You know I always look to my Fitness Hero and Queen of Fitness, Tricia, for the latest and greatest workouts. She had been talking for a few weeks about a new innovative workout involving headphones. Her good friend, Stacey, was flying in from Colorado to teach a class at Community Fitness that incorporated the headphones so of course I had to go.
Stacey is the creator of the willPower method. The method focuses on 'foot fitness' and intentional workouts focused on movement with bare feet. My interpretation of it is yoga meets meditation and movement.
When we walked into the room on Friday, the first thing we noticed was that the room was warm (which it rarely is at Community Fitness. And when it is, we make sure they turn on the air!). I loved that Stacey went out of her way to introduce herself to all of us and set us up with our headphones. We got settled into our mats and chit chatted for a bit but when class started, it immediately threw me off. Tricia was talking into the mic to introduce Stacey but you could only hear her if you put on the headphones. Very interesting and unexpected. So I put my headphones on and tried to get comfortable.
It took me a few minutes to get comfortable - I'm not a big headphone person (I only use them when I'm traveling on an airplane or out for a run) and I never use the big headphones. It also took me a few minutes to adjust the volume and focus on what was being said. But once I was able to get over the little distractions, it was a completely different and unique experience.
The headphones are set up in a way where you hear the music come through one ear and Stacey's voice through the other ear. I spent the first few minutes wondering how this was any different than hearing the music and instructor come through the big speakers in a studio. But 10 minutes in, I knew exactly why. There's something about the sound and the headphones that allows you to get lost in the workout. I was able to easily close myself off from everyone else in the room and focus on myself.
The class itself is similar to a fast flowing yoga class. I loved the movements Stacey led us through. They were easy to follow and her descriptions of them were clear so a novice like me was able to move through them. I will say, sometimes I got so lost in my own little world (thanks to the headphones) that I forgot to look up to see how she was moving through the poses. This was HUGE for me. I am a very visual person and need to see instructors demonstrate poses or movements to truly understand what I need to do. But that's what I appreciated this class. I didn't need to watch her every move. She did just a great job of describing the movements and moving through them in a consistent order that it was easy to get lost in the moment and just connect with yourself.
If you have a chance to check out one of Stacey's classes, you should. It is the perfect mix of movement and mental and emotional connection.
Check out The willpower Method
