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Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

After a great deal of avoidance, procrastination, and voluntary distractions, I finally got a workout in. I find this to be quite encouraging, one of the more encouraging signs I’ve seen for a while. I feel like my life has gotten too… disorganized, perhaps, that I’ve just been letting things happen or not happen without any direction or focus. I think one of the areas that this has most clearly shown up in is my yoga practice, which I’ve allowed to become a shadow of its former self. Certainly, I’ve had injuries to deal with, and playing ultimate isn’t terribly conducive to getting a hard workout in on the same day, but these are really just excuses, for the most part. While they’ve unquestionably played a part in the workouts that I’ve been able to do, they haven’t had such a strong effect on my mental state, which is where I’ve really slipped in the past few months. So although it took quite a while, I’m cautiously optimistic that getting to the workout today is the beginning of a new trend of self that I’m trying to engineer.
The workout itself was fairly basic… some standing forward bend, some lunges, triangle and warrior II, a few different forward bends. I made a concerted effort to focus on my form tonight, trying to work on getting more extension and stretching. I think that may work out very well for me, but it’s a little early to be certain. The bonus of focusing on my form is that it also meant I was more focused in general. While far from perfect, I mentally stayed with the workout for a much greater percentage of the time than has been the norm recently. For now, I’m going to head off to get some sleep, and hopefully follow this workout up with either an abs or pilates workout tomorrow.

Workout: Intermediate Mat Workout
Author: chaos

Went in for the intermediate pilates workout today. It was fairly tough… well, in some ways. Mostly it was just things I haven’t done for a while, and I did work up quite a bit of a sweat while doing it. It went pretty well, although I had trouble with the double leg raises and the teaser, like always. My right shoulder did protest a little bit on the wide arm stretch/rotation movements, like the saw and the spine twist. Just a little achy with the full extension. The only other thing of note was that my right quad was acting up a little bit, as if it wanted to cramp. I noticed that a little bit yesterday, as well. I think I just need to make sure to stretch it out well in the next couple of workouts. However, I was definitely feeling the need to get a workout in tonight, which is a very good sign… I probably haven’t really felt like that for a month or more, not counting vacation. Even then I think it was only because I knew I should get one in, more than a real desire to do so. Anyway, hope the trend continues, and will try to get another one in tomorrow night.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Went in for my third consecutive non-ultimate related workout today. I don’t remember the last time I did that, but I think it was probably right before the first injuries of the season. Unquestionably I’ve had trouble with motivating myself to get workouts in for the past month and a half or so, and spent enough time being injured before that that days off seemed more advisable. At any rate, I’m feeling pretty good about this start to September, since once I start rolling on something like this, it’s fairly easy for me to keep going… starting is always the hard part. Injuries are the thing most likely to derail me again, which is certainly a valid concern, with 2 months of the outdoor ultimate season left. But I’m hoping to keep them down, since I’ve been doing better about that since coming back from vacation. As the weather becomes less predictable, there will probably be more days we don’t play as well, which should also help limit injuries, or at least injury potential. Anyway, the workout today was fairly decent… these last few workouts have certainly been tougher than they should be, but clearly while I’m in pretty decent cardio shape right now, my yoga shape isn’t quite as good. With luck, I’ll get them both to a good state by the end of the ultimate season, and then it’ll just be a matter of maintaining my cardio conditioning over the winter, since I’m sure I’ll be going hard at yoga once the ultimate season ends. Just a few thoughts on where I am and what’s to come… either a stretching workout tonight before ultimate, or something a little more challenging later tonight if ultimate doesn’t happen.

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

Wanted to flip my schedule around, so ended up doing some funky things with my sleeping. side effect of that was that I didn’t get the workout that I was thinking about doing in between the last one and the pre-ultimate workout. However, I did still think about getting it in, even if I didn’t quite make it, so that’s not too bad. Normal three workouts before ultimate. Substituted backbend lunge for the last triangle again. Already these workouts are starting to feel easier again, which is good. I’d like to get back to the point where doing these is a light stretch and warmup, nothing more. Ultimate today went pretty well… I was having a pretty good day. Had a pretty sweet layout D near the end of the day, first good layout I’ve had in quite a while, maybe since coming back from vacation. Didn’t really get any stretching in afterwards… bad habit that I really should break. But I did feel fine, so it’s harder to motivate then. Anyway, planning on getting an abs workout in tomorrow, ultimate workout on Thursday, and then hopefully start building up a little more over the weekend.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, originally intended to do this workout last night, but I was feeling strangely fatigued all day yesterday, so that didn’t end up happening. Current theory is that I’m fighting off a cold. Certainly I was a lot more tired than I’d usually be given the amount of sleep I got, so it’s not a bad theory. Considered skipping the workout altogether, but since I’m feeling better today, although perhaps still a little tired, finally decided to go ahead and get it in. Admittedly, I’ll be doing the pre-ultimate workout in just a few hours, but I’m getting back to the point where that’s not a problem. In fact, maybe this will be a model in the future… do the abs workout earlier in the day, and then not I won’t have to deal with the fact that I’m tired after ultimate, and would probably do a stretching workout if anything. Anyway, decent workout… I was trying to concentrate on really working the abs today, which I think worked fairly well. I’m starting to really feel like I’m getting serious again, which is a good thing. Well, I’ll be hitting another workout in a few hours, so maybe I’ll talk about the weekend possibilities then.

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

Tried something a little different today… started out with the swimming mini-workout, and then switched to the full workout in order to do the opening sequence. I think that worked pretty well, actually… it has a lot of good stretching in there. I may start mixing things up a little more before ultimate… I’m getting fairly tired of the same routine pretty much every time. I should probably start getting more free form stuff in again… I used to have a few fairly decent free form routines for pre-ultimate stretching. Ultimate was fairly good again today… made a few decent catches, one or two decent throws. Didn’t try to overdo it, which worked out well… could be an important factor, really. Didn’t really stretch afterwards, but that’s not unusual lately. Have to start getting into the habit again. Anyway, feeling a little worn down, probably still fighting off the cold, despite all the activity of the day. Will try to catch some sleep, and then see what happens for tomorrow.

Workout: Cardio Pilates
Author: chaos

I originally planned on getting more workouts in over the weekend, but I didn’t originally plan on being sick, either, so it’s not surprising that plans got slightly rearranged. Not that I was seriously ill or anything, just… fatigued. Rather annoying, really, but as far as being ill goes, not that bad. Anyway, decided to dig out the cardio pilates workout tonight. It’s been so long since I last did the workout, I couldn’t even really remember it. It was actually a little more challenging than I remembered it being… the entirety of the series of five is present in this workout, if not quite to the level of the pilates abs workout. It did feel like it was missing something, although I can’t quite place what it is. Still, it did provide a reasonably challenging workout, at least to someone who’s a bit out of pilates shape. I decided to skip the cardio segment, since I’m getting plenty of that in these days, and should be until at least the end of October. Hopefully beyond that as well… but I’m not ready to divulge that potential plan, at least not yet. Anyway, feeling fairly fatigued after the workout, although I’m quite certain that’s from the residual illness rather than the workout. So, off to the shower, and then perhaps a few hours of sleep, since I seem to be sleeping in small increments lately.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

In the spirit of being bored with doing the same workouts all the time, I went with the stamina workout before ultimate today. Strangely, I found it to be a little bit taxing, although I think it was mostly because I didn’t have the rhythm of the workout. The really odd part about that being that I couldn’t seem to get into the rhythm, either, throughout the course of the workout. Other than that, though, it went fine… I feel like I’m starting to regain a bit of my strength. I’m starting to look forward to the off season a little more, at least in that I’ll have more time to devote to the yoga practice. Speaking of the off season, ultimate didn’t actually end up happening today… conditions similar to those of two weeks ago with prevailed, with similar results. It’s looking like the Monday session might be done for the year, but we’ll see what happens. That’s somewhat unfortunate, since I enjoy the Monday session, but the numbers haven’t been there lately. Anyway, hopefully will get to play tomorrow, we had good turnout last week even though the weather was threatening, so hopefully we’ll get more of the same tomorrow. Until then…

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

My hamstrings were surprisingly quite sore today. I suspect that’s because I did a warmup yesterday, but never actually did anything after that. Perhaps my stretching routines of late rely on the following ultimate to prevent soreness. Not really sure. Anyway, decided to take it a little easier tonight, and just did the running and all sports workouts. It admittedly felt like the stretching was somewhat incomplete, but I didn’t feel like pushing it. Despite threatening weather and light rain at start time, still had ten people come out tonight. So we played five on five for a while, and then when two of the people left, four on four for another while. The teams were pretty balanced, so it was a good time. Only slight downside was tweaking my ankle, again. But I’m now resigned to the fact that it’s not going to fully heal until the offseason, or I have a season ending injury, which amounts to the same thing, really. On the plus side, most of my other injuries seem to have vanished for the most part, so it’s hard to complain too much. Hamstrings were still feeling somewhat tender after the game, so did a bit of light stretching to try and help them out a bit. Will most likely still be sore tomorrow, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. Probably going to have guests for the next couple of days, so that might impact the workout schedule, but hopefully not too much. It would mostly be laziness on my part if it did, so I’m hoping to avoid that. Will try to get a workout in tomorrow, perhaps in the late afternoon, but it will likely depend on how much cleaning I can get done. At any rate, until next time…

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

Somehow the thought of doing a workout just completely slipped my mind last night. Well, at least until fairly late, and I wasn’t really in the mood by that point. I probably could have done one this morning, but I decided to just go ahead and rest instead. Before ultimate today, I went with running and swimming as my workouts. I felt like I’d get a slightly better stretch that way, today. I was pleased to note that my hamstrings had largely recovered from the soreness of earlier in the week. Ultimate was pretty good today… I was fairly on today. I guess I have been for the last few weeks, really. Not quite sure why that is… probably because I’ve stopped trying too hard, letting myself stay loose. I’m sure there’s a valuable lesson there. May or may not get a workout in tomorrow, although it’s pretty likely that I’ll be playing some Stepmania, so there’s a good chance I’ll do some kind of workout as well. If not, I definitely plan on getting one in Saturday.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

I’ve been feeling strangely tired all week, and the last two days were no exception. Yesterday was particularly bad… I felt like I was out of it all day, and after playing some Stepmania for the first time in a long time during the evening, was completely exhausted. So I ended up not doing a yoga workout, but did still get some exercise in. Tonight, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do… I thought about the full YCfA workout, but decided I wasn’t quite up to that. Then I thought about flexibility, but decided I needed to warm up first. So I played some more Stepmania. Unfortunately, I overdid it a bit yesterday, and then again today, making my toes a bit tender. When I went to do the flexibility workout, I decided that between the sweat and the sore toes, it really wasn’t that great of an idea. So after the first couple of sequences, I switched over to do the stretching part of the total body workout. Which was what I mostly wanted to do anyway, get a nice stretch, particularly after Stepmania. I suppose it was really more of a medley workout than a free form workout, but that’s not a category I’m planning on adding, so this will have to do. I think I’ll try to get an abs workout in tomorrow, or perhaps pilates, depending on exactly how I feel.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Actually managed to stick with my plan for the day, and get an abs workout in. Kind of a sad state of affairs… I used to stick to my plan most of the time, and now it’s worthy of note when I manage to do so. Hopefully that trend will reverse itself again in the next few months. It was a reasonably decent workout, physically. It felt like I was focusing well on the muscle movements. Mentally, it was okay, but could have been much better. I have a hard time staying focused except for during the middle of the workout, though. But that’s still something that I need to be working on in general, most likely outside of the workouts.
I’ve been thinking that I really need to start stepping up the workouts again, at least on days that I’m not playing ultimate. I’d also like to check out the two new workouts I got a few months ago, but have yet to actually do. I think starting to do the hip opening workout now could be quite beneficial for when I’m ready to start getting serious about my workouts again after the ultimate season ends. And I’d definitely like to do the yoga burn workout a few times, to see if it’s something that will be useful to me, or if I should potentially pass it on to someone that will have a use for it. Anyway, just a couple of thoughts about the direction I think I should be heading in… we’ll see how far I get with them.

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

Warmed up for ultimate today with running, swimming, and all sports. Originally I was just going to do the first two, but then I decided that there really wasn’t any reason not to do the third, and it would give me a slightly more complete workout if I did do it. I say that I warmed up for ultimate with these workouts, although I knew going into them that ultimate wasn’t actually going to happen. Today we at least had four people come out, which was a slight improvement, although not enough to actually make a difference. However, we did toss for an hour or so, so it wasn’t a complete waste. However, it does mean that we’re not going to play on Monday for the rest of the season, a situation I’m somewhat ambivalent about. I do like to play on Monday, the problem is that it hasn’t actually happened for a month now. So, I think I’m probably just as satisfied calling it quits, because then at least I’m not concerned about going out. Not sure how I’ll fill the extra time… there is rumor of a Sunday game going on, so maybe I’ll try going to that sometime. There’s also some talk of the occasional Saturday pickup game, which will certainly be a possibility. Overall, though, I’ll probably just start to back off from ultimate a little, and get more into yoga and Stepmania. As the weather gets colder, I’ll probably be more conservative in my play, anyway, to try and avoid injury. So there’s a fair chance that I’ll just start playing more Stepmania to fill in for the reduced ultimate. Have to see how it goes. Probably something slightly different before ultimate tomorrow, maybe stamina, depending on how I feel.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina, Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

As planned, I went in for the py:stamina workout before ultimate today. Nothing too exciting about it, just a change of pace from the mini-workouts. Ultimate was pretty good today… we had 17 at one point, which was fairly impressive, considering both the relative cold and the fact that it was windy. Anyway, people were playing hard, and it was a lot of fun. I almost feel like the later in the season we get, the more fun the games have been. Kind of weird, but it does seem to be a trend lately. Or maybe it’s just because we’re all coming to appreciate the fact that the season will be ending soon, and thus want to get the most out of our playing time. Whatever the case, it’s a nice thing. Because of the cold, though, I was worried about my muscles tightening up afterwards, which they have a tendency to do. So after I got home, I decided to do a few of the mini-workouts to stretch out. Went with swimming to make sure the muscles were warm enough, and then finished with all sports. It was nice, although I’m not sure that swimming really warmed the muscles up quite as much as I’d have liked. Notably, I got in the post ultimate stretch when it seemed like I needed it, so perhaps my slacking off on that hasn’t been as bad as I thought. That is to say, I have been slacking on it, but maybe it wasn’t such a big deal, since the stretching wasn’t as necessary. Anyway… I think I’ll probably go for a pilates workout tomorrow, as long as I can motivate myself for it.

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

I’m not really sure how to catalog this workout. I went with swimming + the beginning of the full workout again today. It doesn’t really fit under either category, but it seems wrong to categorize it as both. Oh well. Not really a big deal, unless I want to specifically find these particular entries again, which is fairly unlikely. Anyway, felt like I had a pretty good stretch from the workout… I think it works pretty well. Ultimate was good today… didn’t play as hard as I could have, I suppose, but it’s not like I usually do. Did have an awesome layout D at the end, which is always fun. I need to work on my landings, though… ended up going out of the game because I landed a little bit on my stomach, and slightly knocked the wind out of myself. Pretty minor, and I could have kept playing if necessary, but there really wasn’t a reason. Anyway, a good time. Didn’t end up stretching afterwards, but it didn’t really feel necessary, either. Perhaps because I made up my sports drink for today… hard to say. Anyway, ended up being lazy yesterday, and not sure how much I’ll get in this weekend… have some important stuff to take care of, but perhaps when I’m taking breaks I’ll get a few workouts in. We’ll see. I imagine I’ll get at least one in over the weekend, and hopefully two or even three. But until then…

Workout: Intermediate Mat Workout
Author: chaos

Been doing a lot of studying the past couple of days, which is why I was uncertain if and when I’d get a workout in this weekend. But I was definitely feeling the need to take a break, so I decided to get some pilates work in. I considered doing the py:strength workout, but I didn’t feel like I really wanted to do strength training tonight. Soon, I’ll be getting back into that more heavily, particularly after the season ends, but not yet. It was a decent workout, not great, some parts better than in the past, some not quite as good. Rockers were a little less solid than usual, but I did get through the series of five exercises with decent form. I still don’t really like the leg kicks… definitely my least favorite part of any pilates workout. But it was good to get the workout in, relax my mind a little bit and hopefully refresh my energy for some more studying. Fairly unlikely I’ll do anything tomorrow, although perhaps a short workout if I want another break.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Started out today by exercising the brain, then spent the rest of the day exercising the body. Played disc golf for the first time all year this afternoon. Some good, some bad, but not too shabby overall. I’ll probably be a little sore in the shoulders tomorrow, though. Earlier in the evening I spent some time playing Stepmania, to make up for the fact that I got very little exercise in over the weekend. I have to admit that I missed it. Which is a good sign that I’m definitely getting back into the workout mode. Anyway, not satisfied with all that activity, I decided to get a yoga workout in as well. I haven’t been paying a whole lot of attention to abs lately, although I haven’t been completely negligent, either. I felt like it rounded out the day’s work nicely, as well. It was a pretty decent workout, especially early in the workout. I was working on my form again, paying particular attention to not arching my back. I was also fairly focused on my breathing, and felt like I had a good rhythm going. My focus tailed off near the end of the workout, but that’s pretty normal. I need to pay more attention as I get near the end in order to keep the mind on track. Starting to feel pretty tired, since I really didn’t get much sleep last night, so I think I’m about to call it a night. Undoubtedly another short workout before ultimate will be forthcoming after this next sleep period.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina, Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

It was a nice day for ultimate, particularly for late September. Temperatures in the upper 60s, sunny… not much to complain about. I prefer playing in warmer weather, of course, but that’s hard to get this time of year. Anyway, before ultimate I did the stamina workout. I wasn’t quite feeling the groove of the workout, although I think I was getting through it pretty well. I think I was just working harder at it than I needed to. But I was pretty happy with my stretching, so it was fine. To go with the great weather, I had a pretty good day. My long throws weren’t quite as on as I’d like, but that was about it. Had a bunch of nice defensive plays, and my short throws were pretty much spot on, so definitely not complaining. The only downside was I slightly mistimed or misjudged a disc that I was going up to catch, and ended up catching it with my hands and my face, particularly my nose. Had a bit of a bloody nose, and it’s somewhat tender now… probably will be for a couple of days. I also got a tiny cramp in my left calf on the last point of the night, although it did go away immediately when I stood up (when it cramped, I was doing a crouching run to make a shoestring catch). Afterward, decided a little more stretching wouldn’t be a bad thing, so I did the running and all sports mini-workouts. It’s possible I should have focused a little more on things emphasizing downward dog, since that’s a good calf stretch, but I didn’t. Overall, it was a pretty good day, and hopefully will motivate me to get going on some of this stuff that I need to get done.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I’m still working on my motivation and desire to do a workout every day. It’s definitely much more present than it was a month ago, but could still stand to be a little stronger. I guess I’m currently at a point where I want to get in a workout pretty much daily, but I’m not necessarily making the time to do so, the way I used to. Now if I had other important things I was doing in that time, that’d be one thing, but that’s really not the case here, so it’s still mostly just being lazy. Anyway, I eventually went in for another yoga abs workout. I felt the effects of the last one a little bit, but not too much. I’ve been feeling a bit off all day, really ever since getting hit in the nose yesterday. Maybe it’s just coincidental, since it kind of feels like I’m coming down with a cold, but since I hadn’t noticed anything before yesterday, I think it’s related. Anyway, physical part of the workout was pretty decent, mental part was somewhat lacking. I just had a hard time maintaining focus. That’s something that I really plan on working on during the offseason, along with another dozen or so things that I may or may not actually ever work on, or at least may or may not work on this winter. That’s all for now, I’m sure I’ll hit up a short stretching workout before ultimate tomorrow.

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

Got to the workout a little later than ideal today, so I just went with swimming and all sports to warm up for ultimate. Ultimate was a lot of fun, a little cold and not enough people, but a lot of fun nonetheless. I think I very lightly pulled my left hamstring, though… it’s probably the thing that I dislike most about playing when it’s cooler, my muscles are very susceptible to cramps and pulls if it’s not warm enough. Didn’t have a chance to stretch it out immediately afterwards, but I did do a little bit of stretching later. Not very much, since I was cold by then, and didn’t want to injure it further. I think it’ll be fine in a day or two… it really is pretty minor. Anyway, that may or may not impact the workout for tomorrow… I’ll have to see how it feels then.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Went once again with yoga abs this evening. It’s been quite a while since I did abs work this frequently, and I’m noticing it slightly. Part of the reason for the sudden resurgence is that abs work tends to be fairly low impact, making it a good choice if I want to essentially give my body a day of rest without fully taking it off. I’ve used this to good effect in the past, and will probably use it again in the future. The workout was fairly decent as I had reasonable concentration and good physical work. I’d like to get back to doing some of the other abs workouts, particularly pilates. My rough plan for the weekend is to do a fairly light workout tomorrow, possibly along with some Stepmania, a full length workout on Sunday night/Monday morning, probably Total Body or the full YCfA, and another abs workout on Monday night, hopefully pilates. Whether or not I’ll actually do this remains to be seen, but that’s the plan for now. So until next time…