Last November, Andy Cruz Martel invited me to the launch of her new collection of bags for Gabriel*Martel, a collaboration between her and one of her BFFs, Celine Gabriel.

[YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK_HQPe4t8E]

Before the show, I had a chance to chat with Andy about their latest collection, Tocco Di Lusso (Italian for “touch of luxury”). As a result, when the sponsors were giving away some products before the show, I knew enough about the collection to win one of the prizes.

A water bottle from Plana FORMA. Gee, thanks. Let me just add that to my one-thousand-and-one water bottle collection… I almost left it and the card it came with on one of the couches that night.

A few days later, while cleaning out my bag, I found the card from Plana FORMA. It’s a good thing I plucked it up from that couch at the last minute because it turned out to be a gift certificate for five of their classes. Yay!

I had heard about Plana FORMA before, knew absolutely zilch about it, but was intending to eventually check it out and, here it was, handed to me for free – on a card with a water bottle. I love it how things work out sometimes.

Plana FORMA is an offshoot of Physique 57, a barre workout similar to barre3. Three of FORMA’s top dogs trained in the Physique 57 method in New York and rumor has it that they could not acquire the franchise for the Philippines and thus developed their own barre workout.

I only did the introductory class this afternoon (with Viella Galvez), which wasn’t really much of an introductory class in the sense that it’s more instructional, I think it’s just an easier class – i.e. has less reps – than a regular class. I’ll have to do a regular class before I can make a fair comparison between Plana FORMA and barre3. (I’m hoping to sign up for tomorrow’s 11 AM class with Plana FORMA’s main mover and shaker, Julie Alagde.)

In any case, it was a fun workout. After CrossFit, it was a bit bizarre working out in front of a mirror with a peppy instructor. Although it was an introductory class, I wouldn’t say it was all that easy. Especially the leg exercises. I couldn’t get through all of them without shaking, and I had to take a few rests because my thighs were on fire.

The studio is in a remote area of Fort Bonifacio (near Essensa) and is not easily accessible by cab, which is a major drawback for me.

It’s small but sleek and polished and all the equipment is new. I’m not a fan of carpets at a place where people sweat (even though I myself didn’t sweat much in this particular class) and, although they are plush and new now, I wonder what state they’ll be in in a few years.

Plana FORMA provides locker keys and towels, bathroom slippers, toiletries and hairdryers.

P.S. – Plana FORMA must be lucky for me. After the class, Viella told me that she had picked my name out of a box and I had won some Nivea products.

Plana FORMA Checklist:

• Comfortable workout clothes
• Sticky socks
• Filled-up water bottle