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After a fairly long yoga hiatus, winter is starting to catch up with me. Read: it's too cold to run…read moreso my default exercise this season has been walking to the shops. With a yoga-teacher friend in town, I thought it would be a great excuse to try out a new studio, and the drawcard of Hip Hop Yoga made it sound more "fun" and less "exercise". How wrong I was. The class definitely was a whole lot of fun, but with some seriously intermediate and above poses, I found myself well and truly feeling the burn. In between giggles and trying to sing along to Kanye, Jay Z, Drake, RiRi, and some old school beats, our brows became furrowed and our breathing bordered on grunt. Sweat dripped down my forehead during Power Vinyasa sequences, and my muscles shook during extended holds and handstand prep. My yoga-teaching friend turned to me with a smile and a swear word half-way through, so I knew it wasn't just me being out of form (not totally anyway). I have never been more grateful for Savasana. My fitness tracker confirmed I had well and truly earned a green juice and a raw treat but my friend and I were more interested in having another lie down. The music gets loud enough that you can't be relying on the instruction, so if you have a few classes under your belt and need something more interesting aurally, this could well be for you. You can use the mats in studio, pick up a 10 day trial for $25, and pat the very handsome studio pooch (his name is Heston). Be warned; you will need a couple of days of recovery but then you'll be keen to jump back in. Uh huh honey.