60-Minute Yoga Session with Wanda Hamidah

Ever wonder what Wanda Hamidah do on when she’s not under public scrutiny? Who would have guessed that she’s an avid Yogi! With her personal Yoga Instructor, Fajar Putra, Wanda will show us her 60-minute routine Yoga session!

Every yoga session, like other form of exercise, is started with a warm-up. Wanda was instructed to do a light meditation to clear off her mind whilst doing a proper deep breathing exercise. The meditation was immediately followed by Forward Bending pose, which stretches your spine, shoulder, knees, and inner thigh, and Plank, which strengthen your abs, shoulder, arm, and spine. The first fifteen minutes of cardio warm-up exercise was enough to heat up the body, preparing it for the more challenging poses. That seemingly simple move was enough to make Wanda sweat and fired up to do more ‘radical’ poses.

To end the warm-up, Wanda showcase how strong her abs was by performing the Boat pose, where she makes a V with her bottom as the center of gravity. This pose will strengthen your core and your spine, which will improve your posture. The key to doing yoga is in the breathing. You have to do deep breath, where you inhale and exhale as slow as possible.

This is a side of Wanda that not many people know. She enjoys the challenge that yoga has given her. Even though yoga is a calming exercise with minimal impact to our joints, it still appeal to her adventurous side. She wouldn’t give up until she has master the more difficult and advanced poses. Her persistence shows when she performs the Humble Warrior poses, where she starts from a one-legged standing position, and she gradually lower her head until it touches the ground. This pose will strengthen our legs and stretches the shoulder. She feels that yoga has improved her endurance significantly that nowadays she rarely feels tired even with her hectic schedule.

Even though you can do yoga on your own, Wanda prefers to do it with Fajar, who’s also her best friend. When you’re doing it with someone else, you can perform poses that are meant to be done with other people, like the King Pigeon Pose. This pose opens up your shoulder and chest area, so it stretches all the muscles on your torso and removes all the soreness from all your day-to-day activity.  This move also stimulates all the organs in that area to work better, from your heart to liver. “Working in the political field requires you to have both physical and mental resilience. You can’t get yourself provoked too easily. Yoga has become a sanctuary for me to escape all the hustle and bustle on politics,” told Wanda.

Yoga can help you minimize stress. One of the poses that Wanda uses to help hear deal with stress is the Handstand pose or what is also called Sirsasana. Even though she still needs Fajar’s help to get to the position, but once her legs are on the air and her head is supporting her body weight, Wanda always feel like all the stress just disappear. Headstand is a very interesting pose because our body is going against gravity. It’s very useful not only in eradicating stress that usually accumulates in your head, but also strengthening your shoulder, spine, and core. It’s no wonder why after giving birth three times, Wanda still retains her washboard abs.

Other than her flat abs, her toned arms are also a source for envy. Although her identity card says that she’s 35, but her lean and fit body doesn’t look it. What’s her secret for maintaining youthful appearance? Performing the Handstand variation pose by standing one-legged and twisting the other leg. This pose is the one helping toning Wanda’s body. It’s also helping with osteoporosis prevention, which is important for Wanda who’s given birth multiple times. This pose also utilizes and stretches the shoulder, knees, and arm. Your whole body is forced to work while doing this pose because you have to maintain your balance.

After performing Headstand and Handstand, Wanda moves on to Shoulder stand or Sarvangasana. With her legs on a 45 degrees angle, and the touching her knee to her temple, Wanda has to keep her balance with her body weight focused on her shoulders. Ideally, this pose is to be performed as a couple. “I think Yoga is a very romantic exercise, because you have to work together to maintain balance and perform the positions properly together. Unfortunately, not many guys are into yoga,” Wanda said while laughing. This pose can also improve your digestive system. Wanda can’t abstain from carbohydrates because she needs rice on her daily diet. But because she do yoga on a routine and perform this pose regularly, she has no problem with her bowel movement, and there’s no adipose tissue accumulation in her body.

Wanda has to parallel her legs with her shoulder in a standing position when she performs Extended Hand to Big Toe Pose. This pose will stretch your inner thigh and strengthen your leg. This pose also requires a lot of balance. Maintaining balance is Wanda’s specialty. Not only while doing yoga exercises, even in her personal life she’s able to achieve the perfect balance between working life and family life. Having a hectic schedule is not something she feels the need to complain about, but is seen as a challenge. “I don’t feel old, I still feel as young as I was. That’s what a happy mood from a routine yoga exercise does to you. I can fend off all the negative emotions by going into crazy poses with Fajar,” Wanda jokes.

Similar to the previous move, the Lord of the Dance pose is also strengthens and improves the balance on your legs. It also stretches your upper body, from your shoulder to your chest. “Out of all my clients, Wanda is one of the strongest and most skilled one. She’s very persistent and would not quit until she can master the pose; that’s why she can do a lot of the more difficult poses that’s not for beginners,” told Fajar. “For me, Yoga is not a difficult exercise, but it does need practice and persistence. That’s why I always feel challenged to master any kinds of poses. What’s the best thing about yoga? It makes my body feel younger. Since I started yoga, I’ve never complained about back pain like any other people my age would,” said Wanda.

Now, they’re about to enter the cooling down exercise. Fajar instructs Wanda to re-do the Plow Pose, which they have been performing a few times previously. This pose showcases Wanda’s flexibility because she’s bent allover! For beginners like us, we probably can’t even begin to wrap our mind on how it is possible that human body can be put to that position without it being some form of torture. But supposedly this pose gives serenity to our brain, as well as relieves the tensions on our shoulder and spine, which were stretched on the previous movements. “When we’re doing yoga, it might seem to laymen that we’re being tortured, when in fact we always feel great afterwards! Our bodies feel rejuvenated and much more comfortable. Yoga is the one to thank for my good night sleep and pleasant mornings,” said Wanda.

Before they conclude their 60-minute Yoga session, Wanda performs poses that are meant for cooling down the body like the Corpse Pose. She lies down while doing deep breathing exercises. She relaxes her feet, which were put to work the whole session. “You do this pose for 5-10 minutes at the end of yoga session to give your body the much needed relaxation after all the challenging poses. It also gives relaxation to your mind when you’re laying down like this,” Fajar explains. “A relaxed and calm mind is just another benefit from yoga. If you can control and relax your mind, it will show through your eyes, skin, and facial expression,” said Wanda. We can vouch for this, as Wanda’s flawless skin is very apparent even though she said she never follows any skin care regimen.






Originally published on Fimela.com. Translated and edited by Gold's Gym Indonesia.