Yoga with Biggest Loser's Bob Harper
I don't watch much television. I like TV quite a bit, but between working, working out, blogging, playing with my dog, occasionally sleeping and, you know, having a life, my days are pretty full. And I'm a bookworm. Anyway, I had seen snipits of Biggest Loser over the years, but, truth be told, I had never watched a full two-hour episode until last night.*
Nevertheless, when the lovely Fitarella invited me to join her at a special yoga class taught by Biggest Loser's Bob Harper, I tweeted back "yes!" as fast as I could. I really like what I've seen of Biggest Loser, and I love the message it sends about what people are capable of when they put their minds to something. And Bob is awesome. On Biggest Loser, Bob yells and he pushes, but it seems to come from such a genuine place; you can see that he cares and that he's passionate about what he does. I was very excited to meet him, and I hoped that seeing him in person wouldn't spoil my impression of him.
The event was organized by Filter for Good, Brita's philanthropic endeavor (Bob's one of their spokespeople) and hosted at the 21st Street NY Health & Raquet Club. Thanks to both for the awesome swag, and particularly for my new Brita filter! They even sent a car to pick me up this morning. I felt as much like a princess as I could at 6 am, before coffee, in the most minimal amount of makeup I could stand to be photographed in.
I was still pretty out of it when we stumbled into the yoga studio, which is the only way I can explain how I ended up in the front row, directly facing Bob. I'm a front row kinda gal for everything except yoga, and I'm pretty strict about that exception. I try, but yoga's not my thing. I had even toyed with the idea of squeezing in some extra yoga practice this week so that I wouldn't embarass myself infront of Bob, but it didn't happen. To make matters worse, right next to Bob was a photographer who just kept snapping away. I'm sure she's a lovely person, but, I swear, at one point she was taking pictures of my feet. I'm just glad I had a fresh pedicure!
"A storm is brewing." - Bob HarperBob was an awesome yoga instructor. He even managed to throw in some push-ups. (I knew he was my kind of guy!) At one point, I down-dogged when I should have up-dogged. And there was a minor spider mishap (props to the girl in the orange top next to me for killing my spider!). Other than that, class passed without incident and was really, really fun. Bob has great taste in music.
After class, Bob answered our questions and graciously posed for a bazillion pictures. Bob was everything he is on TV and more. He spoke passionately about Biggest Loser and about fitness in general. When asked where the line is between "feeling the burn" and "pushing too hard," he questioned whether there is such a thing as pushing too hard, and urged us all to push. That said, he advocated finding exercise options, such as yoga, that work at any age and warned that ego can get in the way of fitness. Bob addressed the recent study that found that women need to exercise more as they get older just to maintain (you knew that, right? same for men, too.) and ragged on the media for some of the sensationalist and confusing stories that have run lately about exercise not being good for you. As Bob put it, anyone can eat their way out of the benefits of exercise, and those kinds of stories just give that woman in Omaha one more excuse to skip the gym today. Bob is also a fan of Jamie Oliver's new show, Food Revolution. "A storm is brewing," he said. People are realizing that most of what they eat isn't good for them; people are talking about food and health and fitness, and this is a good thing.
I left class happy and inspired. To cap off a fabulous morning, I joined Fitarella and new friends Alison from Foster Fitness (check out her post and cute pics from yoga, too!) and Jodi from Model Per4mance and Jodiojo for a well-deserved breakfast at L'Express. We gabbed about workouts and blogging and life in general, and, amazingly, when we left the restaurant, the sun was actually (finally) (kind of) shining. Thank you, Bob!
-Gym Belle-
*In my defense, I've been following Bob and Jillian on Twitter since I joined.
5 Comments
Reader Comments (5)
So glad you came and we got to hang again. I WILL be coming to NYC to party with you again very soon!! xoxo
YAY! I had a great time too! I'm glad at least one of us had our nails did. :)
Looking forward to trying out Cross Fit and seeing you here in the city!
Alison :)
I had such a good time with you ladies!! Gymbelle, you are awesome! We will have to do it again. I think you and Amy would get along swell.;) I'm sure Fitarella and I will be back soon. We are both NY junkies.:o)
WOW!!! What a cool experience :) I am glad you had fun!
(www.blueberrymuffins.wordpress.com) I can't post it in the link section :(
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