BBM Connection

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

Went in for a slightly more vigorous abs workout tonight. It definitely felt pretty good… of course, it felt really good until I hit the double leg raise. That just doesn’t really seem to get easier. I’m sure it is, but it definitely doesn’t feel like it. Perhaps it’s most noticable in recovery time… I’m usually feeling okay again after I struggle through the bicycle motion. As opposed to being basically dead through most of the rest of the workout. So I guess that’s a sign of improvement. And I was feeling somewhat better about my circle motions today… they definitely seem to be getting tighter, overall. Overall, it was a pretty good workout. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up this schedule for a while, but that’s always problematic, so we’ll see. Until next time…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

My lack of commitment on the weekends is beginning to frustrate me. Admittedly, I have been sleeping quite a bit on weekends, but that’s really not an excuse. I’ve certainly had time to do workouts, I’ve just been failing to do them. I’m really not entirely certain what the issue here is, since under similar circumstances during the week I would undoubtedly be getting these workouts in. Just something that I’m going to have to try and work with, I guess.
Today’s workout was decent. It’s very interesting to compare and contrast this workout with the pilates one as I become more familiar with the pilates. There are definitely some areas targetted by this workout that I don’t feel are worked very much by either of the other two, and then some exercises seem pretty much useless in that they do the exact same thing as one of the other workouts, just less intensely. But I do think this workout continues to have a place, having more focus on the obliques and the deep lower abdominals than the other two. Anyway, I’m hoping to have enough motivation to get in another workout later tonight, and perhaps two tomorrow as well, although that seems less likely.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Well, I didn’t actually motivate to do a second workout last night. I’m not terribly surprised, really… I suppose at this point expecting anything beyond a single workout in a day is asking for quite a bit. Anyway, today’s workout wasn’t bad. My legs were quite stiff, typical for a morning workout. I’m beginning to think that total body, or part of total body, would be ideal for morning workouts, because it stretches the legs a lot more. It’d probably either be much better, or much worse. I suppose I’ll have to try it one of these days in order to find out. I’ve been having some trouble with the two minute downward dog the last couple of times I’ve done this workout, not entirely sure why. At least this time I was able to make it through, if not with ideal form the entire time. Shoulderstand went fairly well, particularly when I went into the one-legged to the left… not quite sure why, I just really felt I was set up perfectly. One of those moments when it just clicks. Anyway, I may try to get in an abs workout tonight, or I might not. Have to wait and see, I guess.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I was all ready to do a good pilates workout tonight, in my attempt to step up my abdominal work somewhat. I finished my drive, unloaded, changed, and was ready to put the disc in… only to then remember that I lent the discs to a friend for the weekend. Unfortunately, I’m not yet to the point where I could feel good about doing the pilates workout entirely from memory, so I decided to go with something that I’m a little more familiar with. Since I was planning on doing an abs workout anyway, it made the most sense to go for abs yoga. A decent workout, overall… I had reasonably decent focus tonight, which definitely helps. I was able to concentrate on my breathing at the beginning, which helps establish the workout, I think. The one real advantage that I noted to doing the workout without the video is that I can hold certain poses a little bit longer than I would with the video. I mean, I obviously could do so even if the video were on, but then I’d be out of sync with it, which is always somewhat distracting. So I held a couple of the boat poses a little longer, just to give my abs that little bit of extra work. Anyway, so I managed to get in this extra workout, and will hopefully be able to get into a bit of a routine this week. It might be pretty hard, since the week is going to be even further out of my routine than normal, but we’ll see what happens.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I passed on the opportunity to do a directed workout today, and having put myself in a position where I wanted to do a relatively short workout, I decided to keep on working the abs. I thought tonight would be an interesting test, because I was rather hungry going into the workout, so I thought it would help determine if the cause of the pain was hunger with abs workout, or just morning. It was slightly indeterminate, because there’s also the factor of having done abs workouts a number of days in a row now, which I’m no longer used to, but I believe that the overall pain factor is in it being a morning workout. There was a little bit more pain than usual, but I think that was mostly the consecutive workouts. I had a bit of trouble in the middle keeping the workout right on track, but I think it worked out okay. I was definitely much more mentally distant tonight than last night, though, which isn’t good. Alas. I suppose one can’t improve every day, or even most days. I did feel like I enhanced the workout a bit with noticing the effects that certain movements had on my abs, and trying to more carefully target the abs during those moves. It seems like it was working a little bit, and can probably be expanded with practice. Anyway, I should call it a night and get some sleep so I can hopefully do it again tomorrow. Until next time…

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Another day of self direction. I was looking for a break from abs anyway, so I decided to go ahead and give strength a try. It’s actually been a while since I’ve done this workout, surprisingly. I slowed it down somewhat, so I could concentrate a little bit more on my positioning than would otherwise be possible. It went reasonably well, although I could definitely tell that I was a bit rusty. I had trouble with both the crane pose and the simple arm balance. I seemed to get a little more tired than I would have expected, as well. That’s probably just an effect of the relatively low amounts of sleep I’ve been getting coupled with the long time since this particular workout, though. Overall, it was fairly satisfactory, and it perhaps helped me make a few more adjustments to my practice that will be beneficial.

Workout: Free Form
Author: Your Insatiable One

Today was my second (2nd!) consecutive yoga workout this week. It just so happens that the shame of the scale is a greater motivator than being fit, super flexible and strong. I’m continuing the sun salutation oriented workout, but I’ve retreated from the 45 second holds on positions - it was simply too much, too soon. Instead, I’ve added a lighter (read: no leg extension or pose) sun salutation rotation as the first and fourth rotation. That means a total of six (6) sun salutations plus stretches and other miscellaneous poses equals one workout. Right now, I feel that this level of difficulty is “The Right Place” if I continue doing daily workouts: not too difficult, but still taxing on the body. I would like to eventually add an abs workout at some point though. Sadly, the BeBusty did not have the “kid tested, chaos approved” multi-workout video, so I’ll have to order from some place online. Alas.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Yet another self directed workout today. Today’s workout was fairly similar to the last yoga abs workout I did, with good focus on working the lower abdominals, particularly during the leg raising and lowering. It’s the same motion as the one that I have so much trouble with in pilates (except easier, because your shoulders aren’t raised off the floor), so I think that my improved technique will really help me there, as well. I think overall that’s one of the things that I like best about yoga… there’s always something new to discover, whether a slight change in the pose, or a new mental breakthrough, or whatever. On any given day, there’s a decent chance of learning something new in the practice, and I think that helps keep it interesting, hopefully for years to come. I’ll probably try to get another workout in tonight, but we’ll see what happens.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Another free form workout today. I pretty much started out with about 15 minutes of the total body workout (self directed again), and then moved into some stretches. I wanted to get nice and loose before playing ultimate, and I think that I did that pretty effectively. At least, the last time I played I was very stiff afterwards, and near cramping. I’m nowhere near that state now, although it could be because we had subs this time, so I didn’t have to play the entire time. Which was definitely for the best… I was still pretty dead, even with getting to rest every once in a while. Anyway. So I think it was a fairly effective workout, in that it did what I intended it to do. I’m hoping to get a pilates workout in later tonight, but we’ll see what happens, I guess. At the very least I’ll hopefully get a yoga abs workout. So until then…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

Well, I anticipated doing this workout last night, but I still got it in, anyway. It wasn’t too bad… didn’t have the morning abs trouble that I do sometimes. I was definitely a bit more tender than usual, but I attribute that to ultimate yesterday. Actually, I felt a little bit stronger today… the double leg raise wasn’t quite as bad as normal. Perhaps the extra work I’ve been doing on the yoga abs workout has started paying off already. It still wasn’t easy, by any means, but it took until at least the fourth or fifth before I was really starting to feel it. Overall my motions felt a little bit choppier than last time, but it’s probably mostly a combination of soreness and having recently woken up. Anyway. Not quite sure that I’ll get a workout in tonight, but hopefully one early tomorrow and possibly tomorrow night as well, to catch up.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 2
Author: chaos

It’s been quite a while since I’ve gotten in this workout. Not entirely certain why… I suppose mostly because most of the poses are also done in other workouts, and I haven’t often felt like going through the slower paced workout. I really wasn’t in the mood for the frenetic pace of the PY:Complete disc today, though, so this felt like a good choice. It went pretty well… I was very satisfied with both my half moon pose and warrior III. I was somewhat wobbly in tree, but I managed to stay upright. I also managed to get off the ground for a little bit in pendulum pose, so that was good. I adjusted the position of my legs slightly, and I think that helped with the lifting off. I’m still not there, but I think it’s a bit closer now. Hopefully I’ll get in a workout either tonight or early tomorrow morning before work.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Another self directed morning workout. Probably the last one for a while, as I anticipate having my videos back today. I continued to work on really using my lower abdominals for a number of the movements, and actually expanded that idea somewhat. I’m getting better at pulling my legs close to my body, which really requires a lot more work from the lower abs. Before, I was pulling them in, but not actively trying to get them as far in as possible. I think that it’s really helping me develop that lower area, which should create more definition and help with the pilates workout. Hopefully I’ll manage to do a workout tonight, and then be back on the night schedule for a while.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Had a fairly light workout tonight. It’s been a little while since I’ve done this workout, I suppose, and I do feel that I’ve learned some things about my poses since the last time I’ve done it. I guess I also feel like I’ve gotten a little bit stronger, or perhaps I was just approaching tonight’s workout in a better fashion, because it seemed fairly simple overall. The only notable exception being the downward dog poses. While they weren’t precisely difficult, they did seem to be taxing my shoulders a little bit, which was odd. Maybe a dietary problem. Anyway, the rest of it went well, and I made a conscious effort not to overextend into the stretches, despite some part of my mind wanting to. I hope one day to achieve a decent level of flexibility, but I must recognize it as a work in progress, and continue to approach it as such. Anyway, it feels good to be back into a nightly workout, and I anticipate that I’ll at least manage to get another one in tomorrow night before possibly diverging again.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I ended up skipping the workout yesterday because I was feeling kind of sick all day. Actually, I was feeling sick today as well, but I decided to go ahead and get a workout in anyway. I was feeling a bit nauseous at the time I started the workout, so I decided not to do pilates abs like I had originally been thinking. I’m not actually sure if it would have mattered all that much… once I got into the workout, I was fine. Still, it is more strenuous, so it might have been better not to compromise my immune system any further right now. This workout probably did a good enough job of that, just because of the extra time I spent awake doing it. Oh well. The workout itself was pretty decent, continued really trying to concentrate on the abs. I noticed something else, but I’ve forgotten what by now. Anyway, going to wrap this up for now, and hopefully get in a workout of some type tomorrow.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

Well, the illness that I had been starting to feel before my last workout ended up blossoming into a full blown illness, so that took me away from the workout for a few days. I spent most of my time over the weekend sleeping, so I am feeling somewhat better, although still quite far from feeling normal. However, I feel that getting workouts in helps, or at least does not hurt when I can, and so I went ahead with the pilates abs workout today. I was pretty pleased with it… I felt like I’ve gotten a bit stronger again. I wasn’t in agonizing pain by the end of the ten double leg lifts, so that’s definitely improvement. I’m also continuing to improve my rolls, but that’s kind of erratic. Still, any improvement is a good thing, and the fact that I’m aware of ways I can improve makes it easier to do so. Hopefully I’ll get back into a regular schedule of workouts now, but since I’m still not fully recovered, it’s hard to say for sure. For now I’m going to get to sleep and hopefully heal a little bit more before being beaten down by work tomorrow.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Another morning workout. Fatigue associated with recovering from illness ended up causing me to skip the workout yesterday, and another late night out meant that I really didn’t feel like doing one last night. I was actually hoping to get a pilates workout in this morning, but I didn’t really feel like I had quite enough time, so I opted for the slightly shorter yoga abs workout. It went fairly well, not quite as well as the previous few yoga abs workouts, but decently. Definitely better than the last few times I’ve done this workout in the morning. I wasn’t quite as happy with my concentration today, but other than that, things were pretty good. Actually, there was really only one time that I felt I really failed to use “proper” technique, so I guess it really wasn’t that big of a deal. Anyway, I’ll hopefully get in a workout either tonight or tomorrow morning, and won’t have to work for the next week and a half or so after tomorrow, so that will hopefully lead to getting in a few more workouts during that time.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

Had a bit of a regression in the process of getting healthy yesterday. So I ended up not doing a workout. I’m feeling a lot better today, so I decided to go with another pilates workout. Really, I need to start getting the other yoga workouts in again, and hopefully I’ll get to that this upcoming week. The workout today was okay, a little bit more difficult than some of the other recent ones. I felt a bit out of it, perhaps, as I have for much of this week. I guess it was good to get the workout in, but it wasn’t particularly satisfying as a workout. Anyway. I’ll try to keep up with getting in a daily workout during the next week, but we’ll see how that actually works out.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

December has turned into a rather disappointing month, overall. It started out fairly well, but illness and holidays really got in the way of a consistent practice. In the last few days, there’s just been a large lack of motivation to get back into the practice standing in the way. It’s rather hard to explain at times… I get in a rut, and can’t seem to manage to push past and get a workout in. I finally managed to break through today, taking it easy with a stamina workout. Really, I just wanted to actually get a workout in, figuring that it would help motivate me to get going again. It went okay, although not really as well as I would like or expect. I fear that my general laziness about getting non-abs workouts in during the last few months is really starting to catch up to me. On the other hand, I’m not entirely certain I’ve fully recovered from being sick, so perhaps that’s part of the problem as well. Anyway, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to pick up a little bit here at the end of the month, and get a good start going into the new year.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I’ve again failed to really motivate into doing workouts. I think the main problem is that my head has felt very… cluttered for the past few weeks. Which led me to today’s workout… I was hoping to gain a little bit of peace, perhaps. I don’t know that it really worked, but it may have helped a little. It certainly didn’t hurt, at any rate. I think that I really need to work on getting some clarity and balance in my life right now, preferably before returning to work next week. I’d rather not bet on the likelihood of that actually happening, but even making some sort of serious attempt would undoubtedly be helpful. In pursuit of that goal, I think that I will head off to bed, and try to get in a bit of quiet contemplation before falling asleep. Quiet being the key more than contemplation, which I can (and do) get a lot of, anyway. For now, anything less than total mental chaos would be good, so with luck I can move a little bit towards that goal tonight. I’m really not certain how my workouts will proceed in the next few days, but I’ll make another attempt to work them in regularly. Until then…

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Ended off the year with a traditional yoga for strength workout. It was a decent workout, nothing particularly special. Shoulderstand went well. Downward dog practice was okay, except my right hip cramped up near the end. I don’t know why that keeps happening, and always the right hip. Must be something in the way I stand. Put the new digital camera to some use, and had my partner take a few pictures of shoulderstand, downward dog, and triangle pose. It’s kind of nice, because while I’ve felt for a while that my back was straight in shoulderstand, now I can see that it really is. Downward dog is decent, but still needs a little work. Triangle pose was okay, although it certainly wasn’t my best triangle pose. I also got in a little bit of headstand practice after the workout. That definitely still needs some work. Anyway, I’ll probably provide a retrospective on the year next week when I hit my yoga anniversary, so I’ll hold off for now. Going into the new year, I plan on reinvigorating my commitment to the practice, and to hopefully take it up another level.