVE: Snapped: the tennis court hiding above Grand Central Station. Wimbledon, I think you've just been trumped

For the non ‘Chuck Bass’ activity, we also tossed pizzas at Roberta’s in Brooklyn www.robertaspizza.com. Bit out of the way but the pizzas are AMAZING if you’re after an authentic and delicious detour next time you’re in town

January 18

Two weeks in and I've now done eight classes - four 1-2-1's with Nahid, one bliss class, two foundation classes with alternative teachers and a Powerplate class that left me walking like John Wayne. For me, this is a LOT of exercise and I've felt delicate (and faint) a few times, so have started to look more at my fluids and what I eat before class. Aside from getting fit, what I am finding nice is actively scheduling my work commitments around some 'me time' as opposed to the other way round and my classes are becoming the framework for my week; a first for me! Next session is Monday at 8.30am - pics and tips to follow...

January 11

Signed up for a half-hour Powerplate class at lunch to complement my yoga as it's great for muscle toning. I've never done it before and for half an hour kept catching my (slightly vibrating and worried looking) reflection in the mirror. Great class but ouch - afterwards I can't walk down the stairs without clutching my thighs like an old lady. Also discovered - thanks to those stretchy band things - that the Queen probably has more upper body strength than me.

January 10

'Are you okay?' - this is the question my colleagues Lisa and Alix greeted me with today 20 minutes after my second 1-2-1 with Nahid ( my instructor) - scheduled regularly, I might add, at 8.30am. The comment was followed by a lot of laughter. Was it the flush in my cheeks? The fact I was still wearing trainers in our meeting as I'd dashed from the studio? Or simply because I'd set my alarm for 6.30am and they were just gobsmacked I'd successfully not hit snooze (my aversion to early mornings is a well-known office fact).

Either way, this - my third session (I also squeezed in a bliss class on Friday night; a more restorative affair with dimmed lights) has been the toughest yet as I'm stretching and utilising bits of my body that have laid dormant for years. This time we focus on keeping the moves I've learnt so far fluid - with flow - and Nahid introduces me to some new standing poses (horse, balancing warrior, chair - next week I will post some pictures up of me doing these! Maybe...) which really work your leg and thigh muscles which - until now - have spent the last two and a half years sat on a chair in the Stylist office. To them I cheer: welcome back.

January 4

I'm just going to get it out there; never before have I exercised on January 4. Yet here I am, in a toasty infra-red lit, panelled-floored studio having my first yoga session ever. I'll admit it, I'm smug.

Above and below: Good Vibes Fitness, Covent Garden: my home for the next 6 months (gulp)

Nahid my instructor is giving me some 1-2-1's before I unleash myself - new head-to-toe Nike kit and all (psychologically it's making me feel more up for it than my old joggers ever did) - on the foundation classes for beginners. We start with the basics: sitting and resting stances (child's pose); some basic poses (downward dog, lunges) and generally getting me acclimatised to the practise of yoga itself (sometimes I concentrate so much I forget to breathe; handy). At the end of our session I don't feel knackered - Nahid has been gentle with me! - but I do feel refreshed and a lot more aware of my body as I go about my day.

Introduction

“Why’ve you picked the only sport you can do sitting down?”

This is what my husband John said to me when I told him that, out of all the physical activities in the world, I’d selected yoga for my Stylist challenge. Not the enthused words of support I was hoping for. He’s a gym man you see (one of those types that occasionally ‘spot’ weights for other puce-turning men) and I think he thinks I’ve chosen an easy option.

Regardless, I’ve wanted to get into yoga for a while. Ever since – and this is not a highbrow reference – I saw Jayne Middlemiss stretching and bending by the pool on Celebrity Love Island with a very taut figure (she was vying for the attention of Boyzone’s Keith Duffy if you recall). I’ve even had a Stella McCartney yoga mat and carry case waiting to go ever since asking for one for Christmas four years ago which – finally – will be dug out from under the stairs.

Above: My (very pretty) Stella McCartney / Adidas yoga mat. Given to me for Christmas 4 years ago by my brother-in-law James. Rolled out and looked at once (sorry about that brother-in-law James).

To give some context, my sport history is a chequered one. At school I was flexible but, er, mildly asthmatic (cross country was not my friend) so stuck to sports I could breathe while doing like gymnastics and karate which I gave up age 14 - the age your parents introduce free will and you ditch all your hobbies to hang around the park swings with your friends. Since then I have been to about three exercise classes (I’m not a ‘joiner’) and sporadic gym visits but have never exercised consistently or found an activity – snowboarding aside - to call my own.

Which is what I’m hoping for here; to discover something I can enjoy; learn something new from; escape work and de-stress with. As well of course to become one of those people that can wear exercise leggings without feeling the need to accessorise with a long top...

My mission – which I’ve chosen to accept, God help me – is three sessions a week of Glow Yoga, something recommended to me by my in-the-know friend Emma (Elle magazine’s Beauty Director so quite a good source!). Not as hardcore as Bikram, Glow Yoga is basically a form of Vinyasa flow yoga that’s done in a studio heated with infra-red panels (it’s very cool - the first of its kind in Europe; see goodvibesfitness.co.uk).

As for my target, my instructor Nahid (who owns Good Vibes and has absolutely no need to wear long tops with leggings let me assure you) has recommended we – make that me - aim for a “side plank with raised leg for 1 minute on each – it is strong, looks impressive and is a real test for strength and whole body integration”. Ok so it’s no weightlifting contest, but for a person who can’t carry two loaded dinner plates without buckling under the strain, the challenge is ON.

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