Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Selesainya latihan yoga malam ini membuat tubuh saya jauh lebih rileks. - The completion of tonight’s yoga practice makes my body much more relaxed.

selesai by itself = finished (an adjective/verb: “to be finished”).
selesainya turns it into a noun phrase: the finishing, the completion, or the end (of something).

The suffix -nya here:

can be felt as “its” (its completion),
but more generally acts like a definite marker / nominalizer, similar to “the …-ing” in English.

So Selesainya latihan yoga malam ini ≈ “The completion of tonight’s yoga session”.

Why say “Selesainya latihan yoga malam ini…” instead of “Setelah latihan yoga malam ini selesai…”?

Both are correct but slightly different in structure and feel:

Selesainya latihan yoga malam ini membuat…
- Treats “the completion of tonight’s yoga practice” as a thing (a noun phrase) that causes something.
- Feels a bit more formal / written and slightly more stylistic.
Setelah latihan yoga malam ini selesai, tubuh saya…
- Uses setelah = after → a time clause.
- Feels more neutral / conversational.

Meaning-wise they’re very close, but the original sentence is more like:

“The ending of tonight’s yoga session made my body much more relaxed,”
rather than
“After tonight’s yoga session ended, my body became much more relaxed.”

In this sentence, what is the subject and what is the verb?

The structure is:

Subject: Selesainya latihan yoga malam ini
Verb: membuat (made / causes)
Object: tubuh saya
Complement (degree + adjective): jauh lebih rileks

So:

Selesainya latihan yoga malam ini (subject)
membuat (verb)
tubuh saya (object)
jauh lebih rileks (object complement / result)

What is the role of “malam ini”, and can it go in a different place in the sentence?

malam ini = this evening / tonight.

In latihan yoga malam ini, it modifies latihan yoga:

literally: “tonight’s yoga practice” or “the yoga practice this evening”.

You can move malam ini around a bit:

Latihan yoga malam ini membuat tubuh saya…
Malam ini, latihan yoga membuat tubuh saya…
Latihan yoga membuat tubuh saya jauh lebih rileks malam ini. (slightly different emphasis: it’s tonight that my body feels more relaxed)

But latihan yoga ini malam is not natural; malam ini (time) normally comes after the noun phrase: latihan yoga malam ini.

What does “membuat” do here, and how is it different from just using “jadi”?

membuat literally means “to make” or “to cause”.

Selesainya latihan yoga malam ini membuat tubuh saya jauh lebih rileks.
→ The completion of tonight’s yoga made my body much more relaxed.

You could say, more colloquially:

Setelah yoga malam ini selesai, tubuh saya jadi jauh lebih rileks.

Difference:

membuat explicitly states a cause–effect relationship (X causes Y).
jadi is more like “become”; it focuses a bit more on the result (my body became more relaxed) rather than the cause.

Both are natural; membuat sounds a bit more formal/written here.

What’s the difference between “tubuh” and “badan”? Could I say “badan saya” instead?

Yes, you could say “badan saya jauh lebih rileks”, and it would be natural.

Nuances:

tubuh
- Slightly more formal / neutral, often used in written language, health, fitness, or anatomy contexts.
- Closer to “body” in a more anatomical or neutral sense.
badan
- Very common in everyday speech.
- Can mean body but also organization/company (badan usaha), etc.
- In this sentence, badan saya sounds a bit more casual and everyday.

So:

tubuh saya → stylistically fits the slightly formal tone of the original.
badan saya → more colloquial, everyday speech.

What does “jauh lebih” mean, and how is it different from just “lebih” or “sangat”?

lebih rileks = more relaxed
jauh lebih rileks = much more / far more relaxed
sangat rileks = very relaxed

So:

lebih = more (comparative)
jauh before lebih intensifies it: much, far
sangat intensifies an adjective directly, without comparison.

Examples:

Hari ini saya lebih rileks.
I’m more relaxed today.
Hari ini saya jauh lebih rileks.
I’m much more relaxed today.
Hari ini saya sangat rileks.
I’m very relaxed today (not necessarily compared to another time).

Why is it “jauh lebih rileks” and not “lebih jauh rileks”?

The pattern is:

jauh + lebih + adjective
→ jauh lebih rileks = much more relaxed

jauh can also mean “far” in distance:

lebih jauh = farther / further (distance)

But in this sentence, jauh does not mean physical distance. It is an intensifier placed before lebih to say much more.

So:

Correct: jauh lebih rileks
Incorrect / unnatural for this meaning: lebih jauh rileks

What does “rileks” mean here, and is it just a borrowed word from English?

Yes, rileks is a borrowing from English “relaxed/relax”, adapted to Indonesian spelling and pronunciation.

In this sentence:

rileks = relaxed (feeling physically and mentally loose, not tense).

Other similar words:

santai = relaxed / laid back (often in attitude or atmosphere)
tenang = calm (more about emotional calm or lack of disturbance)

You could say:

tubuh saya jauh lebih santai (more casual, everyday)
saya merasa jauh lebih tenang (emphasis on inner calm)

But rileks is very common and natural here, especially in a yoga context.

Could I just say “Latihan yoga malam ini membuat tubuh saya jauh lebih rileks” without “Selesainya”? How would that change the meaning?

Yes, that’s a perfectly natural sentence:

Latihan yoga malam ini membuat tubuh saya jauh lebih rileks.
→ Tonight’s yoga practice made my body much more relaxed.

Difference in nuance:

Selesainya latihan yoga malam ini…
Emphasizes the ending / completion of the session as the cause.
Latihan yoga malam ini…
Emphasizes the yoga session itself as the cause.

In practical communication, both will often be understood similarly, but the original is a bit more stylistic/formal and slightly more specific about “the completion” being what brings the relaxed feeling.

What does the -nya stick to, exactly? Could it be “latihannya yoga malam ini” instead of “Selesainya latihan yoga malam ini”?

In the original, -nya attaches to selesai:

selesai → selesainya

It is not attached to latihan there.

You can say latihannya in other contexts:

Latihannya capek sekali. → The practice was very tiring.
(latihan
- -nya = the practice / the training)

But changing the sentence to “Latihannya yoga malam ini membuat tubuh saya…” would sound odd; the more natural option would be:

Latihan yoga malam ini membuat tubuh saya jauh lebih rileks.

In this particular sentence, the pattern is specifically about “the completion” (selesainya) of the practice, not “the practice (latihan) itself” being definite.