This weekend I headed to the Swiss mountains for the first time in the winter, to challenge myself with a snowboarding course. Well, I can definitely tick that challenge box!

After collecting enough bum falls and bruises all over, decided I had to end the evening on a relaxed note and head to yoga – really happy there’s a daily evening class in Laax, so nice 😉

I signed up for a 75-minute class in Riders Hotel, a pretty modern hip location just minutes from my hostel. The yoga room was on level -1, where the unfinished industrial-style walls reminded me of Balboa.

Teacher Viviane greeted me with a full smile and welcomed me in the room smelling of incense. I must say, the deco was much nicer than in many yoga studios in Zurich, so kudos to that!

With 8 yogis, the room was almost at full capacity. We started meditation on our backs, led by Viviane’s soothing voice. In my physical state at the time, I would’ve been happy just to stay like that for the rest of the class 🙂

We continued though with sun salutations, progressively adding lunges to the flows. It got dynamic and it felt good! This was not a beginners only class, and I liked how Viviane challenged us a bit. The peak pose (or “pose option” as it’s not within my reach) was the king pigeon pose. I barely experience this in classes as it’s a very advanced pose – but a good one to be working towards, in my opinion.

So we opened the hips quite a bit, mobilized the shoulders with chaturangas and then went on to do some backbends and inversions. We practically did a bit of everything, which was more than welcome as really *everything* in my body was sore after snowboarding 🙂

After class I had the chance to speak to Viviane and found out she was teaching in Zurich as well (it’s a small world and an even smaller country hehe…). More specifically, she will be offering classes in Das Yoga Haus during March – covering for Isabella – and ad-hoc after that. Check out her full therapeutic offering that goes beyond yoga: https://vivianeoettinger.ch/

That evening I had to reflect on the day: some bodies are made for the board, some for the mat, some for both. I doubt I fall in the last category but I am certainly happy when I’m back on the mat, wherever that may be ♥