BBM Connection

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Definitely healing overall, but my hamstrings were much more sore today. I don’t know if I didn’t stretch them out enough, or if I stretched them out too much. I suspect the former, in this case, but I’m not really sure.
Anyway, I decided to go ahead and do an abs workout in order to rest my feet for another day. I had a somewhat difficult time getting into the workout today mentally… My head was just very fuzzy for some reason. Spending most of the day catching up on sleep probably has a lot to do with that. I did manage to focus enough to maintain breathing, though, so that was a good thing. That’s about all… hopefully I’ll get to something a little more challenging tomorrow.

Workout: Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

Today I came to the conclusion that my normal free form workouts are slightly more challenging than the simple swimming + all sports mini workout combination. It’s not that it isn’t a good combination, just that it’s really very light. But since I was experiencing a definite dearth of motivation for the workout today, a light workout definitely felt like it was in order. I did feel pretty good with the workout, light as it was… I regained some understanding of triangle pose, how simple it is to hold it and yet not be straining in any way. Something I’ve known, but sometimes forget. That’s probably the highlight… everything else was more or less standard, although I have been noticing in several workouts the last couple of weeks how downward dog is useful for stretching out the calves. I guess I never noticed before because I was rarely using the calves for anything else, and so they were never tight. Anyway, very light workout tonight, hopefully I’ll actually manage to step up to something a little more challenging tomorrow.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

I was maintaining a feeling of being full for a strangely long time after dinner tonight, but I decided to go ahead and start my workout, anyway. It really didn’t seem to have any ill effects, other than that I decided to do the transition from the first segment to the last. Of course, I may have decided to do that anyway, so it’s hard to say if that was really an effect.
I concentrated on trying to be aware of my body position again today, and how I was holding myself. I’m not entirely content with the way I’m standing in warrior II… it doesn’t feel as effortless as it should. Of course, maybe I’m just thinking it should be less effort than it really is. But I think that I am holding myself slightly out of line or something. Just another thing to be aware of, I guess. I skipped part of the relaxation and stretching sequence as I continue to attempt to be kind to my knees. The outside of my right knee has been unhappy lately, and I’m really not sure why. Just when doing extreme bends like one legged forward bend. It’s not the sharp pain that I used to have with the inside of my left knee, but it’s definitely a pain, so I’m just trying to be very cautious with it and let it heal. In other healing news, my right foot seems to have recovered, my left big toe is doing better, although I think I bruised it slightly tonight during the workout, and my right hip is improving, although still a little tender. Might go for another abs workout tomorrow, just to lay off all these things, or possibly a pilates workout, since I haven’t done one in quite a while.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Well, I don’t usually do any free form workouts during the week when I’m home, but I really wasn’t inspired by any of my videos today, and I felt like I needed to do something a little bit different to try and break out of the rut that I’ve been in.
Today’s workout was definitely a little unusual in sequencing. I started it out normally enough, couple of slow runs through the sun salutation. I wasn’t feeling particularly good about that, though, which is when I decided to mix things up some more. Did a couple of backbends from the stamina video, then I went down through another sun salutation into cobbler’s pose and staff pose. Did a seated forward bend, then drew back and did a few minutes of seated meditation. I’m still pretty weak with the meditation, but I was a little bit better today than I often am. I then came out of the seated meditation into the cooldown section of the abs yoga video, with some kneeling backbends and working my way up into standing forward bend. I followed that up by going into downward dog, then doing a triangle to each side followed by a warrior II, with a lot of focus on positioning for both of those. Then I concluded the whole workout with a child’s pose, probably the first one that I’ve done in a free form workout.
I’ve been having a lot of trouble with sleeping lately, with the result that I often feel tired and lethargic. I’ve also been somewhat unhappy with my eating habits. I feel like my body is lacking something, perhaps. This might also explain my somewhat slower recovery times, especially in the last week or so. I’m not sure. On the one hand, I feel like I’m in better shape than I have been in quite a while, and on the other, I feel like I’m still missing something. Right now I think I primarily need to fix my eating habits, and then hopefully the sleeping will start to fall into place. If not, I’ll have to look into that more carefully, and see if there’s something that I can do to improve my sleeping, so that I stop spending so much time feeling worn down, and have more energy for the multitude of projects I have going on.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 2
Author: chaos

Had absolutely no sense of what workout I wanted to do today. So I just selected YfS:s2, more or less at random. I suppose it wasn’t completely at random, since I did note that I hadn’t done it in a while, but it certainly wasn’t a heavily pre-determined process.
Overall, it went decently. I feel like I often arch my back too much doing warrior I, particularly when I come at it from standing instead of from a lunge. It’s also usually more of a problem when I turn to my right than to my left. I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing differently so I can correct it. Other than that… a little more success with pendulum pose today. I at least managed to get my feet off the ground for a little bit. Crane started out a little shaky, but I managed to make it pretty solid. I like the lift I’m getting in the pose, anyway. Warrior III also felt good today, the second or third time in a row that I’ve been pretty happy with it. And half moon went really well, about the best I’ve ever done on both sides. So, overall, it was a pretty satisfying day, and hopefully I can finish out at least the rest of the weekend in a similar vein.

Workout: Yoga Conditioning for Athletes
Author: chaos

Had a pretty good workout today. Finally, I was actually in the mood for a particular workout, and unsurprisingly, things went well when I actually did that workout. Now if I could only figure out why I’m in certain moods on certain days, and learn to direct that…
Anyway, it’s been a little while since I did the full workout. While it certainly hasn’t become easy in the meantime, today’s workout did seem a little bit easier than it has on previous occasions when I’ve tackled it. That may be as simple as me being more ready for it, mentally, than when I’ve done it before. In fact, it probably is. Whatever the case, though, I was feeling very aware of the workout and in tune with my body today. I have been noticing that I’ve had a little bit of trouble with my warrior I pose lately… I think I’m arching my back in a way that compresses it a bit, at times? I’m not entirely certain. It could just be something I’m noticing because I haven’t been doing backbends enough, and don’t have as much flexibility in the lower back as I should. I also sometimes notice the same thing doing the deep forward lunges with the backbend, which is a very similar motion, so it might be that particular combination of backbend and being slightly off-center. Something I’ll keep noting and working on. The only negative of the workout is that I put more pressure on my right knee than was probably ideal… I really wish I had any idea of what the problem is. I’ll have to be sure and notice how it responds in the next couple of days, and see if that gives me any clues as to what the most effective treatment might be.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Today, I again knew which workout I wanted to do for the day, several hours in advance, actually. I definitely enjoy when that happens, because I think I have much better workouts when I know (or, perhaps more accurately, my body knows) which workout it feels like doing. The connection between mind and body seems much stronger, perhaps. Really, I’m not quite sure what it is, but it definitely helps.
Let’s see… no major highlights from the workout, as it was mostly just a very solid workout overall. I want to start trying to work the ujjayi breath into the workout. I was able to do it a little bit, but really only when doing the sequence from mountain into standing forward bend. I think with a little practice I can integrate it more fully into the workouts. Headstand preparation went pretty well, the two minute downward dog wasn’t bad at all. I may (finally) be starting to get it. Shoulderstand was good, held it for an extra minute or so. I was getting a better sense of when my body was actually getting too tired to hold it well, which is good. Anyway… these last few workouts have been creeping pretty late into the day, so over the next couple of days I’ll probably be reversing that trend and getting back into some earlier workouts. As always, we’ll see how that actually goes.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

I wasn’t quite as sure which of the workouts I wanted to do today. I was pretty certain I wanted to do abs, but not which one. I was thinking not pilates, but uncertain as to which of the balanceball or yoga I wished to do. I ended up going with the balanceball workout, largely because it’s pretty much impossible to do that one on the road, and so my opportunities to do it are more limited.
It went pretty well. My breathing was pretty good for it, focusing on keeping my abs tight, properly inhaling and exhaling. This is a good workout for that, because while it does provide a pretty thorough usage of the abs, it’s at a relatively slow pace. I continue to work on my form, striving for improvement. I think I was a little bit better with the poses where I’m lying on my back again today. I really tried to anchor myself down in my abs region, and I think that was effective. Harder, too, as always seems to be the case. Anyway, I’ll probably get a workout in fairly late tomorrow, and then might flip to morning workouts for a few days after that.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Well, I definitely got to this workout somewhat later than I was expecting to tonight. I was planning on doing it before dinner, but then never quite managed that, and ended up being caught up in other things. Oh well. Better late than never, as they say. One random observation before getting into tonight’s workout… my abs are really rather sore today. I’m not quite sure what exactly I did differently yesterday, but whatever it was, my abs apparently haven’t been worked in quite that manner before. Or at least, not very much. Overall, it’s probably a good thing… means that I’m finally starting to work on an area that I’ve (somehow) been neglecting.
On to tonight’s workout. Started with the basics, ran twice through sun salutation, then integrated a warrior I, then a triangle, and for the final run through, did the eight pose sequence from py:total body. I’m not quite sure why, but that just seemed like the right thing to do at the time. I feel like I’m learning more about the poses each time I do that, especially lately, when I’ve felt somewhat more aware of what I’m doing. I finished off with one more run through the sun salutation, and sequenced into the cooling poses. Just a seated forward bend and side stretch tonight. Last few notes were that I was strangely flexible tonight, relatively, or at least not tight. Second was that I sequenced full pushup to upward dog to downward dog sequences between the more advanced poses instead of just going back to downward dog. A sign of slightly more motivation, perhaps.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

I was a little torn today on whether I felt like doing strength or flexibility, but was leaning towards flexibility, so that’s what I ended up doing. It was decent without being particularly outstanding. I think that I’m getting better about having solid workouts even when I’m not particularly inspired. Mostly, I think it’s a matter of maintaining better focus on what I’m doing instead of letting my mind drift as much. It still does wander, but usually not for too long. Anyway, nothing particularly outstanding tonight. I again noticed that my hamstrings were relatively warm to start, and it didn’t feel like I was overextending at all. I’m hoping this is a trend that continues through the summer months, and that I can make some serious gains in flexibility during that time. Anyway, probably won’t actually do a morning workout, I’ll probably try to do my workout somewhat earlier tomorrow and get in the morning workout the next day.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Well, I was really tired going into the workout tonight. In fact, part of the reason I finally got up to do it was that I was afraid I’d fall asleep first if I didn’t. The last couple of days have been pretty long, and the sleep has been pretty short. Nothing overly unusual, I suppose, other than perhaps the long and short being even a little more extreme than usual.
Anyway, just decided to go ahead and do something basic tonight. And also, something that wasn’t too terribly long, since I’m hoping to get at least a little more sleep tonight. I successfully convinced mlee to do the workout as well. I think that I’m slowly getting him more into it, but it’s hard to say for sure. He at least seems to recognize the potential benefits, even if he’s not doing that great of a job of acting on that on his own.
The workout was fairly decent. Certainly nothing amazing, but since I was pretty much on autopilot throughout, that wasn’t terribly surprising. No luck with pendulum tonight, although crane and simple arm balance both went fine. The DVD crashed as we were starting the sun salutation sequence that includes the crane pose, so I had to direct us through the rest of the workout, but I think I pulled it off fairly well. I usually can’t remember all the little phrases that Rodney says, but I do interject some that I remember, and I’m pretty good with going through the poses, anyway. Well, that’s all for now… I’m going to attempt to get up in the morning and do a workout before heading in to work, hopefully getting me on an early workout schedule, at least for the next couple of days.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Dragged myself out of bed to get the workout in this morning. I’m fairly certain that this is the first time that I’ve been so tired that I wanted to go back to sleep while I was doing the workout. But in the end I persevered, and got in at least a decent physical workout in the process.
Started out the workout with a few simple mountain pose -> standing forward bend -> downward dog and back transitions. Then I went into full sun salutations, integrating mostly warriors today. Did a sequence with warrior II, warrior I, warrior II -> triangle -> warrior II, and warrior I -> warrior III -> warrior I. That’s the first time that I’ve sequenced a warrior III into a free form workout. I’m fairly pleased with my continued desire to challenge myself more with these workouts, and think that it may eventually lead to me creating a workout or two that has a static routine that I sequence myself. Probably still a fairly distant possibility, but something to think about. Anyway, just going to continue to slog through the day, and hopefully not be too tired on the drive home.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Went for another free form workout today, mostly because none of the set workouts really appealed to me. I kept it a little bit lighter today, as I’m still feeling pretty fatigued, and just wanted to take it a little easier. So I went with a pretty basic workout, just running through the sun salutation six times, incorporating triangle, side stretch, warrior II, and warrior I into the sequences. I finished it off with a little stretching, forward bend from cobbler’s pose, seated forward bend, and a basic leg stretch. Nothing terribly exciting or creative, but just getting the workout in.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

On the road again, this time staying in a hotel. Unfortunately, this one didn’t have quite the available space of the last hotel that I stayed in, so my choices for a workout were rather limited. But since I hadn’t done an abs workout in a while, I decided that it would be an appropriate workout to do, anyway. There was just enough space between the beds for me to lie down with my shoulders barely touching the sides, and that kept me out of the way of other people moving about the room.
It was a pretty decent workout… a little awkward at times, but mostly just during the section of the twists to the sides, since I had to shift and extend my legs out past the beds in order to have room to twist, but there wasn’t quite enough space to extend my legs, then. But I managed to work with it. Then, when I got to the standing forward bend, I decided to enhance my workout a little, in order to get a bit more stretching in. So I did a few sun salutations, integrating a triangle pose and a warrior II before finishing off with a leg stretch and the conclusion of the abs workout. Overall, it was fairly satisfactory, even if I did have to get up a little earlier in order to get it in. I imagine that my workout tomorrow will be somewhat later in the day, since I doubt I’ll do one before returning home.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Returned home today, and unsurprisingly, fairly quickly took a nap. It was more like a day’s worth of sleep, given the amount of sleep I often get, but that’s okay. Anyway, woke up a little lethargic, but went ahead and crawled out of bed to get the workout in.
It went reasonably well. I liked the vinyasa sequence, although I was feeling a bit out of it. I didn’t have any trouble with it, though, except for listing a bit as I went from standing forward bend to mountain pose. Balance didn’t seem to be quite as good as usual. Breathing was pretty decent, I was getting some decent focus there.
The rest of the workout was okay, if not spectacular. I felt pretty good about the headstand preparations, but the two minute downward dog was pretty tough. I’m not even quite sure what the problem was, since it wasn’t really my shoulders… just general arm fatigue, I guess. Shoulderstand was decent, but I decided just to follow the timing of the video today and not go for an extended time. I tried not to overextend in the leg stretches, but won’t really know until tomorrow if I was actually successful with that or not. Anyway, hopefully I won’t stay up too late, and will manage to get a decent amount of sleep for the first time in a while, but I’m not overly optimistic.

Workout: Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

I wasn’t feeling inspired by any of the heavier workouts today, so I decided to go ahead and just have a lighter day. I chose my favorites out of the mini-workouts, as usual. While they don’t provide a whole lot in terms of a challenging workout, they do provide some good stretching, and there’s definitely something to be said for that. Started off with the running segment. I always get a little thrown off by that one, since it opens with a stretch and ends before I’m really expecting it to. I was a little uncertain about opening with a stretch before, but it seems that if you’re careful, it works really well. It definitely felt good leading into the swimming section, as I already felt like my hamstrings were warmed up going into triangle pose. I felt a little more connected to my triangle poses today, as well, like I was absorbing and acting on all of the subtle positioning hints that were given. I finsihed off the sections with the all sports, which is really all about cooling down and stretching, anyway. I wonder what it would be like to do all of the sports mini-workouts consecutively… I suspect it wouldn’t be as good as doing the full workout, so there’s probably no real point. I’ll probably try to shake things up a little tomorrow, possibly even getting a pilates workout in.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Planning on checking out the local ultimate action today, so I went for a light workout just to warm up the muscles. This workout usually surprises me by being just slightly more challenging than I think it’s going to be, and today was no exception. However, it’s still pretty light, and I think it does a decent job of getting my muscles warmed up for other activity.
In other news, my left knee seems to have mostly healed, but my right knee is now rather unhappy. Pretty much mirrored to the problem I had with the left knee for most of 2004, particularly the first half. The most disturbing part about it is that I have no idea of what I did, or how it got to be this bad. All I can really do now is try and take it easy on the sharp bends, and hope that it heals a little more quickly than the left knee did. Frustrating, but something that must be dealt with, I suppose.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Arrgh. I am so sore today. It amazes me at times how sore I can get from just one activity. And the really strange thing about it is that while I do know what activity caused all the soreness, I’m highly uncertain as to how certain elements of soreness occurred. For instance, I’m very tender at the bottom of my ribcage on the right side. I’m quite certain that it happened while I was playing ultimate, but I have no idea how. But it’s been sore ever since I played yesterday, so that’s definitely the source. My right hand was also sore for most of the day, but that seems to have mostly gone away now. However, when I started the yoga workout I found out that my left shoulder is also a bit tender, which I didn’t even know until then. I did hit the ground fairly hard once on my left side, though, so I suspect that it probably strained something a little bit, and I just haven’t noticed because I haven’t used my left arm a whole lot today. All in all, this made for a very sore workout today. In addition to the more evident areas of injury, my legs and arms are just generally a little tender all over. I probably could have avoided some of that by doing a workout last night, but I felt fine last night, for the most part. And it really doesn’t seem like I should be that sore. Just goes to show that it’s difficult to predict exactly when and where you’ll be sore, I guess. Anyway, I’m going to try and keep getting the workouts in, and hopefully most of the soreness will disappear in the next day or two. I’d still love to know what exactly I did to my ribcage, though.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

My injuries seem to be healing, slowly. I’m sure the process would probably be assisted by proper nutrition, but that seems to be somewhat beyond my capabilities right now. Even getting sufficient calories via any means seems a bit of a stretch right now, much less in proper proportions. So for now I’m just dealing with it as I have to, with slower than desired healing rates.
My ribcage definitely seemed better today, and since I was still somewhat uncertain about my left shoulder, I decided to do an abs workout. This was perhaps a little more aggressive than was really ideal for my ribs, but they don’t seem to have taken it too badly, now that the workout is done. It was only problematic for a few of the exercises, the boat poses being the most notable of those. I’m afraid that it wasn’t really one of my better workouts, as I was somewhat concerned with not aggravating anything more than necessary, and so a little less attention was paid to the breathing aspects. For the most part I was still okay, I think, although I did catch myself puffing my abs at one point when I should have been exhaling with them. Oh well. There’s a good chance I’ll do something from the pilates workouts tomorrow, to continue and rest my shoulder and hopefully avoid slowing the healing process any further.

Workout: Intermediate Mat Workout
Author: chaos

Finally checked out the intermediate mat workout today. I’ve actually had this workout since late January, but have never managed to get around to doing it before. This was in part because I got two other workouts at the same time, and this one got neglected, and in part because I’ve been doing less pilates in the last couple of months as I’ve been more drawn to the yoga.
Anyway, the workout was pretty decent. It incorporates many of the elements that I’m already familiar with from the other pilates workouts, adding maybe one or two exercises I haven’t seen before. One of the big advantages I think it has over the others, though, is that the explanations for how to hold the body while doing the exercises are somewhat better. At least, it seems that way. Admittedly, for the ones that I have been doing in the past, it seemed that I was doing them correctly, but it was helpful for the less familiar ones. Overall I think it went pretty well, although trying to hold my torso in place while scissoring my legs just above the ground was proving to be quite challenging. I didn’t do terribly well with it, but that’s fine… it just shows I still have work to do.
I briefly tested my shoulder today before going to the pilates workout, and it still seems a bit tender. So I’ll probably continue trying to rest it for at least another day or two, depending on how it feels before workout time. With that in mind, probably another pilates or abs workout tomorrow.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 2
Author: chaos

I wasn’t quite sure about my shoulder still tonight, but decided to go ahead and try out a yoga workout anyway. This one seemed a good choice, largely because it has fewer downward dog poses than all of the others. Since that was the primary pose I was noticing strain in my shoulder with, it seemed that avoiding too many of those might not be a bad plan.
It was a reasonable if not exceptional workout. My shoulder did still feel a little out of sorts, but I was able to do all of the poses with it and not feel like I was straining it more. It was really only an issue in the beginning vinyasa sequence, after which it’s very lightly used for the rest of the workout. I was also seeking to avoid straining any other injuries, so I modified tree pose with my right leg up so that I simply did a cross-legged stance over my left knee. I think it’s a pretty effective modification, since it felt like I still had much of the benefit without causing pain in the knee. The only other pain I had was doing the reclining twist with my legs to the right side, I felt a bit of the pain in my ribcage again. It’s mostly gone, I think it takes a very specific motion to trigger it now, and will most likely be completely gone in another day, two at most. Not sure what I’m going to try tomorrow, might again try and rest the shoulder, let it recover as much as possible before going to harder workouts on it.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Went a little on the riskier side today with a py:flexibility session. I was pretty much planning on doing something with little shoulder usage, but my partner suggested this, so I went along with it. It’s a bit of a strange thing, really… the shoulder seems to be neither improving nor getting worse. Yoga, while not entirely comfortable, seems to have no adverse effect on it, either.
Not too much to be said about the workout… I felt my concentration was pretty good until near the end, when my mind started wandering some. I modified both the pigeon lunge and one-legged forward bend on the right side to minimize knee impact. Basically doing all the stuff I had to do for the left knee last year. I’m feeling good about my triangle poses, and I think I’m starting to gain a little understanding with the warrior poses, warrior I in particular. Anyway, schedule will likely be messed up for the next day or so, but I’ll probably end up doing an abs workout tomorrow evening sometime.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Due to having to shift my schedule around and unanticipated events, I actually haven’t slept since the last workout. I think this somewhat understandably makes me a little bit fatigued at this point. Sometimes I think that’s good for the workout, because my mind is at least a little less active while going through. Certainly that seemed to be the case today, as it really felt like I was able to focus on my body and breath without being distracted. The downside to that is that it’s rather difficult for me to really analyze much about the workout, as I don’t have mental processes taking notes. So I guess I just end up getting general impressions of the workout. Anyway, my general impression was that it was pretty good, and that I used my left shoulder a little more than I probably really should have today. During the day, I mean, not the workout. Oof. Anyway, I’m just rambling at this point, so I’m going to call it in, and probably get to sleep in the next hour or two (or three or four). Last note, did much better with keeping the abs scooped today, hopefully I’ll continue to improve on that and eventually not have to concentrate as hard to make sure that happens.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Well, I was intending to do a structured workout today, because I really didn’t feel like sequencing my own. Unfortunately, the dvd player didn’t want to cooperate, and refused to give me any volume. So I ended up just sequencing my own workout anyway. It was a pretty short, intense workout… a little too intense, I think. My left shoulder is definitely feeling like it’s been used a little too much in the past couple of days. I wasn’t originally going to do a yoga workout at all, but ended up not wanting to take the time to set up the pilates workout so I could see it. It wouldn’t have mattered, anyway, since there was the no volume issue.
Anyway, started it out fast paced like the swimming mini-workout. Did a triangle pose to each side in the style of the stamina workout, and then did the eight pose sequence from total body. The half moon poses went quite poorly, especially the one to the right. I could not keep my balance at all for some reason. After that I did a warrior I. By this time my shoulder was starting to object to the activity quite a bit, so I sequenced down into cobbler’s pose, did a seated forward bend, threw in a reclining twist, and then closed it out with relaxation pose. I’m not sure I’d say it was a good workout, but it was certainly interesting.

Workout: Intermediate Mat Workout
Author: chaos

This was the workout that I was originally planning on doing yesterday, so I went ahead and got it in today. Only the second time that I’ve done it, but I’m starting to like it… I was able to pay more attention this time, and catch some of the nuances that I missed last time. I definitely think it’s a little more instructional than either of the other pilates workouts that I periodically do. So I think it’s helping me improve my overall pilates motions, which of course provides for better workouts.
Today I felt the burn a little bit more than last time, probably in part because of the added nuance and in part because I’m just somewhat worn down right now. If I were going to take a break from workouts, this would probably be about the time to do it. But I’m hoping that I won’t have to, especially if I stick with a lot of pilates and abs workouts for the time being. That’s currently my plan, with the occasional light yoga workout thrown in, but nothing particularly straining. Anyway, it was a fairly decent workout tonight, I was pleased with it if not necessarily with my execution. I’ll probably get in an abs workout tomorrow night and then flip to a late morning workout the next day to warm up for ultimate.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

My lifestyle of the last week is really starting to wear me down. I actually feel okay for the most part, but I can tell that I’m really tired. However, I do plan on getting a decent amount of sleep tonight, so that should mostly alleviate the relative fatigue that I’m experiencing.
Tonight’s workout was fairly decent. I had a really good mind/body connection going for a little while. It didn’t last for the entire workout, but it was good to see that I’m starting to get a little closer to that ideal. I also noticed that if I keep my legs together at the thighs when lowering them, it increases the level of challenge. I should have already realized that from my pilates workouts, but sometimes I miss things like that. Anyway, I’m now well set up for the plan to do a free form workout tomorrow before ultimate, so I’m pretty happy about that.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Had a really good stretching workout today. I’m not sure why, exactly, but I was feeling very flexible today. I managed to really turn in my triangle pose, extend in my warrior poses, and stretch in my seated forward bends. I did a wide angle forward bend, and had a huge amount of flexibility for that. It felt really good, actually, although I’m not necessarily certain that it will feel as good tomorrow. Anyway, I’m going to be heading off to ultimate soon, and then going for some DDR after that, so it should be a good day.

Workout: Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

Well, I finally ended my week of insanity yesterday with some hard ultimate and around four hours of DDR. After that I took a shower, a nap, drove home, and then slept for a large portion of the day. I’m definitely still pretty tired, but at least it’s not quite walking dead level.
I decided to just go ahead and take things a little easier today. I’m a little bit sore from ultimate, but not too much. Playing on a fairly consistent basis is certainly paying off in terms of both better cardio shape, and not needing nearly as long to recover. I decided some light stretching was pretty much in order, just enough to loosen up the muscles somewhat, but not really challenge them too much. That went fairly well… I felt like I was decompressing just a little bit, but definitely not straining. In related news, I think that my program of avoiding straining injured areas is working… my shoulder has been feeling better the last couple of days. I’ll probably continue with it for a few more days, see if I can fully rest it and eliminate all soreness from the area. I think my knee is improving, but that’s going to be a slow process, so I’ll be trying to avoid putting any strain on that for a while yet. Anyway, that’s all for now, I’ll probably try and get a pilates workout in tomorrow.

Workout: Intermediate Mat Workout
Author: chaos

Continued to try and rest up my body a little today. I suppose it’s not resting, technically, but it seems like it since I avoid working the areas that are strained. Today’s workout actually worked my shoulders a little bit more than I would have expected, but I think I avoided overly straining it.
Overall, I’m continuing to work on my form. Some of the motions are still somewhat foreign to me, but I’m learning them. I think there will still be work to do for quite a while, though. My pilates stance is improving, but moving my legs with my upper body stationary is still somewhat difficult. At least, without using my arm to steady myself. In particular, I’m thinking of the sequence of leg kicks forward and back, where I tend to tilt my body a little. It’s getting better, but it’ll still be some time before it’s really good, I think. I’ll probably try and get some ab work in tomorrow, and then hopefully my shoulder will be healed enough to get back into yoga more regularly.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

As expected, I went with the abs yoga session today. I’m not sure I’d say that’s the workout I really wanted to do, but I did want to give my shoulder another day’s rest. It’s been feeling fine, but since it’s one of those things that could quickly go back to not feeling that great, I feel the extra caution is justified.
Not a whole lot to say about tonight’s workout… I wasn’t keeping my abs as scooped as I would have liked, particularly during the boat poses. It’s really not an easy thing to do… I should spend a little time examining Rodney’s technique, and practice it some time outside of the workout. I definitely think it’s more difficult when I’ve been doing a lot of ab work recently, too. I should be getting back to a more regular amount of ab work, though, as I start getting more full yoga workouts in. Anyway, I’ll probably head out to ultimate tomorrow evening, so most likely I’ll be getting in some sort of stretching workout before that in order to warm up.

Workout: Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

Just a quick workout today to get warmed up before ultimate. Did the sequence of running, swimming, and all sports, skipping the final relaxation pose in all sports since it seemed unnecessary right now. The only things of note were that my shoulder seemed to be twinging just a tiny bit, and that whatever I did to my right hamstring on Friday is still around. It doesn’t really hurt, or affect movement in any way, but it is noticable. I’m hoping that perhaps warming it up thoroughly today will give me a chance to stretch it out afterwards. If I’m motivated, I’ll probably try and get a flexibility workout in later tonight, but we’ll see if that actually happens. Anyway, for now I’m off to ultimate to try out my new cleats.