A few exercises before you fly
An intensive trip to Thailand awaits me soon. It will not be a matter of lazing on the beach, but rather plenty of activity and moving around, including with a rucksack. Time and again I will be wrestling with my luggage, heaving it onto conveyor belts at airports or hauling it up stairs. More than once my spine has protested in situations like these. It is not nice when, instead of enjoying the exotic, you are suffering from back pain.
That is why I was glad to accept an invitation from PR1ME, a fitness and wellness club in Warsaw, http://pr1me.pl/ to brush up on exercises that, done regularly, can strengthen the spine and protect us from injury. The club has prepared a special offer for the password justKowalski.pl 😊 - I write about it at the end.
The PR1ME club in central Warsaw
PR1ME is located right in the centre of Warsaw, in the basement of the Radisson Hotel on Grzybowska Street, just off Jana Pawła II Street. It is easy to get to on foot if you work nearby, or by public transport, including the metro (Rondo ONZ). If you prefer to drive, you get 2 hours of free parking in the building. Unfortunately, the club has no windows, and it is crying out for a view of the capital's big-city centre, full of glass skyscrapers, to take in with sweat-filled eyes. What surprised me right from the start was that it is not crowded. In chain gyms of this kind you often bump into people, have to wait for a machine to become free, the changing room is cramped and the gym floor is noisy. But not being part of a chain is also a drawback. If you buy a membership at PR1ME, you can only use it in one place in Warsaw. On the other hand, it is intimate, discreet and cosy here.
Are there other advantages? Everyone who works out gets a free towel for the session, and there is a swimming pool with a jacuzzi on site. Saunas too, of course. The opening hours let you drop in and exercise before work, after work and even… during work, if your company wants to compete for the title of “employer of the year” and HR is aiming for top-level “wellbeing”. PR1ME opens at 6.00 and closes at 22.00 (at weekends 8.00-21.00).
The club offers a wide range of classes for different age groups, from the Aqua Baby programme, in which children aged between 3 months and 3 years can get used to the water in small groups in a separate pool, to dedicated programmes for seniors. In the pool you can take part in intensive cardio training on underwater exercise bikes, burning between 800 and 1200 kcal in a single session.
Exercises to strengthen your spine
Back to my Thailand and my spine. I put myself in the hands of trainer Julita. I briefly described my complaints and she got the gist straight away. To protect yourself against lower back problems, you need to strengthen your abdominal muscles (ideally the deep core muscles) and your back muscles. You also need to make sure you stretch. And that is exactly how Julita led the session.
The balance exercises using a ball and the stretching with straps on a special metal frame were fantastic.
