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Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Another free form workout today. It felt like it went pretty well, actually. Not because of any of the poses in particular (those were just the same as I’ve been doing in the free form workouts), but because I was really noticing how my body felt during a lot of the poses. Most of the time, I just do the poses, and while I’d say that I notice the major points, a lot of the subtle details escape my attention. Today, I really felt like I was noticing a lot of minor things, like the way my hips were a little tight when I started out, but the lunges stretched them out a little. Things like that. My shoulder felt pretty good today, but I was careful not to press the matter. It’s a difficult thing, when it feels like I should be trying to extend it into doing what I want, but patience is key right now. I’ll have to figure out how I’m going to slowly work my way into using the shoulder more fully, without either going too fast or pushing too hard in the initial stages. For now, I’m just going to continue to take it easy, although I might try out a pilates abs workout tomorrow, since I think I’ll be okay with that now.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

After a very long break, I have once again returned to pilates abs. I went with the modified workout, figuring that the full workout would probably destroy me after such a long break. It actually didn’t go too badly. My abs held up a little better than I was expecting, overall, although it was obvious that it’s been quite a while since I did the workout. The rockers were probably the most notable thing… I had trouble maintaining the balance, particularly during the basic rocker. It got better as I went through the different types, probably because I started to remember how to maintain my balance after rocking forward. I was able to do everything with only the faintest twinging in the shoulder, with the exception of dropping into pushup at the end, which I decided to skip. Or at least modify how I got there. I think my shoulder has pretty much healed to the point where as long as I’m not putting weight/pressure on it while rotating, it’s fine. So hopefully it won’t be too much longer before it’s completely restored, and I can get back into the full workout set. I’ll probably continue to take it relatively easy for the rest of the week, and think about getting a little more aggressive next week, depending on how things progress.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Another routine stretching workout. I was considering expanding this workout just a little bit, but since I was feeling little twinges in my shoulder, I decided to hold off on that again. Nothing serious, just enough to make me a little more cautious. My right quad was also twinging a little bit, which annoyed me, because I thought that had finished healing already. Not too much to say about the workout… I pretty much just did my normal sequence. I suppose I haven’t specified what exactly that is yet, though. It consists of doing total body up until the second downward dog, then starting to free form somewhat. I usually do two more sequences through to downward dog, incorporating triangle and warrior II. I continue to skip pushup and upward dog for now. Then I do a few leg stretches, usually seated forward bend, wide angle seated forward bend, cobbler’s pose, reclining twist, and sometimes a seated twist. I finish up with reclined cobbler’s pose and relaxation pose. Pretty basic, but I take it pretty slowly and try to fully articulate all the motions. Anyway, that’s all for today, I might try to incorporate side stretch and warrior I next time, if my shoulder is feeling a little more stable.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I’m not quite sure how my shoulder is doing. It seemed fine yesterday, but I woke up in the middle of the night and it was aching. However, after I got up this morning, it seems to be okay, if perhaps a little bit more tender than yesterday. So I’m not quite sure what I did to it, if anything. Maybe I slept on it or something.
Another basic abs workout. I think my attention to detail has been improving again, overall. It’s definitely helpful when I can get to these workouts without too many distractions. Like having to shower and go to work. Unfortunately, that’s not practical all of the time, but that’s the way it goes, I suppose. Anyway, the workout went okay, my shoulder felt like it was slightly unhappy, perhaps, but not really in a way that affected anything. I may take tomorrow off, but then again, I may not. It’ll probably depend on how I’m feeling. So until next time…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Took the day off yesterday. I’ve been cutting down on the number of days I take off, overall, but I’m still okay with taking the occasional rest day. Eventually, I’d like to get back to a schedule of working out every day, but then again, I’d also like to be fully healed as well. So until the latter happens, I’m not going to be too hardcore about the former.
Another basic workout… didn’t feel quite the connection that I have the past couple of times doing these abs workouts, a little bit more distracted today. I’ve gotten out of the habit of ever doing workouts with partners, so I think it throws me off a bit on the occasions when I do have one. Anyway, I plan on hopefully getting a workout in tomorrow before work, but we’ll see how that goes.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Well, I accomplished my goal of getting out of bed way too early this morning. With relatively little fuss, actually, which was a bit surprising, considering I had a very difficult time falling asleep. But having the proverbial carrot of indoor ultimate dangled in front of me was enough to get me out of bed, today.
The workout was basic again… my shoulder seemed to ache a little bit more than it has been, but not badly. It still feels more like the type of ache that will heal relatively quickly, as opposed to one that’s going to linger for months. I’m just hoping I manage to get to the healing process before doing anything bad to it again. It was a slightly quicker version of the free form workout that I’ve been doing, mainly just moving a little bit faster and taking out a few of the transitions in order to expedite the process. Not ideal for a yoga workout, really, but ideal for getting out the door only a little bit later than I intended. Anyway, hopefully there will actually be a game today, or I’ll have gotten up early for naught. It’s the first day of indoor season, though, so I’m expecting there’ll probably be a game. I’ll most likely just be doing basic abs yoga on the “off” days this week, so it’s going to be a pretty low key week of yoga ahead.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I was perhaps a little too enthusiastic about ultimate yesterday. I didn’t reinjure any of my major injuries, but I managed to abrade my skin in a few places. I think tomorrow I’ll endeavor to at least keep myself off of the ground a little more. But I think that the plan is going to work, as long as I can manage to get myself up early in the morning on ultimate days.
Today’s workout was okay, I was having some trouble staying focused. I really need to start working on that. What I actually need to do is get back to starting a meditation practice, since that pretty much died after a week last time. It’ll be tough to find time to fit it into my schedule, at least during away weeks, but I think it can be done. Anyway, I think I managed to get a slightly greater angle out of my boat poses today, which was working my abs a little harder than I have been previously. Always somewhere to improve. I plan on continuing the week’s trend with another stretching workout tomorrow, which will hopefully loosen me up pretty well for ultimate.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Ugh. It’s rumored that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, but I’m uncertain about that. I do know that getting up too early in the morning makes me tired, though. Or just not getting enough sleep, really. But I managed to drag myself out of bed, knowing that I’d be stuck in traffic way too long to be happy if I continued to drag my feet. So after only a short delay, I managed to get up and get to the workout.
It went reasonably well… I certainly felt like I loosened up fairly nicely, for the most part. My focus really hasn’t been as good lately as I’d like. I would think that doing workouts on short sleep would actually help somewhat, but that doesn’t seem to be the case at the moment. I did break out of the normal routine just a little bit, and dropped down to pushup so that I could do bow pose, and try to stretch my quads out a bit. They were feeling a little bit tight for some reason, or maybe just a little bit sore. Anyway, the bow pose was fine, I didn’t have any reoccurrence of the trouble with my right quad while doing it, so hopefully I’m truly done with that problem now. My shoulder wasn’t completely comfortable with the drop to pushup and the subsequent upward dog, but it was much better than a few weeks ago. I was also comfortable with downward dog today, and that’s the first time I’ve been completely comfortable with the pose since the initial shoulder injury. So I’m fairly happy with the healing progress in the last week or two, and hopefully I can keep it up.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Hmmm. I think the short sleep and activity is starting to catch up to me. Feeling a little tender today, probably because I just haven’t been sleeping enough for my body to heal minor damage. Not that it gets in the way of anything, just something to note. The workout was okay, nothing exciting. My shoulder doesn’t seem quite as happy as it did yesterday, but that’s not terribly surprising. Not bad, just not quite as good. My abs were actually feeling pretty worn, which was a little strange. Anyway, pretty much just the usual, trying to keep in the groove.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Wasn’t quite feeling the flow during the workout today. Mired in mediocrity, as it were. Actually, I’m not sure that it really affected the workout, other than that I wasn’t inspired to try and add anything to it, which would perhaps have been good. As it was, I just went through my normal little stretching routine in preparation for ultimate. Of course, it doesn’t look like ultimate is actually going to happen, but that’s just an unfortunate circumstance. I’ll probably still play some DDR later, so a light stretch is still a good idea. Anyway, nothing much to report, shoulder still seems to be getting better. Probably no ultimate for the next two weeks, so hopefully by the time I play again, I’ll be fully recovered.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Saturday seems to be a day of rest, at least the last couple of weeks. I’m not particularly displeased with that… as long as I can limit it to a single day a week, I may even keep that as part of my schedule, for a while at least. The question, of course, is whether I can really keep that kind of break contained, or if it will quickly get out of control.
Today’s workout was pretty standard. Had a hard time getting into the workout at all, really. Again, having a partner during the workout seems to be distracting me. Somewhat unfortunate, really… there was a time when I was quite used to that. Perhaps it’ll be better once I’ve returned to full workouts. I’m not quite sure why, but it seems like something that could happen. My abs didn’t feel nearly as tired as they did on Thursday, so I guess I’ve managed to get some recovery time in there. I’ll try to run this next week on the same type of schedule as last week, but without any ultimate, of course. Maybe by the end of the week I’ll be able to start getting in some more vigorous workouts, as my shoulder continues to heal.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Another free form workout. This time I went a little bit further than I have been recently, incorporating both a side stretch and a warrior I into the mix. The side stretch was interesting… my left shoulder objected a little bit to being the top arm, but was fine as the bottom. Really, the shoulder was just being a little bit odd all night. It seems like I’ve done something minor to it, such that it aches a little oddly, but not in the bad way it was before. I really don’t know what to make of it. And I have no idea what I might have done… I somewhat noticed it yesterday, but just dismissed it. I’m not certain I can just dismiss it at this point, although I can hope that another day of abs will let it return to normal, or at least to the prior stage of healing.
Focus was a little bit better tonight… I was really paying close attention to positioning during the more complex of the poses, which certainly helped. Still, the tendency of my mind to wander away at the slightest provocation is a touch annoying at times. Anyway, not a bad workout, and hopefully my shoulder will recover quickly so I can start slowly building back into more complete workouts.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I have a periodic problem with getting addicted to games and puzzles. It usually only lasts a couple of days, but it’s pretty consuming for those couple of days. I’m currently in one of those now, and I think it’s a good thing that I’m holding my commitment to the yoga practice, or else I might just keep playing indefinitely. Or at least until I fell asleep, whichever came first.
Anyway, today’s workout wasn’t bad. I think I managed to focus a little bit better today than most of the time recently. It’s still so sporadic, my focus. One of these days I really have to commit myself to personal betterment, and that’s definitely going to be one of my top priorities. Until then, I’ll just be muddling along as usual. Whatever. Fairly solid workout today, although I did specifically avoid pilates simply because it’s slightly more of a stress on the shoulder. The shoulder felt fine for the most part, so hopefully after tomorrow I’ll be a little more sure of it again.

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

Decided to try going with a light video workout again. I chose the Running and All Sports mini-workouts again, due to the lack of sun salutation in those. It actually went pretty well… last time I did them, my shoulder felt a bit of strain during a few of the exercises. Today, I just had to be a little careful when stretching my arms above my head, but otherwise didn’t have any problems at all. The slow pace is a little frustrating, but at least it seems like I am slowly healing. I’m trying to hold off on really doing anything more intensive until at least the end of the week, to maximize the potential for healing before trying to move forward again. There is still soreness in the shoulder, so continued caution is justified, I think. I will hopefully do something a little more challenging in the abs realm tomorrow, quite likely pilates again.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I was originally thinking about doing a more challenging abs workout today, but I’ve instead decided that I’m going to do some DDR tonight. I still considered a pilates abs workout, but decided not to push the matter too much. I’m hoping that I’m going to be able to use DDR as a method of improving my fitness level. Of course, to do that, I really need to start allocating more time to it. But I think that if I keep improving it’ll really start to increase my fitness, particularly as I attempt faster songs and songs in heavy.
The workout tonight was decent. I mixed things up a little by inverting all occurrences of right/left in the directions. I’ve been meaning to do that for quite a while now, since the workout is slightly asymmetrical. Which is a slight flaw in the workout, but that’s how it is. It was actually a little easier than I was expecting… I figured the voice instructions would create confusion, but it was actually pretty simple to just mentally change them all. I suspect it’s because of the slow pace… I think it would be a lot more difficult with a fast paced workout. Anyway, I’ll almost certainly be trying to get some good stretching in tomorrow, so until then…

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Very lightly began testing the shoulder tonight. I started off with the basic total body intro, then jumped into more of a stamina style workout. I ended up doing two full sun salutations. The first one felt a little odd, but not really bad. The second one was a little more questionable. I’m not sure that it was actually bad, either, but it wasn’t something that I really wanted to test out. After the first sun salutation I did triangle and side stretch. Triangle was really good today… I was really feeling how to adjust my body to maximize the pose. After the second sun salutation I originally planned on doing warriors I and II, but since the shoulder objected a bit I decided to only do warrior II. I finished the whole thing off with some wide angle seated forward bend, reclined cobbler’s pose, and relaxation pose.
It’s uncertain right now if I did any actual damage to the shoulder… it’s possible that I should have waited another workout or two before I began to test it. I’m happy with the fact that I’ve gotten better about listening to my body, though… I had a plan, when my body objected, I changed the plan. That’s something I probably wouldn’t have done in the past. It’s a little frustrating to think about how far I have to go to recover from the last two months, but it’s something that’s going to have to be done. At least it’s not full rehabilitation, and it’s not like I’ve been taking the time completely off, either. But still, there’s a certain amount of dread knowing the work that has to be done. Anyway, something I’m just going to have to deal with as I get to it. For now, I just need to keep the impatience in check and continue slowly building back to the point of being able to do full workouts.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I probably should have just taken tonight off. Saturday has been my day off the last couple of weeks, and I was certainly considering taking it off tonight, but then I decided to go ahead with a quick abs workout. Unfortunately, I was having a very difficult time focusing, so I’m not sure how much benefit it provided. My abs were notably somewhat tired, which was interesting. Not quite sure why that is, maybe the added DDR activity on Thursday pushed them over the edge. The only thing of real note was that my shoulder seems fine, so I’m guessing whatever I did to it yesterday wasn’t serious. What that means is probably a slightly more vigorous workout tomorrow. I might try to do the full stamina workout, modifying the sun salutations if necessary.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Did the complete py:stamina workout today. And it actually went pretty well. I realized earlier that the twinging that I’ve felt in my shoulder recently has actually been from the back of the shoulder, not in the rotator. I’m not even sure if it’s been a real twinging, or just a slight warning that it hasn’t been making certain motions in quite a while. Anyway, I was cautious about going into all the pushups, and I think that things were fine. I’ll know more for certain tomorrow, of course, but the preliminary impressions are good. It’s a little funny that I’m now happy that I can do stamina, since when at full health it’s such a light workout that I barely ever do it. I suppose I’m just lucky that this wasn’t a real serious injury, where I’d be in full rehab or something. I imagine I’d deal with it if I had to, but it’s hard to think of that at this point. Anyway, I might even go for another light workout tomorrow, give my abs another day of rest.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

Got in a balanceball workout for the first time in a couple of months. I’ve been avoiding it because of the shoulder issue, since part of the workout involves raising the ball above your head (horizontally). That seemed like a very bad idea for a shoulder having trouble with rotation, and so I haven’t done this workout. But with the shoulder seemingly freed of the rotation troubles, it seemed like a good time to get back to this workout.
It was fairly tough tonight, especially at the beginning. I’m not quite sure why my abs have been so tired for the last couple of workouts… maybe the DDR I’ve been playing on a more regular basis has been playing into that. I have noticed in the past that DDR uses more abs than I’d necessarily expect, so that could be it. Whatever the case, these last couple of workouts have required a little more effort than I might expect. I was actually somewhat concerned that I wasn’t going to be able to finish the workout, but the middle section is pretty light, so I was able to recover enough to finish out. Actually, I didn’t feel nearly as fatigued after that middle section… not quite sure why. Anyway, it was a fairly good workout, and it felt good to get back another workout that hasn’t been accessible for a couple of months. Hopefully there will be more of those in the upcoming weeks as I get back into the full workout mode.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 2
Author: chaos

I’m quite pleased to be getting my workouts back. Did the workout that started it all today, session 2 of the yoga for strength workout. While doing the workout, I was wondering why I had been avoiding it, but I think the problem is that I have a very short memory as far as injury is concerned, and so I’m already forgetting the extent of the damage that was present at the time.
Anyway, the workout was decent. I’m definitely continuing to be cautious with the shoulder, particularly during pushup pose. It still feels like it’s not quite as healed as would be optimal, and yet isn’t really causing problems. So for now I’m just going to be careful and continue trying to gradually build back up. I was a little surprised that I didn’t have any trouble with either the side arm balance or half moon pose. It’s a good sign that the healing is nearly complete, despite twinges to the contrary. I wasn’t quite feeling up to doing warrior III, so I substituted warrior II in for it. I probably could have done the warrior III, but decided to go with my instincts. I actually got off the ground both times for pendulum… using the blocks, but still. That’s progress over the last time I did the pose. Crane wasn’t quite as solid as in the past, but I was a little tentative with it as well. It was actually okay, another good sign. My abs were notably quite sore today… I think the combination of abs workouts and DDR in the same day are really working them. Which is fine… they should build up more because of it. Anyway, going to try and keep getting the daily workouts in, motivation has been a bit lower lately… just tired, I think. Hopefully I’ll rest well and eat decently over the next couple of days, and that’ll give me a little more energy.

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

Did some more mini-workouts today. Got back into swimming… that was a fairly satisfying workout, actually. Given that it’s only 8 minutes long or whatever. Still, I didn’t even have to slow down through the pushups… I was just a little more careful making sure that I went straight down, as opposed to leaning to either side. After that I did the running workout, which was pretty standard. I was feeling fairly flexible today, which means I’ll probably be sore tomorrow from overdoing it. C’est la vie. After the running workout, I had originally planned on doing the all sports workout, but since my right knee has been bothering me a little more the last couple of days, that didn’t seem optimal. So I decided to try out the golf workout. I really had no memory of the one time I’ve tried it before, so it was pretty much like a new workout. It was okay… I could see it being really good for someone who, you know, golfs. Since the things I do don’t tend to involve torquing in quite that manner, it didn’t really do a whole lot for me, although it was a nice upper body stretch. I think next time maybe I’ll check out tennis again, to see if that might be more in line with what I actively need to work on.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Another free form workout today. This was a little more in the classic style of my free form workouts, although not quite as intense. Actually, it was overall fairly similar to the py:stamina workout, although perhaps a bit shorter. I was able to do several sun salutations without trouble today, so that was good. I didn’t do quite as many as I used to do with this workout, but I’m still building back up to it. I’m fairly pleased with the progress that I’ve made this week, really. I have a lot more confidence in my shoulder now, if not full confidence yet. I’ve been getting in workouts, although motivation has been a little lacking. Another two during the weekend, and then I’ll probably take Monday off, since I think it’s going to end up being a brutal day of flipping my schedule around. We’ll see. Anyway, I think I’ll probably try to get another abs workout in tomorrow, since I’ve had a few days to recover now.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I didn’t really intend to take yesterday off, originally. My schedule has been kind of crazy for the last couple of days, and I just didn’t quite end up getting to a workout. I did get in a bit of abs work, but nothing too serious. At any rate, I’m sure my abs didn’t mind the extra day to recover.
Today’s workout was unfortunately still fairly mediocre, though. I really wasn’t able to focus in on the workout properly, which was somewhat frustrating. Well, it wasn’t even that, really… it was more just something I noted in a fairly detached way. On the plus side, while my abs did feel a little more fatigued than I’d expect, they seem to have mostly recovered from the wear earlier in the week.
Things are going to be pretty busy for the next couple of weeks, but hopefully I’ll be able to keep getting in the workouts regularly. I’m going to try alternating again during the upcoming week as I get back to playing ultimate, but may end up taking tomorrow off due to a schedule flip. Anyway, I imagine I’ll have a workout either tomorrow evening or Tuesday morning at the latest.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Well, I managed to beat myself up fairly well at ultimate today. Skinned both my knees, possibly even bruised the right knee, although it’s a different location than I normally have trouble with. I haven’t really noticed anything else yet, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that something else won’t show up. I’m presuming no major damage, although perhaps that’s not a safe assumption… the original shoulder injury that mostly took me out of yoga for a month didn’t show up for a number of hours, but since that time has passed, it probably is pretty safe.
Anyway, went for a free form workout today. I was actually feeling pretty good, all things considered. I was quite in to the workout, too, which has been a problem lately. My shoulder seemed to be acting up a little bit for pushups and stuff, but nothing serious. It could probably just use another day of rest, and probably a little better nutrition, too. I really need to start paying more attention to that, especially if I’m going to be playing ultimate on a fairly regular basis. I guess I was playing fairly regularly before, too… hmm. Anyway. It’s been a pretty long day, so hopefully I’ll manage to get a little sleep here so as not to be too badly off for the rest of the week.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Well, my schedule was just too far off, so I decided to skip the abs workout last night and just go for the early morning workout today. Probably for the best… I hate skipping days, but I needed the sleep more than the workout, I think, especially since I don’t really think I need the abs workouts that much right now. This also means that I get back on the morning workout schedule, at least for the rest of the week.
Did the full classic free form workout today. Six sun salutations, incorporating triangle, side stretch, warrior I, and warrior II into the last four. Finished off with wide angle seated forward bend, reclining twist, reclined cobbler’s pose, and relaxation pose. I was pretty happy with the workout overall… focus could have been a little better, but wasn’t too bad. It was pretty easy to remember why I started doing this routine… my hamstrings started out really tight, but were pretty well loosened up by the end. Actually, I don’t know that they were tight, just stiff. My shoulder held up pretty well, not even being noticably sore during the first couple of sun salutations. I think I’m actually working out stiffness from the injury more than anything else right now. Form felt pretty good today… I was fairly in tune with this workout, I think. Right workout at the right time, basically. I’ll probably try to get an abs workout in tomorrow morning, but there’s an outside chance I’ll just take the week off from abs.