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Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Had a really good workout tonight. Movements felt very smooth, downward dog seemed a little more of a strain than yesterday, but not much, and most of all, I felt flexible. Unlike the other times when I’ve done this workout recently, it really felt like I was able to get into the poses and stretch myself out again. I guess the thing about it is that it’s easy to forget how good it feels when you haven’t done it for a while… otherwise, you’d never let yourself go back. I wouldn’t, at least.
I want to start trying to focus on my breathing a little more… I think that it’s fairly good right now, but I think that I could realize some serious benefits from an energy perspective if I can align it a little more tightly with my workout. I think in the past I’ve moved from feeling worn out to feeling pretty much the same after a workout, partly due to improvements in breathing during the workout… I think further improvements could take me from feeling the same to feeling rejuvenated and energized after a workout. Right now it is mostly synchronized, but occasionally I get off and then end up puffing a bit after syncing back up. That’s partly the structure of the PY workouts, though… sometimes it seems like a breath is missing, although I’ve been finding that it’s usually that I’m missing a breath. Either way, something to monitor and search for improvement.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 2
Author: chaos

Went back to a slow workout today. It was a nice change of pace, although the breathing for this workout is hard to sync up, because it’s so much slower than the PY series. At any rate, this is the workout that initially got me started doing yoga, and it’s always good to get back to it now and then. The workout felt pretty good overall, and surprisingly steady. I was quite pleased with my half moon pose to the left, which was really solid, and I even managed to pull off a respectable Brave Warrior pose to each side, not perfect, but still probably the greatest success I’ve had with that pose to date. My legs were a bit tight, probably from pushing into the stretches a little too much yesterday. I really need to curb my impatience for progress, since a consistent daily workout will, from experience, yield greater gains than pushing too hard and having to take time off to recover. For the most part I resist the temptation, but I have a tendency to try and extend too much during stretches. At any rate, a good workout today.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Pretty much a standard workout today. I concentrated a little more on the breathing, and I think that was helpful. I felt like there was more of a continuous energy flow, uninterrupted by having to catch my breath at any point. Other than that… not much to say. Looked through Rodney Yee’s book at the bookstore today. It was somewhat interesting, showed a lot of different poses in a few states, with directions on how to get into them and with modifications that could be made. I didn’t read enough of the text to see how the book was as a whole, but the pictures were decent. He did say something about how there really aren’t bad practices or good practices for the most part, although some practices feel better because you gained some insight or were able to do a pose that you haven’t done before, while other practices are just part of the daily routine. I think I agree with that, assuming that you haven’t overextended and injured yourself in the practice. I suppose proper yogis don’t do that, though, so perhaps it’s something they don’t really consider. Anyway, that’s all for tonight.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Today’s strength session was a little wobbly. Not really bad in any other way, my muscles just felt a little more like jelly than is normal. Taking that into consideration, I think the workout went quite well. I again felt a surge or energy and renewed strength after doing crane pose, just like last time. I’m not sure if it’s because things flow better because when a pose is done correctly, and thus blood flow circulates really well when I’m in the pose, or if it’s because I just think I’ve got the pose right, and that feeling of satisfaction gives me an extra adrenaline boost. Either way, I like it, and hope it continues and expands to other poses. Other than that, not much to say about the workout. I worked on my breathing a bit more, and that was good. Also experimented a bit more with having my eyes closed, but I was feeling quite fatigued by that time, so it didn’t work as well. Hopefully next time I’ll remember to try near the beginning, and we’ll see how that goes.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

I was considering taking the night off, because I was sniffling a bit and my right forearm seemed a touch sore, but decided to go ahead and do a workout after a quick 10 minute doze, and I’m glad I did. Although there was nothing particularly amazing about the workout itself, I think I feel a little bit better than I did before I started it. Which is part of the reason I went ahead with it… I thought that I might feel better after having gone through a workout. Part of what yoga is supposed to do for you in general, and power yoga in particular, I think. At any rate, I do feel somewhat better after the workout, although I think I might go to bed a little earlier tonight.
Spent a little time in the past day watching over the videos more closely to try and pick up a few more pointers on poses. I think the biggest one I noticed is that Rodney’s lunge is very clean, with a firm, upraised back leg. I’ve had a tendency to have the back leg sag because of the quick movements between poses, so I tried to make sure I didn’t do that today, and noticed that it’s much easier to switch to the next pose, particularly when coming into standing forward bend. I tried to see if there was anything I could tweak with downward dog, but any differences are pretty much too subtle for me to see with my untrained eye. Downward dog has been going better the last week or two, it’s really not tiring me or fatiguing my shoulders now, so I think I’m getting closer to doing it correctly. It’s still not exactly what I’d call a restorative pose, though, so it still needs a bit of work. However, progress has been good, and I’m feeling like it should continue to be good for a while.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

I’ve come down with a bit of a cold/flu, and wanted a fairly light workout that would refresh without taxing. The workout served rather nicely, and I even felt that I was a little more focused than usual. Perhaps because my head is slightly congested, so (it feels like) I can’t hold as many thoughts at once and be distracted like I normally am. Regardless, it was a good workout for the time. I was tempted by YfS:s1, as I want to get back into the inverted poses, and I haven’t done that one for a while. But tonight didn’t seem like the best night for it, so I held off.
Well, if my memory serves correctly, and it may very well not, I did my first yoga session a year ago. I’ve definitely made a lot of progress in that time, both in terms of physical abilities and in mental understanding. I’m a little disappointed that I haven’t progressed further with my poses in terms of attempting more difficult ones, but it may be for the best, really. Because of the more extended times during which I didn’t do any yoga or did very little, I’ve tended to repeat workouts that I’ve done before, and concentrated more on getting the poses right, which is certainly more valuable than being able to do a greater number of poses overall, but fewer done correctly. Really, I think the disappointment is more from the fact that back last March I thought I’d be progressing to new poses fairly soon, but that never materialized. However, in retrospect, I don’t think that goal was really… in tune with the progression of the yoga practice, I guess. It was definitely more of a Western goal than anything that would come out of yoga naturally. Certainly there is a need and perhaps desire to make progress and be able to do more poses and of greater difficulty, but that goal should be more for the health benefits and understanding that come from the practice, and not merely to be able to do more poses. I guess that’s part of the way that I’ve changed, at least somewhat… I can really understand that now, whereas I know I could have intellectually understood it before, I’m not sure I would have internally comprehended exactly what that meant. I don’t know that I have a full understanding now, either, but it seems like I have a greater understanding, at any rate. Certainly I feel that my strength has increased, and my flexibility and balance undoubtedly have.
I guess in summary I consider the year to be a success, overall, and the only thing that I might change if I could would be to have not had so many breaks intervening. It could be that they were necessary for my mental growth, though, and that I’d be in a different and perhaps worse place now if it weren’t for them. At any rate, I hope to be more consistent in my practice in the upcoming year, and start to move into more advanced poses, as well as continuing to build my understanding and striving to perfect the poses that I currently know.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

I felt really good during today’s session, which is somewhat funny, since I’ve been sick (and somewhat feeling it) all day. For some reason the workout really seemed to “click” tonight. I think it may have largely been due to the fact that I think I figured out the breathing for this particular session. When reading reviews of the DVD, most people have been pretty happy, but one of the complaints that was fairly common is that the instructions for breathing and movements aren’t in sync with the video, and aren’t always complete. I recognized the incomplete problem, but it’s not really a big deal since you automatically fill in after doing the workout a couple of times. However, I don’t think I really appreciated the out of sync problem until today. The issue would seem to be that sometimes the voice is in front of the action, and sometimes behind, which isn’t so much a problem in either case, except that it switches between the two, sometimes causing you to need to speed up more than usual or slow down to stay with the video. For some unknown reason, today I realized that I should just breathe at my own speed consistent with the spacing of the breath, but not necessarily perfectly in sync with the video. Because of this, my breath stayed fairly consistent throughout the workout, and I ended up having plenty of energy, even though I might have expected a letdown due to illness. Additionally, I had a very good simple arm balance, as well as a pretty good crane pose again, and it always feels good to feel like you’ve “hit” the more difficult poses. Pendulum continues to elude me, but I’m just going to continue to study the videos and work on it. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time, although I’ll be quite happy once I finally start to get it.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

I didn’t feel like I had quite as much energy as I have for the past couple of days. I attribute this mostly to the fact that I slept quite poorly last night, and have been somewhat lacking in energy all day. I think this also affected my concentration, which affects my breathing, which affects the energy level. On a positive note, though, even with the relative lack of available resources starting out, I still had no trouble with completing the workout. It was probably a slight net positive, overall… I certainly don’t feel any worse than I did before, but I didn’t get any kind of boost really, either. At any rate, I’ve now done two complete cycles of power yoga without getting any yoga for strength in, so I’ll most likely attempt to incorporate one of those workouts tomorrow.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Finally did the anticipated YfS:s1 workout today. Glancing back through the archives, I was fairly surprised to realize that the last time that I did the complete session including the inverted poses was back in September. I guess I’ve thought about doing the session a number of times, and did the first half of it once, but hadn’t actually managed to get it in.
At any rate, the session was interesting. The vinyasa sequence that starts off the video was throwing me off a bit, because there are a number of motions that are very similar to power yoga sequences (they’re both based on the sun salutation), but both the timing and the actual following poses are different, so I’d find myself trying to move into the appropriate power yoga position, only to realize that it wasn’t right for this workout. Not really a problem, but a bit disconcerting.
The strength building section went fairly well. Either because I’m much stronger now than the last time I did it, or because my technique is much better. The two minute dog pose was a little bit difficult, but that was mostly because my hands were slipping on the mat, I think.
Inverted poses were pretty good, though I should have busted out the blankets. I’ll have to remember to actually do that next time. Or at least a small head blanket if not the whole thing. Although perhaps I’ll try skipping the chair. Not sure I’m ready for that yet, though. I’ll have to consider it before the next time I do this session. So overall, the session was pretty good. I’ll definitely have to start hitting it more often again.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

I felt a bit tender after yesterday’s workout, possibly because I haven’t done most of those poses in quite a while, but more likely because I extended myself more than I should have. I’m definitely getting better about not doing that, but I still have work to do. Anyway, I wanted to have a more laid back workout today, to ease myself through the soreness while still getting a good practice in. It was pretty successful… additionally, I’m noticing that because I’m not as challenged trying to keep up with the program, I have more time to really concentrate on my positioning, which will bleed into the rest of my workouts. For that reason, I think I’m going to have this be my default workout for when I’m not feeling up to any of the others, at least until I get to the point where I’m creating my own sequences for workouts.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Received Power Yoga: Total Body Workout yesterday and gave it a first run today. And it pretty much kicked my ass. I think I made it about a third of the way through, and then jumped to the cool down/relaxation part. The video itself is great… the voice instructions are quite clear, definitely better than any other video I’ve done. The main reason it was so tiring is that it involves doing warrior poses. Lots of times. Now, I’ve done the warrior poses all a number of times, and can do all of them reasonably well. However, it’s fairly rare to hold them for very long, and definitely not to do them multiple times within the same workout. So after 15 minutes, I was definitely getting tired… and was pretty much done after 20. Part of this, of course, is that most of the workouts I’ve been doing come in at ~25 minutes, so by the time I get to where I was today, the workout would naturally be hitting that cool down phase.
At any rate, it felt like a really good workout. I’ve already watched through the entire thing once, and I’m quite excited about being able to get to (and through!) the entire thing. I’ll probably start sequencing this in fairly often, I’m guessing maybe every third day or so. I imagine that I’ll probably build into it fairly quickly, as it will mostly be a matter of getting a bit more endurance in the legs… the strength should already be there. Really, it’s pretty much going to require more endurance all around. The instructions for breathing are clear, though, and they’re synced up with the movements pretty well, which helps a lot. So I’m looking forward to expanding my practice through this challenging new workout.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

I was somewhat tender after yesterday’s workout, so I wanted to go with my plan of falling back to Stamina as a healing workout. It’s a bit early to say for sure, but I think it may be pretty effective. I certainly didn’t feel like I strained anything further in doing the workout, and I’m guessing that it probably helped. It certainly felt pretty good while doing the workout, and that may be benefit enough, especially if there is no negative later or tomorrow.
The only real negative is one that’s been fairly constant, my left knee still has pain in deeply bending positions. The most noticable one is having it as the bent leg in one-legged forward bend, which seems to put quite a bit of strain on it. The only other time it’s really noticable at all is in simple cross-legged pose (since I can’t do lotus or half-lotus). It’s an odd location, somewhat, on the inner side of the knee. I’m going to continue watching the situation, but I think I’m going to start substituting poses to avoid stressing it when possible, and see if that helps.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 2
Author: chaos

I wanted to get something in at a slightly slower pace than the PY workouts and try and work on adjusting my poses a bit. I think it went pretty well… I felt pretty strong on my poses, even Warrior III, although my back leg was bent a little bit. I’ll have to work on that. Other than that, crane was a bit weaker. I tried extending my arms to a straighter position and slipped out. I think that my balance was subtly off. Not much else to say. While the slower pace was nice, it doesn’t give the same feel of having done a good workout as the PY sessions tend to. Will probably go to the new one again tomorrow, which should provide plenty of workout and challenge.
I’ve been doing a bit of work on the site. Added information for day of week on the date bar, and pulled the workout pictures onto a page of their own and added some description information for them. I’ll probably continue tweaking little things here and there on the site for a few more days until I decide I’m tired of playing around again. Maybe try to clean up archive access a little to make it easier to find old entries, stuff like that. I’d like to incorporate the pose pictures some more, but not quite sure how I’d go about doing that. Anyway, more little tweaks to come, and possibly a big tweak or two if I get around to them.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Had a very tiring but enjoyable workout today. Took my second crack at doing the total body workout, and it definitely went better than last time. Well, in terms of endurance, at any rate. This time I made it to the upward bow, which is not too far from where the cool down starts, if I’m remembering correctly. I felt pretty good about the workout… I was definitely getting pretty worn down by the end, but my breathing was still going well, and I didn’t really feel like I had overused my muscles. We’ll find out for sure tomorrow, I suppose. My biggest concern is that I’m not bending my front leg far enough for Warriors I and II. I’m going to try and set up a mirror for next time so I can gauge that a little better. Altogether, though, I think the workout was quite a success. Even though I don’t yet have the ability to get through all of it, I feel more energized after having done what I can. Hopefully within a few weeks I’ll be getting to upward bow with enough strength left to make a decent attempt (today I pretty much flopped it). At any rate, I’ll quite likely be hitting Stamina again tomorrow to recover from today’s workout, but if I’m not too worn out, I’ll probably go with Strength instead.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Decided to go with another restorative session today. I actually felt pretty good overall, a bit of tightness in the hamstrings and a touch sore in the shoulders was all. I considered doing something more challenging like a Strength session, but decided that I probably didn’t want to start pushing the matter quite yet. Plenty of time for that in a few weeks, when I’m a little bit better with the Total Body workout. So I spent today’s workout trying to really focus on my positioning and breathing. It’s been going fairly well, and I think that it really helps me during my other sessions, because I start correcting my posture when I don’t have as much time to think about it.
Still tinkering with the site design a little. I changed the date format to be ISO compatible, so I took the day of week indicator back off because it didn’t look right. I really want to put it on the other end of the date bar, so if I figure out how to do that without tables at some point, I probably will. I’d like to pull the information on the asanas into the workout page, perhaps, and expand my descriptions of the workout a little more as well. Not sure what else I might do… probably depends mostly on my mood.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Well, I’ve certainly had better Strength workouts. Today’s wasn’t terrible, by any means, but I did have more trouble with the arm balances than usual. During crane I was trying to adjust my positioning a bit to see if I could straighten my arms a bit more… that worked somewhat, but I slipped in the middle again. In simple arm balance, I simply started with my arms a little too far apart. I’m still working on that one, I can do it correctly but it hasn’t become automatic yet. At any rate, it seemed like a suboptimal workout, but I suppose it’s hard to have a really good workout all the time, even when you’re really good (which I’m not). So in the end you just chalk up another day and move on, probably with Total Body tomorrow.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Decided to go with this workout today instead of the Total Body workout I was originally planning. I’m not quite sure why, just felt a little out of touch, and not quite ready to challenge myself fully. I decided that can wait until tomorrow, when I’ll probably go ahead with it, ready or not. At any rate, today’s workout was pretty standard. The real highlight is that I’m also getting to the point with this workout where I’m not really struggling to keep up, and I’m concentrating more on breathing and positioning. I think as I get more into the Total Body workout, the more the rest of these workouts are going to become like that, seemingly light and easy. The only other thing of note is that it has felt like I’ve been slightly hyperextending my left knee today, a number of times. Nothing really bad, I always pull back out of it immediately, but rather annoying. Especially since I don’t have any idea why it suddenly started acting up today. Anyway, not much else to report. Hopefully I’ll have some good things to say about the workout tomorrow.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Another hard workout today. I started out feeling somewhat stiff and tired, but by the end I was feeling a lot more stretched and relaxed (and tired). Getting over the newness of the workout, so I was able to spend more time focusing on my posture and positioning during poses. Fortunately, you hold each major pose you do for a little while the first time you do it, and so you have a chance to really make the subtle adjustments to the pose and clean it up.
I had some trouble keeping my breath in sync today, at a few points. Just losing focus, I think. I managed to pick it back up in the middle of the workout, though, which helped me survive the rest of it. I made it to the upward bow again, and actually managed to briefly lift off this time, though my form might have been really off. It’s definitely going to take a few more times before I have much success with that one. I think I need to study the video a little more and see if I can make corrections from that. I think the long cool down/relaxation is helping me a lot, though… I’m getting into more of a relaxed state than I’ve managed previously.
I’m definitely coming out of this workout feeling better than when I go in for the most part, though. On the front cover of the case it suggests that the workout “Detoxifies & balances the entire body”, and I think that’s fairly accurate. Perhaps the other thing it’s supposed to do, “Connects the body, mind & breath” is most responsible for that, though. Proper breathing gives greater oxygen to the system, allowing the body to function better. That’s the theory, at any rate, but I’m not about to debate it at this point. Anyway, I’m feeling pretty good right now, I guess I’ll wait and see how I feel after waking up tomorrow.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Decided to try something crazy and go with this workout again today. Instead of running straight through the workout, though, started off by warming up with about half of the first section, then jumping to the third, which focuses on backbends. Because of this, I was able to get into upward bow for a little bit. It’s kind of weird, it seems like it should be really hard when you look at it, but it actually feels pretty good while you’re in it. I still need to do some work on it, but I’m getting the idea, at any rate. I imagine that when I’ve got it down well, it will feel as rewarding as shoulderstand.
Other than that… I’ve been frustrated with my lack of progress in flexibility lately. I know that I’m expecting too much, wanting things to happen overnight and stuff, and I’m trying to resist that. Still, it can be hard at times when it doesn’t seem like anything is changing. I just have to sit back and be patient. Although I think I’ll start looking into some things and see if I can’t work on my hip flexibility independently of the yoga (and without damaging anything). I think the most frustrating part is that it always seems like the knees are the holdup, but I’m pretty certain that’s not the case. Anyway, I’ll just have to continue working on it.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Had a fairly rewarding workout today. I wanted to do something a little more challenging than Stamina, but not as much as Strength. I was a bit concerned that my shoulders were feeling tired, but that turned out not to be an issue. YfS:s2 seemed like a possibility, but last time it felt like it was a little too easy, so I wanted more of a challenge than that. I think this ended up being a very good choice. There was plenty of time to spend working on technique, since it’s a slow-paced session, and there was a fair amount of challenge with the headstand preparation and the two minute downward dog. That went really well… I was quite surprised, actually. I would have had a tough time holding it for much longer, but I was able to maintain pretty good form throughout, better than I’ve managed at any time in the past, I think. Bridge pose also felt like it went well, I think I understand the positioning for it a lot better now than I used to. Shoulderstand felt good… I’m beginning to understand why many of the inverted poses are considered to be cooling and restorative. They feel really good while you’re doing them. At any rate, it felt like quite the successful session, although I think I might have been too far off of my blankets in shoulderstand. My head feels like it’s been compressed a bit. We’ll see if I feel the effects tomorrow, as I did the last time I did this session.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

My body was starting to feel the effects of the last couple of days, so I went with a light workout today. Really, the only objective was to stretch out the muscles a bit, which was easily accomplished. Concentration did seem to be a bit lacking, which is unfortunate. Overall, I don’t feel like I got much out of the workout, but it did help stretch and relax the muscles, which is all that was really needed.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Had another pretty good session tonight. I was focusing a lot on my breathing, which usually seems to be a good thing. It’s much easier to keep a consistent breathing pattern when I’m paying full attention to it. The high point of the session was crane pose… I focused on really getting my positioning down, and managed to extend my arms fully, which I was pretty happy with. I also realized while attempting to do pendulum pose that my problem isn’t necessarily a lack of strength, but that I’m afraid of falling forward. Since the positioning of the arms is essentially the same as crane pose, just with legs tucked in instead of out, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to at least lift up in pendulum. I’m going to have to explore that a little further in the next couple of days. Simple arm balance was a bust again… but I know what I did wrong again, as well. So I just have to work more on setting that one up properly, and I should stop having problems with it. Nothing else of much note… my calf muscle in my left leg almost cramped during full Eastern plank pose. I suspect that I might be doing the pose wrong. Something else I’ll have to look into. Overall, though, the workout felt like a success, which I guess just enhances the sense that being in mental touch with your body while practicing is important.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Considered doing the Total Body workout today, but decided to go ahead and rest up another day before hitting that again. Finished off the Complete Workout series with Flexibility instead. It’s somewhat amusing, in that this used to feel like a pretty tough workout, but now it seems like one of the lighter workouts. I suppose that might be considered progress.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Had a really good workout today. I really felt like doing this workout, which undoubtedly helps the cause, but I also felt that I was really ready for this workout. I think being mentally prepared in that fashion really helped with concentrating on the workout, especially in the beginning when it’s easy to have the mind start wandering. I was able to keep my breathing well synced with the workout as well, which certainly helped in the energy department as I got into the middle part. I felt pretty good about most of the poses, too, like I had a very clear idea of what I needed to do for each pose, and focusing on making the subtle adjustments that really allow the body to fully experience the pose. I haven’t been doing as much of that as I should, lately, or so it seems after tonight. Part of that is that the instruction is so much clearer on this video, so just paying attention and following the directions really allows you to work on perfecting your poses. Add to that the mental readiness, and it was a recipe for a good workout.
Things felt really good overall… though that final warrior III pose after all the rest of the stuff was pretty hard. I know I should be staying focused on the poses, but it’s hard not to realize that if I can make it through the warrior III poses, then I’m on to the backbend section, and my legs will get a rest. On the subject of the backbends, managed to fully get into the first upward bow today. It feels really expanding when you’re in the pose. I got into the second one for a little bit, but my legs had had enough by that point, and I fell back out of it pretty quickly. I decided to pass on attempting the third one for today. Other than that… I’ve started adjusting my poses that require tight bending of the knees to not pressure the left knee, which hasn’t recovered. I’m a little concerned about that, but I’ve also been pressuring it for most of the time since I first noticed it. Now that I’m compensating to not do that (fortunately it only affects really sharp bends, like one-legged forward bend, but not things like warrior II), I’m hoping that it will start to heal. Obviously if it doesn’t recover I’ll probably have to have it looked at, but I’d rather avoid that if possible. Anyway, feeling clean and full of energy after my shower, so I’m going to call this a good day.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

I was actually planning on doing a Stamina into Strength workout, but for some reason I was extra warm today during the Stamina workout, and it felt like I was getting a much better workout than usual. So I decided to hold off on doing additional workouts until such time as I feel that they’re necessary to have a rewarding experience. That point is coming fairly soon, I think, but not quite yet, for the most part. I imagine that after PY:Total Body has become relatively simple to complete, doing the other workouts in twos or threes will become more commonplace, but that’s still a bit in the future. For now I’m just going to play it by ear, particularly when leading off with one of the easier workouts, and see how that goes.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Had a fairly good session tonight. Not quite as inspiring as the last time I did this session, but decent, all the same. I had a lot of concentration again tonight, so I was working a lot on making the subtle adjustments to poses again. I think I finally actually understand side angle pose. Admittedly, I could still be wrong, but it definitely feels more “right” now. I definitely think I’m doing better with bridge pose, as I’m getting to be more level on the top of the pose, and yet don’t feel like I’m straining anything to do it. The two minute downward dog was a little rough today… part of the problem was that I was using a different mat, which isn’t as sticky as the one I normally use. So I was having problems with my hands wanting to slide. Also, I realized that the last few times I’ve been doing shoulderstand, I’ve been coming up too high, and end up putting a lot of pressure on my neck, which is bad. Now that I’ve realized this, hopefully I’ll be able to correct it in future workouts. This should take care of the problems I’ve had the last couple of times with having a headache after the session. Actually, I think it already has helped, as I don’t have a headache now. At any rate, it was a good session for making adjustments and continuing to improve positions, and consequently, the usefulness of the practice.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

I was feeling a bit stiff after yesterday’s session and not getting much sleep, so I decided to try and stretch out a little bit with a flexibility workout. I was very focused on trying to really maximize and extend my muscles, particularly early in the workout, and I think I might have picked up a few more subtle lessons from the workout. I have to say that I’ve never had downward dog be that much of a resting pose, but the first one I did today felt really good. I can definitely see the potential in the future for it to be a very restorative pose. Other than that, it was a pretty standard workout, except that I felt a bit of a sense of purpose while doing it, particularly early on. I think I was just really eager to get stretched out. At any rate, I’ll have to see how I feel tomorrow, might do a Total Body workout if I’m inspired, otherwise probably YfS:s2.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

I was originally thinking of doing a YfS:s2 session today, but decided that a fast-paced workout would feel a little better. I think that it was a good choice… while I did feel a bit tired during the workout, my breathing was pretty good during the entire workout, and I feel a lot more stretched and relaxed now. The workout itself was decent… I was taking deeper breaths than usual today, and that helped me keep it regulated. Crane pose was once again a success… I was able to extend my forearms fully. It’s not perfect yet, as my legs were slipping, I think because I need to remember to keep them firm against my arms while I straighten the arms. Simple arm balance was a bit better, still not all that good. I’ve done it really well once, and haven’t managed to repeat that yet, which is a bit annoying. I might try practicing it once or twice outside the context of the workout, see if that helps.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 2
Author: chaos

Today’s session was interesting, in an academic sort of way. It was fairly miserable in terms of poses… I had difficulty with just about everything, at least until I got to the arm balances. I did manage to get off the ground for a few seconds in pendulum pose, which is definitely an improvement. And crane pose went pretty well, although it didn’t seem like it was. I didn’t get my arms quite as straight as I would have liked, but I also didn’t have trouble with my legs slipping. Other than that, though, the session didn’t go particularly well. I felt strangely distant from the workout, almost as if my mind was detached and merely observing my body go through the motions of the workout. I’m really not certain why this was… don’t even have any guesses. Regardless, this disconnectedness was definitely affecting my ability to balance, so I had a lot of trouble with the standing poses. The only other interesting thing was when doing forward bend, where I was actually managing to let gravity take me deeper into the pose. Unfortunately, it also felt like gravity wanted to tilt me forward onto my head, so there was a bit of conflict there. I might need to work on tucking my spine more inward to avoid being pulled forward. Anyway, the positive note of the session was definitely pendulum pose… hopefully this means that I’ll actually start progressing with that one.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Finally got back to this workout today. I’m not sure if it was because of the long break, or because of some other factors, but I had a bit of a harder time tonight than last time. It was mostly just a matter of my legs becoming fatigued more easily than last time. There was also the matter of being fairly shaky in half-moon pose, and barely getting into warrior III at all. On the other hand, I did manage to do two full upward bows, so that was an improvement.
Concentration was still a little lacking today, but better than yesterday. I started out with focus, lost it for a bit, then went back to it, and then lost it again. I was even having trouble maintaining focus during the cool down phase. I managed to get it back for part of relaxation pose, which was nice. Still, definitely didn’t have the same focus today that I had last time, so I have to work on that. Also, I need to drink more water, as I think that was part of my leg fatigue problem. Not sure about that one, but it’s a good idea anyway… think I drank less than usual today. Don’t know what workout I’m going to hit tomorrow, possibly this one again where I skip over the middle section.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

As anticipated, I did this workout again today. I did much more of it than I had expected… in a number of ways, I felt better than I did yesterday. I wish I knew exactly what the difference was, so that I could potentially use that information to be better prepared for future workouts. I did end up skipping a bit of it, simply because I didn’t want to overextend myself after yesterday’s workout. I felt like I was more ready to complete the workout today at the point where I stopped than I was yesterday at that same point, though. Somewhat interesting. Upward bow went fairly well again today, I did another two of three. I also skipped a few of the cool down poses to avoid potentially aggravating my left knee. I spent a lot more time in reclined cobbler’s pose instead, working on release my hip joints to the floor. Not there yet, but perhaps getting closer.
Well, this completes the month of January, a workout for every day. When I started the month I really didn’t anticipate having the ability to successfully go with a workout every day without either burning out or simply being too sore to continue. Getting a new workout to do in the middle probably helped keep motivation up, and being strategic about alternating workouts most likely kept soreness from becoming a major factor.
I’m not entirely certain where I’m going with the workout in the future. I don’t anticipate that I’ll be able to continue working out every day indefinitely, so I anticipate that I’ll probably start taking the occasional day off. I do intend to maintain a schedule of at least 6 days/week. I may try experimenting by going for a few more weeks and then taking a few days off, and after that going to a 6 workout/week schedule, and see if either of those seem to work better. The six weeks on to 1 week off is more of a weightlifting type schedule, so I’m not sure it’s as applicable to this situation. I anticipate that doing the six days on/day off will be more sustainable for this, but since I’m already at nearly five weeks of continuous workouts, it makes sense to go ahead and test that theory now instead of trying again later. So, I probably will end up doing that, and then taking a few days off in a couple of weeks.