Downward Dog Days in NYC: Putting a new Spin on Yoga

Is my face red ... SPINNING instructor Anthony Musemici says you don't need a long and winding road to get a pretty decent hill, interval, sprint, and endurance training  on a bike.

... now add a bit of yoga to the mix and what do you get? SpinYoga! A perfectly Peaceful Warrior pose at the free  Chelsea Piers "Yoga On the Pier" classes, Aug 2010.

I just completed a 9 hour Spinning Instructor Orientation at New York Sports Clubs.

Now, what is a seasoned cyclist like the Galfromdownunder doing riding a bike that doesn't go anywhere? As one participant confessed in the pre-course stairwell speeches ('cos you get fitter riding the stairs than the elevator): "I was a bit cynical about it all until I tried it."

Ah yes, one winter in NYC where biking through a bunch of snow isn't appealing, and I discovered, thanks to a two-month intro membership at the Equinox gym down the road and some guest passes from the stunning Chelsea Piers across the road, what a really decent workout this genre of indoor fitness gives you. You can raise your heart rate remarkably quickly just by, uh, turning a red knob. Want a 5% hill? Reach down and turn the knob. Want to careen down the other side? Turn it the other way. If the mountain doesn't come to Mohammed ...

Why, you can even DRAFT on a stationary bike. Take a look at SPINNING instructor Anthony Musemici showing you how it's done ...

I enrolled in this course because I hope to teach what one could loosely term "SpinYoga".  I had originally approached the friendly John Boyd, Head of Fitness at Chelsea Piers, to offer the Yoga for Cyclists class I formulated and taught at PACTOUR Arizona Desert Camp. After all, the most used bike highway in the country, the Hudson Guild Bike Path, zips right past the massive Chelsea Piers complex, right?

 He instead mentioned something about "yoga spin" and a lightbulb went on. Much encouraged by him to just "go for it" - because it's wonderful to have the chance to learn new things - I enrolled in the very heavily booked class.

My idea is to teach a 30 mins spinning workout on the bike, then 30 min yoga session. A compact, 1-hour, all-in-one aerobic, flexibility and strength interlude for the stressed out, time-compressed, ADHD city slicker. Perfect for the time ... of which there isn't a lot (You can make more money, you can't make more time).

But what about the third leg in the trinity of fitness - weight and resistance training? I personally believe that yoga poses involving lifting your body weight are ample for the average person just wanting to maintain a kind of functional, all-round fitness - "using it, not losing it." Like Chaturanga (plank/pushup pose) in all its variations, Peacock pose and other arm balances and so forth. And of course, let's not forget shoulder shrugs using a couple of shopping bags with cans of tomatoes, and other exercises I captured in this video of orthopedic surgeon Dr Chris Dangles on Route 66:



Speaking of Route 66, that expedition was of course led by Race Across America legend and PACTOUR founder Lon Haldeman, who I worked with for many years in my capacity as the Bike Friday Customer Evangelist.

And get this ... it turns out the SPINNING empire was founded by a Johnny G, who invented the training regime so he could bone up for ... Race Across America! Read this pretty decent bio of Johnny G here.

Just like a wheel, so many spokes radiating from a common center, all connected in the same circle!

I popped up to investigate the handful of bikes in the Chelsea Rec center where I volunteer teach yoga, where I'll hatch my class ...


John my Galfromdownunder Yoga Facebook page to stay in touch.

Galfromdownunder Yoga Page

This is how you'll feel after: but you can't! You gotta get up and go back to work!  

NY Minutes: Fat Cats and Righteous Rats

"

Ratting on the fat cat over the road on 21st and 10th Ave, Chelsea, Manhattan.

Have you seen this large inflatable rat around town? I always thought it was a giant advertising balloon for a vermin extermination company doing their mouse-mulching in the building immediately behind. Clever!

But no - it's actually the protest mascot of construction industry unions.

"Come in! Take photos!" said a picketer in a hardhat plastered with a  "UNION" sticker when I stopped by with that typical "what's up with that?" expression on my face.

He pointed across the road to a wooden skeleton of a building alive and crawling with the sound of hammers and hi altitude girder-walkers.

"The owner is employing non-union workers at minimum wage, like five bucks, no benefits."

I looked around at the apparently unionized throng languishing behind the barricade, all dressed up, iphoning, and nowhere to jackhammer.

"A union member gets paid a proper wage, and full medical benefits," said a bloke shaped not unlike the 18ft mascot itself. "Flash" - as he called himself - strode about blowing on a whistle intermittently.

"So how much does it cost to join the union?" I asked.

"$35 per month."

"And how much are union workers then paid?"

"$44 per hour."

Holy hardhat! Pass me that pipe coupler!

"Those guys, " - Flash motioned with a finger - "a lotta them are self taught handy men jack of all trades. They don't know how to do it right. We're trained."

Another picketer from Canada piped up, "the big boss is in talks over there right now. We're hoping it'll happen."

Today?

"We been here 2 weeks."

Switching the subject slightly, I wondered aloud about women construction workers - are they any?

"We have some women in the business, and getting more and more, but there are no women over there," said Flash, motioning across the road in Ratsville.

I admit I've often passed the Non-Traditional Employment for Women office up the street and wondered if that could be another tile in my crazy-paved career. But look at me - 5 feet nothing with arms like twigs ...

"Not all construction jobs need strength - look, I'm a pipefitter," someone added.

The Rat vs the Fat Cat on 21st and 10th Ave, Chelsea, Manhattan. You can see the rat in the shade on the right.

"So why don't those guys join the union? Are they illegal immigrants?" I asked.

Shrugs all around.

Well, I guess in this climate, the scramble for whatever available jobs is intense. The human instinct is to survive and hopefully thrive, and avoid standing in the longest line in NYC ... 

MOVIE: Longest Line in NYC