As I arrive at Johanna Janik’s personal training studio in Marratxi (just out of Palma) she’s at the door welcoming me with double high fives. This woman is radiating vitality and I immediately feel my own energy levels rise in her presence. I have come to see Johanna for a personal training session as a kick-start after several months of zero deliberate exercise and general laziness (otherwise known as summer). First impressions tell me I have picked the right person to sort me out!
When Bobbie Bixler first set foot in a Reformer Pilates studio in Auckland, New Zealand in 1999 she was very close to turning on her heels and walking straight back out. The studio was swarming with graceful ballet dancers, who were using Pilates practice to further hone their lithe, agile physiques. They presented quite an intimidating welcoming.
Not as commonplace as it is now, Pilates hadn’t quite hit the mainstream back then, however Bobbie stuck to her guns, completed the class and never looked back. She quickly became hooked on Pilates, specifically the reformer machine, and the way her body felt from regular practice. It was the perfect antidote to a physically challenging career working on super yachts.
I like yoga, and I like SUP boarding (Stand-Up Paddle boarding if you don’t know the lingo). Why should they be mutually exclusive activities? Because images of me toppling face first into the Mediterranean Ocean tell me they should. However, I’m all for a challenge so when a friend told me her fantastic yoga teachers had branched out and jumped on-board (pun intended) the yoga SUP craze for the summer I was willing to give it a good go.
Overnight walk from Palma to Lluc Monastery. Every year, overnight in August, the country roads leading from the capital Palma to Lluc are transformed and the cars replaced by thousands of people walking to the monastery. Even those who manage to keep up a good pace will take about 11 hours to reach Lluc monastery, which is 50km away (8 -13hours).
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The distance travelled is approximately 12km, which requires some physical preparation and skill in the handling of the canoe. There is the option of doing the Sant Elm to Puerto de Dragonera route (5 km) for the uninitiated.
Being a non-competitive test, the start will last 20 minutes from the moment the horn sounds to start the race. Once that time has passed, no paddler can join Sa Volta. Continue Reading…
Would you believe when I was younger I had an issue with savasana? It seems reprehensible I know, but I would honestly dread this ‘relaxation time’ at the end of yoga because it meant I had to try and pack up my things and duck out to the car without drawing attention to myself. I tried to lie through the ‘corpse pose’ time and time again but it made me feel physically ill. I’m serious. Nausea and headaches. My mother was convinced it was my “toxins getting a good stir up” from the yoga practice. I decided yoga just wasn’t ‘physical’ enough for me and threw myself into the much sweatier pursuits of boxing, netball, and gym sessions.
I first heard the term ‘functional movement’ over ten years ago while interning at a health retreat in Australia’s Gold Coast hinterland. Every morning the guests at the retreat would sit down to a health seminar on various aspects of optimal living, and ‘functional movement’ had a whole session devoted to it so I figured it must be a key concept I should pay attention to, and rightly so!
6Points Mallorca starts and ends at Caló d’en Pellicer, the small beach in Santa Ponsa, and travels to the extremities of the four compass points of Mallorca (north – Cap Formentor, south – Cap de Ses Salines, west – St Elm and east – Cala Ratjada) and to the highest (Puig Major) and lowest points (Santa Ponsa beach) on tarred roads in three days, covering over 400km and climbing over 7500m. Continue Reading…