How BALANCE ended up at a Yoga Rave in the Swiss Alps
From Aerial to Acro and Goat Yoga, yes it’s a thing, the practice takes many shapes and forms. When the Hard Rock Hotel invited BALANCE to experience Rock Om in Switzerland, we sure as hell rocked up to rock on.
LOCATION
A 2-hour drive from Zurich, Davos is a small city that comes alive during the ski season and for the World Economic Forum, if you’re into that. Flanked by mountains and valleys, it wouldn’t go amiss on a Swiss postcard.
Though Hard Rock Hotel Davos launched only in December 2017, the building itself is over 130 years old and was once a clinic treating tuberculosis. Fortunately, that’s no longer the case and has been converted into a modern hotel whilst retaining some original features. For example, the old chapel is fit for a conference or rave (more on this later) and the hotel even has an underground walkway that connects the main building to the spa.
ROCK OM
Yoga is commonly associated with feelings of relaxation and calm yet at the Hard Rock Hotel, it was all about the rave, beats and fist bumping.
Rock Om is the Hard Rock Hotel’s in-room yoga programme delivered through videos using the magic of music to ease you into that downward dog. Though yoga is often paired with music, this isn’t news, at the Hard Rock Hotel, the music is curated by the power couple, Dj Drez and Marti Niko. Rather than whale songs, droney tones and sitar playing, Drez keeps the music flowing seamlessly from one beat to another as Marti instructs you from one move to the next.
What’s more, if you’re staying at one of the Hard Rock Hotels, you can conveniently request a yoga kit delivered to your room. Supplied by Manduka, you will receive a top of the range yoga mat and a Yogitoes towel. All you need to do is choose which flow you like the look of and press play!
Now, as someone who is cynical at the best of times, there is genuinely something in this for unlike a typical yoga practice, you are are in the present and forced to focus. It may not be for everyone but, if you like a beat, it’s worth trying.
THE LIVE EXPERIENCE
At Hard Rock Hotel Davos, I was also fortunate enough to experience Rock Om in a live environment. Music blaring, people dancing, holding hands and singing, it wasn’t for the faint-hearted and I wondered how we Brits would take to such happy-clappy activities.
THE ROCK SPA
Visiting the Hard Rock Hotel wouldn’t be complete however without enjoying the Rock Spa. Not only were the facilities incredible but I experienced a Rhythm & Motion treatment which, like the yoga, was done to music. With a speaker above the massage table and the bass below you, the rhythm and vibrations of the music played in sync with the therapist, working wonders to soothe stress.
