The 100 Guava Days - Day 53

Day... 53 :) Whoops!!! I know I know! I have not been so consistent with writing, but hey I have tried to hold on with attending classes, okay a little explanation here, I went out of the country on a 1 month vacay then struggled for about a month to get back then blah blah blah, so I was thinking too, since it's particularly hard for me to keep a daily journal, I might need to make it an every 10 day journal instead, yeah?

Workout: So what gives? I kept my yoga routine and proud to say I can now do full wheel, I'm not a super strong yogini but I love that it teaches me that practice and acceptance leads us to small wonderful feats! I even announced that to our monthly meeting at work! that's just how happy I was. I also continued with dancing and spinning and am now particularly in love with HIITs, but the news of it all is that I discovered a new workout, it's called Flyweight and oh damn it was so good! The concept is what they call "boutique boxing", so what does that mean? it's a boxing class, non 1 on 1, so you can do it at your own pace, teacher tells you what to do in an upbeat music and each of the student have their own station (punching bags) in a dimly lit room, I think the best way to describe it is, it is the spinning of boxing, they have several classes ranging from beginner to pro (contender, challenger and champion) I'm so happy too that it's just beside the L!FE yoga studio so it's very accessible to me. So I'm gonna start this come back with some Flyweight stuff.

Teacher: Clang - I particularly like her style, she's sooooo strong, even guys says her class is so hardcore! I love how she sings to the music when our arms feels like they want to stop punching. I always like when she sings and says "Ey Ey Ey" or "No Mercy"

Cool Stuff: it's all so new to me, I've never tried boxing before and I was always afraid because boxing gyms intimidates me, good thing about flyweight is every class starts with them literally saying "No Fighting! This is a non-aggro environment". They also provide the gloves, wraps and towels, so no reason not to go.... except that it's a bit expensive, well all workouts are expensive anyway, so thank you Guavapass!!!

After Workout: I've been to 5 classes and during one of the workouts I had there, I was punching the bag and telling myself I could survive doing one flyweight class a week because it feels like it's all the workout I need! Cardio and HIIT and an amazing stress reliever all in one, there was one class where I was mad and I was really thinking of punching the person that made me mad and after the class, I was all good and no one was hurt! ;)

The 100 Guava Days - Day 11

Day 11 - Saddle Row - The Resistance

Workout: Cycling - The Resistance - it's a super spin class with a twist, you think you'll just sit there and cycle? Nah! You're gonna move, and move a lot in and out of the saddle and for that arms? There's a strap for that! You're gonna punch, move left and right holding the resistance band, total body work out!

Teacher: Fiona- she's a warrior! I love the way she gives us inspiration while our fats cry out of sweat! Love the energy!

Cool Stuff: SaddleRow is introducing some challenge classes where one needs to be the highest calorie burner and will take home a FitBit Charge! They also have Saddle Row Olympics for the Cycling Team and Regatta for the Rowing Class, ain't that cool?

After Workout: Very Very Very tired! One of my friends saw me going back to the condo and immediately messaged me in Viber to say "you in the pink shirt! Why so tired?" with a teasing emoticon, she said I walked past her without even noticing, that's how tired I was! This is my 9th time to do Saddle Row's Cycling class but it never gets easy, there were days that I feel strong but today is not one of them.

The 100 Guava Days - Day 10

Day 10 - Urban Ashram Yoga - FNR

Workout: FNR or Flexibility Not Required - it's a form of yoga that caters to beginners and advanced practitioners alike that looks to refine or go back to the basics. Make no mistake, this class will make you sweat too!

Teacher - Tami -okay, a little background, Tami is also a barre3 teacher, anddd obviously my favorite too! When I was still doing barre3 I make sure not to miss her class, she's so full of energy and her voice is so sweet! I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I love listening to how she queues the next move and give instructions, she's also very upbeat and very hands-on too, in my experience very few yoga or barre teachers actually make connection to the class, and she's one of those who do!

Cool Stuff: Urban Ashram Yoga believes in one thing - Yoga is not for the flexible, it's for the willing!

After Workout: Feeling Relaxed.

The 100 Guava Days - Day 9

Day 9 - Beyond Yoga - Zumba

Workout: Zumba - dance dance dance again!

Teacher - Jayson - amazing! What more can I say? For Reference Look on my day 5 Entry!

Cool Stuff: So Jayson told me that Beyond Yoga is going beyond what they are offering now, there will be a new dance class called Moove and Groove that uses more mainstream music, they might have a free trial too and I'm sooo excited to join!

After Workout: Overflowing with energy!

The 100 Guava Days - Day 8

Day 8 - Urban Ashram Yoga

Workout - Vinyasa 2 - lots of arm balances (that for the life of me, I could not do!)

Teacher: Marc - he's the master teacher of Urban Ashram Yoga and you'll know why he's the master when you try his class, this is the first Yoga class where I used 8 blocks, a bolster, a blanket, a strap and it's not even Yin! Vinyasa with a twist! I like the way he teaches each student to accept their limit and not go beyond what they could not do in a good way, accepting our truths is always the way to go in Yoga.

Cool Stuff: Urban Ashram Yoga is one of the best Yoga Studios I've tried in BGC, like L!fe Yoga, they also have a small food bar where you can buy healthy and nutritious snacks, it's called Nourish by Guy.

After Workout: Tired and Energized at the same time and arms sore the next day!

The 100 Guava Days - Day 7

Day 7 - Kinetics Advance Physiotheraphy

Workout: HIIT

Teacher : Edman! Super hard core - he was the one who did my initial assessment before and even during that time I was so sore the next day! He really wants you to do more and believe that you can do more. He's a nice guy though but really tough when it comes to working out.

Cool Stuff: Totally different workout from the last, this time it's a lot of squats and exercises for the lower body and tons of "remind me why I'm doing this???" Edman's session will surely give you a good burn!

After Workout: Tired. Period.

The 100 Guava Days - Day 6

Day 6 - F45 Romans

Workout: Romans - HIIT, Weights, Struggle and some fun! yeah so I came back for this :) Because I do lots of cardio, one thing that I really need to focus on is resistance so yeah, sucker for punishment it is!

Teacher : Josh and Paolo - what more can I say about this duo? Love 'em!

Cool Stuff:  There is never a repeat class in F45, so even if this is based on lots of lifting, this class is totally different from the last one.

After Workout: Felt great, not like the last one where I thought I wouldn't feel my arms anymore! I met some guava folks too!

The 100 Guava Days - Day 5

Day 5 - Beyond Yoga - Zumba

Workout: Zumba - dance dance dance! I started out looking so stupid when I first tried this Zumba class but after a while I got the hang of it and it became my go to exercise every Tuesday!

Teacher - Jayson - In my whole GuavaPass membership, I have always used up my 3 classes at Beyond Yoga because of this class! Jayson is soooooo amazing! His moves is not just the normal dance moves, he incorporates squats, lunges, high knees, punches all while we're doing salsa and all the other Zumba latin moves! Jayson's rule: enjoy and don't let yourself die in his class! Kidding! He's really nice and this is the Zumba class that will make your heart jump out of you!(in a good way)

Cool Stuff: Beyond Yoga, as the name goes, offers tons of other cool classes other than Yoga, they have anti-gravity yoga, dance classes and HIIT classes too.

After Workout: My heart was racing but felt very energized.

The 100 Guava Days - Day 4

Day 4 - Kinetics Advance Physiotherapy - Personal Training

Workout: Personal Training - based on your initial assessment, you will get a personalized training depending on your strength and weaknesses - it is also good to note that this is not my first time here (this is my second time in this studio, the first one was about 2 months ago and that was my initial assessment)

Teacher: Yana - She is amazing!!! She's very chill but she pushes me to do more and I go here mainly because of her, I can tell her which parts are still sore from previous exercises and she makes sure we avoid stressing those muscles to let them heal, she's also a PT so her main goal is for me to be able to do the exercise without risking any injury.

Cool Stuff:  It's a personal training! So the focus is on you and your strength and weaknesses, so what's cooler than that!?! The place may be small but that is because it's actually a clinic for rehabilitation and injury prevention. They keep a log of your visits and your assessment so each and every workout is different.

The 100 Guava Days - Day 3

Day 3 - L!FE Yoga - Yin Yoga

Workout: Yin Yoga - the more passive kind of yoga, this is usually how Yin is described, longer stretch to help the body negate the effects of high impact exercises, I usually do it when I feel the need to stop and recover.

Teacher: Joanna - she's super energetic and I love listening to her while she guides us through the poses and reminds us to listen to our bodies! One of the reasons I go to Yin is because of her! She's super nice and her aura is so positive.

Cool Stuff - L!fe is a very nice studio! They have a dedicated space for the heated and non-heated class and while doing yoga, you get to see the Makati Skyline at night which adds to the serene feel.

After Workout: A bit stretched, restored and sleepy, I took the 8:15 to 9:30pm class with the intention to restore and relax and to get a good sleep and this is exactly what I got.

The 100 Guava Days - Day 2

Day 2 - F45 - Romans

My officemates swear by this gym! "It will work you out" that's what they say, I was a bit hesitant to try this out before because I'm used to a more relaxed pace of exercise so before I went here I made sure I'm stronger and it paid off!

Workout: Romans - it's a resistance based HIIT class where the exercise focus on stressing the muscles so expect lots of weight lifting and body weight based exercise. For our class there were 9 stations where you need to do the exercise in 4 repetitions for about 35 seconds each and rest for 25 seconds.

Teacher: Coach Josh and Paolo - amazing duo! I like the way they motivate without making anyone feel intimidated, super friendly and cool guys!

Cool Stuff: it's just 45 minutes!!! But make no mistake, that 45 minutes will work you out! They have nice and clean equipment, no mirrors (so that you wouldn't be conscious of how you look while working out I guess) and the people who work out here are nice and non-intimidating especially to first timers!

After Workout: I literally feel like my arms were falling off! I was trembling! But a good kind of tremble, the work out lived up to the expectations set before the class began, we will stress the muscles and damn right it was super mega stressed!

The 100 Guava Days - Day 1

Day 1 - Saddle Row - Rowing (Finesse)

I don't often go to morning classes because I'm not a morning person, so the mere fact that I have to drag my sleepy ass out of bed was a challenge. I've been doing Saddle Row's Spin Class - Resistance and Underground for about 7 or 8 times before and I've always been curious to try their rowing class as well.

Workout: Finesse - this one is their beginner friendly class and it is in the form of HIIT where you do rounds of exercises in and out of the rowing machine for a given time.

Teacher: Lala - super pretty, super nice and she made sure our form is always correct and encouraged us to work but only to the point where we don't injure ourselves, as she said, "it's your workout!"

Cool Stuff: You'll never know that you can do so much in the rowing machine unless you've tried it! It's not just row row row, we did squats, planks and lunges, one good thing that I learn as well is that rowing is 60% legs, 20% core and 20% arms! I've always thought it was just an arm exercise but NO!!! It's a cool total body workout!

After Workout: Feeling really good! (…and super hungry too!)

The 100 Guava Days

Why oh why?!? 

I first encountered the term "The Hundred" during one of my barre3 class where we need to do toe taps while in all fours for 100 times, it was an extreme glute burner and yes it was also one that I dread! Recently I joined a reformer pilates class in Options Studio and learned that "The Hundred" was a term coined in one of pilates' known moves where you hold the exercise for about 100 beats. I've been trying Guavapass for 3 months now and I've always wanted to write a review of all the class that I take to give other peeps an idea how it is, also I've been wanting to challenge myself to do something good for my body, the idea of "the hundred" + "Guavapass" + "self-challenge" and the desire to help other people to maybe start or inspire them to do their own "the hundred" is why I'm writing this blog. Note that this is not a paid blog whatsoever. I just want to write and share my experience :)

What is Guavapass? 

It's the coolest thing that happened to fitness ever! But seriously, this is an app that provides members unlimited access to multiple Gyms and Fitness Studios for a monthly fixed rate, well the "unlimited" part has a bit of a catch though, you can only attend 3 classes for each studio per billing cycle, and that 3 classes resets itself every cycle whether you used it or not, at the time of this writing there are about 40 studio members so if you have some kind of super power you can technically take 120 classes per month. 

Why GuavaPass? 

I actually used KFIT first before Guava came along but they changed their policy from unlimited to only 10 classes per month and although they have more studios, I get more classes from Guava from where I live, I actually also contacted KFIT to ask them why some classes are available to Guava and not to KFIT on some studios where they are both part of, not to say anything against KFIT, I think it’s also cool and if you’re the kind of person who would not use more than 10 classes per month, then this should be good too since it's a lot cheaper than GuavaPass. KFIT charges 999 per month for 10 classes and GuavaPass charges 2999 per month for unlimited classes per month. KFIT also offers activities other than fitness like Spa, Beauty Salons, etc. so it’s really a matter of preference. One good thing I love about KFIT is that they are barre3 partner and they also offer barre3 classes for a fee. 

The Plan 

I live in BGC so to be able to attend the class on a daily basis, I have to choose studios that are in BGC or Makati, so I made out a sample plan of what I will take on a weekly basis, however it doesn't necessarily follow that I can stick to it 100% because sometimes the classes that the studios offer changes or I'm too tired or lazy to get my butt up and do some HIIT or extreme exercises so I'll just either cancel them or take "lighter" classes . Btw, I do not have an exact amount of time where I'm planning to finish my 100 Guava Days because well, life! I have work and travel every now and then too so I could not commit to let's say, finish it in 4 months or 5, but my personal goal is to finish it within 6 months :) 

Here's a sample plan:

Let's Roll!

So before I start, I have completed about 50 Guava Days before, so my counter will start from 51 :) This is a screen grab from my GuavaPass Account: