BBM Connection

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 2
Author: chaos

Well, I acquired my first serious injury of the year at ultimate yesterday. Pulled my hamstring in the right leg. This is kind of annoying, because it’s somewhat painful, but more importantly, I was fearing that it was going to keep me from getting my workout in. Motion is definitely somewhat restricted, unless of course I want to keep it from healing. Since I’d like it to heal as quickly as reasonably possible, restricting motion seems like a very good plan. Unfortunately, that cuts out a lot of yoga poses. Things like standing forward bend are actually quite a bit of a problem, and even downward dog isn’t really a good idea. So I was feeling like I was going to have to take a day off, when I hit upon this workout. It doesn’t do a whole lot with those types of poses, and I felt that with a little modification, I could get the workout in. It was fairly tough, but that’s what I managed to do. I avoided stretching back into the few downward dog poses, didn’t fold fully into the standing forward bend, and substituted a warrior II for the warrior III. I was also extremely cautious with all of the poses, especially when my right leg was the leading leg. Interestingly, having my right leg as the back leg causes no trouble at all in any of the poses I did today. It’s definitely more fond of being straight and partial weight bearing than anything else. So in summary, I managed to persevere and get the workout in. Whether I’ll be able to continue doing so in the next few days remains to be seen… I could be coming back to this workout quite a bit, or doing some different free form stuff than I have in the past.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Got a little more creative with the workout today. Since I’m trying to avoid the sun salutation at the moment, mostly to avoid standing forward bend, I figured my workout today would be more of a sequence of poses than a vinyasa flow style. Which it was, although I did manage to get a little bit of flow going.
Started off with a sequence of triangle, side stretch, warrior II, and warrior I to each side. Those all went okay, although my leg seemed a little uncertain about being the forward leg, like yesterday. Then I switched into a bit of an arm strength segment, and did some yoga pushups. That consisted of going from four-limbed staff pose (also known in these workouts as pushup pose) into plank pose. Stopping at the height of the four-limbed staff pose is actually considerably more challenging than you might think, especially if you hold the pose at that level for any length of time. I interleaved that with a bit of downward dog, which was much easier today. Hopefully that’s a sign that healing is beginning. Then I did a few more pushups, and an upward dog/downward dog sequence. I then returned to standing poses for a bit, doing another triangle pose and warrior II. The triangle felt much better the second time, apparently warming up the muscle helped. Then I went into a bit of stretching. I did a wide angle seated forward bend, which I took quite slowly, and seemed to be good, and then finished with reclining cobbler’s pose and relaxation pose. Overall, I’m trying hard to strike the balance between having a workout that’s long enough to be effective and useful, and short enough not to tax anything unnecessarily. I think I’m doing a decent job with that at the moment, and hopefully I’ll be able to continue doing so as long as necessary.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Decided to be a little riskier today and try for an abs workout. My primary concern with the workout was the leg movement from horizontal to vertical. I feared that it would greatly strain the hamstring muscle, too much to really risk. However, it turned out not to be nearly that much of an issue. I could feel a little bit of tightness when my legs were in the full vertical position, but other than that, it was fine. As long as I didn’t try pushing into that, I was pretty certain that I wasn’t going to do any harm, and might help the matter by lightly stretching out the area.
So I went ahead with the workout, and it went fairly well. I probably spent too much time focusing on making sure I wasn’t going to do anything untoward to my hamstring, but that’s somewhat to be expected, I suppose. I spent most of the rest of the time focusing on keeping my abs drawn in and tight. That went reasonably well, although there’s still plenty of room for improvement. I started glancing through this hatha yoga book that we have, though, and noticed that the first section concentrates on breathing technique, and mentions how important it is for all of the exercises. And it seems to be emphasizing the same type of things that I’ve started doing in the last few months, really drawing the abs in. So I’m going to start reading the book sometime soon, and hopefully learn a lot about how to go about breathing and maintaining that form while doing various exercises. I think that it’s something that could definitely help me take my practice up another level. I’ve also been going through a lot of my older entries. Interesting to note how certain things come up, get forgotten, come up again, etc. But I think I learn more every time that sequence happens, so it’s still an overall positive, I think. Anyway, I’m just starting to ramble at this point, so I’ll call this entry a wrap, and hopefully this will be a sign that I can start getting back into some of my other workouts soon.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Decided to try something a little more aggressive today, and see if I could get a stretch into my hamstring through some standing forward bends. I figured I’d start off just going to the edge before pain, and then hopefully through use it would increase in flexibility a bit. That didn’t really happen, unfortunately. While it didn’t get any worse, it really didn’t improve, either. However, all the other poses didn’t seem to affect the muscle, so that’s good. I think it has a slightly greater range of motion now, anyway. Unfortunately, I think I’m in for a week or two of rehabilitation with the hamstring. I was hoping that it would be quick due to the initial response, but that doesn’t seem so likely now.
Other notes… breathing was okay. I fell in and out of focusing on the matter. I want to really start working on that, but it might be another week before I really get into it. I kind of crunched my right knee again today, which sucks. I was noticing that having the hamstring be injured was giving me the added bonus of avoiding tweaking the knee, but unfortunately I found a way to do so, unintentionally. I think I’ll probably try balanceball tomorrow, I don’t think it’ll be a problem.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

Tried to avoid strain on the hamstring again today with a balanceball workout. For the most part, there’s nothing in the workout that would even potentially cause trouble until the end, when there are a few exercises with the legs extended. However, either because of the warmth or because the leg continues to heal, or both, it wasn’t a problem by the time I got to that section. That’s a rather encouraging sign, and hopefully means that the healing process has begun in earnest.
The workout itself was pretty good. I’ve been reading through a lot of my old entries in the last few days… most of them, really. I’ll probably finish that up in the next day or so. Anyway, it just brings back to mind a number of things I’ve thought in the past about breathing and concentration and stuff like that. So I think I was a little more focused today than I have been recently. Also, I was really tuned in to making my abs work, which was good, I think. I might even be a little tender tomorrow from the vigorous ab work. Anyway, things to do and all that, so I’m going to head off for now and take care of those things, and hopefully I’ll be able to get a little more of a stretching workout in tomorrow.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Had a very interesting workout tonight. After having a reasonable amount to drink, was not quite sober, although I was definitely heading in that general direction. Regardless, was certainly still a ways from that point when I started the workout. However, it didn’t really change all that much. I was a little wobblier than normal going between the poses, but not outside of the range of normal workouts.
I warmed up with two simple sequences from mountain to standing forward bend to downward dog and back. Then I started working in the full sun salutation, as well as integrating some other poses. I changed the order up a little bit in order to try and stretch the hamstring a little more before really using it. So I did a sequence of side stretch, warrior I, warrior II, and then triangle. That seemed to be pretty effective, or at least my workout until that point was, because I had no trouble at all with triangle. I also noticed that while it’s still not fully healed, I was now able to get down into a reasonable semblance of standing forward bend, so the healing process is continuing. The only trouble I had was falling out of warrior I to the right for a bit, which is probably the effect of the drink. I completed this sequence by holding downward dog for a minute and a half or so.
Finished it all off with a bit of cool down and relaxation. This is where the fatigue really caught up to me, because after doing the reclining twist to both sides and then reclining cobbler’s pose, I completely crashed during the relaxation pose. I must have fallen asleep for close to half and hour or so, but it was probably pretty good for me. Anyway, I’m going to wrap this up and go get a decent night’s sleep, try not to start off the week too badly.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Partly because I felt like it, and partly because after reading my old entries I’m feeling that I’ve been taking it a little too easy the last couple of months, I went in for a morning workout today. I was feeling just a little bit hung over, so I wasn’t certain how it was going to go, but surprisingly it went quite well. I started out with a few quick sun salutations, then started integrating some other poses. I did a triangle, warrior II, triangle -> half moon -> warrior II. After that I decided to work on arm balances a little, attempting pendulum pose, then doing crane pose and a simple arm balance. I then closed out the workout with a little bit of leg stretching and relaxation pose. My hamstring felt okay, no real improvement over yesterday, but that’s more or less to be expected, I imagine. Although it really didn’t cause trouble at all, I could just feel it a little bit in standing forward bend. I wasn’t pushing it, though, and I know it still has a little way to go before it’s fully healed. Hopefully by next week, so I can try to injure it again while playing ultimate. Anyway, that’s all for now, I’m hoping to get on this more aggressive workout schedule, but we’ll see how it goes.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

I really didn’t have any trouble convincing myself to do a workout tonight. I’ve been really feeling the urge all day, so I guess that probably explains it. As an added bonus, mlee has agreed to do any workouts that I ask him to this week, as long as he’s physically capable. So he also did the workout. It was pretty much up in the air which one we were going to do, so after a quick check on my hamstring, I decided this would be a good choice.
It went pretty well… the hamstring is doing fine. I actually had more soreness in the hamstrings from the earlier workouts than I did from the pull, so it should hopefully be back to full usage within a couple of days. Nothing of particular note… my level of focus faded in and out. I’m trying to get back to having good focus for these things, but I admit I have a harder time when someone else is doing the workout as well. But I definitely had a few good points, brief as they may have been. Strength was fine, and injuries are holding up. I managed to not tweak my knee for the last few workouts, so hopefully I’ll keep up that trend. Anyway, I’m going to try and get up in the morning and do another workout, so I should get to sleep to improve the chances of that happening.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Managed to convince myself to get up and do the workout today. Unfortunately, I had more trouble falling asleep than I really should have, so I only ended up getting around three hours, but that’s not really all that unusual, anyway. So after a short period of awakening, I got going on my free form workout.
It went pretty well. It was a little slow at first, as I tried to both wake up and warm up. Just did a few slow runs through the sun salutation. Started to pick it up a little bit, integrating the sequence that’s becoming standard, triangle, side stretch, warrior I and warrior II. I didn’t feel like I was quite ready to be finished at that point, so I threw in a crane pose after that. I’ve been very happy with it the last few days, it’s been strong. Finished it all off with reclining twist and relaxation pose, as usual. Overall, it was a pretty satisfactory workout. I’ll probably try to get something else in tonight, quite likely abs yoga.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Today’s practice was pretty good. I had largely forgotten about the shortened total body session option until I was reading through the archives the past couple of days. Even then, it didn’t really hit me until tonight, when I was trying to decide between flexibility and free form, and realized that short total body would also satisfy my requirements for the workout. By random selection, that’s the one I ended up with.
My main goal for the workout was just to stretch out my hamstrings, hopefully without making them any more sore. My aggressive schedule for the last few days has really contributed to my hamstrings returning to a level of soreness that I haven’t experienced in a while. In a way, that’s been good, because it’s masked the pulled hamstring being something unique to avoid. So at least I’ve healed to the point where ordinary soreness is more noticable. I do want to get back to non-soreness before I attempt any more strenuous activities, though, just to be sure that it really has recovered.
With that in mind, I tried to be fairly light with my movements, and yet still precise. I’m not sure how well I managed the lightness, but at least the effort was decent, I think. During parts of the workout I also had good focus and concentration on my breathing, but that came and went as I got distracted. I’m not terribly upset by that… I don’t think that I’ve really been considering the mental aspects as much during the last few months, and so I expect it’ll take me a little bit to get back to the point of consistency in remembering to focus.
I think that I’m finally really starting to get back into yoga. What I’ve done for the last five months or longer has really just been maintaining my practice. Which is definitely useful, but I think I’m ready to start growing in my practice again. I’m looking forward to doing some reading in the next week, which will hopefully help me improve my practice in a number of areas. My focus is returning, as long as I can keep track of it. Hopefully that will improve as I continue to work on it. I’m getting excited by the practice again, and I think that will greatly facilitate me in my efforts to move forward into a higher level of practice.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

And another workout after a relatively short break. This is the workout I originally planned on doing last night, but then decided to get in the workout for stretching purposes instead. The delay doesn’t seem to have hurt any… in fact, having the other workout first probably helped. I went into this workout with a very clear mind, or something. I’m not actually entirely certain what it is… all I know is that I was very sure of my movements throughout the practice. Everything I was doing just seemed like… that’s what I should be doing, or at least, that doing those motions was a good thing. I don’t know. I really haven’t had enough sleep lately. That was the unfortunate thing… I didn’t manage to get any sleep between these workouts. I think it probably helped with my awareness, but it’s going to hurt later on today. C’est la vie.
I also made mlee wake up to do this workout. Normally I wouldn’t even attempt such a thing, but he agreed to do whatever workouts I asked him to do this week as long as he was physically capable. Since I didn’t make him wake up for either of the last two, I didn’t want to let him completely off the hook. He was very sporting about the matter and did the workout, although he was obviously still quite tired. I’m not sure he’ll necessarily agree to such an arrangement again in the future, but perhaps he’ll be a little more willing to compromise on his plans in order to get workouts in. Who knows. Anyway, very doubtful that I’ll get another session in tonight, although there is a possibility of that. Most likely I’ll do one sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening, though.

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

Really just did this workout to keep my daily workout trend going. Certainly I was feeling enough fatigue that I could have just gone to sleep instead, but I didn’t want to have to pass up the workout. So I decided to just do something really light. I’ve been pushing myself a little bit harder this week, and while I think it’s been good overall, it’s left me a little sore and quite tired. So for tonight, just a light stretch, and then hopefully start picking back up tomorrow.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Resumed my desired schedule with another abs workout. I suppose this isn’t terribly surprising… back when I was doing multiple workouts in a day, I usually did an abs workout as well as another workout. I’m suspecting that now the balance will be somewhat different, since I’m much more comfortable with the idea of sequencing my own workouts, and I have more workouts to choose from. Still, having an abs workout every other day or so would not be at all surprising.
I’m trying to make a number of changes in my life right now, things that most people might think of as completely normal, but represent somewhat radical changes for me. I’d really like to stabilize my sleeping, both in terms of general schedule as well as amount. I’m currently aiming to try getting between five and seven hours of sleep a night, with a projected awakening time of 0900 Eastern. I think that’s my first priority, overall, although perhaps one of the hardest for me to accomplish. I also want to start eating more consistently, balancing nutrition and calorie intake a lot more than I am now. Especially now that I’m looking to increase my workout amount, it’s becoming even more important to make sure that I’m not shorting myself on calories and necessary vitamins, which is what I typically do.
I’d also like to start a meditation practice. I’ve made some half-hearted attempts in the past year or two, but haven’t really dedicated myself to the proposition at any time. But I feel that I’ve slowly been regaining some ability to focus and commit myself to things, and that I might have more success now. There are a number of other projects that I’d also like to start on, but I think the ones that I’ve just mentioned are the main ones, the building blocks, as it were. The key will be to remain aware that making major changes is a slow process (which I should certainly know by now), and not to let myself become overwhelmed by the task. I’m honestly not certain that I can do it, or at least not all of it, but I do believe that I’m finally ready to make a serious attempt at accomplishing these things. If I can really be successful with even one of the three major tasks, I think it will really help me move on to the others and eventually be successful with all of them.
In terms of my practice, this means that I still intend to do at least one workout daily, and preferably two. I’d definitely like to get to the point where I’m spending an hour or so a day on my practice. But I also have to balance this with other things going on, particularly in the next few months, which promise to be quite busy. So while I’m going to strive for roughly an hour a day, I’m not going to obsess about the matter, and will accept that there are days that that will simply not happen. For now, I’ll just continue working towards that, and take each day as it comes.

Workout: Intermediate Mat Workout
Author: chaos

For some reason, I had trouble actually getting to the workout tonight. I fully intended to get to it several hours ago, but found myself caught up in reading a book, and after I finished the book, I was feeling a little lethargic. I had almost decided to just skip the workout and go to sleep, but decided I’d go ahead and let the decision be random. It called for a workout, so that’s what I did.
I think it went pretty well. I definitely like the effect that added focus and concentration is having on my workouts. Doing the rockers is so much easier when I’m really focusing on them. Which is not to say that I’m perfect at them, but much better than when I wasn’t really focusing. *shrug* It’s just one of those things, I guess. Everything is better when I’m paying attention to it… it’s just a matter of training the mind to stay focused on the workout. Hopefully as I do it more often, consistently, it will become easier. Not entirely certain what tomorrow brings in terms of activity, but I hope to find the time to get a good workout in, possibly total body or the full yoga for athletes workout.

Workout: Yoga Conditioning for Athletes
Author: chaos

It seems I still have occasional motivation issues. It’s not really that I don’t want to get the workout in, it’s just that I don’t actually want to have to go through the workout. Unfortunately, that’s not really all that possible. On the good side, I still went with this full length workout, even though I wasn’t much feeling like it, just because I had originally planned on getting a long workout in.
The workout wasn’t bad. I felt like I was paying attention to all the minor instructions and tips again. I also felt like it had a few too many poses that endangered my knee. I modified where necessary, but I was still closer to the edge on some of the poses than is probably ideal. I’ve also been noticing my hamstring again in the last workout or two, after the general soreness went away. It’s pretty much back to the state that it was in before I pulled it, where it felt a little bit stiff. That’s not particularly ideal, with ultimate coming up again, but I’m hoping that the more thorough stretching of this workout will have helped the matter somewhat, and that it will seem better tomorrow.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Went in for this workout today, mostly because I felt like doing shoulderstand. Not because I had any particular back pain or anything, it’s just something that I felt like doing. I’ve noticed in the past couple of months that I periodically feel like doing inverted poses. I really should get the intermediate yoga workout one of these days, since it contains more inverted poses, and I also feel that I’m pretty much ready to advance in my practice. Well, advance might not be the right word, but to start taking on new challenges in terms of poses.
It was a fairly decent session. My concentration definitely could have been better, although I was doing reasonably well at the beginning. Still, I definitely let my mind wander too much over the course of the workout. The good news was in the hamstring… I didn’t really feel it at all over the course of the workout until the very end, when doing leg stretches, during which I felt the slightest tightness in it. Hopefully between this workout and the previous one, it will be fully stretched out by tomorrow evening when I want to play ultimate. Although if the forecast doesn’t improve, there might not be any ultimate to play. That’s okay, though, as it will just leave me heal for a few more days and potentially able to check out the Thursday night ultimate action, so it definitely wouldn’t be the worst thing if there were no game tomorrow. Anyway, I’ll try and get an abs workout in later tonight, and potentially something in the morning tomorrow. If not, I’ll probably just do a stretching workout before the expected ultimate time.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

My schedule over the last few days really hasn’t been quite as I was expecting it to be. There’s been a lot more sleeping, and a lot less getting much of anything else done. I suppose that’s the way it goes sometimes, but it’s still somewhat annoying. Well, not necessarily that annoying, especially if I can finally sync my schedule up now, as I’m feeling (at the moment) like I’ve pretty well caught up on sleep. So if I can manage to spend the rest of the week getting into a schedule, that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
Pretty standard fare today… I feel like I’m starting to work my deep lower abdominals more than I have in the past with this workout. I think it’s because of my improved form, or at least I’m hoping the form is an improvement, and therefore I’m supposed to be working those muscles more. If not… well, it still seems like they should be worked, although perhaps not with this workout. I’m fairly certain the form is an improvement, though, so I’ll continue to work with it. Anyway, I’ll probably try and get a light stretching workout in before ultimate time, whether or not I think there’s going to be a game.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Decided to try something different for warming up today, and went with the first section of total body. I figured that it would do a pretty decent job of warming up my legs, but it also did a pretty good job of warming up my arms and shoulders as well, which I hadn’t really considered. Since my shoulders are almost always at least a little sore the day after I play ultimate, I’m sure any additional warmup in that area can’t hurt. It’s a little difficult to evaluate the true state of my hamstring, since both are a little sore from yesterday’s workouts, but it seemed to be doing reasonably well the last time I checked. Certainly it’s no worse than it was before I played the last time, and it’s quite probably better. Anyway, hopefully today I can break my trend of injuring myself on Tuesday sessions, and maybe have a chance to play the Thursday session this week.

Workout: Intermediate Mat Workout
Author: chaos

Actually managed to avoid injuring myself during ultimate yesterday. I think the extra stretching I’ve done over the last week, plus the fact that it was quite warm, helped keep my muscles away from any real danger. Not that I’m not quite capable of damaging myself in other ways, but I avoided those as well.
So this workout was a bit of stretching those muscles out, trying to avoid having them get stiff over the next day or two. I’m somewhat deliciously sore all over, partly from ultimate and partly from starting to move boxes and furniture, I think. Yes, it’s that time again, time to move the household. At least this time it shouldn’t have to be done again for another two years or so.
My focus has been quite good for this workout the last three or four times I’ve done it. Certainly that’s partly the overall enhanced focus, but I think that I get a special bonus on this workout, probably because I’m a little less familiar with it, and so I pay more attention. Whatever the reason, I think that it’s really helping me with my pilates form, as well as giving me good workouts. Anyway. I’ll probably try and get something in later tonight, probably after doing some more moving and maybe some painting.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Well, I was originally anticipating that I was going to get another workout in yesterday, but again ended up sleeping a lot more than I was expecting. I suppose my body needs the rest, since I’ve been sleeping pretty well overall the last few weeks, as opposed to the poor sleeping that I had been doing for a month or two prior to that. I just wish I had a better idea of when my body was going to decide to call for more sleep, so I could plan around it.
I went with this workout to try and ease some of the soreness in my muscles. While I definitely seem to be in much better shape than I was three months ago or so, that doesn’t mean that my muscles are ready for the constant motion of two hours of ultimate. It’s definitely not a bad soreness, but it is a soreness nonetheless. The workout was decent for that, although I probably wouldn’t have minded getting a little more stretching in the quadriceps. The best part of the workout was my focus, though… I managed to stay either focused on the workout, or at the very least on workout related thoughts, until the cooldown section where my mind started to wander off a bit. Still, that’s an improvement. If I can get to the point where I maintain that kind of focus throughout an entire workout, it’ll be a step forward towards greater mental discipline. Anyway, I’ll probably get another workout in later today, although I’m not sure what kind right now.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

I’ve heard rumors of this schedule thing, but apparently I don’t really know what that’s about. At least, it doesn’t seem to be something I’m very good at handling right now. I keep thinking I’m going to switch my schedule around to sleep at night, and I continue to fail to do so. I suppose I’ll get to it by necessity next week, but I wish it would stop coming to that. Maybe I’ll manage to pull it together before then, but I’m not going to hold my breath on the matter.
I was originally thinking of doing an abs workout here, but I decided to go with another light stretching workout instead. My legs are still fairly sore from Tuesday… I’m really not entirely certain why. It could be that all the furniture and box moving I’ve been doing isn’t allowing them to recover as much as they should be, but it still seems like they should be recovering more than they have. It still hurts a little in my right quad when I go up and down stairs, which seems wrong.
Anyway, the workout was fairly decent. Lightweight, of course, but that’s what I expected. I tried to really concentrate on maintaining focus, and did a decent job of it. I wandered once or twice, but definitely did much better than my usual. I just need to keep doing that, and eventually it’ll become habit. My right knee seems to be improving, but it’s a slow process. I just have to keep modifying exercises to avoid it, and I think it should be back to normal in a month or two. A pain, but also a necessity. Anyway, I anticipate doing an abs workout in the morning, possibly even pilates.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I was strongly considering doing the pilates abs workout today, but I decided that I just really wasn’t quite ready to take that on again. Specifically, I fear that my form isn’t quite good enough to maintain throughout the entire workout. I think I’m getting to the point where I can take a short break if necessary in order to maintain proper form the rest of the time, but I didn’t know if I was mentally prepared for that today. So I decided to just go with another yoga abs workout. It went well… I continue to enjoy good focus on the abdominal muscles. My overall focus wasn’t quite as good as on the last workout, but it was still pretty decent. I noticed when I started mentally drifting, and brought myself back to the workout. This serves a dual purpose, as it’s also good training for the beginning stages of meditation. Hopefully after a little more practice, I’ll have a good foundation to really get started with a meditation practice in addition to my yoga practice. I think I’ll then be making some significant progress towards self-improvement, at least in terms of general physical and mental well being.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

I had a lot of stuff going on in my head tonight, so I was hoping that getting in a good workout would help me clear my mind somewhat. I didn’t really have a lot of hope for that, but it actually worked a little bit better than I was expecting. While I was definitely having trouble maintaining focus for any appreciable length of time, I was able to keep pulling my mind back to the workout for short periods of time. So that was actually a little better than I expected.
The workout itself was decent. While I didn’t have the type of mental focus that I desired, my focus on the physical aspects was still pretty good. I think that in a few ways it was a little better than usual, probably because I was trying to let go of the mental congestion, and so I was using the physical poses to keep my mind in check. I did finally achieve a short period of mental openness during shoulderstand, but I was having the problem where my legs were starting to tingle again, so I just held it for the time of the video. Other than that, things were just fairly solid, but not outstanding.
Anyway. A lot going on. I might have a lot more time for my practice soon, although I don’t really anticipate that. In many ways I wish it were the case, but it most likely won’t be. But if it turns out that way, look for a lot more solid workouts with an increased meditative focus in the relatively near future.

Workout: Yoga Conditioning for Athletes
Author: chaos

Went for another full YCfA workout today. This one was a little tougher than most of my recent workouts… I’m not entirely certain why, but my muscles were just a little off today. I think it’s the tension that I’m having trouble letting go of. I’m not very good at releasing things mentally… it’s one of the problems that I hope meditation will help with, once I get a solid practice.
Other than the odd muscle tension, though, it went fairly well. Especially for the first half of the workout, I was able to focus almost entirely on the workout without getting distracted. I’m not quite sure how that worked… I think I was trying to pay so much attention to the subtle details of the workout and really focusing on my form that I didn’t have the opportunity to really be distracted. Unfortunately, I pretty much lost that in the cooldown phase, where I was having a lot of trouble keeping focused on the workout. So that wasn’t very good. Workout notes physically… my right hamstring is definitely still tighter than my left, but it at least seems to be healed in terms of having been pulled. My shoulders were getting very tired by the end… I don’t know what exactly causes that with this workout, but it happens fairly often. Anyway. The tension issue should be resolved by Monday night, one way or another, so hopefully I can get back to having better focus on my workouts soon.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

The primary reason I chose this workout in particular tonight was to test and see if my shoulders are really being worn out by the YCfA workout, or if it’s just an odd impression I have only while doing the workout. It does seem to be a real fatigue… certainly my shoulders were more fatigued today than they would have any reason to be, otherwise. It’s an interesting phenomena, and one I’ll have to examine more carefully in the future.
Other than that soreness, today’s workout was decent. I managed to fairly much keep my mind on the workout today, which was a little surprising. I suppose I was spending a lot of time monitoring my shoulders for signs that I was pressing too much and should back off. I didn’t reach that point, although the end of the workout probably came at a fairly ideal time for that.
Well, I had been hoping to get a workout in earlier today, but ended up being tired and deciding not to sacrifice the sleep, for once. I guess that’s one of the other benefits of doing multiple workouts in a day… I don’t feel as bad about not doing one and getting more sleep, instead. Anyway, hopefully my major tension source will be resolved one way or another by the end of the day, and I can start really focusing on these workouts again.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Had a slightly strange workout today from a mental standpoint. I just really couldn’t seem to decide what I wanted to do. I started out free form with modified sun salutation and triangle pose, and then decided that I really felt like doing abs. But then I decided I didn’t really feel like doing all of abs, so I decided to continue with the free form workout, and then incorporate abs elements. That went fairly well, so after I had added in my abs elements, I went back into sun salutation sequences to incorporate a warrior II and then do a simple arm balance to end it off. I finished off with a little bit of stretching, forward bend from cobbler’s pose, leg stretches and relaxation pose. I was feeling a little bit of lassitude towards the whole thing, really the whole morning. I thought about getting in a workout last night, but again decided that the sleeping option was the better choice at the time. I managed to get a lot of sleep due to that decision, so I think that it was a pretty good choice, overall. Hopefully because of that I’ll be able to get a second workout in tonight, and then again tomorrow morning.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I have to admit that this workout was really an avoidance workout. Specifically, it was to avoid doing any of the other workouts. For some reason, I really didn’t feel like doing any kind of stretching workout this morning. Which is kind of odd, since my hamstrings feel somewhat tight, so I could probably really use the stretching. But one of the lessons that I have learned from yoga is that it’s best not to ignore how you feel when selecting your workout, so I went ahead with the abs workout.
As far as it went, the workout was fairly decent. Things at work are still rather nebulous, which is a continuing distraction, but at least it’s not affecting me as much as it was over the weekend. So while that caused a little bit of mental wandering, it’s not the same problem it was then. However, I just seemed to have a general lack of focus today, so my mind was drifting to a variety of subjects. Oh well. I think my overall form for this workout is pretty good now, all though I’m not sure my rocking is ideal. At least, not on a hardwood floor… it’s hard to keep from rocking on my vertebrae, which is somewhat painful. But when I attempt to tuck them in somewhat, the rocking gets off center. Anyway, something to potentially figure out. I’m guessing that I again will only get this workout in today, and quite likely only get one for the next couple of days.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

When I woke up this morning, my hamstrings were still sore. I’m really rather uncertain as to why this is, since I haven’t done anything much in the last couple of days, certainly nothing to really make them sore. Nonetheless, sore they were. I really didn’t feel like doing any of the workouts I had with me, so I decided to just go ahead with a free form workout. It was a pretty slow paced workout, but fairly decent, all the same. It had a few pretty good sections, where I really felt like my understanding of the poses was excellent. Started off with just some basic moves from mountain pose to downward dog and back. After two of those, I went into some sun salutation. I opened with a warrior II, which was really good. For some reason it just felt like I managed to get the balance between my legs down perfectly, and wasn’t straining at all in order to hold the pose. After that I went with triangle and side stretch, and finished off with warrior I. I closed with a bit of simple relaxation in reclined cobbler’s pose and savasana. The end of the workout wasn’t quite as good as the beginning, as I started getting mentally distracted. But overall, it was reasonably satisfying, and hopefully a sign that my ability to really understand positioning is improving.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Decided to go with another short total body session today to warm up for ultimate and possibly a little DDR. It’s going to be pretty warm today, so at least my muscles shouldn’t have any problem with cramping or anything. That’s the hope, anyway. I’ll probably do a little more stretching right beforehand, but I feel that I’ve at least managed to stretch out some areas that I don’t necessarily get to in a simple stretching routine. The workout went fairly well… I was really getting into the poses today, it felt like. I think my understanding is starting to expand again, and hopefully I’ll be at a new level of practice mentally. Anyway, I’m going to head off before ultimate, and probably get a quick shower in to cool off before baking.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Well, had my anticipated day of ultimate and DDR yesterday, and then spent most of today lifting boxes and moving furniture. I would have liked to have gotten to this workout somewhat earlier in the day, but the aforementioned lifting took precedence. However, after it was done, I did want to stretch out both from yesterday’s and today’s activities, so I decided to just sequence up a simple workout that would stretch my body out decently but not tire me out too much, since there’s more lifting and moving to be done tomorrow.
I kept the workout pretty simple from a sequencing perspective. I started out by following the total body workout, up until the point where it goes into the first warrior II. Then I switched up and did the section of py:stamina where it goes through the standing backbends and the triangle/side stretch sequence and the warrior I/warrior II sequences (using total body transitions), and then finished it off with leg stretches in the style of py:strength. So it was a fairly easy workout mentally, since I wasn’t really sequencing myself, just selecting from various workouts. I had a pretty good focus today until near the end where I started mentally wandering. But the beginning was quite good, I was very aware of my body and my motions, and I think that really enabled me to maximize my stretching throughout the workout. Anyway, more moving tomorrow, and then back on the road for the next week. Hopefully I’ll be able to start getting back to the dual workouts fairly soon, but probably not for another day or two yet.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Another stretching free form workout tonight. I was in a bit of a hurry, so I decided to do something with a fast pace. I modeled the beginning of the workout after the YCfA:Swimming mini-workout, and then just tacked on a few additional poses to help stretch a little more (warrior I and II), sequenced in with sun salutations. I ended with a seated forward bend, reclined cobbler’s pose, and relaxation pose. It’s hard to say how effective the workout is going to be… I’ve put my body through a lot in the last couple of days, and while it seems to have taken it well, it’s hard to say if that’s going to last. If not, I guess I’ll just have to keep working on stretching out until I recover. In good news, though, all of the primary furniture and boxes have been moved, so the only things really left to do are moving furniture and boxes within the new place, which shouldn’t be too bad. Anyway, I’ll hopefully get a workout in a little earlier tonight, and possibly switch back to the morning schedule tomorrow.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Another stretching style free form workout today. I guess I’ve just been really feeling a need to stretch, or more accurately, been feeling that stretching workouts would be beneficial to me. It’s most likely a consequence of all the moving that I did over the weekend, I want to keep my body as limber as possible in order to prevent soreness. I think I’ve been quite successful in that, overall… at least, I haven’t really noticed any particular soreness, which is quite impressive in a way.
The only problem that I’m having with these workouts is that I feel like they’re getting kind of repetitive. This workout started out in much the same way as the last couple, two simple sequences from mountain pose to downward dog, then integrating sun salutation with a triangle pose and a warrior II. I guess the biggest variant in the workouts is the speed… this was a very slow paced workout, careful and measured in all the movements. I was noticing today that my warrior II is rather hit or miss. Sometimes I feel like I really have the balance, and I’m almost just hovering there, and sometimes I really seem to be putting the weight into my front leg, which is very tiring. I noticed today after doing my left leg forward, though, that while it looked from my perspective like the leg wasn’t bent into a right angle, thus making the hover easier, when I actually shifted forward (theoretically without moving the leg), the leg was already at 90 degrees. I actually noticed a similar effect with my right leg before that, except it felt like I was putting too much weight forward there, and then when I went forward the leg was past 90. So perhaps the key is that my perspective isn’t the ideal one to judge the angle from.
Anyway, I decided after that to just do some stretching. The temperature is still very warm (over 90 fahrenheit), and so my muscles were very responsive to stretching today. So I just did some basic stretches, including cobbler’s pose, seated forward bend, and wide angle forward bend. During this sequence I even integrated a pilates exercise, throwing in one of the side twists (vertical spine, arms extended, rotate from side to side) that I can’t recall the name of. I also snuck a boat pose in there, and finished everything off with relaxation, as usual.
Overall, I’d have to say that this workout was quite successful. In addition to all the good stretching, I think that I stayed pretty focused on the workout, which is an improvement in general. I’ve been better in the last couple of days, but it’s still something that needs constant attention. I definitely think that I’m being more mindful in general, though, and that my practice is really helping me get through my current schedule in fairly good condition. Well, this entry has ended up being quite a bit longer than usual, so I’m going to cut it off and go locate some dinner, since I’m pretty hungry now. So until next time…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I woke up feeling a little bit sore today, but definitely did not feel like doing another stretching workout. Actually, I think that was a little bit of why I was sore… I think I overdid the workout yesterday a little. Anyway, I went ahead with something different and did an abs yoga workout. I was surprised to find that my abs were feeling a little bit fatigued, but in retrospect that really isn’t particularly surprising. Since I did all that moving this weekend, I’m sure that my abs were getting quite the workout supporting my spine. I’m also sure that’s why I only felt a little bit of back pain in the process, and that only at the very end. It’s nice to see some tangible results to all this work, at least occasionally.
Pretty standard fare for an abs workout… I think my technique for raising and lowering my legs improved. I realized that I was tensing my buttocks at the bottom of the motion, before, so I focused on not doing that today, pretty successfully. Other than that… when I got to the standing forward bend, I broke out and did a sun salutation incorporating a triangle pose before finishing out the relaxation. I just wanted to get a touch of stretching in, even if not a full workout. Anyway, work to be done. Hopefully I’ll manage to get at least a short workout in tonight, and start getting back to multi-workout days.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

I really did not want to get out of bed this morning. I was very tired, and even dozing for another half an hour or so didn’t really help at all. But eventually I stumbled out of bed and got to the workout. It went fairly poorly, really… this wasn’t my ideal choice of workout, but I took too long to get of bed, and so my choices were more constrained by time. So I pretty much just ended up mucking my way through this workout. Rather unfortunate, but I guess that happens sometimes. I guess the only thing to do with it is to work through it, and not be discouraged by a less than ideal workout. I might pick another workout up this evening, but then again, I might just go to sleep, because I have a feeling that I’m going to be pretty dead after the day of work.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 2
Author: chaos

Well, I probably didn’t go to sleep quite as early as I should have last night, but I still managed to get some fairly solid sleep. I was apparently badly in need of it, since I slept through my alarm. Admittedly, it only goes off for 30 seconds, the air conditioning was loud enough to mostly drown it out, and I woke up 10 minutes later anyway, but still. In addition to that, I don’t recall waking up at any point during the night, which is very rare for me, no matter how little sleep I’m getting.
Unfortunately, the amount of sleep was still rather insufficient. I was still quite tired when I finally dragged myself up, and it felt like it affected the workout. It wasn’t really a bad workout, just tired and not terribly inspired. Things were okay for the most part. I did notice a twinge in my right hamstring when doing warrior III on that leg, so I discontinued that quickly. I didn’t have much success on the left side, either. I just felt tight and not really ready for those poses. On the plus side, I was actually able to lift myself for a second or two in pendulum pose, both times. I’m not sure I’ve ever really successfully lifted off a second time, definitely not without using the blocks. So that was cool. Maybe I’m finally getting to the point where I’ll be able to do it. Crane pose was also pretty decent. Anyway, I’ll probably get a stretching workout in tomorrow before ultimate, or at least that’s the plan as of now.