YOGA CLASS TAKES YOU TO HEAVEN
ANY yoga devotee will tell you regular practice can take you to a higher place, spiritually and physically. Even Ryan Giggs is a fan - and now guests at his Hotel Football can be taken to that higher place, quite literally, with early-morning classes in Heaven, the hotel’s rooftop pitch.
Sarah Emblow, of Alderley Edge fitness studio barrecore, has been enlisted to run the weekly barreASANA sessions, which blend elements of flow yoga and barre movements.
She said: “Obviously it’s Ryan’s hotel and he’s famous for doing yoga so they thought how great would it be to do sunrise yoga here, where you can see the whole of Manchester. It’s an absolutely fantastic space. It’s serene but energising, the light is perfect, I love the fact that it’s so soundproof so you feel like you’re in your own world. I’d like to see Ryan coming along and see what he thinks of it!”
The fast-paced onehour class was surprisingly challenging to a yoga newbie like me when I went along to the first session this morning to see what it was all about.
Having only done a few gentle hatha classes at the gym before, I’d written yoga off as not tough enough compared with my usual running and circuits regime.
How wrong I was. By the end of the session I could feel every muscle in my body trembling and it was with wobbly legs, but a clear mind, that I left the studio at the end.
“A lot of our clients did yoga but they wanted something that was still as physically challenging as barrecore,” said Sarah.
“It’s kind of 60/40 flow yoga and barre influences. You get all of the body sculpting benefits of barrecore, so the metabolism-boosting that comes from finding that burn and shake, the sculpting from the isometric work, the nice rounded, lifted seat, the lengthening out of the leg muscles. But then the flow that we do, the sun salutations, is just really energising and uplifting, so it’s great for the body and the mind as well.”
The classes are free to guests staying at the hotel and are being trialled every Wednesday at 7am throughout August.
They are the latest health and wellbeing offering from the venue, joining HIIT (high intensity interval training) classes, which are also trialling this summer.
Stewart Davies, Hotel Football general manager, said: “It’s important to us that our guests feel fully refreshed after their stay at the hotel and a key part of that is down to health and wellbeing.
“Hosting sessions like this allows us to offer guests something completely unique - a workout against a backdrop of the best views in Manchester.” »