"Yoga" and "meditation" are buzzwords in Rishikesh.In fact, it claims to be the Yoga capital of the world, and the number of classes advertised on boardings everywhere certainly supported that.So how could I turn down this chance to roll out my exercise mat and begin chanting "Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm"?

But which class to chose?Simple.Although laughing yoga sounded fun, and we missed the chance to have a go at this in Mumbai (www.laughteryoga.org), convenience won the day and I opted for the class taking place in the studio 5 metres across from our hotel room!

So at 8.30am (early for us these days unless we've got a bus/train/plane to catch) I rolled out of bed, with a helpful nudge from Sands, and onto my exercise mat.Memories of Cannons Gym Body Balance classes came flooding back with a few subtle differences: marble flooring instead of wooden sprung floors, and views of the Ganges River instead of Sainsburys car park Wandsworth Road!This time there was no music to accompany us, just the broken English of our Russian instructor (Yogi) "Boris" (he didn't introduce himself so I didn't discover his name, but he looked like a Boris!).

Without any introductions, Boris launched straight into the 2 hour class with a crossed legged pose and an "Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm".The 5 of us novices sheepishly followed suit, but with a lot less gusto and wide-eyed looks of "whatthehellhaveweletourselvesinfor".

It transpired that this was the first of 4 parts to this taster class.Boris was soon telling us where our vocal projections of "ommmmmmmmmm" should be coming from as we exhaled either from our gut or our chest.He explained that if we repeat them for long enough, they'll apparently lead to emptiness (definitely the case if you forget to breathe in again!).

Our lungs finally got a breather , and we were into the next part of the class - stretching.This was more like it.I could follow all the moves he showed us here, and my balance wasn't as rusty as I'd imagined - carrying our lives on our back must be doing something for some of our muscles!The final stretch of the session involved squatting as low as we could with our feet facing outwards as if sitting on an imaginary chair, hands in a praying position with elbows at right angles.This position opens up our energy channels and, according to Boris, by holding this position for 5 minutes every day, can turn us into a "sex giant"

The third part of the class definitely has practical uses in India, and should be featured in the in-flight briefings you get alongside the anti DVT exercises on all flights into India.We started with a massage of each of our fingers and the cracking sound of joints as we yanked our fingers out of their sockets was satisfying. Then, with clenched fists, we hit our left wrist, forearm, tricep, moving up and round our arm until we were beating on our chest, with loud, Tarzan like cries for 5 minutes, and then repeating on our right side.The finale involved shaking our whole being rapidly for another 5 minutes with our eyes closed (to avoid laughing at everyone else more than anything I would think).Apparently by doing these exercises we are beating out all our negative emotion.And it definitely felt good.Boris recommended using it "all the time, after you be with all the people, out on streets or in markets - from all busyness, to get rid of all stress" and boy, despite how your body felt, it would have helped us relieve our angst over the last 5 weeks.

With my body feeling as if it had been dragged through a hedge backwards, I was glad to hear that the final session on massage involved "just pen, paper, you watch please".However, Boris clearly thought I looked as if I needed more pain, and within minutes I was lying flat on my back as Boris demonstrated to the class how to perform this type of Ayurvedic massage.Again, no gentle moves here, and before long, Boris was roughly rubbing my shoulder blades as I exhaled, again aaarghing like Tarzan.Then, just as I thought it was over, deep bum muscles I didn't know I had started to be massaged really hard.Ouch, it was painful, and no wonder.Opening my eyes slightly, I discovered that Boris was kneeling on my bum, circling his knees with his full weight on my bum cheeks!And there was Sands, through the glass, having a full-on chuckle to himself!

After a few long painful minutes, I thought my ordeal was over, as Boris jumped up and walked to my feet.Alas, no.With one final push of yogic energy, he shook my calves, ankles and feet to Kingdom come and back again as I was told to "inhale", "exhale", "inhale" "exhale".

As we settled into a final leg-crossing session, there was a sense of relief in the air that we'd survived the class.As we followed Boris' lead and started "Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm", we looked like experts with all eyes firmly closed as if in a state of meditation.In reality it was more like sheer exhaustion - and I'm sure I heard one girl's "Ommmm" sound more like a snore!