Casinos and Yoga?

Soo what's the deal between casinos and yoga?

Not much, just something interesting I came across today.

I tried yoga for the first time in my life yesterday. Not just yoga, it was HOT YOGA. Don't ask me why I felt courageous enough to make that leap instead of baby steps. For those who aren't familiar, hot yoga is when you do all those stretches and stances in an enclosed room with hot air being blasted throughout. Essentially, hot yoga is doing very very slow-motion aerobics, in a sauna. Got the picture? It aint pretty.

Overall, it wasn't as bad as I imagined. I was expecting it to be like the army, with everyone lined up, while the intructor tells you to "hold it there" while you are straining and sweating from every pore of your body. All expectations were met.

So what motivated me to even do this in the first place? Firstly, the complete saturation of yoga adds and billboards all over the Raffles Place vacinity doesn't leave me much choice to not think about yoga. Secondly and more importantly, my best buddy needed me. His fiance who is a daily yoga fanatic has lovingly convinced him to follow her to her yoga sessions. He ain't the new age yoga kind of guy, so after a few sessions, it seemed that he could use his buddy by his side. So there I was in the sweaty trenches, roughing it out with my bro.

On that note, the day after my yoga session, I have some pretty serious soreness in my neck and back. Obviously this came from being a yoga newbie, but I have concluded that that is not the sole cause of my pain. I believe the pain came from me holding various poses with my head and neck twisted in the wrong directions. Let me explain.

I told my buddy to set up his mat in front of me, so I could look at him and copy his movements whenever there was a change in position, since I have no idea what the instructor is saying. After a while, I felt a little strange, always watching and staring at my buddies ass (which was very close to my face). So, me being the smarty that I am, I decided to not look at him and instead copy the lovely ladies to my left, right, back, half-right, half-left, north east, north west (you get the idea...everywhere). So there I am, doing poses and instead of maintaining the right posture with my head facing forward, my eyes (wanting to avoid male buttocks) guides my head everywhere else, to catch the next move.

So tip to self - Brian, IF you ever decide to do yoga again, set yourself up behind a lovely young lady. You do this, so that you will be able to maintain good posture and have no soreness. That...is....all.

Alright, moving on. So why the mention of casinos? So today, with the various pains in my body, I decided to go for a massage to rub out all the knots and soreness in my body. Chit chatting with the therapist, she exclaims that since CNY, or more pointedly, since the opening of the casino, she has been having a flood of customers coming to see her. What in the world does the casino opening have to do with a massage you ask? I asked her the same thing.

Turns out, people have been flooding to her because they have been at the casino for extended periods of time, not sleeping and not eating for days on end. People have been physically abusing themselves at the casinos and hence require some recovery for their battered bodies. I found this hillarious! Who would've thought that the casinos would cause a spike for businesses like spas!

I would love to go on here about what else I found out through this chit chat with my therapist about the impact the casino has had, but it's late, so maybe another entry some other night. But as a form of a teaser to my next entry, let's just say that the majority of people seeking spa therapies from their grueling bouts of gambling are ladies. That's right, mostly ladies. Does that mean that ladies in Singapore gamble more than men? Or are all these tai tai's who have grown bored with shopping at the Paragon, so they have now decided to gamble their husband's money away instead? All this, in my next entry. (If nothing more interesting crops up in my life)

So as a quick closing note, some good pointers for all of us.

1. Yoga is good for you. Go for it
2. Set up your yoga mat behind a hot chica. (Good for your posture)
3. Listen to your massage therapist - you just might learn something
4. Do warm up exercises and periodic stretching while you gamble your hubby's cash away

As I learned in yoga class - "Hands on knees, bow, thank you and good night"