Ninie Ahmad: Off her yoga mat.

I don’t even know where and how to begin sharing what happened to me for the past seven days.

‘Go down to go up, in to go out, back to go forward’

To another seven days of delicious surprises.

I have always been big on ‘if I can live without buying it, don’t buy it’, ‘if I breathe fine without it, don’t use it’, ‘if I can not throw it, use it again’ and in my yoga classes, I always preach, ‘if you don’t need to use the yoga block, don’t’ (no disrespect to BKS Iyengar though) and ‘if you don’t need to use the wall for Headstand (Shirsasana) then don’t’.

Having said that though, there are some yoga accessories that help me outperform myself when I am on my mat:

• adidas yoga socks

Aren’t they the prettiest thing to be wrapped around our feet while we yoga?

(To avoid disappointments, these yoga socks are no longer sold in stores and they were not sold separately. They came together with a pair of adidas yoga shoes five seasons ago, if I’m not mistaken).

I first wore them in public for a Partner Yoga performance at Berjaya Times Square last July. Paired together, we caused quite a stir

(Top and pants from adidas Techfit Powerweb)

(Azmi: Pants from adidas Techfit Powerweb, Ninie: Top from adidas by Stella McCartney, pants from adidas Techfit Powerweb)

They are also the same pair seen in this adidas Play Yoga campaign featuring adidas’ Global Yoga Ambassador and my personal mentor, Rainbeau Mars.

• Yogitoes®

Yogitoes is a super-absorbent towel with Skidless® technology silicone beads on one side to provide a hygienic layer between us and the yoga mat or any exercise equipment. Skidless® Yogitoes® is patented and designed to prevent slipping while practicing or stretching and I tell you now – not only it works, it is a must-have yoga thingamajig!

I personally use Yogitoes for drishti (focus point; each Yogitoes is equipped with a visible focal point at the top centre of the towel) and hygiene purposes (I mind lying down on other people’s dried sweat). When you have Yogitoes, you don’t need to bring your own yoga mat to practice providing your yoga centre / gym provides yoga mat (I used to teach at a famous gym that does not provide suitable mats for their yoga classes!).

Yogitoes come in many irresistible colours to choose from, and many is an understatement.

If you check out their (funky!) website, they have all seven Chakra colours (root, sacrum, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, crown), four Earth colours (moss, sand, stone, loam), five Chinese Elements colours (water, fire, earth, wood, metal), selected Deity colours (limited edition: black, red, brown, gold and turqoise with gold thread) and even exclusive Breast Cancer and Rape Awareness Yogitoes!

I always kid around before my classes start that – I judge my students according to the colour of their Yogitoes almost like Taekwando belts; to why I make sure BE Yoga teachers use Limited Edition Black Yogitoes!

Azmi & I on Crown (Chakra) and Kali Ma (Deity) Yogitoes respectively during Earth Hour 2009

For someone who is ‘on the mat’ o n a highly-regular basis and will never be seen wearing yoga gears that are not colour-coordinated, I had fooled myself into buying and collecting these Yogitoes in as many colours as I can – to match my yoga outfits (and don’t get me started on how extensive and colourful my yoga outfit wardrobe is)!

Orange Yogitoes from Chakra collection representing Sacrum (Detoxification) helps me stay focused during hips openers & deep twists that extend my creativity and keep my reproductive system healthy

It doesn’t help me that BE Yoga is the only yoga centre in KL & PJ that sells Yogitoes in almost every colour, collection and fairly priced!

And yes, good things don’t come free, or even cheap for that matter. These Yogitoes are priced between RM238 to RM288 each (they are available at Yogitoes website too, priced between USD60 to USD66 each – not including shipping fee, of course. Kindly compare the prices online to understand why it costs a toe!).

So I have to eat my own words k-a-n?

‘If I can live without buying it, don’t buy it.’

‘If I breathe fine without it, don’t use it.’

Errr, I will settle for collecting all the Chakra-coloured (since I am undergoing Seven Chakra Levels of ra’Yoka TTC, yes?) Yogitoes on top of the ones I already have. For now

Love, light and pretty yogi toes today.

I have been invited to participate in adidas Fitness Academy (adidas FA) since last year. When it first started, the academy provided training for three fitness majors – Yoga, Dance and Combat for selected instructors from Asia-Pacific. I always count my blessing on getting chosen for adidas only chooses ONE instructor per Asia-Pacific country (although five instructors from bigger Asian countries like China, Taiwan and Korea). It is held twice a year and I am lucky enough to have been handpicked for three adidas FA so far – Shanghai (Spring/Summer ‘08), KL (Spring/Summer ‘09) and Beijing (Fall/Winter ‘09). For the latter, adidas FA introduced another two fitness majors – Fitness and Personal Training.

For adidas FA: YOGA, these 30 selected yoga instructors (most of them are their country’s own adidas Yoga Ambassadors) will be trained and certified to teach a new breed of yoga developed by Rainbeau Mars.

Rainbeau Mars (yes, that’s her real name) is best known as the ultimate yoga celebrity as she trains Hollywood celebrities (Jeremy Piven, Owen Wilson, John Cusack, Ben Stiller, Ashley Olsen, etc) and world’s best sportsmen (Laila Ali, Jonah Lomu, Steffi Graf, etc). She has elevated her career to a successful collaboration with adidas, becoming the Global Ambassador for their yoga collection and recently launched her own adidas Rainbeau Mars Signature collection with eco-conscious yoga fashion wear.

The hybrid yoga developed by Rainbeau Mars with adidas taught during adidas FA is called ra’Yoka™, which is an innovative and integrative practice combining fundamental principles of yoga, enhanced with a breath-centered flow, dynamic, explosive martial arts movements and core connection with total body balance integration. ra’Yoka manifested itself through Rainbeau’s personal journey of self-discovery and desire to find a practice that promoted courage and integartion of the body and mind while maintaining the beneficial openness of yoga. ra’Yoka maintains its authentic intention of a mind/body connection with the Ashtanga yoga laws of ahimsa (non-harm) and satya (truth) as well as Niyamas (personal ethics) and Yamas (social ethics).

ra’Yoka™ integates ‘Seven Leveled System’ according to the colours of rainbow / body chakra:

During the adidas FA Shanghai ‘08, the participants were introduced to the Overview of ra’Yoka. I did share in my previous blog of how I came to Shanghai with excruciating kidney stone pain and how I came back to KL with none (stone left).

Isn’t it amazing, how by simply repeating a simple Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II) helped me escape a kidney surgery?

Then came adidas FA KL ‘09 last February where we explored in detail Level Yellow: Core Power.

In KL, the whole concept made perfect sense to me when Rainbeau generalizes that people who are physically flexible are often very open, very giving and very vulnerable in nature while those who appear very strong and muscular are emotionally very reserved, unfriendly and penny-pinching for many.

If you can imagine this: someone who can do Lord of Dancer Pose (Natarajasana) will almost never gets six-pack abs and same applies to those who have six-packs abs will not be able to enjoy dropbacks to Wheel Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana).

One of the many best perks in yoga is: it helps you be both flexible and strong. ONE DAY.

For someone who is quite open in the spine area, I couldn’t agree more for the natural traits and I know I could use a little bit if not a lot of core strengthening (to be a little bit ’stingy’) for I was just about to open BE Yoga back then – so the yoga classes wouldn’t be all FOC .

She highly emphasized on how most female yoga instructors could use a lot of strengthening especially from the core so that we don’t overstretch (since almost nothing hurts) and be all over the place in alignment.

I can’t wait to share in my next pose what I learned from my recent trip to Beijing, China for adidas FA Level Orange.

Have a blessed and productive Monday for now!

Love and light.