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

Managed to do a slightly better job of getting out of bed today than I did most of last week. Of course, that’s really because I slept horribly, and thus was already partly awake at the time the alarm went off. Still, I’ve had other similar nights where I then managed to go back to bed for quite a while, so that’s not the only factor.
Went with some mini-workouts today. I liked the swimming/running/all sports combination the last time I tried it, so I decided to go for it again. I think I might have even liked it a little better this time… I felt like I was really stretching out today, particularly my legs, more than I have often in the past. I think that I was using a longer extension on my legs, and stretching out the thighs a little more, or something along those lines. Anyway, if felt pretty good to stretch that out, so. No more ultimate for a few days (I managed not to injure myself yesterday), so hopefully my body will largely recover from the damage I inflicted at the beginning of the weekend, and I can start actually healing again.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

I got out of bed much later than I intended to today. Not so late as to not make it in to work, but late enough that I didn’t really have time for any workout more intensive than a simple free form. At least, not any workout that wouldn’t potentially create problems for my knee. So I once again went with a basic free form workout.
It wasn’t a bad workout… my right knee was still twinging a little bit in lunges, which surprised me a little… I thought it would have recovered by now. Perhaps I did slightly more damage to it than usual this last time. I did modify the sequence a little bit… I did warrior I and warrior II first, and then did a triangle -> half moon sequence, and skipped the side stretch. I was pretty happy with the half moon, particularly on the right… it’s the first time I’ve felt that I had a really good half moon pose in quite a while. So that was nice. I’ll probably try to get a video workout in tomorrow, since I don’t feel that my ability to create workouts is the best right now, and I want to avoid getting into too much of a rut.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Stayed up too late last night. The last game we played went a lot longer than expected. To be fair, it went a lot longer than it should have, but I suppose given the players that shouldn’t have been entirely unanticipated. Still, the end result was yet another short night of sleep. Overall, I had been doing fairly well about that, even if I wasn’t sleeping all that well. But the last few days haven’t been good for getting proper amounts, and when the poor sleeping is factored in… it’s really not a good thing.
Anyway, I didn’t feel like just doing another basic free form workout today, but I didn’t have time for anything long. So I decided just to throw in for a basic stamina workout. It was okay… I had to modify a bit, on tree pose and of course for one legged forward bend, but it wasn’t as much as I thought it might be. Although I’m not sure I shouldn’t have modified a little more… my right knee definitely feels like I may have strained it a little more. The problem being that I didn’t immediately realize I needed to modify the tree pose with the left leg up, since I haven’t before. Anyway. I’m guessing there’s a pretty high chance of just another free form workout tomorrow morning, but there’s an outside possibility of something a little more interesting.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Overslept again today. Slightly differently this time… I woke up to the alarm, and then fell back asleep after turning it off. I did wake back up in time to get to work, close to on time even, but then I wouldn’t have been able to get my workout in. So I decided to just get my workout in and go to work a little late. That doesn’t bother me, the only problem is that this is becoming a regular occurrence, which suggests that I’m just way too tired in general. At game night last night people were commenting on how dead I look, which is fairly unusual, since I can usually at least somewhat hide it.
Anyway, I was already planning on running through the standard free form workout, and since I was already late, I didn’t see any particular reason to change that plan. It was definitely a little less focused than I might have liked, but that’s not particularly surprising. I’m working a little bit on the positioning of my feet right now… trying to get them lined up properly. I think they were slightly out of alignment before, which didn’t make things easier, but did change the balance and alignment a bit. Anyway, just another day to struggle through, and then hopefully I can start restoring myself, at least somewhat.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Played ultimate again last night. I wore a knee brace, and I think that helped protect my knee quite a bit. I’m not entirely sure, though. Unfortunately, I also slid on my left hip again, undoing some of the healing that had taken place. Not too badly, but enough to be annoying. Other than that, no injuries, although I actually got winded on a long point or two. But I already knew that I’m not quite ready to play for long continuous amounts, so it wasn’t that big of a surprise.
Today’s workout was decent. My focus was a little bit better, and that was a good factor in not paining my knee too much. I was very light on my lunges today, making up for the stretching in other areas. I was also careful with my footwork, which helped intensify some of the stretches, particularly in triangle pose. Anyway, the game may or may not be on, so I have to run now… workout tomorrow will probably be later in the day.

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

I was feeling a little sore today, and quite a bit tired, so I figured I’d just take an “off” day and go with a few light mini-workouts. So I just did the swimming and running workouts. I was considering throwing the all sports workout in as well, but since it has a few moves that aren’t good for the knee in its current state, I decided I’d just pass on that one. The workouts I did do were fine… the knee has actually been feeling a little bit better in the last couple of days, not quite as sensitive to positions other than straight. I used a knee brace when I played ultimate on Thursday (unfortunately, the game ended up not happening on Friday, although I did get in a round of disc golf and some DDR instead), and the brace seemed to help quite a bit at the time. So hopefully with some diligence my knee will get back to healing. That’s about all… I’ll probably either go for something a little longer tomorrow, or maybe just an abs workout, since I haven’t done one in a while.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I almost just decided to take the day off today. I really wasn’t feeling motivated, felt like my focus had been lost, injuries were still mounting, and maybe I could use the day of rest. The problem with that is that I know myself, and if I started justifying an single day of rest, I could start justifying more, and that’s a cycle that I really don’t want to start. So while it took me a while, I eventually went ahead with the abs workout that I was originally planning on.
Not too much to say about it… it felt fairly easy overall, most likely because I haven’t really been doing abs much in the last few weeks. I did push my knee just a little bit more than I have been lately, trying to extend its limits without actually causing more damage. So while I was being careful, I was pushing a little bit. I think it will be fine, but I’ll find out tomorrow, I suppose. Anyway, I’m going to try to motivate up a little and get a better workout tomorrow.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Couldn’t decide on a workout today, so just went with free form. I’ve been wanting to mix up the standard workout a little bit lately anyway, so I decided to experiment a little. Nothing drastic… I went through the normal opening of two sun salutations and then another two with triangle pose and side stretch. Those went well, I was feeling good about side stretch, like I was really getting good extension from it. I decided to pass on warrior I, and did warrior II, which also went well. Then I went for a few arm balances. Did pendulum pose, which didn’t go particularly well… I may not have had the proper focus tonight. Then I planned to do a crane pose, but didn’t like the way that felt on my knee, so I decided to just skip that and do simple arm balance. But I thought my knee might like it better if I hooked my right leg in back, putting less pressure on it. As it turns out, it doesn’t seem like I’ve ever done it that way before, and so I had a really difficult time getting the legs to cross properly. I eventually got a little bit off the ground, but it wasn’t very good. Apparently I’ll have to work on switching my direction for that a little. Overall, it was an okay workout, not entirely satisfactory, but not too bad, either. I was a little more motivated for it, so that’s a step in the right direction. I’ll probably go for a free form or other stretching workout tomorrow, in anticipation of playing ultimate.

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

Went with another YCfA mini-workout combo to warm up for ultimate today. Changed the order again, did swimming, all sports, and finished with running, on the thought that the thing most done during ultimate is running. I don’t know if it’ll make any difference, but I don’t think it will hurt anything, either.
My hamstrings have been more sore lately after workouts than it seems like they should be. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s a dietary issue, such that they’re not recovering to the extent that they should be. In particular, I know that I’ve had trouble getting the necessary amount of potassium in the past, which is something that seems like it could be related. Of course, I have absolutely no solid information to back that up, so it’s also quite possible that I’m just full of it. Anyway, I’m going to head off to ultimate, and hopefully continue my streak of not injuring my knee further.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Well, I got to this workout rather late today, but perhaps that was a good thing. While I’ve certainly been having some issues with really being motivated to do my workouts lately, I actually felt pretty good about getting this one in. The thing to that being that it took me all day to get to that point. Still, just getting to that point at all lately has been difficult, so I’ll take what I can get right now.
The workout went pretty well… focus was definitely stronger today. I was especially happy with my side stretches, and pretty happy with the triangle poses… I’ve been concentrating more on my footwork, and I think that’s definitely improving the poses. The two minute downward dog was a little spotty… I need to wash the mat or something, try to improve its stickiness. I find that I slide too much when I’m in downward dog for longer than ten seconds or so. Shoulderstand felt good, as usual, and I think I was doing well with the leg stretches… releasing in the hip and thigh instead of pulling on the hamstring. I think that I’m finally getting caught up on rest, and so maybe I’ll be able to get an extra workout in sometime in the next couple of days before heading back into the fray, as it were.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Decided to go with the shortened session of total body as a warmup for ultimate today. At this point, I’m really not certain what my motivation is for picking any particular workout to warm up, or any workout at all, I suppose… just how I feel that day, I guess.
Anyway, the workout went well enough. I concentrated on extending from the hips and thighs again instead of pulling on the hamstrings, which I think is an improvement… at least, my hamstrings have seemed a little less tender the past couple of days, although I’ve still be working them at least as much as I was before. Anyway. This workout was supposed to be a warmup for ultimate, but I’m strangely really not feeling in the mood to play, or perhaps more accurately feeling that there are several other things that I’d potentially rather be doing, so I’m going to pass for tonight, I think. It’s probably good… helps me remember that it is a leisure activity, and that I don’t need to play every time a game is available to me. I’m sure my body could use the extra rest as well, and my knee might especially appreciate the time off to heal. So I’ll probably follow up with a good workout tomorrow, possibly even two if I’m really inspired, or maybe one tonight if I don’t end up getting some other exercise in.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Went with another abs workout today. I’m not sure that’s really what I should have done, but the inspiration to do something more difficult really wasn’t there, and since I’ve been neglecting abs lately, this seemed like a decent choice. Passable, anyway. Not too much to be said about the workout itself… I worked my knee a little bit harder today, but it seemed okay with that. I think that it’s slowly healing, I just have to be careful with it in order to not quickly undo the healing that has occurred. I think taking the day off from ultimate yesterday probably helped.
I finally got the Intermediate Yoga dvd today. I’ve been thinking about picking it up for a while now, and last week decided to go ahead and order it. I did a quick review of it at 3x speed earlier… it looks pretty good. It starts out with some of the familiar poses, warriors and the like. The only thing new in that section was the revolved triangle pose, which shouldn’t be too bad. The next section was inverted poses, which is mostly new. Two handstands, some kind of forearm stand that I presume was practice for headstand, and finally headstand. After that it goes into backbends, including everyone’s favorite, upward bow. It follows that section up with some twists, and then finally ends with shoulderstand, forward bend, relaxation pose, and a bit of seated meditation at the very end. I think it’s going to be a really good workout, but I don’t actually think that I’m quite ready for it yet. I’ve been feeling lately like I’ve been slacking off in my practice, and that feeling was compounded by viewing the video today. The problem is that lately I’ve just been getting workouts in, but haven’t felt any real connection to the workouts. It’s been frustrating, but not enough that I’ve actually done anything about it. Hopefully having this new workout will motivate me to get going again, renew my focus and commitment not to just getting in a workout, but trying to make it meaningful as well. My schedule is still pretty busy, but I think it’s starting to lighten up a little, so hopefully I can take some of that time to refocus my energy and reinvigorate my practice.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Started in on my revitalized regime tonight with a total body workout. I don’t think it’s been too long since I last did the complete workout, but I’m sure it’s been long enough. But I felt ready for it tonight, so I went ahead and dug in. It went pretty well… I was keeping my focus, for the most part. I definitely think my form suffers when my mind starts to wander. Probably the worst part about it was that it was apparently quite warm… I was sweating fairly heavily even in the opening section, and actually had to change mats after the second section because the danger of slipping was so high. Other than that, though, things went pretty well. I was continuing to try and work my knee a little more, just subtly pushing it closer to the edge of what it can do… I did all of the exercises with it today, modifying where necessary (which wasn’t often), with the sole exception of one-legged forward bend. I even set up for that, and just very carefully started to let my leg bend out to the side, holding it on the way down and making sure I didn’t start to overdo the extension. So even there I went further than I have for quite a while. The only other thing I didn’t do was the upward bows, not because I wasn’t able so much, but because I was too sweaty at that point, and couldn’t get proper traction on the mat, so I was afraid I was going to slide out unexpectedly. I did get into two of them briefly, but ended up getting back out quickly as I felt myself slipping around. Things mostly went pretty well, though… had a very successful time with warrior III on both sides, which is always good… may have learned how to position my back leg properly on warrior I… actually, not so much the leg, but the foot needs to be in at more of an angle than it does for other poses. Otherwise, it’s difficult to get the proper twist in the hips. Anyway, overall a fairly good session… I’ll quite likely do something in the abs area tomorrow, either balanceball or, if I’m feeling particularly daring, I may attempt pilates.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

I was originally planning on some abs today, but with my hamstrings feeling sore after yesterday’s workout, as well as a lack of clear desire to do any of the abs workouts, I ended up deciding to go with something different. And although I’ve been avoiding it to a certain extent, it seemed like a good time to go back to the flexibility workout.
Strangely enough, it doesn’t seem to extend the hamstrings quite as much as I was thinking it did. It’s possible that just the overall stretching gives it the impression of doing more in the hamstring area. It’s not really that it doesn’t stretch them, just perhaps not as much as I was thinking. Anyway, I went through the full workout, with the exception of one-legged forward bend with the right knee back, again. I’m trying to experiment a little to find out what I can do in that area, and if I can loosen my hips to accommodate the problems in the knee. Actually, I think that will be beneficial to my workout as a whole, once I learn to do that. But I did manage to do the pigeon lunge without trouble, and I’ve noticed that my knee hasn’t been aching on regular lunges lately, so that’s a good thing. Anyway, that’s all for now… probably another evening/night workout tomorrow, and then a flip back to the mornings, at least for a few days.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Still working on gearing up for the intermediate yoga video. However, I wasn’t really sure what that meant in terms of a workout tonight. My hamstrings were still a little sore from total body two days ago, although doing a lot of walking today helped loosen them up, I think. At least somewhat. Anyway, through a more or less random selection process, I ended up deciding to go ahead and bust out on py:strength. I’ve been avoiding this entire video in general, due to the fact that overall it’s one of the more aggressive workouts in terms of knee torquing potential. Being quite sensitive to that at the moment, I’ve studiously avoided taking the chance on that being an issue. But with the gradual recovery of the knee, it didn’t seem like this workout should be too much of a stretch, so I went ahead and tried it out.
And it went fairly well, overall. I was again fairly attentive to the nuances of poses and such, and so had a fairly successful workout in that regard. I caught myself slumping a little bit at one point in the middle of the workout, and picked myself back out of that right away. That also helped me stay more aware of my posture and energy level through the rest of the workout, so I held pretty steady in those areas. I’d say the total package was pretty good. I definitely did get a reasonable workout, and yet I was by no means worn out by the end, which is as it should be given the level of the workout. I also maintained pretty good posture throughout, which I don’t think I’ve tended to do very well with this workout in the past. Hopefully I can keep this trend rolling with a good workout tomorrow morning, although if I’m tired enough I might skip on the morning workout and just catch another late evening one instead.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Went with my standard free form workout today. While I’m not sure that’s really what I necessarily wanted to do, I forgot my workout videos this week, and since I couldn’t really think of any workout that I particularly felt like doing anyway, this was just as good as anything else. Certainly it wasn’t a bad choice.
I’ve been reading up on meditation again, and the idea that sticks with me the most is that of mindfulness. I think the reason that I retain it so well as a concept is because when I consider how I live my life, I realize that things always come out better when I’m mindful while I’m doing them. And so I recognize that if I could do this more often, it would be highly beneficial to me. Because I’m doing this reading, I’m trying to apply it into things, when I remember. Yoga in particular is a strong candidate for this, since it’s really supposed to be part of the practice, anyway. So I was trying to keep with that tonight, with limited success. My mind was wandering a lot, but I kept recognizing that fact and returning it to the workout, so that was good. I’m hoping that I’ll finally manage to get a real meditation practice started soon, and then this mindfulness will likely come naturally. Anyway, just some thoughts for now… I think I’ll try and get some sleep fairly soon here, and hopefully be a little more rested for tomorrow.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I didn’t get quite as much sleep as I would have liked to last night, but that’s really nothing new. First night staying in a different place is never particularly restful for me, so I’m not surprised that I also didn’t sleep very well. The location has a few challenges, the primary one being that it’s right next to the highway. So we’ll have to see how well this works out on a sleeping front. I’m guessing I’ll probably adjust, but it might take me a few times to do so.
Anyway, threw in a quick abs workout today. I would have probably liked to have done something more challenging like pilates, but since I forgot all my videos, I was limited to doing things that I can do from memory, and yoga abs is really the only abs workout I can say that for at the moment. So that’s what I went with. Still had some problems with mindfulness… not quite sure why my mind has been so active during the last few workouts. It’s vaguely possible that it hasn’t been any more so than normal, I’ve just been noticing it more. Anyway, kept going back to the workout today as well, so that’s good. I felt pretty good about the physical aspects, I’ve been getting some good workouts out of this routine lately. Well, I’ve shifted back to mornings finally, if only for the couple days, although perhaps I’ll keep it up a while longer. I’m not really counting on that, though, at least not until I’ve managed to catch up on sleep a little more than I have.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Had a rather poor night of sleeping last night. I’m not adjusting terribly well to being right next to the highway, it seems. I’ll have to try something else the next time I’m staying there, and perhaps that will help. If not, I may have to reconsider the arrangement. On the other hand, maybe I can invest in earplugs. I don’t really like the idea of sleeping with them, but it’s probably better than not sleeping.
Anyway, none of this particularly affected my workout today. Surprisingly, once I finally managed to get myself to the workout, I was pretty focused. This may have been because I was really concentrating on the positioning of my feet, and that kept me pretty well grounded in the workout. I’m still not sure that I’m quite happy with some of my positioning, but the fact that I’m thinking about it and experimenting to find a good balance is certainly a positive thing. Not too much else to say about the workout… I decided to do the two warriors first today, just to see if my legs seemed a little more stretched out when I did the triangle. I don’t know that they did, and since most (all?) of the workouts I have do it in the order that I normally do it, I’ll probably tend to stick with that, on the theory that they may know something I don’t. Crazy theory, but I’m going to run with it. Anyway, theoretically ultimate tonight, but there’s been some rain and more in the forecast, so that may not actually end up happening… we’ll see.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Woke up this morning with some sort of odd cramp in my side. I’m not quite sure what I could have done, but I needed to try and stretch it out before ultimate. However, the location was kind of odd, so I didn’t have any specific stretches in mind for it. That being the case, I just decided to go ahead with my normal free form routine for the pre-ultimate workout. I was hoping that at least side stretch would help loosen up the tightness a little.
Not too much to say for the workout today… on carpeting again, which doesn’t inspire a whole lot of great workouts, I’ve noticed. Especially now that I work out on hardwood most of the time. The side stretch did help a little bit, but not quite as much as I was hoping. Overall, it was really just a functional workout, but that’s okay for some days. History indicates that I probably won’t do much harder of a workout tomorrow, but maybe I’ll be able to buck history. I’m not going to hold my breath, though.

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

This was another placeholder workout, nothing more. I’m definitely questioning the value of these workouts. Really, the only thing that they do is allow me to continue having done a workout every day. Which does help… I’d definitely take more days off if it weren’t for that. I suppose I’ll continue doing that for now, only because my schedule is such that there are times I’d probably take the day off when I really shouldn’t, just because my schedule never really gave me adequate time for the workout. As opposed to a day like today, where I had plenty of time, but no desire, and really, no particular need. My body was feeling pretty beat up from the activity of yesterday (ultimate, disc golf, and DDR), so I just went very light today, doing swimming and all sports. I tried to avoid overextending my hamstrings at all, since I’d like to get away from them being overly tender every time I do a vigorous yoga workout. Not that this one was vigorous, but I often get started on making them tender this way, I think. My knee is continuing to heal slowly, I believe… I most often notice it as more of a stiffness than pain lately, so that’s an improvement. That’s all for now, I’m going to try to get a better workout in tomorrow… hopefully earlier as well.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, my original thought for today was a slightly more difficult workout, but my random selector of workouts suggested this one. Which was quite possibly for the best… I noticed during the course of the workout that my left shoulder had a bit of a pain in it that I hadn’t previously noticed. Where this came from is a little uncertain… I suspect that I probably slept on it poorly or something, because I didn’t notice any particular pain yesterday. Of course, this is the shoulder that I laid out on four times on Friday, so it’s possible that I just didn’t notice before, since it’s not my throwing shoulder. Anyway, it was a fairly decent workout today. I continue to work on getting my knee back to 100% health by making it work just a little bit more all the time. A slow process, but one that should eventually get me there. Hopefully something that I’ll remember the next time something like this comes up. The abs felt pretty good today, nothing surprising there. I may bust out and try out the new workout tomorrow, but then again, I might not. It’ll depend on how I’m feeling, I imagine. At any rate, until then…

Workout: Cardio Pilates
Author: chaos

It’s been a long time since I’ve done this workout. That’s partly because once I started playing ultimate and DDR fairly often, the cardio part became less necessary, and partly because I like the intermediate mat workout slightly better. But since I was trying to avoid straining my shoulder, and I knew that the intermediate mat workout had a decent chance of doing that during the side kick section, I decided to try the cardio workout.
It was okay… I felt a little bit rusty in my knowledge of the movements, but I actually thought that most of my motions once I remembered what I was supposed to be doing were pretty good. For some reason the rocker really worked today, after the first one. No problems balancing whatsoever. The closed leg rocker wasn’t as good, although it was still better than many times in the past. This workout does have a side kick section that I had forgotten about, but it wasn’t too bad. Still a little harder on the shoulder than I’d have liked. I was intending to do the cardio section, but decided fairly quickly that neither shoulder was too happy with that idea, so I scrapped that. Overall, the workout was a little unsatisfying, but I’ll continue to attempt to heal as quickly as possible here, and then get on with better and more satisfying workouts.

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

Well, it seems that some of my concern about my shoulder was unwarranted. I thought that downward dog in particular might be a bit of a problem, but it really didn’t affect my shoulder adversely at all. The only thing that did noticeably cause a slight twinge was side angle pose, strangely enough. I guess the shoulder doesn’t care for extensions of certain types more than other things. Anyway, this was another really light workout, just to warm up my legs a little bit before ultimate. I went with the running and swimming workouts today, figuring that those would give me some good stretching of the legs while minimizing potential impact on the arms. My knee continues to improve, and I’m looking forward to being able to resume full workouts with it in another month or so, provided I don’t cause it to regress in the meantime. Anyway, off to ultimate, hopefully with a slightly better performance than I had last time I played here.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Went for a flexibility workout today, trying to ease a little of the soreness caused by ultimate yesterday. I’m actually not quite sure why I’m so sore, since it’s not like I haven’t been playing fairly regularly. Actually, part of the soreness might be from my meditation. I finally started up a practice two nights ago, and I’m trying to get used to sitting in simple cross-legged pose for it. So perhaps I’m actually starting to stretch out those tight thigh muscles/tendons somewhat. The meditation is going decently so far… it feels like I’m actually ready to be serious about it this time, as opposed to times in the past where I was just playing around with it. We’ll have to see how that goes.
Anyway, I tried not to overextend tonight. It’s a bad habit that I have, especially with this workout, and I think I do it more when I’m sore, as well. So it took some conscious effort not to do that today. I think I was fairly successful, but it’ll be hard to say for sure until tomorrow. For now, I’m going to try to just ease into the stretches, and while they may not seem to be working as much as I’d like, hopefully in the long run it will produce better results than the way I have been doing things. Something I’ll try to monitor over the next couple of months, particularly with the meditation practice potentially enhancing the seated stretching. Most likely I’ll do something fairly light tomorrow, since I think I’m going to play ultimate, and then I think I’ll attempt the new intermediate yoga workout either Friday or Saturday, depending on how I feel.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Went for the partial total body session today in order to warm up for ultimate. My hamstrings were a little sore from yesterday, showing that I still managed to push a little harder than I should have. One of these days I’ll learn, I’m sure. So I was hoping to stretch that tightness out, as well as limbering up a bit in general for the ultimate. While I’ve been okay with a more minimal stretching routine, I think a more complete regimen will certainly lower my chances of getting injured randomly.
Anyway, expanded the short session a little bit today. Did the entire first section, and then skipped into the third section for a few backbends. That included the deep lunge stretch, which I was happy about, since I felt that it was doing a good job of stretching the inner thigh area. I’ll be incorporating that into my free form workouts before ultimate, if I remember. Well, that’s it for today. Depending on how I’m feeling tomorrow, I might try out my new intermediate yoga workout… if not tomorrow, I definitely plan on doing it on Saturday.

Workout: Yoga Conditioning for Athletes
Author: chaos

Went with the full YCfA workout today. It’s been a long time since I did the full workout, in large part because I was quite worried about how a lot of the twists would affect my knee. Even now, a number of the poses were on the edge, warning of danger more than actually being a problem, but the line is fairly thin. However, I managed to carefully manuever my leg into position when necessary, and made it through the full workout.
It was an okay workout, overall. I think a lot of the stretching was good. I remembered that I really liked the narrative for this workout. Very descriptive and informative. I also remembered that this workout always seemed difficult to complete, although I was never quite sure why. I think it’s largely because the second section opens with all the leg bends, and that tires out my legs. Although I seem to recall that the problem before was that my shoulders would get tired, so I’m not quite sure what’s up with that. Anyway, it felt like my legs were going to give out near the end of the second section, and I was thinking about skipping ahead to the next section, but then it turned out I was already at the end of the second session. Still, I’m not quite sure why I was using so much leg strength throughout that section. Whatever. My concentration wasn’t that great, although I did have a few moments of good focus. I’ll definitely be working on improving that. So, provided I’m feeling up to it, I think I’m going to try out the new intermediate workout tomorrow. I don’t expect it to go all that well, but one has to start sometime, and now seems like a pretty good time. So until then…

Workout: Intermediate Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I expected that this workout would actually be more of a challenge than I was capable of, and I was quite correct. Just the beginning section was moderately difficult, although within the range of things I had done before, so it wasn’t too bad. With the exception of the revolved triangle pose, which was new. I didn’t get the placement correct for the attempt to the right side, but managed to get it very briefly for the one on the left. It’s quite a bit different from normal triangle pose. It’ll be some time before I become competent at it, I think, but I’ll probably start trying to integrate it into some of my free form workouts, in order to practice it more often than I’m likely to get back to this workout.
The inverted poses thoroughly kicked my ass. It’s actually hard to say that I was practicing them, because I spent most of the time trying to kick up into them. I got up once and fell back down again (I’m not really sure why, since I was kicking into a wall, but I guess I wasn’t really shifting my body for that… probably the main reason I had trouble kicking up, actually). I did get up for one of the poses, and it was fairly tiring. As I expected, it seems that I’ll have to build my shoulders and chest up some more in order to really do all of the poses. After the inverted pose section, things got back more towards normal, except for the workout calling for half lotus, which I still can’t do. Although I think I’m getting closer. Anyway, the summary is that it was a quite difficult workout, I couldn’t do about a third of it, and I’ll just have to keep trying it until I improve. I’ll probably take a bit of a rest day tomorrow, and just do an abs workout.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

Went with the anticipated abs balanceball workout today. It went fairly well… I think I felt a little stronger than I have the last few times that I’ve done this workout. That’s probably largely because I haven’t been doing a lot of abs workouts lately. I really need to get back to the point where I do an abs workout with another (short) workout, but finding the time to do that remains tricky. Although I have been dedicating more time to those pursuits in the last week or so, I’m guessing that I won’t do as good of a job with that during the upcoming week. I could be wrong about that, though, since I’ll have a little more free time in the evenings than I’m used to having during my away weeks. At least, that’s the impression that I have right now… we’ll see if it actually works out that way. I suppose that I do have some puzzles that I’m working on, and that may take up more of my time than it would on a more normal week. Anyway. I am continuing to feel the need to step up my practice, so that will be a motivating factor, I think. So there’s a good chance that I’ll at least get in one long session during the week, and possibly even two. I’ll most likely just do short free form sessions at the end of the week, in anticipation of playing ultimate. And hopefully I’ll also manage to keep up with my meditation, which I’ve actually managed to do every night. It doesn’t feel like I’m improving, but I think the process is going to be pretty slow, especially in the beginning, so I just have to stick with it for now. Well, this didn’t end up being much about the workout, but there wasn’t really a whole lot to say, I guess. I do want to try and get a pilates abs workout in during this week as well, so that may happen instead of a long workout. Wait and see, I guess.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

I didn’t quite feel up to doing a long workout this evening, but I still wanted a bit of a challenge, so I went with py:strength. Given my experience Saturday night, I figured it certainly wouldn’t hurt to build up a little more strength in the shoulder area, which is probably the muscle group most targeted by this workout. So it seemed like a good choice of workout to go with. Certainly it wasn’t bad in the sense of doing what I just talked about… in fact, I’d say it was one of the best choices in that respect. However, I feel in retrospect that a workout emphasizing the shoulders a little less might have been a wiser choice. Whatever I did to my left shoulder last week is still causing me problems, and I think the shoulder-heavy workouts I’ve been doing in the last few days haven’t been helping the matter any. I was definitely noticing it twinging a little more often tonight than I have any of the other nights, so I think it’s both gotten a little more sensitive and was used a little more tonight. I don’t think it’s a major problem, by any means, but it’s probably best if I try to use it a little more minimally in the next couple of days, and see if I can promote some healing in the area.
Anyway, tonight’s workout actually went fairly well, ignoring the shoulder issue. I was pretty happy with most of my forms, although pendulum eluded me, as usual. Crane was really good, though, and I was also pretty happy with the raised leg lunges, although I’m a little concerned that my back is too high for them. I’ll need to get a visual on that to verify one way or the other. Near the end of the workout I noticed that I was starting to get a little sloppy, and focused on making precise movements for the rest of the workout, which was good. Meditation practice has been continuing… it doesn’t seem like I’ve gotten any better, but I imagine it’s going to be a somewhat long process, so I just have to stick with it for now and hopefully I’ll begin to see at least a slight improvement in the next few weeks. There’s a good chance that I’ll do an abs workout again tomorrow, possibly even pilates if I’m really motivated.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Taking a bit of a break with abs yoga tonight. This is the first workout in a long time where my right knee wasn’t the primary source of injury that I was concerned about. I’m actually finding it rather difficult to find a workout that doesn’t affect my shoulder at least somewhat. But this is certainly one of the less intensive ones for that, so it’s not like I have significantly better choices, either. Although perhaps a few mini workouts might do the trick. Possibly I’ll work on that tomorrow night.
It was a fairly poor workout, in terms of concentration and everything. I was really unfocused at the beginning of the workout, having a hard time keeping my mind there at all. Things did get better as the workout progressed… at least by the end my random thoughts were related to the workout. Still, not the kind of focus that I’m looking for. The physical aspects were fine… I think I’m doing pretty well with this workout these days in that respect. There’s probably still room for improvement, but not major improvement, I don’t believe. In summary, it was a bit of a throwaway workout, but maintaining the workout discipline tonight was more important than the actual workout itself, so it’s not too bad.

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

Continued with my plan of making the workouts fairly light until my shoulder heals up some. Went with the mini-workout sessions as anticipated, the normal combo of running, swimming, and all sports. Running was a very good choice for not twinging the shoulder, and I think all sports was probably okay too, but I pushed a little more than I should have in swimming, I think, so I’m not sure that I really met my goal of not causing more damage.
Other than that, the workout went fairly well. I had a reasonable amount of focus at the beginning of the workout, although I think it had waned somewhat by the end. Still, the beginning part felt pretty good. I liked the extension I was getting in the various poses. I was working on extending through the back of my legs a little more today, but I’m not sure what effect that will have, exactly. Anyway, I’ll be flipping to morning workouts for the next two days, and then probably back to evenings for a while after that.