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Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I didn’t particularly feel like doing a workout this morning, but I really didn’t have any reason not to. So eventually I managed to motivate enough to go ahead and do the abs workout. It was okay… my abs were more tired than I really would have expected. Apparently they’re not recovering as quickly as would be ideal. But focus was okay, and I certainly felt better about getting in the workout than I would have otherwise. It did occur to me about halfway through the workout that I don’t really need to alternate between abs and other workouts, since I’m now capable of doing a lot more workouts than I was a few weeks ago. So I’ll probably start doing that more often in the upcoming weeks. Anyway, I’m sure I’ll get a light stretching workout in tomorrow morning before ultimate.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Things are getting better in the workouts. I’m not sure how long it’ll be before I can do workouts completely free from any odd feelings, but at least it’s getting to the point where I can reasonably expect to be able to complete most of my workouts. Ran through another edition of the classic free form workout today. It’s really nice to be able to do these light workouts again before ultimate, since I like the stretch that they provide. I’m hoping that maybe next week I can start pushing back into a few of the more challenging workouts, and try to start setting myself up for the last few weeks of the year, where I’ll have some extra time to dedicate to workouts, most likely.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Another stamina workout today. I think it was even a little better than last time… my shoulder continues to improve. I’m feeling pretty good about getting back into things. I’m still a little hesitant to really push the shoulder, but I think that I’ll probably get to the flexibility workout sometime soon, perhaps even over this weekend. Not really much else to say about the workout… decent focus, not great. Visiting Seattle for the next couple days, so it should be a lot of fun, although it might make getting the workout in consistently a little more difficult. However, I’ll do my best, and I’ll probably manage to only skip one day at most.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Another standard free form workout today, with just a slight modification. I incorporated a warrior I -> warrior III transition into the workout by request. It actually went fairly well… I fell out a little bit before I was planning on finishing on the right side, but managed to hold it up on the left side. Other than that, nothing really to say about the workout. There was some distraction going on, but nothing too serious. Anyway, I’ll try and get another workout in tomorrow, hopefully a little earlier than tonight.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Going to play volleyball tonight for the first time in a very long time. Probably over 3.5 years, and I hadn’t played much for at least another 1.5 years before that. I’m a little bit hesitant, since I managed to give myself a few small blisters on my feet playing DDR yesterday, but I think it’ll probably be okay. Besides, it’s not like my feet won’t heal. I’m probably slightly more concerned about my shoulder, actually… I should really just try to avoid doing any hitting with my left hand, since it’s not like I should be hitting the ball with my left hand, anyway. It doesn’t mean I won’t, if the situation comes up, but at least maybe I’ll think about it a little.
Today’s workout was again fairly standard. I definitely feel like I’ve gotten the groove of this workout back. I was actually thinking about doing the py:flexibility workout today, but I couldn’t find the disc, so I just went with the free form action. The only additions today were a few jumping transitions, which I really haven’t been doing much of at all for the last few months, and the hip stretching thing from the YCfA all sports mini-workout. I guess I also threw in reclining twist, but I do that whenever I feel so inclined, so it doesn’t seem like that much of an addition. Leaving Seattle tonight… it’s been a great time, but too short. I’m not sure any length of time of visiting would not be too short, though, so perhaps it’s for the best. But anyway, I’ll have access to my full repertoire of videos when I get home, so I’ll probably be mixing it up a little more in the next couple of days.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Took the day off yesterday, primarily because I spent most of it sleeping. I at least briefly considered getting a workout in, but really, sleeping seemed more important, and probably was. Of course, eating might have been important too, but for me, one of the two isn’t all that bad. At least while I’m sleeping it’s a fairly minimal energy burn.
Anyway, did the somewhat anticipated flexibility workout today. And it was just fine. The pushups presented no problems, although there aren’t nearly as many in this workout as there are in the strength workout, so I’m not quite certain if I’m up to that yet. My shoulder hasn’t felt any pain, and yet it does feel slightly odd still. It could just be that I’m still working out some of the stiffness, though. I found it somewhat interesting that I didn’t quite remember the workout fully, even though it’s only been a few months since I last did it. I suppose it wasn’t overly frequent before that, but still, it seems strange that I would have forgotten any parts of it. I remembered the beginning section well, but didn’t really recall the stretching part very much at all. I guess it shows what I regarded to be the more important part of the workout, anyway.
I’m again feeling that I need to make some sort of changes in my life, but still am uncertain as to what, exactly. It seems obvious that I shouldn’t just continue on as I have been, although I certainly believe that I could, for quite a while. I really should spend some time thinking about these things in the next couple of days… whether I will is, of course, a different matter. I feel like I’m just cruising through on autopilot, though, and that needs to change. Just a couple thoughts for the moment… hopefully writing them down will help me to not forget them.

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

It seems that I just never learn how to properly do the flexibility workout. Yet once again I managed to make my hamstrings quite sore from the workout. Really, I just don’t know how I do it sometimes… it didn’t seem like I was really pushing all that much, yesterday. Hmmm… it’s probably in the first couple of exercises where I’m essentially doing a forward bend over the extended leg in a standing position. It almost seems like they come too early in the workout… I guess I just need to be more careful about how much I let myself extend into them.
Anyway, today’s workout started out as the full session, but then I got interrupted by a phone call, so I decided to switch up into the mini-workouts. I did running and swimming today… they certainly helped loosen my hamstrings, although I didn’t want to overdo it. My shoulder felt a little tender, but I continue to believe that it’s just a reaction to being pushed a little when it had been essentially unused for so long. I somewhat forget how little I used that arm for a month or two while it was injured… of course it’s going to take a little bit for it to get back to normal. Anyway. I didn’t end up playing volleyball on Tuesday, for the record. The available time had changed, and the new time was incompatible with me catching my flight, so it ended up being a non-event. Perhaps for the best, although I’m sure it would have been a good time. Anyway, I might go with an abs workout tomorrow, possibly balanceball, since it’s been a little while since I last did one.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

Another balanceball workout. This one went a little bit better than the last time, although it was still fairly tough. I’m really not quite sure why I’ve had so much trouble with abs workouts in the last few weeks… it doesn’t seem like that should really be the case. Although my diet really hasn’t been what it should be, and perhaps that’s starting to have an adverse effect on my performance. I suppose it’s entirely possible that I can’t run on willpower alone, much as I might like to. I think I’ve been getting a little better, but I feel as though my calorie count is still low more often than is really desirable. The days where I really only eat one meal, or don’t eat a proper meal at all, mostly. Snacks do make up for some of that, but in a somewhat suboptimal way, I’m sure. Anyway. Not quite sure if I’m going to manage to get a workout in tomorrow or not, since I’ll be traveling for some portion of the day, and probably flipping my schedule around as well. So I may end up just pushing until Monday morning, and starting the ultimate week cycle.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Once again took the day off while switching my schedule around. I don’t mind the days off that much, although it does feel a bit like I’m slacking off. Still, I do seem to heal a little bit more when I take the day off. So at least until I’m completely healed, I’m not going to object all that much. I’ll probably take it relatively easy this week as I play ultimate throughout the week, but I’ll try to pick it up a little more next week. I’d like to be back to the point of working on my intermediate workout by the new year, since I only tried it out the once before injuring the shoulder. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll actually get another attempt in before then, but I’d at least like to be ready to (or close to that point). It feels like my conditioning is still a little lacking, which is kind of funny, given that I’m in far better overall shape than I was last year at this time, or even in June this year. But the conditioning is slightly different… so I imagine I’ll be in even better shape once I’ve gotten back into proper yoga shape.
Anyway, today’s workout. I ran it a little faster at the beginning than I often do, to the point where it was much like the YCfA swimming mini-workout, with a few warriors tacked on at the end. Actually, I slowed up a bit once I started adding poses, it was really just the first few sun salutations that I did more quickly than usual. I was really in the mood for just the basics today, so that’s what I did. Not fully satisfying, but not bad, either. I still feel that I’m a little too unfocused lately, but hopefully I’ll start really working on that next week. It occurs to me that I’m putting a lot of improvement stuff to do in the next few weeks, but that’s not unusual. That way I can feel bad about it when I fail to really accomplish all that I want to. Oh well. Most likely just a yoga abs workout tomorrow, though it’s possible I’ll hit a pilates workout if I’m inspired.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Managed to get a fairly decent amount of sleep last night, for the second night in a row. That’s certainly an oddity when I’m not at home, but I’m not complaining. There’s even an outside chance that barring tonight, I’ll get a decent amount of sleep every night this week, which would be… revolutionary. It might hinge on how much time I devote to the puzzle competition this week… I don’t feel quite as invested in this one as I usually do, so I might not short myself too badly over it.
The workout today was pretty routine… concentration was horrible, though. Sometimes it’s really frustrating and makes me want to just give it up, but I know that even the physical actions have benefits, and hopefully one of these days I’ll manage to really start getting the mental aspects as well. I might have some mental time available in the next month or so after this week, so perhaps I can really settle myself down and get into it. Anyway, another early morning stretching workout tomorrow… that one’s going to be tougher to get up for, I’m sure, but I expect that I’ll manage.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Another free form workout today. It was a fairly regular workout except for a substitution of half moon pose for extended side angle pose. It was certainly interesting… pretty miserable on the right side, decent on the left. For some reason I just could not balance on the right leg. I periodically have my problems with half moon pose anyway, so it wasn’t overly surprising, especially given how long it’s been since I last attempted half moon. Everything else about the workout was pretty much standard… I did have a really nice extension into seated forward bend, though. I’m actually thinking that it was possibly my best extension ever. Of course, I’ll probably pay for it tomorrow with sore hamstrings, but perhaps not… maybe my flexibility is finally starting to improve again.
Not too sure what the events of the day are going to be… in theory I should be going in to work, but I’m not really planning on it at this point. It’s not exactly skipping, since I am doing work, just from the comfort of a couch instead of the office. The snowfall and projected snowfall make it seem like it would be a waste of time to commute in when I can just as easily do anything I was planning on doing today from here. Of course, I’ll still try to make it to ultimate if there’s a game, but really, what’s more important here… work or ultimate? Ultimate, clearly. And making it to ultimate should be much easier if I don’t go into the office. I might go in after lunch, if the roads don’t seem that bad, but I’m guessing that probably won’t be the case, either. So in the end, I’m planning on hanging out and playing the whole thing by ear, and we’ll see where that gets me.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Woke up a little bit stiff today. Strangely, the most notable location was in my right shoulder/upper back area. I’m not entirely certain what that’s from, ultimate in some manner, I’m sure, but I’m not sure what in particular might have caused this. On the good side, my hamstrings don’t seem to be particularly sore, which is a good sign that I didn’t really overextend myself yesterday, which indicates improved flexibility, at least in that direction. Actually, I think my flexibility has been improving in general, at least in the lower body. I haven’t been doing as much work in the upper body lately, so it’s hard to say about that.
Today’s workout was pretty routine. I started out by reversing left and right, but I forgot about that after I hit the first section of combined movement. The abs actually seemed slightly less tired today than in the recent past, which was somewhat interesting… perhaps ultimate is not adversely affecting them, as I suspected it might be. I’ll keep monitoring that situation to try and see if I can determine a cause for the fatigue when it occurs.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Another routine free form workout today. This one was pretty good… I took my time, and got in a lot of good stretching. I was feeling a little bit tight from ultimate on Wednesday, but I think I largely loosened that up. Just in time to abuse my body again. But I love it, so I’m not really complaining. I wouldn’t say that there are any real highlights from the workout, just a lot of solid poses. Very standard sequence, the only addition to it was the seated twist from the YCfA all sports mini-workout. I really need to find out what that pose is called, so I can stop referring to it in that fashion. Anyway, done with work for the year, so I’m looking forward to just kicking back a little bit for the next day or two, before hopefully picking up on the yoga for a couple of weeks and getting back into full yoga condition.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Well, I managed to damage myself a little bit playing ultimate on Friday. There’s a small ledge that runs around the field where the wall meets the plexiglass, and I pretty much landed on that with my thigh at one point. So that’s been somewhat tender for the last couple of days. It still is tender, but not nearly as much so as on Saturday, and noticably less so than yesterday, even. I also seem to be coming down with a cold, which in turn has caused me to spend quite a bit of time sleeping. As much as possible, pretty much. Between those factors, and a dinner party on Saturday, I ended up taking the entire weekend off from yoga.
Got back into it today with a free form workout. I’m planning on playing ultimate, although I recognize that between the thigh still being sore and being somewhat sick, that’s probably not the greatest of ideas. However, since I won’t get to play for another two weeks after this, I’m just going to go for it. I have two weeks to recover, right? Right. That aside, it was a reasonable workout. My legs started out a little tight, but I managed to warm them up fairly well by the end. I also loosened up the thigh a little, which is good. I figure I’ll be a little slower today than usual, but not too much. Perhaps not at all, once the adrenaline kicks in. Of course, I’ll probably pay for that later, but I’m okay with that. My car is currently being fixed, or such is the theory, anyway. As long as that goes as well as it should, I’ll be heading home this afternoon or tonight, and probably spending a few days sleeping a lot as I try to fight off this cold.

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Well, the cold that I had hit its peak on Monday night and Tuesday, so I’ve been taking a little time off in order to rest up and recover. The car fixing also took a little bit longer than anticipated, so we didn’t get home until Tuesday night. A workout on Thursday would probably have been okay, but I’ve been somewhat enjoying just having a little time off with absolutely nothing particularly pressing to do. So I just went ahead and took another day of rest, even though it probably wasn’t necessary.
The workout tonight was decent. I was originally contemplating doing the full workout, but decided that my energy levels were still a little low from the cold, and since I hadn’t done a full workout like that in a few months, it seemed like that might be pushing things a little much. So I just did the first section and the last section. I did note that the latest injury to the thigh really took my mind off of the shoulder for a few days… now it seems as though they’ve healed to about an even level, such that I have a very slight concern about both, but basically have full range of motion now. I added to my injuries a bit on Monday, scraping up my left arm, as well as my left thigh, again. But as I said… two weeks to heal. So I should be back to form by the time I’ll be playing again. Hopefully I’ll be mostly back to yoga form, as well. We’ll see how the next week goes.

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

Due to travel and laziness, I took another long break between sessions. The most notable thing about that time was that my hamstrings remained sore from the last workout throughout the break. Really sore for much of it. I’m not quite sure what it is about the total body session, but somehow I seem to overdo something every time. I think it’s a lot worse when it’s the first workout I do after a break, so I may try to avoid that in the future. I’m wondering if the skip from the first to the last section is also causing some of the trouble… maybe I don’t let my legs warm up enough, and then I try to stretch them more than they’re able to handle. Things to keep in mind, anyway.
With all that in mind, I decided to ease back in today with some YCfA mini-workouts. Went for the fairly standard sequence of running, swimming, and all sports. I wasn’t feeling particularly in tune, strangely enough… I might have figured that after the break, I’d really be ready to go, but apparently not. Not that it was a bad workout, just not as good as it might have been. However, I think I managed to stretch out my hamstrings from the PY:TB workout, and hopefully didn’t continue to overextend the hamstrings in the process. That was the other interesting thing that I noted during the last break… it seems that I would have been a lot better off just doing a light workout in order to stretch the hamstrings out during that time, because I think they would have recovered a lot more quickly if I had. At least, they have in the past during similar situations, so it seems likely they would now as well. Anyway, hopefully I’m done with slacking off for the moment, and can get back into some more serious workouts.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

I was originally considering doing a stamina workout tonight, but when the time came, I really didn’t feel that it was the correct workout for me. While I hadn’t done strength since before I injured my shoulder, back in early September, I was a little bit hesitant, but felt that I had made enough progress that I would be able to handle it. I thought that I might have to modify it a little, but was pretty sure that I’d be able to do most if not all of it.
It went pretty well. I wouldn’t say it was the model workout, but I did have pretty decent focus throughout much of the workout. It’s one of the things that I’ve really noticed my various injuries have done for me, they’ve forced me to focus more closely on my body, which has kept me closer to the workouts. I really need to learn that focus, so that I can do it without the aid of injuries, which I’d rather avoid, overall. Anyway, I really had no trouble with the workout at all, except a bit of slight residual twinging in my left shoulder as I rotated it at various times. I think that I’ll have that for a little while, but I don’t actually think it’s a problem at all. Other than that… pendulum pose was pretty much a flop, but that’s not surprising. Crane pose wasn’t as good as it usually is, which was a bit disappointing, but then again, I’ve only done it a few times in the past half year or so. Simple arm balance was actually quite good… I think I wanted to make sure that I could support myself with my arms, and since I hadn’t done terribly well with the first two poses, I made up for it with the third. All of this brings to my attention that my body has recovered from its various injuries, and that I really need to start stepping up my workouts again. It’s going to be tough, especially in the coming month, but with a little dedication I think I can start getting my practice into a more fulfilling place again. I especially hope to try the intermediate workout at least once before vacation ends, and possibly twice if the first time goes reasonably well. So depending on how I feel tomorrow, that could happen either then or Friday. I may interject an abs workout in sometime soon as well, just to keep in practice.

Workout: Intermediate Yoga
Author: chaos

I’ve been feeling very lethargic for the last couple of days. Really haven’t been motivated to do much of anything at all, including yoga. However, I was determined not to let that trend continue any further than it already had, and since I had been considering doing the intermediate workout anyway, I decided to go for broke.
I started out with a quick review of what the workout actually went through. Since I’ve only done it the one time before, and that was several months ago, I didn’t really recall what kind of ground it covered. I remembered the inverted poses, of course, since that was the primary motivator in getting the workout in the first place, but wasn’t sure what else it entailed. As it turns out, the first part is somewhat similar to the first part of total body, but a little bit faster and with a little less in the way of gradual warmup. Anyway, nothing new in the intro section, except the revolved triangle poses. This time I was paying closer attention, so I saw how they were supposed to be done, but it’s going to be a while before I can do one properly. I don’t have that kind of flexibility yet. Actually, I’m not sure if the flexibility or the balance is the greater problem. I managed to get it going somewhat with the left leg forward… I’ll need some more work to get it with the right leg forward, even somewhat. The balance just isn’t there yet.
The inverted poses actually went fairly well. I haven’t really gotten to the point of supporting myself fully upright yet, but at least this time I was able to kick up into the poses. I seem to recall last time that I only managed to get up once, and wore myself out trying to kick up repeatedly. Even with the wall helping, it’s quite obvious that I need to build up my upper arm and shoulder strength quite a bit to have a high degree of success with those poses, at least unsupported. I think I was a little bit better off before the long break in shoulder related activities, but that’s why I need to start getting serious again and building back up into full length workouts all the time. Admittedly, I don’t have as much free time as I’d like to dedicate to that proposition, but I think I just need to be a little bit better about not procrastinating, and I’ll only need to squeeze my schedule a little bit more in order to get some harder workouts in.
The final section was stretching and relaxation, fairly basic stuff, except for the call for a lot of putting legs into half lotus. While my ability to approach half lotus has been increasing, I’m still not all that close to being able to do a proper half lotus, which made things a little trickier. However, I just got in as far as I could without strain, and worked from there. Even fairly pathetic attempts at half lotus will probably start helping me gain the flexibility necessary to do it properly, such that one day I’ll hopefully be able to fully complete the pose. Anyway, it was a pretty decent workout overall, and hopefully it will help motivate me to really get going with my practice again. I’m guessing that I’ll probably take it easy tomorrow with something like abs yoga, as I anticipate I’ll probably be a little bit tender from the workout today.