BBM Connection

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Unfortunately, it would seem that the good feeling from an excellent workout wasn’t meant to last. Not yet, at any rate. Today’s session was decent, but certainly nothing extraordinary. I wasn’t feeling up to doing the entire workout, so I did the first section and skipped to the last. I still felt like I had a fairly vigorous workout from the first section, and I’m glad I didn’t try pushing through the entire thing.
The only highlight today was triangle pose. I’m not sure why, but all of a sudden my awareness for that pose seems to have greatly increased, and I just know how to turn, or something. Near the end of holding the pose on my left side, I was able to torque to what felt like the full position, with my head looking straight up. I haven’t been able to do that in the past. I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but I think I’ll be able to in the next couple of times that I do the workout, and then just continue to do it in future workouts.
The other thing that I was really working on this session was my stretching. In particular, I’m trying to stretch my hips and waist as much as possible, because that would seem to be the key to my relative inflexibility in many poses. I think I’m making some progress… it’s hard to say for sure, of course, because the progress is by nature so slow. However, the only thing for me to do is just keep with it, and hopefully begin to see a little progress within the next few weeks.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I must confess that after the workouts of the last two days, I was feeling a little bit sore, and was happy to have a “rest day” with just an abs workout. Nothing persistent other than my left knee, but it’s still nice to get an extra day of full healing in… at least for now.
However, I must also admit that I’ve been strongly considering becoming more involved and active with my yoga practice. While I’ve certainly been getting back into it, and have managed to resurrect a daily routine in the last week and a half, I’m definitely beginning to feel that I should really be doing more in order to increase my understanding and abilities. Currently my practice tends to be between around 20 minutes to an hour a day. While it’s nice that I’m getting to it every day, I could certainly be doing more. Many practitioners do an hour or more a day, and looking at where I am in my practice and my life, I feel that right now that is somewhere that I’d like to be.
To that end, I’m thinking of starting to do multiple workouts in a day, or a single long one. Total Body, for instance, would continue to be on a day by itself. Perhaps I’ll do PY:Stamina and PY:Strength together as a single workout. On other days, I might combine an abs workout in the morning with a shorter workout such as PY:Flexibility or one of the Yoga for Strength workouts in the evening. If I needed to have a “rest day”, I’d do a single or perhaps two abs workouts. I feel fairly good about this plan, particularly because I believe I am getting to the point where my abs can sustain having a workout every day, and benefit from it. As always, I’ll have to continue to listen to my body, and make sure that I’m not pushing it beyond what it is currently capable of. That’s my largest concern with this idea, that I’ll push too hard and have to scale back. So it will be necessary for me to monitor how I’m feeling closely, and not be afraid to only do a short workout or even no workout at all, when necessary. To do that successfully, I have to have the confidence that I’ll be able to quickly return both physically and mentally after a short break. The physical part doesn’t concern me overly, and I think that I’m pretty much there mentally, as well. So I’ll probably start working on this idea sometime this week, and see where it goes from there.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 2
Author: chaos

I finished my review of my workout selection today with this session 2 workout. This was the workout that initially got me started doing yoga, so I have a certain fondness for it. I don’t do it all that often these days, partly because it’s a slow workout, and partly because of a lingering impression that it’s not all that challenging, overall. I’m not sure quite where I cultivated that impression from… probably from a few workouts where I really didn’t feel like I had gotten a good workout, once I was done.
However, I think that much of the reason for that was because I didn’t try to make it a good workout. It’s not always easy to keep focused on what the overall goals are, and sometimes it seems like the goal is to complete workouts with ease and lack of effort. Perhaps that is a goal, but only when it’s achieved by being advanced to a point where the workout simply can’t push you any further. I’m not to that point yet with any workout, certainly not this one.
So with that in mind, I feel that I had a pretty good workout today. I was focused on trying to do the poses to the utmost of my ability, and that makes a great deal of difference in the intensity of the workout. I don’t know that I succeeded, but I didn’t take it too lightly, either.
Only two things of particular note… first, it would seem that I can torque further to my right than to my left, at least in triangle pose. I suspected as much yesterday, but wasn’t paying close enough attention to be sure. Just something I’ll have to keep working on. Secondly, I had probably my largest success to date with pendulum pose… I was able to get up in the pose for at least three or four seconds, when I don’t think I had previously been able to get up for more than two. Also, I got up for a second or two another time, and I don’t think I’ve ever been able to lift off a second time before. Admittedly, this was while using the blocks, but my previous experiences have been while using the blocks, too. So that was encouraging, a sign of increasing arm or abdominal strength, or both. At any rate, a rather encouraging and successful session, and I’ll probably be getting back to it more often in the upcoming months, hopefully combining it on the same day with an abdominal workout for greater effectiveness.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

Had another good balanceball workout today. For a workout that seems like it would be pretty simple from the outside, it definitely packs a bit of a punch. I suppose the fact that it uses the balanceball allows one to go to greater efforts than one might otherwise be able to. On the other hand, many of the exercises merely use the ball as a weight or counterbalance, so it’s difficult to say if it has much effect in that area. Notably, the instructor commentary on the workout says that it draws from both the yoga and pilates traditions, but in terms of the actual exercises, it seems to rely much more on the pilates side. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just something of note. As I mentioned before, it provides a different workout than my yoga abs program, and I think that’s a good thing. At any rate, I intend to alternate between this and the yoga abs program as much as possible for now, at least in reference to abs workouts. I think it will still be a little while until I incorporate the pilates workout in, though perhaps not as long as I was originally thinking.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: Your Insatiable One

Since I cut out of work fairly early today, I felt somewhat motivated to actually do a workout. Given my incredibly limited selection of workouts, I opted for the aptly nicknamed “Death Yoga”. All things considered, it went pretty well. I did alright on the Half Moon Poses as well as the Warrior III. The Upward Bow, however, was not so hot: I only pulled off the initial one for part of the duration. In addition, I think I pulled out a few strands of hair when I adjusted my hands. Alas, that is the price of yoga. Unsurprisingly, I was remarkably tired by the end of it. I came remarkably close to falling asleep during the relaxation poses. Hopefully, I’ll get back into the groove so it isn’t that rough the next time.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Started to work with my idea of doing two sessions in a day today. I think it went fairly well… I also thinking that flexibility was a good choice as the second workout. I feel that it really helped me stretch out some of my muscles that otherwise would definitely have been sore tomorrow. They may still be… it’s a bit soon after the workout to be able to tell for sure. As of right now, I’ll probably try and do two workouts again tomorrow, but that’s always subject to change depending on how my body feels. Still, I must confess that I think my mind is fairly happy with this change of events, and after a short breaking in period, I hope that my body will be, too. As I’m thinking right now, I’ll probably attempt an abs workout two of every three days, or every other day. I’d like to keep focused on the abs workouts for the time being, since I think that they’ll respond well to frequent usage, and gain strength more quickly than if I were to spread out the workouts more. After a few months of that, I’ll probably do them less frequently, as the workouts will be more for maintenance than building strength. All of this is pure speculation at this point, of course… we’ll have to wait and see what actually happens. For now, I’ll probably continue to press my body a little, with the current assumption that I’ll most likely be taking Friday and Saturday off, which should be ample time to heal the slight soreness I find likely that I’ll pick up in the meantime.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, it doesn’t seem like my body was quite as ready for multiple sessions in a day as I was hoping. Actually, I think it’s a combination of that and the fact that I’ve been attempting to get more intensity out of my workouts, and therefore the workouts have taken a bit more out of me than they have in the past. Regardless, I didn’t feel that I was up to doing two workouts today, and so I settled for a single abs workout. It went pretty well… certainly I could feel it, more so than on some other occasions, but it’s a slightly different feeling, as well. Almost as if my abs now have strength beyond what they did when I started, but not yet the endurance to easily get through the workouts I’ve been putting them through. I still hold that they’ll recover very quickly with a day or two of rest. I intend to try and get in two workouts for tomorrow, and definitely Thursday if not tomorrow, before the anticipated two days off, figuring I can recover during that time until most likely having an evening workout on Sunday.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Well, while I probably could have handled doing two workouts today, I was feeling strangely unmotivated for much of the day, and thus only ended up doing one. Fortunately, it ended up being a pretty good workout… perhaps not quite as good as the last time, but good, nonetheless.
The vinyasa sequence was pretty standard, just slight adjustments to my technique. I worked with doing triangle pose while essentially relaxing all my muscles except those in my waist, as I work on continuing to improve my flexibility there. Additionally, I’ve expanded the length of my lunge a bit, and I think that helps me stretch the legs a little better than I have been. I did have a bit of problem with getting out of breath… still haven’t quite managed to get the sequencing down. I’m going to try and remember to focus on that a little more next time.
Downward dog prep sequence was about the same as last time… managed to cramp my right hip slightly during the two minute downward dog, but just dropped to a high plank pose for a few seconds and then eased back in to finish the time out.
Shoulderstand I had a little more trouble with… I felt that I was putting too much strain on my neck. Fortunately, I now have a much better idea of what I’m supposed to be doing, and made corrections that I think were adequate. The only other trouble was keeping my face and neck relaxed, a problem I also had during stretching at the end. I think it’s a problem of ratcheting up the intensity of the workout… I have to learn to be intense in the correct areas, and still relaxed in the other areas. I’m sure I’ll pick it up soon enough, as long as I maintain focus. Overall, another satisfying session 1 workout.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

I definitely feel like I’m beginning to take greater advantage of this workout than when I started doing it. This is for two main reasons, I believe… the first being that I’m becoming more familiar with the workout and the motions of the workout, giving me greater confidence in what I’m doing… the second being that my abs are getting stronger. This certainly isn’t surprising… given the amount of ab work that I’ve been doing for the past month and a half, it would be far more shocking if they weren’t. For this workout, though, I definitely feel that getting used to the motions is a large part of it… now that I have a decent idea of what’s going on, I can pay more attention to the subtle details that really make this, or any, workout.
On another note, I’m not sure that my current diet is entirely conducive to building muscle, at least not quickly. I fear that my protein consumption levels are below even the daily recommended amount, much less that for trying to build. I don’t really know how I’m going to address this… I’ll probably look into my options more carefully after this weekend.
On that note, I’m a little less certain about taking both days off like I was originally thinking… I’m now considering sneaking in an abs workout on at least one of the days. I might be better off taking the time off, though… not really sure. I plan on at least keeping the option open, and I’ll see what comes of that. I’m going to try and get one more workout in later tonight, at any rate.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: Your Insatiable One

Had an unsatisfying Death Yoga workout today. Two days of rest just wasn’t enough - I was missing a lot of what I got the last time and ended up skipping some sections out of fatigue. Although I feel good that I did a workout today, I feel like I need something less strenuous for these sorts of days. Suggestions anyone?

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina, Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Oof. Went for the combined PY:Stamina and PY:Strength workout today. It was definitely a good workout… perhaps more so because I was trying to make sure I maintained form throughout, although I think I was definitely a bit sloppier than normal on a few occasions. However, it did go pretty well, and although I’ll probably be sore tomorrow and the next day, that’s what days of rest are for, I guess.
As I’ve noted before, the really nice thing about doing two of these workouts together is that by the time you hit the second workout, you’re really warmed up. That was certainly the case today… by the end of the workout, I was able to fold pretty much completely in two for the standing forward bend, touching my head to my shins. I don’t know if I’ve ever been able to do that before, at least not without curving my spine a lot. So I think my flexibility in that direction is increasing. I also noted during one-legged forward bends that my hips seem to be getting closer to the ground than I recall, so perhaps my attempts to gain flexibility in that direction are starting to bear fruit as well.
The workouts themselves were fairly normal, with the exception of my feeling much more tired than I usually do during the Strength workout. Despite that, I was able to pull off a pretty decent crane pose, although simple arm balance was pretty much a flop. I just didn’t have the concentration left at that point, nor the strength, to even make a serious attempt. Other than that, though, I held out pretty well, really getting into some of the downward dog poses near the end. We’ll see how I feel over the next two days, but I certainly think that this will be an adequately challenging workout for me to use in the upcoming months.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Went ahead and decided to get in a light workout today. Interestingly, I am somewhat noticing the lack of workouts over the last day or two. That’s a good sign overall, since it shows that my body is getting used to having a workout on a daily basis. I think the day off was probably good, though, giving me some time to recover. Nothing special about the workout, except that I felt less fatigued in the abs than I have lately. Not ready to figure it out right now, so I’ll just wait for another workout or two to see if it’s a continuing trend.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

After tossing some disc yesterday, for the first time in a really long time, I was feeling a bit sore today. So I decided to try and stretch my muscles without overworking them. It went pretty well… I had some difficulty stretching out to begin the workout, but I eventually loosened everything up, and got back into the flow. I felt lightly sore throughout the workout, but not unpleasantly so. It was more of a soreness that felt good to stretch, rather than a soreness that hurt. The stretching felt pretty good, at any rate, and my left knee seems to be holding up a little better the last few workouts, which is definitely a good thing. I’m not sure what exactly I’ll be up to doing tomorrow, but I’ll try and resume my dual workout routine if I’m not feeling particularly sore.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

Well, for whatever reason, my abs definitely felt tired today. I think it’s at least partly the fault of my diet over the past few days… not nearly enough protein. Not enough of anything, really, except maybe vegetables. Whatever the cause, I’ve been feeling somewhat tired all day, and my muscles have felt a bit tender, if not actually sore. So I was happy to get the abs workout in.
I do feel that my technique is still improving for this workout, making it both harder and more effective. I have a pretty good idea of the order of the workout now, as well, so next time I’ll probably try doing it without using the visual cues. I’ve also been working on keeping my mind focused on using the abdominals throughout the workout. It’s not actually very easy to do, but it feels much more effective when I manage to do so. I’m hoping that I’ll start putting it all together pretty soon, and have a really effective workout. Anyway, I was hoping to do two workouts today, but given my lingering soreness, I don’t think that’s probably all that likely to happen, now. So I’ll probably take the rest of the day off, and go for a Total Body workout tomorrow.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Due to some lingering soreness, as well as some lingering fatigue from the weekend, I ended up deciding to take yesterday off and rest. I definitely want to avoid the situation where I have to take several days off to recover from soreness and injuries, and I think that avoiding letting small problems add up is very important to that process. That said, I hope to avoid having to take more than one day a week off, as a general rule.
This workout went pretty well. I was trying to act on the idea of maintaining awareness of my abdominal area while doing the various poses. It’s definitely fairly challenging, especially when combining that with keeping the face and neck relaxed. It’s not too hard to do one or the other, but both at the same time is somewhat tricky. However, I’m not sure it’s as important to keep focused on the abs during this workout… I think the nature of the exercises makes that less necessary. Which is perhaps to say that while the balanceball workout can be significantly enhanced by proper focus on the abs, the yoga workout doesn’t get the same benefits. I suspect that it may have something to do with the different support during each of the workouts. It’s easier to use the wrong part of the body to perform the actions in the balanceball workout, and thus focusing on using the right part is more critical, whereas it seems like it would be difficult to use the wrong area with the yoga workout. So in the future, I’ll probably not worry too much about focusing on the ab muscles, and continue to direct my attention to keeping the rest of my body relaxed.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Chose to do a Strength workout as my second workout of the day. I was originally considering doing a total body workout, but it was probably for the best that I ended up not doing so. Even just doing this workout was about as much as I could handle… for some reason, I was feeling somewhat weak during the workout. It didn’t really have much effect overall… actually, for the most part, I’d say I did a little bit better than usual. The sole exception to that was simple arm balance… I think I set up with my arms too far forward. Whatever the cause, I wasn’t positioned to make any sort of real attempt at the balance. Ignoring that, though, everything else went pretty well… even full Eastern plank pose, which is always a bit uncertain. I suppose side arm balance was also a touch wobbly, but only to start. Once I got into the pose, I managed to make it firm. I can only guess that my recent problems are probably dietary in nature… I’m still working on recovering from the dietary minimization of this weekend, I guess. In the future I’ll have to make sure to get at least a reasonable amount of calories in any given day… having way too few seems to really mess me up. Not entirely certain of my plans for tomorrow… might depend on my sleep schedule. I should try to get in a total body workout, since it’s been a while since I’ve done that, in which case I’ll probably skip the abs workout. Either way, hopefully I’ll be feeling a little stronger so I can get in a solid workout.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I’m still out of sync in terms of my workouts. I’m pretty certain the problem is that my schedule for sleeping, as such, doesn’t currently exist. Even I can’t really predict when I will or won’t be sleeping on a given day, which is making it somewhat difficult to get workouts in on a regular basis. I’m not entirely certain what I’m going to do about this… hopefully just start working out whenever I actually feel like it, instead of trying to do any sort of timing. Either that, or get back on a schedule.
I spent some time earlier reading some of Rodney Yee’s book Yoga: The Poetry of the Body. It’s pretty interesting… the most interesting part to me is the dialogue between him and his co-author, Nina Zolotow. Through these dialogues, they explore a bunch of different themes relating to yoga and touching upon yoga concepts beyond the scope of just workouts. They bring up some things that I haven’t really thought about before, which is always cool. I have to say that while it’s nice to have some of these ideas brought out, a lot of them have to be discovered for oneself before they can really be understood. This is true of many things, so it’s not particularly surprising, just something I noted. They do discuss the meaning of being able to do poses “right”, which is something that I have to think about more. The basic idea is that there is no objective “right” for poses, as the correctness of any given pose has to do with the individual performing the pose, even down to the particular instance that they’re engaged in the pose. Quite interesting, and something that I’ll have to contemplate in more depth before I really understand it, and can relate it to my own practice.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 2
Author: chaos

A nice slow session for this workout. I really didn’t feel like doing one of the fast paced power yoga workouts, which does somewhat limit my options. I was torn between the two YfS workouts… but I felt like getting in some arm balances, so I ended up going with this one. It felt really good for some reason… I just felt like I was very much in tune with my body during the workout. I guess it’s not that unusual… I get that feeling fairly often if I do a workout that I really feel like doing. I think that’s been a bit of my problem in the last few days… it feels like there’s some sort of workout schedule that I’ve been trying to adhere to. I think I’ll find the workouts much more beneficial, as well as having more motivation to do them, if I just do them as I see fit. Anyway, I’m going to go work on getting both my calorie count and my protein intake for the day up to a decent level.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Dare I say it? I suppose, in the heady moments just after finishing the workout, that I do dare. I feel that this was probably the best Total Body workout that I’ve had to date. It almost makes the fact that I didn’t do any yoga over the weekend worth it, but not quite. My only excuse is that I was suffering from a great malaise of the spirit, and spent most of the weekend lying around or sleeping. Not really an excuse so much as an explanation for what I did instead. Still, I could have gotten an abs workout in without much effort.
Anyway… today’s workout. I’m really not sure that I could point to any single thing in the workout to explain it. Certainly I was somewhat eager to get back to working out after my rather unexpected absence of the past two days. So I suppose that provided me with a positive attitude, which is definitely beneficial, I’ve noticed. Possibly I’ve been thinking about some of the stuff I read in Rodney’s book, which subtly changed my attitude toward the workout. My concern with getting every pose “right” as defined by a book or by the video isn’t quite as strong now. That’s probably the main difference… it makes me a little more relaxed in my approach, and I think that’s good in terms of the general workout, and, amusingly enough, in terms of getting the poses “right”. It’s easier to get into poses when you’re not holding your body all rigid.
There are a number of specific things I could say about the workout, I’m sure, but I’ll just list a few general impressions from various points. Even though my legs weren’t necessarily as solid today as they have been in the past, I felt as though I had more energy overall. I was trembling like a leaf in warrior I, but felt pretty solid in warrior III. A few times instead of making several quick motions to go from a warrior to lunge to pushup pose, I simply jumped out of the lunge into pushup pose, which I’ve never done before. But it just felt right. I’m getting better about not locking my knees in all sorts of poses, and I think that helped today, and will continue to help in the future. I guess I was always under the impression that the knees were supposed to be locked sometimes, but I’m not sure that’s really the case. At any rate, I’m going to continue to play with the poses and make adjustments as things feel right. Hopefully this will lead to me having a “better” practice (whatever that means, exactly).

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Well, I’m expecting that I’ll be somewhat sore later on today, and possibly even very sore tomorrow. When I awoke this morning, I could feel that I was on the edge of being painfully sore, such that achieving that state is pretty much inevitable. However, since I wasn’t there yet, I felt that I could perhaps alleviate some of that soreness by doing another workout. As my friend and fellow author mlee likes to say, often times the best way to prevent or minimize soreness is to do more of the activity that made you sore in the first place. Certainly that’s not always the case, but this is definitely a situation where I felt that it was the best advice. And strangely enough, I actually felt like doing a workout when I awoke. So with all of those factors in mind, I decided on a flexibility workout. It was a pretty decent choice, I think… certainly my legs felt considerably better after the workout. It doesn’t really stretch the upper body as much, but I don’t actually think I have any workouts right now that do. Which is somewhat unfortunate, and something I may have to rectify at some point. At any rate, while I’ve gained somewhat of a reprieve from soreness for now, I fear that it’s still going to get me tomorrow, or perhaps even later today. Fortunately, I think I’ll probably get in a few ab workouts and possibly a Yoga for Strength session to get me through it, and then continue on as normal.
On a slightly different note, I’m not quite certain what to make of my left knee. It seems like it hurts slightly during a greater range of motion now, but doesn’t hurt as much in the ranges of motion it previously hurt a lot in. Hopefully I’m slowly building up the muscles necessary to support it, and it will be fully recovered in the future. As always, I’ll continue to monitor its progress and note it from time to time.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Got another abs workout in. I think it’s been almost five days since the last abs workout, far longer than any other time since I first got the video. I doubt that really had anything to do with my soreness, though… I imagine that to be more the work of the other workouts I’ve done in the last two days. Well, I wouldn’t even call it soreness, necessarily. Just a not so fresh feeling in the abdominal muscles. Even so, the workout went well enough… I can get through the entire workout with good form now, regardless of how tired my abs seem. At least, they’ve yet to be sore tired that I couldn’t… I suppose I can’t really speak for the future. Anyway, not a whole lot to say… I might mix things up a little tomorrow, try and get the abs workout back into the early time slot. I think it works out better that way, overall, although I’ve admittedly had a few good workouts in the morning the last couple of days.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

Well, in an attempt to restore the more natural order of things, I decided to challenge my abs with a balanceball workout. Surprisingly, they really weren’t showing the effects of the soreness that they were demonstrating yesterday during the yoga abs workout. I’m somewhat at a loss to explain it… either they recovered quite well overnight, or perhaps it’s just because of the different focus in the ab region between the two workouts. That might be it, actually… it would make sense that the yoga abs workout would target muscles that are commonly used in yoga workouts, whereas the focus on the balanceball workout wouldn’t necessarily have the same implications with respect to yoga workouts. Whatever the case, today’s workout went considerably more smoothly than I was expecting.
I confess that I am, as I anticipated, quite sore from the yoga workouts of the previous two days. We went for a walk last night as well, which probably didn’t help matters any. My hamstrings are once again feeling the brunt of the soreness, as usually seems to be the case. I don’t know how that’s going to affect the workout schedule for the next day or so, but hopefully I’ll manage to get at least one decent workout in during that time.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Well, this session certainly went better than I was expecting. My legs are still quite sore from previous workouts, so I was expecting to have to work through a lot of stretching pain, at least in the beginning of the workout. I didn’t really experience that, even later in the workout. I’m really not certain how that’s possible, but I’m certainly appreciative.
Not a whole lot to say about the workout itself. I think I refined my understanding of bridge pose, hopefully to a better state. Shoulderstand went well… after getting settled in the beginning, I didn’t feel any pressure on my neck. I’m going to have to start doing shoulderstand for longer periods of time… it’s so refreshing. Two minute dog pose also went well, I held solid throughout, more solid than most times before. I still have work to do there, though, perhaps in the arm strength area more than anything else. But I think my form is becoming conducive to building up in the proper areas, not attempting to support a position that’s out of alignment. Anyway, I’ll probably try to get an abs workout in this afternoon, and possibly another workout in later tonight. If not tonight, definitely tomorrow morning or afternoon.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Just a quick note that I did get my abs workout in this afternoon. I thought I felt some residual soreness in the abs that I thought would make this a little more difficult, but I didn’t really notice that. I felt like I was in a zone for the workout… breathing well, understanding what my body needed to do instinctively. I also felt pretty relaxed, which I’m very happy about. It’s also nice to be getting in workouts without really having to worry about the potential effects of soreness. I suppose they’re still there, but I don’t tend to notice them during the normal workouts, and they no longer bother me during the ab workouts. As I get stronger, I imagine I’ll probably stop noticing them at all. Anyway, a pretty good workout for the afternoon… perhaps another one this evening, or more likely, tomorrow morning.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

I couldn’t decide on which workout to do today. I knew that I felt like doing the total body workout, but intellectually I wasn’t sure that was a good idea. However, after debating the matter for a bit, I realized that I was probably best off doing what my body felt like doing. It’s a difficult concept for me to grasp, but since that’s one of the ideas behind getting healthier, listening (and being able to listen) to your body, following that advice seems reasonable.
So it was a pretty decent workout. I decided to skip the second section with the warrior I and warrior III poses… I did do the section with the backbends, though. I perhaps gained new understanding of upward bow… I think that I was placing my feet too close together before. I figured that out on the last one, so I’ll have to see what happens the next time that I do this workout. The main reason I skipped the warrior section was because my legs were already pretty worn out by that time, still not fully recovered from the last total body workout. I’m still developing my form for the warrior II poses, and sometimes that makes me more tired than others. The only other thing I noted is that bending all the way over the simple cross-legged pose feels really good. I haven’t really done it in the past, because of the problems I’ve had with my left knee, but hopefully I’ll be able to do it more often in the future. Anyway, traveling for the weekend, so hopefully I’ll be able to maintain a decent workout schedule during that time, but it’s always difficult to say. Until then…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Got an abs yoga workout in today. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I may have difficulty getting any of the other workouts in here. I’m going to see what I can do… I may try going out on a limb, and doing one of the workouts entirely from memory. I can probably manage, especially if I decide to do something like YfS:s2. That might work out really well, actually. Anyway, I highly doubt I’ll manage to get in another workout today, and quite likely will only manage to get one in tomorrow, as well. But, I’m reasonably happy just keeping up with the practice on a daily basis while traveling, so I won’t really complain.
Just a quick note on the workout… I actually find it more distracting to have a view of the workout than to just hear the audio. When I have a video, there’s the temptation to look at it and see what Rodney’s doing, which throws off my rhythm. If I just have the audio, there’s no such temptation. Anyway, just something mildly interesting that I noted. Will update throughout the weekend as relevant.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Well, the potential difficulties with getting in non-abs workouts were overcome, and so I was able to go ahead with a Strength workout today. I had my mat placed on a hard floor, which was a new experience for me, having previously always worked out on carpeting. Overall, I think it’s a better surface to work on, although I probably won’t have much opportunity to do so in the near future. The only time it’s harder is when you put your knees into the ground and things like that, since it digs into them more than the carpeting does. I’m sure that it’s something one would get used to if one worked on such surfaces all the time, though.
The workout itself went pretty well. I definitely think the hard surface helps with the arm balances. I felt like my attempt at pendulum pose was better than normal, and I had a very successful crane pose. I managed a pretty decent simple arm balance as well, even though I’m still not entirely comfortable with my positioning for it. I could feel that my abs are much stronger now in doing the cross-legged lunge with raised leg. So I’d definitely say it was a decent workout, and I’m glad that I got a chance to work on a solid surface. With luck I’ll be able to do so more often in the future, as I think it would be at least slightly beneficial overall.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

In another change of circumstances, the availability of other workouts disappeared for today. So I went back to the yoga abs workout again. It was fairly satisfying, as it went. The advantage of being able to see, at least occasionally, is that you get a better sense of how he positions himself. So then you can make subtle changes to improve the workout, usually making it more challenging and effective.
Anyway, I really don’t have much interesting to say about this workout… I’ll be done traveling tonight, so probably starting tomorrow I’ll get back into a more normal schedule for workouts.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 2
Author: chaos

I’ve been rather out of it all day, and just wanted to get any workout in this evening. I didn’t really feel like a total body workout, and just did PY:Strength the other day. I was somewhat torn between Flexibility and this one, but felt slightly more like doing this one, so I did. It went reasonably well… nothing terribly inspired, but that wasn’t surprising. The only real negative of the workout was that I fell out of warrior III halfway through on both sides. I felt rather off-balance on the right side, so I wasn’t surprised there, but was doing okay on the left. Not sure what happened. A nice positive point, though, was that I managed to get my feet off the ground in pendulum pose without using the blocks. Only for maybe half a second, but that’s still better than I’ve ever done in the past. Maybe my strength is finally increasing in that regard. Time will tell, I’m sure. Anyway, perhaps I’ll be back in the zone tomorrow. I’ll probably try and get an abs workout in as well as another workout, if that’s the case.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

Got back to varying my abs workouts today. It definitely does get to be a bit dull just doing the abs yoga workout. Not that workouts are necessarily supposed to be exciting, but if you have the option, variation is definitely good.
This workout felt pretty good. I’m definitely more confident with this workout now, and have a pretty good idea of what I’m doing. I think that I’m much better about isolating on my abs, and not having random extraneous motions to detract from the effectiveness of the workout. Certainly my abs felt a little tired today. But, given my travel, I probably failed to get enough nutrients this weekend, particularly protein. A bad habit of mine that I really need to work on. I’ll try to get another workout in tonight, planning on flexibility at the moment, but we’ll see how that goes.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Well, I was originally thinking about doing one of the power yoga workouts tonight, but I decided to hold off for another day. I think I’m starting to get a better feel for what my body actually feels like doing, as opposed to what my mind decides to do.
The workout went pretty well. I wouldn’t necessarily say that two minute downward dog is getting easier, but I think that I’m getting better at it. At least, it seems like I’m more able to maintain the pose fully while keeping track of all the little things, like not tensing my face and stuff like that. I can’t tell if I’m somehow supposed to be drawing more of my weight onto my legs or not, or how I would do so if I am. It could be a problem with my tight hamstrings, though. I suppose I’ll just continue to work on it, and see what happens. Shoulderstand went fairly well… I held it for a little bit longer than the video. I think I might just start slowly extending the amount of time I hold it for, at least on days that I feel good about the pose. That’s most of the time I do it, lately, but I always leave room for bad days. Anyway, that’s about all I have to say about the workout… there’s a good chance I’ll try to get a total body workout in tomorrow.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Well, I decided to take a day of rest yesterday. It somewhat surprised me to realize I had done ten consecutive days of workouts since my last break… I guess I really am just starting to get into the habit. Not that it’s a bad thing, just interesting to note.
Today’s workout wasn’t particularly inspirational, though. Intellectually, I really wanted to do a total body workout, but I couldn’t summon any motivation to do so. Really, I was having a hard time finding the motivation to do any workout. It was kind of strange… on some level I definitely wanted to do a workout, but on some other level I just couldn’t get into the idea. This strength workout is what eventually just happened, more or less. The workout was okay… unsurprisingly, it wasn’t inspirational in any way. It would have been more of a surprise if it had been. However, it was definitely a reasonable workout, and I did do my best to have good form throughout. I wasn’t able to replicate my success with pendulum pose, unfortunately, but both crane and simple arm balance went well. That’s pretty much it… I’ll most likely get in an abs workout tomorrow, and quite possibly another workout as well.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Got in the expected abs workout today. It might have been nice to have gotten it in a little earlier in the day, but whatever. It felt pretty good… apparently whatever has been often making me slightly fatigued in recent abs yoga workouts has recovered. I was definitely ready for the workout, too, so that was good. Not entirely sure what will happen tonight… perhaps a flexibility workout. I don’t know if I really want to try a total body workout. Really, though, it’ll probably just depend on how I feel when the time comes. Maybe there won’t even be a workout, who knows. Either way, I’m sure there will be a workout sometime tomorrow if not tonight, so I’ll be keeping up.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Did end up going with the anticipated flexibility workout. Nothing too special about it… just a solid workout. I was working on my breathing a bit… it’s usually pretty good, but there’s always room for improvement. Thus far, anyway. I was also working on the Rodney “float”, where he gives the impression of lightly floating as he jumps from standing forward bend into pushup pose and vice versa. I think I’m getting it down when jumping backward, but I still have a long way to go while jumping forward. I may need to study his technique a little more… I’m probably missing some important element. Anyway, just another solid workout in, will probably try and get an abs workout in tomorrow, possibly with one of the yoga for strength workouts.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I didn’t really start out planning to do this session, but it’s the one I ended up doing. Interestingly, I didn’t feel too tired from the session yesterday, until the very end of the boat poses. I rather expected to be somewhat more tired, overall. Otherwise, I just continue to work on all the subtle details I can, to make the workouts as effective as possible. I may be enhancing my understanding of mountain pose, of all things. It’s possible to be standing straight up and not really using any leg muscles at all, I think. Or very nearly so. I’m not quite sure yet, just something I started noticing in the past week or so, and am working on. Probably won’t be another workout tonight, but a good possibility of total body tomorrow.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

Well, since I’m going to be traveling during the rest of the week, I wanted to get one or two good balanceball workouts in before I left. Today’s was pretty good, although I was definitely feeling some of the wear of the last few days while doing the workout. Part of that is that I’m continually trying to integrate everything into these workouts, so I’m attempting to keep my face and neck relaxed while breathing in to my ribs and abdomen and using my abs to exhale, as well as any movements I happen to be doing at the time. It ends up being a lot to keep track of, but I think I’m getting better at it. The key, really, is to get so good at the parts like relaxing and breathing that it’s just automatic, and then you can really concentrate on the motion. It’s a slow process, but one worth doing, I think.
Anyway, I’m heading out tomorrow afternoon. As always, I’ll try to keep up with my workouts on the road, but there’s always an element of uncertainty there. I am planning on getting in at least one more workout before I go, and possibly another balanceball workout tomorrow morning, but that will depend on how I feel, I think.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

I really wanted to get in a good workout to close out the month, so I turned again to Total Body. I’ve been having a hard time getting this workout in lately for some reason. Part of it, in the past few days at least, has been a general lack of distinct motivation towards getting workouts in. I think the other part has been a lack of planning on my part. I’ve been too focused on getting abs workouts in as much as possible, and then I tend to go with a lighter workout on those days. So I’ve been neglecting this workout a bit more than I’d really like.
Today’s workout was quite satisfying, though. It was somewhat strange, in that I became quite tired, but in some ways I felt like I was much easier in the poses than usual. Almost as if my body had its own understanding of the poses, and was settling into them with ease. I particularly noticed this with warrior II. I’m not sure how to describe it beyond that, really. Still, my fatigue definitely grew throughout the workout, at least until the backbend section. I didn’t even get fully into warrior III on the right side, and did it somewhat intermittently on the left. I also had some problems with half moon pose to the right, though I found my internal balance by the time I hit the one for the left. I did get up into upward bow all three times, although it wasn’t as satisfying as I would have liked. Still not quite sure I’m positioning myself correctly for the pose.
The stretching and relaxation was pretty good. I’m very slowly overcoming my tendency to tense up while attempting to stretch, and relaxing appropriate muscles instead. It’s still somewhat hit or miss on any given day and stretch, but overall I’m heading in the right direction, I think. I feel like I’m getting better stretches than ever on good days. My relaxation today was also good… it just takes me a little longer than the video might suggest to relax properly. Actually, I almost relaxed myself to sleep, which is very unusual for me. I did do the workout in the dark… I’m not sure if that helps me or not. I think it does for relaxation, but not sure about the rest of the workout. Although after a certain point, I stopped even noticing the light conditions as I focused more on the workout. So I think it probably is good for me overall, because it’s easier for me to tune out the outside conditions and focus more internally. Anyway, I’ll probably try and get another balanceball workout in tomorrow before I take off for the week, and try to keep up with doing a session a day as I travel.