BBM Connection

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Unfortunately, I still haven’t made my recovery from illness, so I’ve been continuing to hold off on the more vigorous workouts. Vigorous in terms of movement, anyway… this workout is certainly vigorous enough in its area.
The workout today went fairly well… probably about the same as last time in terms of the amount of effort I seemed to be putting in to it. However, I definitely felt like my concentration on keeping my neck relaxed was the best it has been for this workout, which makes today’s workout probably a little bit better than last time. I definitely have the feeling of making progress with the workout, which is good. It’s difficult to say if it’s helping me with the other workouts, since I’ve hardly done any other workouts since getting this video. However, I think abdominal strength is probably a key factor that I’ve… well, not precisely been missing, but had in lesser quantity than I would probably like. At any rate, I’ll probably go ahead and try to get in another workout tomorrow, unless I’m feeling particularly miserable, which is certainly a possibility.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, another few days, and still sick. I think I’m finally improving, though, and should be fully recovered in the next couple of days. I probably could have done a different workout in the last couple of days, but due to lots of sleeping, didn’t manage to do so. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back to something besides the abs workout, though.
The workout today went fairly well yet again. It would definitely seem like my abs are getting stronger… they don’t seem to feel nearly as strained, and the only time that it becomes difficult to hold the poses is during the sequence of boat poses at the end of the abs working portion of the workout. I’m definitely looking forward to the time when that’s not really a struggle, either. Other than that… continued to work on keeping the face and neck relaxed. It’s much harder than you might think, but I only occasionally catch myself tensing, so that’s good. My breathing still isn’t ideal… the voice sync for the workout isn’t the greatest, and I haven’t become quite familiar with it enough to synchronize fully on my own. Something I’ll be continuing to work on, of course, and will hopefully perfect reasonably soon.

Workout: No workout
Author: chaos

I’ve been doing some more tinkering with the site design for the past couple of weeks, and I think I’ve finally put things in a state that I’m mostly satisfied with. There are still a few things that I’d like to do something a little more with, but I’m mostly content for now.
I’ve been working on my ">master archives for quite a while now, and have finally linked them into my main pages. I’d like to change the order of months at the top, and have January first in the list, but to do so definitely would require a plugin, and even then I’m not sure how easy it would be. I may or may not get around to fixing that.
I’ve added a menu bar at the bottom of the monthly archives pages to match the top bar, and theoretically aid navigation through the monthly archives. I’ve also made it so that if you’re working backwards through the archives, you automatically start at the bottom of the page. My theory for this was that in general, someone reading through archives in a consistent manner will want to read the entries chronologically. So someone reading forward in time (past to present) will start at the beginning, read down a page, and go to the top of the next page. Someone reading backwards in time will do the opposite… start at the bottom of a page, read up, and then go to the bottom of the next page. I’m not sure most people actually read through in that way, so perhaps it’s just an annoyance, but it seems useful to me.
I’ve changed the middle option on the menu bar in the individual archive pages to jump into the current month, rather than back to main. The reason for this is that the monthly archives then become easily accessed from the individual archives, and since the main page can always be accessed either by clicking the banner or using access key 1, it seemed redundant to have the link in the menu bar.
On the main page, I’ve added a link to the master archive page, and made the dropdown menu for that dual level, so that it is possible to jump to any entry in my archives from there. I currently have it set to locate the entry within my monthly archives, because the only advantage to jumping to the individual entry is that comments can only be posted from there. However, the individual archive is accessible from the monthly archive, and going into the monthly archive allows for easier reading in context by having the surrounding entries readily available. I may change it back to linking directly to the individual archives if there are user complaints, but I don’t sense that happening.
Most of the rest of the things I’ve been working on have been “behind the scenes” stuff, as it were. I’ve made all of the pages on the site XHTML 1.0 Strict, which you can check with the W3C Validator. I did a lot of cleaning on my Movable Type templates, which will hopefully make things easier to manage and change in the future. I’m working on an about page, which will primarily feature such exciting information as the validations for the site as well as the plugins that I’m using. In terms of upcoming changes, I need to finish the about page, update my ">workouts page, and potentially change the color scheme around. I’d also like to clean up my CSS a little bit, and perhaps make a few more changes in the menu bar. Overall, though, I’m fairly happy with the site as it is, and probably won’t be making any major changes for a while.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I was planning on starting back into the other workouts before I did another abs workout, but it doesn’t seem to have worked out that way. There has been a great deal of sleeping accomplished in the past few days, possibly my body making up for all of the sleep it should have been getting while I was fully sick. I really don’t understand how the body tries to heal itself sometimes, but I suppose there’s not much more to do than work with what you have. At any rate, I did advance the schedule somewhat to do this workout in the morning instead of later tonight. I’m hoping that this will set me up to do another workout tonight, or at least a different one tomorrow night. It’s been over two weeks now since my last workout other than abs, and my body is getting restless for one… at least while it’s not sleeping. Since I’ll probably be trying to shift into a more regular schedule (for me) in the next day or two, there’s a decent chance I’ll get another workout in tonight. At any rate, I’m feeling pretty much restored, just a little bit off here and there. Hopefully that will go away within the next day or two, and I’ll be back to full strength.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Finally got back into other workouts today with a total body workout. It was pretty decent, if a bit short. Things were going well through the first section, I was feeling pretty good throughout it, and then I hit the beginning of the second section. My legs pretty much turned to jelly trying to get through the warrior I poses, and I decided that it would probably be the course of greatest wisdom to go ahead and skip to the last section for some cooldown. Not quite sure why I so quickly started to encounter difficulties… quite possibly lingering effects from being sick, I suppose. I can’t say it was overly disappointing… I thought that perhaps I should take it a little easier, being the first day back after a fairly extended break from those types of workouts. So when I became shaky, it seemed like that was most likely the best option. Overall, though, it felt good, and it was definitely nice to get back to a workout. It wasn’t quite as inspiring as I might have hoped for, but that’s probably mostly an effect of the long break as well. Regardless, I’m guessing workouts will probably be more frequent if still sporadic in the next week, and then I’ll probably be getting back into a consistent rhythm again.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Wow. I don’t know if it was because my abs didn’t get their usual break between workouts, or if it was some other factor, but they certainly hurt today. One of the best things about this workout is that it’s so basic that there really is very little that can reasonably be adjusted. So it’s a fairly simple matter to make sure you’re going through the workout correctly, and there’s very little variation between workouts. So that can pretty much be eliminated as a factor in determining what the cause of soreness might be.
All that said, I think it’s probably the fact that I got in the total body workout yesterday that was causing the unexpected fatigue. Since my abs have been getting into the routine of having a workout and then having two days off before the next, it was probably a bit of a shock to them. Something they’ll just have to get used to… I’m sure it will be beneficial in the long run. In the meantime, I’ll just have to continue working through and building up those necessary muscles. And look forward to when all of this ab work will pay off, of course.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Yet another abs workout. This one was definitely easier than the last, lending some credence to my theory that my abs were adversely affected by actually having to do another workout. Which is really just too bad, since they’re going to have to get used to it.
Well, I found that I was quite tender after doing the Total Body workout the other day, presumably due to the long break between non-abs workouts. So I decided to go ahead and take yesterday off. Was strongly considering a PY:Strength workout today, but decided to go ahead and hold off for another day. Get a bit more healing in, and another good abs workout as well. Planning on working my way back into the groove a little more with either the Strength workout or Total Body again tomorrow. Eventually, I hope to do abs workouts on the same day as other workouts, to really maximize development. That’s probably still a ways in the future, but that’s the current goal I’m going for.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Well, I managed to motivate myself and get in a strength workout. It felt really good, for the most part. Probably in part because it’s been so long, so basically all of my muscles have fully recovered from any lingering fatigue that they may have been experiencing before. Whatever the reason, my muscles felt very fresh for the beginning of the session. I also felt like I was very much focused on the workout, more so than even some of my better days. All of that contributed to feeling like I was really having a good workout. It continued pretty much throughout the workout… while doing crane pose, I started to slip but was able to recover without falling out of the pose, which I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do before. And I was pretty successful with simple arm balance, managing to get up in the air a little more than before without falling backwards. Actually, I almost did overbalance, but I recovered out of that as well. Maybe it was the extra effort from those recoveries that caused me to be fatigued near the end. Or possibly just lingering effects from being sick, or perhaps the long break since I last did the workout. Whatever the cause, I definitely started to feel a little tired at the end… not quite as steady, particularly when moving between the standing poses. Which is a bit of a concern, but not too much. I imagine that after getting another few workouts in, I’ll be back to where I was a few weeks ago, or possibly more advanced despite the break. I did notice that I felt significantly more flexible today, as well. Whether that will last or not remains to be seen, but hopefully it’s a good sign for the near future.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Wow. I haven’t had that little focus during a workout in quite a while. It may have been because the phone rang in the first few minutes of the workout, which is always a bit distracting. I have the sense that I really wasn’t mentally prepared for the workout today, though, and the phone just made matters slightly worse than they would have been otherwise. Somewhat discouraging, at any rate.
However, the workout itself was okay. I definitely felt a little bit stronger in the abs today… I seemed to be much steadier overall. Usually I shake a fair amount, particularly during the boat poses, but I was much more solid tonight. That was pretty much the highlight of the workout… the level of distraction really took away from that, though, and has left a feeling of dissatisfaction with the workout as a whole. Will probably get Total Body in tomorrow, and hopefully my focus will be much improved.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I’m still having some difficulty with getting other workouts in. But I’m keeping up with the abs workouts, and I seem to be able to do them more frequently as well. I suspect that I’ll get back into the regular workout groove in the next few days.
Anyway, today’s session went well. I was far more focused than last time. It’s really somewhat amazing what a difference that makes… in terms of the physical aspects, I don’t think today was that different, but it felt so much better. I guess it just helps continually remind one of how important the mental aspect of yoga is. At any rate, the physical aspects were pretty good as well… no real soreness, and less shaky than ever. The only time I really had a problem with trembling whatsoever was the very last boat pose, with the hands behind the head. But even that was pretty firm, and I felt good while holding it and coming out of it. It’s definitely nice to see distinct signs of improvement… now hopefully I’ll start taking that from this workout, and using it in the other workouts as well.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Got another abs session in today. I’ve been feeling pretty enh for the last couple of days, which is probably why I haven’t gotten any other sessions in. Not sure what the problem is. A lot of disorientation, but nothing terribly consistent besides that. Hopefully something that I can work through, or motivate myself to work out through yoga.
Today’s workout went reasonably. Not quite as good as last time, but not bad. I didn’t really feel weaker or anything, just shakier. Since I haven’t tied the shakiness to anything in particular, it’s somewhat difficult to identify reasons for it. General disorientation is a good of a reason as any, I suppose, at least for today. Anyway, I might try sneaking in a different workout a little later, but I suspect that probably won’t actually happen.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Well, I finally managed to convince myself to do another non-abs workout today. Started out the workout feeling somewhat sore and a little tight. Both of these things were rather odd, since I have no idea why I would be sore, and while tightness isn’t necessarily odd, it was in my calves, which is rather unusual. The conditions went away after warming up a bit, so I’m rather uncertain as to what the cause may have been, or if it will cause soreness tomorrow.
It was a very shaky workout… pretty much every time I was positioned only on my feet, I was trembling a little bit, and tended to sway a touch in mountain pose. Again, I really don’t have a good explanation… I don’t think my focus was the greatest, but that usually doesn’t cause those types of problems. Aside from those issues, the workout went decently… overbalanced in simple arm balance, but that was a dumb mistake I made in balancing. Regardless, I’m still trying to kick start myself on getting back into a daily routine, which should be easy having abs to do every third day or so. I’ll probably get abs in tomorrow, and then we’ll see if I can manage to progress from there.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Some days are definitely better than others for any given workout. Today wasn’t really one of my better ones for the abs workout. It was somewhat disappointing, because I felt like conditions were pretty good for a solid workout. For some reason I just wasn’t really with it, though. In particular, I was having a hard time keeping my neck relaxed today. I consider that to be one of the key components of the workout, maintaining relaxation (as much as possible) throughout the body while exercising the abdominals. The neck is certainly one of the harder areas to actually accomplish that with… I, at least, have a tendency to tense my neck while doing exercises, and given the emphasis on relaxing the neck in particular, I suspect that many people share this tendency. So about half the effort of the workout, I’d say, goes into actually doing the poses, while the other half goes into not tensing up while doing the poses. A somewhat interesting balance, to be sure. While today certainly wasn’t horrible, I’ve had better.
On the good side, I did notice that I no longer feel sore or even really fatigued in the abs after completing the workout, and haven’t really for a while. I can definitely recall the first couple of times doing the workout when it felt like it would be days before I recovered, so I’ve definitely improved from that. Anyway, just wanted to keep the routine going, and hopefully try to roll with another workout tomorrow, preferably Total Body, but I might even go for PY:Stamina if necessary just to try and get the habit of daily yoga started again.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Woo. Managed to get a full session of total body in, minus one of the upward bows. I wasn’t at all convinced going into the session that I’d be able to get through the entire thing… I figured I’d just do as much as I could. However, my breathing was really good, especially for the first part of the workout, and I think that really helped get me through. Granted I certainly became shakier than I usually have in the past, but I managed to just keep working and got through it. Surprisingly, it wasn’t until after I got through the warrior I to warrior III sequence that I really started to feel the shakiness kick in. Usually it hits me just before or after the first warrior I, and that’s pretty much the end of the warrior sequences. Whether it has any signficance will have to wait to be seen.
One somewhat unfortunate thing that I noted during today’s workout was that my left knee still hasn’t fully healed, and I may have strained it more than I should have during the session. It’s been somewhat easy to forget about the knee problems, since the abs workout really doesn’t affect them at all, nor does the PY:Strength workout. So while I certainly hadn’t forgotten about the problems, they weren’t coming up very often. The right knee seems to have recovered, for the most part, which is good. I’ll just have to remember to keep avoiding strain to the left as much as possible, and try to work towards its recovery.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, this is the fourth day in a row that I’ve managed to do a workout. It’ll take a bit longer to make sure that it’s really consistent, but it seems like I’m finally getting back into the habit, even if half the workouts are still abs workouts.
As I suspected was likely, I somewhat overdid it yesterday with the total body workout. My entire body is a bit sore today, and my legs are quite sore. This wasn’t an unexpected result… really, not even a discouraging one. A price I pay for having slacked off too much. Hopefully it will motivate me not to do so again, at least until I forget again, which will only take a few weeks, I’m sure. I really want to get back into the habit of daily workouts, though, so with luck once I’ve gone a couple of weeks, I’ll be to the point where my body will feel the need for a workout on a daily basis.
Today’s workout was about usual. Definitely felt a little more weary in the abs than I have been lately, but similar to last time that I did the abs workout a day after doing total body. Not as bad this time, though, which shows improvement. I had better concentration today as well, and I think I mostly managed to avoid tensing my neck through the workout, so that was good. I continue trying to tweak my exact positioning, hopefully to get the most out of the workout.
I’ve added a few more authors to this forum, which will maybe spice it up, and make it a little more interesting. I have no idea when they might start posting, or even if they will for sure, but it seems fairly likely that they will at some point. I’ll probably be making a few minor modifications (most likely just adding an author name, for now) in the next few days to adjust for that. Other than that… I’ve updated the workout page, although not fully. I still need to work on the about page. It’ll probably happen whenever I once again become motivated to tinker with things, I’d guess in a month or so.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

It’s certainly been a while since I’ve done this workout. For two reasons, really… the first being that since I’ve been slacking off, I haven’t been doing much besides abs yoga. The other reason, and more important one overall, is that it just feels too light these days. If I want a light workout, it feels like I can just do the first section of total body, and skip to the last section, and that will be a good light workout for me. I think the only pose that I would really miss that way is warrior I, and if I wanted to do the first pose of the second section, I’d pick that up as well. They are slightly different workouts, certainly, and just the first section of total body requires a bit more endurance, particularly in the legs, than the stamina workout does. But overall, it currently feels like if I want a light workout, I have a few other options that I’d choose before this one.
I chose to do this one today for that reason, mostly… to test whether my general impression of it was correct. I think that it is… I don’t really foresee myself going back to this workout much at all in the future, at least not as a standalone. As part of a two or three workout sequence, certainly… after I’ve gotten back into the daily habit for a while, I could definitely see my workout moving to be PY:Stamina + PY:Strength, since that would provide a good strength workout, and the stamina would warm me up nicely. Hard to say exactly when that might start happening, though. I also chose this workout because I was in need of a light workout… still feeling the effects of the total body workout the other day. Given how sore I still am, I’m guessing I’ll probably be feeling them tomorrow as well, and will hopefully be recovered by the day after that. I think I’ll try to sequence in another workout tomorrow, perhaps PY:Strength or one of the Yoga for Strength sessions, and probably an abs workout the day after that (maybe checking out the balanceball workout, finally). Provided I haven’t caused any more soreness (at least not serious soreness) by that time, I’ll most likely go for another Total Body workout the day after that. Of course, this is all speculation… I might just slack off, too. But I think I’m getting away from that, for the moment at least. We’ll have to see how long that lasts.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: mlee

as chaos got me to try the yoga thing, and got me started off, i thought i should commemorate my first yoga session here. monday night i decided to jump in and started yoga (practice) for strength, session 1. downward dog is a bitch.

just can’t quite get my heels down. also i hadn’t watched the video carefully enough to go off of audio cues alone, and the way my living room is situated i didn’t have much flexibility in getting a good view of the TV most of the time. so i ruined probably numerous poses (especially during the first two sequences) by keeping my head constantly turned looking back at the TV. it was nice though — i definitely didn’t feel great in terms of my muscles saying “hey wtf are you doing?”, but i could definitely tell that if i kept this up that my back and body would be grateful. “almost” refreshing is perhaps a good way to put it.

made it through the vinyasa, which was cool. when i got to the inverted poses section, i realized i hadn’t actually watched that part yet (at least, awake). but i tried to follow along anyway. copped out of the downward dog exercises, but attempted the rest. the headstand ones were kind of annoying. i liked the shoulderstand ones (great for the back), but i probably didn’t do myself any favors by attempting it without a blanket or towel (or belt) and using a futon instead of a chair. also, there’s just not enough room in my living room to properly do the leg side stretches without wiggling around as i go. i made it through though! nice first session.

i was hoping to get a session in today, but 1) i worked really, really late, and 2) i jumped around a lot at work today, and having not done much athletic activity lately i actually really tired out my legs. it’s possible that fatigue from last night figured in (plus perhaps truncated sleep), but i didn’t feel any adverse effects earlier in the day. so i’ll just go to sleep, and perhaps pick it up again tomorrow.

thanks for the recommendation, chaos!

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: Kristi

I tried the dvd from chaos on Sunday. Or, well, part of it. It should be good once I get into the swing of things. That’s Gaiam’s Total Body Yoga with Rodney Yee. I’m looking forward to getting good at it. I’m also looking forward to my hamstrings not hurting so much.

I tried a dvd from the library yesterday. It’s Power Yoga for Runners, and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. It has a lot of the sun salute stuff and then some leg stretches. I didn’t watch all the info so maybe they explained why it was particularly good for runners. The one nice thing about it was that it was 30 minutes and therefore fit easily into my day. I felt really energized while I was doing it, but then with the 5 minutes of relaxation pose at the end, I got kind of calmed down again. Anyway, glad I got it from the library and didn’t pay for it.

It’ll be back to Rodney today or tomorrow I guess! I’m wondering if I should hold off since my hamstrings hurt …

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

As a continuation of the idea that I started yesterday, I decided to go ahead and do the flexibility workout today. My thinking coming in to this one was that although I tend to dismiss it as a not terribly strenuous workout, it does have several very good stretches that I don’t really see in any of my other workouts. So I wanted to check it out, see if the stretches were as good as I remember, and see how the level of workout felt.
Overall, it was a pretty decent workout. A little bit harder than I remembered, actually. It’s possible that I usually underestimate it, simply because so much of the end is stretching, so it doesn’t seem (by the time I write about it) that the workout was all that difficult. It’s not terribly challenging, certainly, but it does manage to give a reasonable workout. And the stretching is definitely as good as I remember it being. So while this probably won’t be one of my top workouts, it will continue to have a unique place in the collection for now.
On a rather unfortunate side note, I fear that I’ve undone the work of the last two or so months in taking care of my knee with the workout the other day. It seems to be as bad as it was before, though not any worse. I suppose I’m just going to have to return to watching what I do with it very carefully, and make sure not to pressure it if at all possible. If it keeps up, I’ll probably have to have it looked at at some point, which is irritating, but perhaps necessary.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

Continuing the trend of evaluating workouts, I decided to try out the abs balanceball workout today for the first time. I watched it through a few days ago so that I’d have an idea of what I was getting into before actually doing it, and realized then that it was probably going to be more of a workout than I originally expected. It lived up to my revised expectations, providing a decent abdominal workout, and in slightly different areas than does the Abs:Yoga workout.
It’s actually difficult to say which one is tougher… the balanceball workout definitely felt like it was working me harder than the yoga workout has been lately, but on the other hand, it’s also targeting a slightly different muscle group within the abdominals. It didn’t seem nearly as hard as when I did the yoga workout for the first time, but I’ve been building ab strength through that yoga workout for the last month, so it shouldn’t be as hard. Also, since I’m not familiar with being on the balanceball or some of the motions that were being done, the workout was perhaps neither as effective as it will eventually be, nor as easy in terms of proper alignment. I’m not even certain if it’s all that useful to compare the two, since I think the target areas are different enough to easily warrant doing both workouts. The largest problem with the balanceball workout is going to be the fact that it will take me at least a few more runs through it before I can rely on just the audio cues, which means a greater setup time each time I want to do a workout. This may cause it to be more neglected than it would otherwise be, but I’m going to try and keep things positioned so that I can relatively easily get a view of the screen, and keep this workout in the rotation. With a little dedication, it shouldn’t be too much longer before I can start doubling up abs workouts, either with each other or with a different yoga workout on the same day. By that time I should be able to do the balanceball workout just on audio cues, and might be about ready to take on the pilates workout.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

I feel like I had a really good session today. It’s been quite a while since I’ve done this session, so I wasn’t quite certain what to expect from it. My memories of the session were more general than specific… a good feeling from doing the inverted poses, particularly shoulderstand, a bit of effort for the vinyasa sequence, shoulder fatigue from the headstand preparation and two minute downward dog sequence. I suppose with those memories, I was expecting a decent workout and some spine straightening from shoulderstand.
What I got was perhaps the best workout I’ve had from this session, and one of the better workouts I’ve had from any session. Not so much in terms of physical exertion, but in terms of mental groundedness and feeling like I was connecting with my body. For whatever reason, I was able to start the session in a very calm frame of mind, and I believe that was very beneficial to the overall practice.
The first highlight of the workout was probably triangle pose. I’ve been having fairly successful triangle poses for a while, but I’ve never really felt that I’m getting as much torque in my waist as I’d like. I felt really good about that today, and noted that at least on the left side, I was able to look at my top hand with both eyes comfortably, without straining my neck. That was pretty encouraging, and hopefully will lead to having the pose “perfected” in the relatively near future. Side stretch also went well, if perhaps not quite as well as triangle. I was focusing on my leg position, which I almost never do, and I think that was helpful to the integrity of the pose. I’d still like to be able to get a more full stretch from that, but I’ll have to keep working on it.
The headstand prep/downward dog sequence was more notable for its lack of notability. I remember that I used to feel a fair amount of fatigue in the first part, where you put your forearms on the ground from dog pose. Today, I couldn’t figure out why that would have been tiring. It made for a somewhat amusing mental disconnect, with memories of great effort and the reality of quite little effort. Headstand prep itself was about normal, perhaps a slightly greater understanding of head positioning relative to the hands. The two minute downward dog was fatiguing, and yet not. Certainly my shoulders were feeling the effort, but not the way they used to. It was a different type of feeling… I’m not sure that I can explain it. I suppose the most interesting characteristic is that the sensation was fleeting… pretty much immediately after releasing the pose, I didn’t feel as if I had just put any significant strain on my shoulders. Perhaps I’m now pulling enough weight onto my legs, as I’m supposed to be. On the other hand, my right arm felt a little tingly during the pose, as if it were going numb. Perhaps the pose needs a little bit of tweaking, still.
Shoulderstand was the next high point. I’ve felt for quite a while that shoulderstand is an excellent restorative pose (it’s supposed to be), and for the most part have gotten that in my workouts, except for one factor… putting too much pressure on my neck. I wasn’t quite sure how this was happening, since it seemed like I was following the directions, but still, I unquestionably felt the effects. Today I came to the realization that I had been misinterpreting one of the directions, the one to “make sure you’re high on your shoulders.” Previously, I had interpreted that as an instruction to push forward with my body, raising off of my arms as much as possible. After looking at a picture of the pose in the past few days, and realizing that I had been doing something wrong, I figured it out… the instruction wants you high on your shoulders, off of your neck. With this new understanding, I maintained a very solid arm and shoulder position, and did not feel like I was straining my neck whatsoever. So now I can look forward to enjoying the benefits of shoulderstand without worrying about potential damage to my neck at the same time.
Finally, I finished with a very refreshing relaxation pose. Traditionally, a practitioner is supposed to engage in ten minutes of relaxation pose after a workout, and my biggest complaint about the videos I have is that they never do. In fact, most of them pull you out of relaxation into a sitting pose within two minutes, at an estimate. Well, today I decided to go ahead and stay in relaxation pose, to see how it felt. Even when I do keep the pose longer than the video time, it’s usually only for five minutes, and I rarely get the full experience. Today I maintained it for around twenty minutes, and I must say, I felt quite relaxed afterwards, more so than I have been in a long time. I think that sensation of relaxation and calm mind could become very addicting, and I believe I’ll start trying to relax for longer periods of time in the future. For today, however, it was a great workout, and hopefully a good sign for things to come.