Spa spy I do like Mondays

Start the week with a good work out at East Side Yoga, Edinburgh

The treatment

Mandala Mondays with Nina Romijn at East Side Yoga, Edinburgh, 4pm- 5: 30pm, £ 9.50 or £ 25 for an Intro Five Class Pass, or £ 45 for five if it’s not your first visit.

Why go?

If you suffer from Monday blues, doing yoga might cheer you up, especially when it’s an interesting brain- engaging take on the genre. They say that this new class is designed to “explore the qualities of the four elements – earth, water, fire and air – and the corresponding areas of the body”, with a different theme each week.

Our spy says

Around eight months in, and this studio is settling into Broughton Street rather nicely.

They have extended their collection of pot plants and there are glasses for water, in case you forget your bottle, as well as a spot for members to leave their mats so they don’t have to cart them back and forward.

It feels more established, so it’s apt that tonight’s class will be based on the earth mandala.

We’re going to work on “grounding” and our “foundations”, concentrating on legs and lower back.

This is not my forte. My hamstrings are as tight as the wires of a suspension bridge and my lumbar spine is almost completely immobile, fused into the shape of my office chair.

Still, it would be a cop out to only do the exercises that you enjoyed and were good at.

We begin in staff pose, with legs in front, feet flexed, sitting up straight. This simple position is difficult for me, and while the young ‘ uns fold right over their legs, I need a bolster and block so I can rest my head forward.

The class gradually increases in intensity, with various flowing sections. So, for example, we move from downward dog to plank, with pubic bone resting on the block, then cobra, and back to the original pose. There’s a sequence that involves going from runner’s lunge to standing splits to triangle pose, then squatting onto the back leg, with the other pin in front, before pivoting round to the other end of the mat.

There are plenty of moves that I haven’t done before, and which present a challenge ( well, they do say this class is “strong” and for those with an established practice). I don’t know the name for the pose that involves folding forward, crossing your arms over, then peeping your head through the window created by the gap. I’ll call it the peek- a- boo asana.

The remaining time passes in a sweaty blur of goddess stance, squats and twists, ending in a boat pose, holding onto the toes.

My crunchy lower back is feeling tetchy, but is miraculously healed after a gentle inversion, with the sacrum lifted and on a bolster, legs up in the air. Magic.

The results

That was fun, and my Monday blues have been buried deep into the earth. n

East Side Yoga ( 109 Broughton Street, Edinburgh, 0131- 208 5500, www. eastsideyoga. co. uk)