With the abundance of workouts available in Manila, from the standard gym to yoga, crossfit, deftac, to the currently hot indoor cycling—you name it—you’ll never really run out of workout options to find the right one for yourself. Or, you don’t even have to stick to just one—you can always switch things up, hopping from one workout (and gym) to another to constantly keep things fresh and exciting.
That is exactly what I wanted to do—to keep things fresh and exciting—when I joined the holistic wellness program NT Summer Equinox the past month. Powered by GoWell, a wellness community, NT Summer Equinox is a one month program composed of four weekend classes and online support for those who want to pursue living a healthy, balanced lifestyle through fitness and healthy eating. I attended the first session a few weeks ago, a talk on Eating for Health, which you can read about here.
Official photo from GoWell
And the last session I attended? A super fun Mystery Workout that turned out to be a day full of cool surprises and unexpected adventures! Everything was a mystery—the workout, the location, the meet-up place. They handed out clues along the way, but that’s pretty much all we had! I wanted something fresh and exciting, and that is definitely what I got.
Check out our video about the experience!
https://www.facebook.com/WhenInManila/videos/10156207257308119/
Here’s what happened:
The Mystery Meet Up Place
As it is a mystery workout, the GoWell Summer Equinox team really did a good job setting the mood from the very beginning. The day before the activity, they sent everyone a text blast giving out the clue to the meet up place. They gave us one information, and two clues. The info? It was along Forbestown Road in BGC. The clues? 1. Sinatra and James, and 2. a café.
It was really exciting, reading that text message the night before, and right away I knew where the meet-up place was going to be at: Frank and Dean.
And the mystery surrounding the meet up didn’t end there. The following day another text blast from the team said they will be waiting at the café’s second floor, but when I got there, there was nothing on the second floor but a small room with red coin phone boxes hanging on the wall. But behind the wall I was sure I could hear noises, and a little push on one of the phone boxes revealed a secret entrance—to a secret bar!
There, in that dimly lit lounge with red neon lights coming from the bar, I found my classmates in their active wear, just as pumped up as I was and excited for more surprises waiting ahead of us.
As the clock hit 4pm, we all picked up our stuff, hopped on a private bus, and headed for the mystery location of our mystery workout!
The Mystery Workout: Calibarzz
Finally, after about an hour on the road, we reached our mystery location: Calibarzz in Diliman, QC. Calibarzz is a calisthenics park that promotes fitness through lifting yourself with bars. It’s a really cool-looking fitness playground. Aside from the outdoor bars, there is a small indoor space too illuminated with neon lights. All in all the place had an electric vibe, complemented by their encouraging coaches and music blasting from the stereo. It’s simple things like this that make working out exciting!
Official photo from GoWell
The night started out with the coaches performing a demo on the bars, showing us all the fun (and impressive) things you can do at Calibarzz. Just check these cool moves:
Soon, it was our turn. They taught us 4 basic bar workouts:
- The Scap Pulls where you hang from a bar and pull your chest up,
- The Aussie Chin Ups where you hang on to a bar and lean backwards with your feet on the floor while pulling yourself up,
- The Bar Push-ups which are like the standard push-ups but instead of the floor you push yourself up from low bars,
- And the Knee Raises where you hang from a bar and pull your knees up to your chest.
Official photo from GoWell
According to the coaches, you build a leaner, fitter, and stronger body when you do bodyweights instead of weight equipment. But learning the right way to do body weights is imperative to that, so that’s what Calibarzz is here for! I thought I was going to struggle with this workout because my upper body strength is not that good, but I was able to perform all the workouts thanks to the help of Calibarzz’s coaches. They’ll go through each of the moves with you, ensuring that you perform the exercises correctly and, more importantly, safely.
Official photo from GoWell
Want to try out bars as well? Here are some useful tips I learned from the coaches:
- Use a bar that leaves your feet dangling. If you’re going to perform a bars exercise where you need to hang from your hands, make sure the bar is high enough that your feet won’t touch the ground.
- Pull up from your scapula. When pulling yourself up on the bar, like the scap pulls, pull from your scapula or shoulder bones NOT your arms. That is a common mistake people do when performing pull ups. The effort must come from your shoulder blades.
- Avoid swinging. When your’re hanging from a bar, the tendency is that your body will swing back and forth. Try to avoid this.
- Flex your feet. Gain more control over your entire body by flexing your feet when hanging from a bar. This will also help you minimize the swinging.
- It’s okay to rest. It’s a part of the process: your hands will hurt from hanging from the bars. When this happens, let go and rest your hands. The coaches would tell us: it’s okay to rest. Don’t feel pressured. This is not a race. The goal is strength, not speed.
All in all, I had an amazing time at that day’s mystery workout session with NT Summer Equinox. So much so that I actually do want to go back to Calibarzz (and that secret bar in Frank and Dean!). Want to experience fun community workouts like this as well? Join us and sign up for free over at www.gowell.com.ph! 🙂
GoWell NT Summer Equinox
www.gowell.com.ph
www.summerequinox.ph
Instagram: @gowellph
#NTSummerEquinox
#GoWellSummerEquinox
