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Workout: Advanced Yoga: Hip Opening
Author: chaos

While I was originally thinking of doing something along the lines of a flexibility workout tonight, when I started considering the matter earlier, I realized that not only did I still have workouts that I haven’t yet done, but that one of them was very appropriate for what I was hoping to do. So after a very long delay, I did the Advanced Yoga hip opening sequence for the first time today.
I started off by watching the entire thing again, since the only time I watched it before was months ago, and it’s a good idea to have at least some idea of what’s coming before doing a workout. I again realized that some of the poses were going to be inaccessible, but since the idea of the workout is to improve something that you’re not very good with (at least, that’s the idea in theory), I planned on making modifications where necessary. Once I got to the workout itself, things didn’t go quite as well as I hoped… I thought I’d be able to do some of the poses where I moved the leg into half lotus, but not really. I could somewhat do it with the right leg when I was reclined, not as much with the left. Actually, I can somewhat do it with the right all the time, just not terribly well in terms of getting the knee down. But I have trouble just getting the left foot into position, so that’s definitely worse. This is actually consistent with what I’ve noticed in the past… I have more trouble rotating to the left than to the right in most poses. All of this suggests that my left hip is even less flexible than the right, although that hardly seems possible. At any rate, I persevered through the workout, modifying when I had to (fairly often), and following along when I could (less often). However, in the introduction to the workout Rodney specifically notes that one should be gentle, and yet persistent, although not exactly in those words. He also mentions that hip flexibility is very important to yoga, which I completely agree with. So, anticipating the end of the ultimate season approaching, I believe that I’ll be getting back to this workout relatively frequently, so as to start preparing for the off season, when I hope to get a lot of serious yoga work in. At the very least, I’d like to get to the point of being able to complete the intermediate workout, and possibly even far enough to be able to start working on the advanced workout. Additionally, I’d like to be able to sit in half lotus, ideally to both sides, but at the minimum to be able to have my right leg on top. All sorts of factors will go into determining whether or not both or either of those things happen, but those are the goals for now. For tomorrow, a more complete workout, unless my hips are too sore from the new workout, in which case… I’m not quite sure what I’ll do, but hopefully something.

Workout: Yoga Conditioning for Athletes
Author: chaos

For the first time in a very long time, did one of my hour long workouts today. It’s been nice that I’ve actually been following a plan for the last few days… not so much for the plan, but the fact that I’m following one. While I still haven’t achieved the same level of motivation that I’ve had at times in the past, I’m definitely getting back towards the workout a day mentality.
A little surprisingly, my hips really weren’t sore after yesterday’s workout. I still decided to go with the full YCfA workout over the total body workout, mainly because I believe the YCfA workout is easier, and I felt I wasn’t yet ready for total body. And it would appear that I was right… while the workout went pretty well, for the most part, I had to drop out of both warrior I and warrior II early because my legs were fatigued. Which, I have to admit, seems a little strange… I’m using my legs all the time. But I guess not so much for endurance, so… I suppose I just have to continue acknowledging the fact that the conditioning is different for yoga and for ultimate, and not expect good conditioning in the one to translate to the other. However, with that exception, I got through the rest of the workout without trouble, so that was fairly promising. I’ll probably try to start stepping up with more full length workouts, hopefully at least two a week, although they might both end up being on the weekends. I’ll continue to play that one by ear. Anyway, the plan remains to get an abs workout in tonight, quite likely to challenge myself with the pilates abs workout.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I initially intended to get to this workout about twelve hours or so before I did. For that matter, I initially intended this to be a pilates abs workout. The two items aren’t directly related, although it was earlier that I had decided I wasn’t quite up for the pilates workout, but I’m not sure that I shouldn’t have switched back when it took me so long to actually get to the workout. At any rate, ended up just doing yoga abs again. On the plus side, I’ve been making a few minor modifications to the workout, which enhances the difficulty level, so I don’t feel quite as bad about not getting to the pilates workout. I guess the main reason I still ended up going with the yoga abs instead of the pilates abs was that I was feeling hungry, and didn’t want that to interfere too much with the workout. Anyway… a decent workout, could have been better, could have been much worse. I’ll probably go with the mini-workouts before ultimate tonight, hopefully I’ll manage to loosen up my hamstrings a bit, they’re feeling pretty tight from the last workout. Until then…

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

Well, I went with the mini-workouts, as anticipated. I felt like they were pretty effective in stretching me out, although my hamstrings were still feeling a bit tender. That’s really from the full workout the other day, though, so there probably wasn’t a lot that was going to be done about that. I did notice that I could feel my hips a little bit on some of the twists… I guess it just took a couple of days for the effects of the hip opening workout to really be felt. It wasn’t bad, just noticeable.
Today was a beautiful day for ultimate… low to mid 70s, very light breeze. The only thing I would have liked is another hour or two of daylight. But, that’s the way it goes, I suppose. Wouldn’t have that even in a warmer climate. We again played until it got pretty dark, everyone trying to maximize playing as the season draws to a close. It was another good game out there… I’m sure my perception of such has been helped by the fact that I’ve been playing pretty well lately, for the most part. But even on the few occasions I haven’t it’s still felt like we’ve been playing good games, so maybe not.
After I got home, my hamstrings were really feeling the soreness, so I decided to try and stretch them out a little more. I did the running workout, followed by the opening sequence of the full workout. I think it helped somewhat, although not as much as I’d have liked. Still, it’ll probably reduce the soreness that I’ll be feeling tomorrow. Anyway, not quite sure what I’m going to do tomorrow… I’m considering doing the hip opening workout again, but not sure I want to do that right before a day of ultimate. I’ll just kind of play it by ear, I guess.

Workout: Advanced Yoga: Hip Opening
Author: chaos

Went for another hip opening workout tonight. It already seems like I’m doing better with the workout, although perhaps that’s just wishful thinking. I have to admit that it seems like whatever soreness I do end up experiencing from this workout is very subtle, or so it seems after the first one… I might have to wait for more data to come in to really form a conclusion. It does make a certain amount of sense that I wouldn’t generally notice the soreness, though… if I regularly used that type of hip rotation, it wouldn’t be so necessary to create greater flexibility. I did notice that my inner thighs felt a little tender today, although that could be from the YCfA workouts, particularly the opening sequence. Anyway, I was fairly pleased with the workout today… obviously, there’s a very long way to go before my hips will truly be flexible, but I’m satisfied with the start I’m getting. My only real concern is my left knee… it hasn’t been entirely thrilled with deep bending for the last couple of months, and while I’m trying to be careful with it, I worry about potentially aggravating it. As an aside, is it just me or do I keep alternating which knee is the problem, every year or so? Well, hopefully once I’ve gotten to the point where my hips are fairly flexible, that flexibility will help protect my knees, as theoretically it’s supposed to. I did feel that the workout, while important, is pretty light, so in the future I’m going to strongly consider joining it with another workout, quite possibly abs yoga. It might be another workout or two before I get to that, since I am still getting back into the groove, but I think that’ll be an excellent direction for me to go. Anyway, short workout before ultimate is next up, possibly stamina or maybe free form.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

I spent some time last night reading through parts of the archives, because I want to start getting in a few more free form workouts, and I wanted to see what types of free form workouts I had been doing in the past. So armed with that knowledge, I went for a free form workout today. Actually, it was a little suboptimal… I ended up way shorter on time than I was originally expecting, and so I ended up rushing through the workout somewhat. Still, it wasn’t too bad… two sun salutations, then modified into the style of py:stamina in order to do triangle and side stretch, then again to do warrior II and backband lunge, went down into Ardha Matsyendrasana, wide angle seated forward bend, reclined leg stretch, and finally reclined cobbler’s pose and relaxation pose. It was fairly satisfactory in terms of stretching, it just would have been nice to have had a little more time for the workout. Ultimate was again good, although it’s getting to be so short. Lack of daylight is very annoying. I couldn’t catch today, though, which is always irritating… I just don’t play as well in cold. The condition of my ankle is starting to deteriorate again, although it’s not as bad as it was before vacation. I think it’ll hold up well enough for the rest of the outdoor season, since that’s only three more weeks, and then it should recover fairly quickly after that, hopefully to return to full strength. Not sure what the weekend plan is yet, although I think there’s a good chance of abs work tomorrow, although I may go for a long workout if I’m inspired.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

Went for a balanceball workout tonight for the first time since May, and only the fourth time this year. I’m a little surprised that I’ve gone for this workout so few times this year, since I think it does a nice job of working the abs. I suppose there are a few factors at play here, the most important being that this workout uses the shoulders a lot more than the other two abs workouts, and since I had shoulder issues for much of the year, that affected the frequency with which I even considered this workout. Another factor is timing, since it’s a slightly noisier workout than the others due to the ball, and so I tend not to go for it late at night, tonight being an exception. There are a couple of other factors, but those are the most relevant.
Anyway, tonight’s workout was pretty decent. I’ve had better editions of this workout, but this one was definitely satisfactory. I tried to stay focused on form throughout, and think I did that pretty well. One of the few things I didn’t like was that I could feel myself tensing up my face and neck at various points… I need to work harder in the future to avoid that. I can definitely feel that my abs had a good workout, so I’m fairly pleased. Hard to say when I’ll get to the pilates abs workout… I thought about it tonight, but didn’t feel like I was ready. I’m feeling kind of tired, though, which might be part of it. Anyway, I’ll just continue playing things by ear for the weekend… I’d like to get some Stepmania in tomorrow, which makes it less likely that I’ll do a long workout, but we’ll see.

Workout: Advanced Yoga: Hip Opening
Author: chaos

My original thoughts for today were along the lines of the total body workout, or perhaps some Stepmania and something lighter. However, wacky sleeping (again) caused me to change those ideas. I really felt like getting a workout in still, but didn’t want to do anything too energetic, and didn’t want to do abs again. So I ended up settling on another hip opening workout. I wasn’t entirely thrilled with the choice… my hips weren’t feeling as flexible as I might have liked, and I just didn’t have a real good feeling about the workout. But, I went ahead and did it anyway. It was okay… about what I’d expect, given the above factors. I didn’t feel quite as loose as the last time I did it, but I think I still got some good work in. The important thing that I have to remember is that this is going to be a slow process, taking many months at the very least. I have a problem with being impatient, and wanting progress to happen more quickly. But it’s definitely an area that I can’t force things in, at least not without risking knee injury, so I need to just stay relaxed about the matter, and slowly build into these things. Anyway, that’s all I have to say about tonight’s session… I’m really looking to get a long session in tomorrow, but will possibly settle for py:strength or something if I end up playing Stepmania.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Did a strength workout for the first time since… May. It appears to be workout resurrection week here. Anyway, injury had a lot to do with the lack of this workout, particularly during June and July, and laziness took care of the rest in August and September. That’s not entirely true, since certainly when I’ve done workouts I haven’t selected this one, and that’s been because I thought whatever workout I did select was more appropriate for the time. At any rate, it’s been a long time since I went for the strength workout. I wasn’t even certain about going for it today, partly because my ankle has been a little tender this weekend, and I wasn’t too sure how happy it would be with all the upward dogs in the workout, and partly because I’m concerned about how sore I’m going to be tomorrow. However, I obviously decided that the benefits, in this case the need to start getting in strength training again, outweighed the detriments, so I went for it. It went reasonably well… my ankle wasn’t particularly pleased, and it was fairly tiring, but both those things were expected. My nutrition hasn’t been so hot lately, again, and I was starting to feel hungry before the workout, so I figured that I’d be even a little more tired than I would have otherwise. But, I made it through, perhaps not quite as easily as I’d have liked, but I’m actually pretty satisfied, overall. I’ll definitely need to be getting to this workout more often this month, as I try to get ready for a quick jump into serious yoga workouts next month. Anyway, that’s all for now… probably an abs workout later, or possibly pilates.

Workout: Cardio Pilates
Author: chaos

My hamstrings are feeling quite sore after yesterday’s workout. When I was reading through the archives, I noticed that in March I had figured out that much of the soreness was from standing forward bend, and it came from pushing my legs back instead of up. So I remember that’s what I need to do… I just need to remember how exactly to do it. I’m rather hoping I figure it out again pretty quickly, because I’d really rather not go through a few weeks of having my hamstrings be constantly sore, which is what will happen if I don’t figure it out.
Anyway, decided to go with the cardio pilates workout today, minus the cardio. It seemed like a moderate effort workout that wouldn’t make the hamstrings worse and also wouldn’t potentially add to upper body soreness. The upper body is only a little sore from the workout yesterday, but given that I’ll be playing ultimate later, I don’t want to potentially add to the soreness right now. I was pretty pleased with the workout, overall… I felt like I was pretty focused, and doing a good job with the movements. I was especially pleased with the rockers… I think the key is in the exhalation while rocking forward. If you exhale properly, it’s really easy to come up to a balance. If not, it’s much more difficult. So hopefully rockers will be pretty easy for me from now on, with this new insight. Even the side kicks weren’t bad… I think I definitely like vertical motion better than horizontal motion with those. These kicks aren’t quite as extensive as the ones in the intermediate mat workout, which is part of the reason that I chose this workout instead, as I really wasn’t in the mood for side kicks. Altogether, a pretty decent workout, and hopefully another relatively decent one before ultimate tonight.

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

In an attempt to relieve the soreness in my hamstrings, and to stretch out before ultimate, I went with the normal selection of mini-workouts. Even if I wasn’t warming up for ultimate, I may have gone with this workout anyway, since it’s a decent stretch, but doesn’t tend to make the hamstrings sore. It was somewhat effective… my hamstrings did feel better after the workout, anyway. Ultimate wasn’t too bad… a little cool, and due to unfortunate timing, the field was a little constrained. But, we managed to get full 7s, at least for a little while, and the action was pretty good, so it was fun. I jammed the pinkie on my right hand fairly badly near the end of the day, though. After taking some ibuprofen, icing it for a while, and wrapping it, it feels better, so hopefully it won’t affect me for too long. It’ll probably force me into an abs workout tomorrow, though. Fortunately the pinkie isn’t overly important for throwing, so it shouldn’t affect me too much on Thursday, however much of a game there is. Since it’s supposed to be cold, and the Thursday game hasn’t been getting a good turnout lately, not too sure there will be much of a game, but we’ll see. Anyway, that’s status for now, updates as events warrant and all that.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

As I expected, went with an abs workout today. I considered the pilates workout, but decided that because of the rapid position changes at some points, particularly the series of five, that the slow moving yoga abs was a better choice. I’d say that I was taking it easy, but it was actually a fairly tough workout. I’m not entirely certain why, but my abs were definitely feeling the burn today, particularly the lower abs. Maybe it was from the pilates work and abs balanceball work I did over the weekend… not really sure. Tried to continue working on my form, like I usually do with this workout, although it was a little harder with the finger wrapped. My left ankle was also acting up a little, not that it comes into play much during this workout, but a little bit. More of a slight annoyance than anything else. Don’t know if there’s going to be an ultimate game tonight… nothing has been said yet, but with temperatures in the mid 40s (at best), the possibility of snow falling, and a fairly strong wind, I’m actually strongly considering not going, regardless of whether there’s theoretically a game. In fact… I’m going to go ahead and say that I’m not going. If the game ends up being on, it’ll be the first time I’ve voluntarily not gone to ultimate this entire season, but I’m working on being more sensible about my injuries… while I was really thinking about it in terms of next year, this seems like a prime opportunity to get started on that philosophy. Anyway, that probably means I’ll try getting in some Stepmania tonight instead, and maybe do a light stretching workout afterwards, depending on how my finger is doing.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Because I wanted to try and avoid using my hands for support as much as possible, I decided to go with a free form workout today. That way, I’d be able to control how often I did poses like downward dog, and hopefully avoid any problems with my finger. However, the problem injury turned out not to be the finger, but the left ankle. It’s been strangely bothersome the past couple of days, and today’s workout was no exception. I’ve been having trouble with it since some time in June, on and off, but it’s rarely been a problem for yoga. I did tweak it again on Tuesday, and it did hurt a bit more than it has other times I tweaked it, but it didn’t seem any worse afterwards than it has in the past. So I confess that it’s a bit of a mystery.
Anyway, between the finger and the ankle, kept things pretty light today. Started off with some standing forward bend/bent-leg standing forward bend transitions to try and open up the hamstrings. Did a YfS:s2 style transition from mountain to set up for triangle, which is when I first started noticing the ankle. Then did tree pose, although I had a lot of trouble getting the left foot to stay up, perhaps because I was trying to avoid putting too much pressure on it. Did warrior I and II, then transitioned to a lunge, standing forward bend, mountain, back through the sequence to downward dog. Did some seated stretches, and then called it a workout. Not quite as intense as I would have liked, but still better than nothing, I suppose. I may end up taking a day or two off here if my ankle doesn’t start improving. I hate to do it, since I’ve really started getting into the groove of the workouts, but better to do that than keep proverbially limping through the workouts. So, possibly a day or two off, or maybe I’ll do some more pilates work or something. Until next time…

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

Although I don’t really like to do the mini-workouts except for ultimate, I decided that because of the injury issues, a combination of those might minimize further damage. Well, I suppose I actually figured it would avoid further damage, since I’d have probably just skipped the workout altogether if I felt it was going to cause more damage. I considered skipping it, but as it got to be later in the day, I was really feeling the need to get a workout in, so that’s what I came up with. It was pretty light… I decided to go with running and cycling today. I knew that the running workout would be okay on my ankle, and while I couldn’t remember the cycling workout clearly, I felt that it would probably be okay as well. I thought that it went fairly well, managed to adjust my back foot for side angle pose so as not to strain the ankle. Not quite as good of a stretch that way, but no ankle damage, which is definitely more important. The workout wasn’t quite satisfying, but it was better than nothing. Played a bit of Stepmania last night, but cut it short to try and avoid ankle injury. I felt a slight twinge a few times, and decided not to chance it. Frustrating, but that happens. Not sure if I’ll do anything tomorrow or not… I might be up for another abs workout, so perhaps I’ll do that.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Unwilling to resist the call of the workout, yet also unwilling to push too hard tonight, went with another abs yoga workout. Actually, I’ve been quite pleased with the workout that I’ve been getting from this workout lately… I’m not sure if I’m just more in tune with it or what, but I’ve definitely been working my abs. I think my focus has been a little bit stronger lately, overall, at least for this workout. Anyway, not too much to say, other than that. I’ve been trying to lay off the ankle, and I think my finger is finally starting to recover, although I think my initial estimates of it being completely healed in a week were too optimistic. Two weeks, maybe. Anyway, may get something in tomorrow, but may just take the day off. I am somewhat in the workout groove now, so that makes it more likely I’ll get something in. If not, definitely before ultimate on Tuesday, as we come to the end of the season.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Wasn’t quite certain what to do in terms of the workout today, but eventually decided to try out the flexibility workout, yet another of my workouts that I haven’t done since May. I was a little concerned about my ankle, but I was pretty sure that there were only a couple of things that would really get to it, so I felt like giving it a try. It went pretty well… not only was I cautious about my ankle, but also about not overextending my hamstrings. I won’t know how successful that was until tomorrow, of course, but I actually think it went fairly well. I was also fairly focused for the most part, for at least the second day in a row. It feels like things are starting to come together, perhaps. I’ll definitely have to wait for more data to see if that’s true, but it’s looking up, at least. Anyway, a workout tomorrow before ultimate, at least, that’s the plan as of now… probably a little later in the day if ultimate ends up getting cancelled, which it might.

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

Accidentally took do long with doing things before the workout today, so I had to shorten it up a bit. Ended up going with just the running and swimming workouts, plus a little bit of work from all sports (starting from Ardha Matsyendrasana and finishing the workout from there). My hamstrings were feeling somewhat sore from yesterday… not nearly as bad as they have several times in the past, not quite as good as I was hoping. Oh well. Something to keep working on. Despite it being overcast and the field being fairly wet, we managed to get twelve people out. The game wasn’t quite as good as it has been a lot of the previous weeks, probably because the team I was on was strangely dominant. Still, I think people had a good time for the most part. Next week is the last week of the season, so everyone’s anxious to get the games in while they can. Didn’t really do any stretching when I got home, although I probably should. I might do a little bit later. I’ll probably attack the abs again tomorrow for my workout. Until then…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

Although I was sorely tempted, I managed to resist the lure of being lazy and get a workout in. Later than I would have liked, certainly, but nonetheless, getting it in. As an added bonus, I decided to stop avoiding the pilates abs workout, and just go for it, even if I wasn’t up for the full workout. It went fairly well. I followed the full workout with the exception of the series of five, during which I followed the modified workout, except for only doing half of the double leg lifts or whatever they’re called. I could have done at least a few more, but… I just wasn’t mentally ready for them. In a way, it helped, because I was able to do the rest of the workout much more effectively. I’d say that was definitely one of the best teaser sequences I’ve ever done, and possibly the best. The combination sequence at the end wasn’t all that great, but… it was a given that the workout wasn’t going to be my best ever, coming back from a long absence. Overall, it was probably better than I expected, and I’m relatively pleased with it. Hopefully this will help me start getting it in more regularly, now that I’ve faced it down once again. Anyway, pre-ultimate workout in just a few hours, could end up being the end of the season if the weather really sucks next week… although I kind of doubt it, since everyone will really want to get that last game in. We’ll see.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Decided to change things up a little bit and go with the stamina workout to warm up today. No particular reason, other than not feeling like doing the mini-workouts. Of course, I did somewhat forget to factor the ankle into that equation, but it ended up not being a big deal. I felt it twinge once, and just avoided pressing back into it as hard as I normally would in the standing poses. Not too much else to say, other than that the pushups felt pretty good. Maybe I’ll go for a strength workout tomorrow or something. My muscles have been feeling a little tired the last couple of workouts, but not so much tonight. I think it’s probably dietary… I’ve been running a little low on calories the past couple of days, I think. Anyway, ultimate was again fun tonight, although a little cold. Temperatures were hanging out in the mid to upper 40s… some people out there claim that it’s beautiful, but if you ask me, it’s rather chilly. You certainly wouldn’t find me out there on a day in midsummer with those temperatures. Okay, you probably would, but I admit to being crazy. Anyway, had a decent turnout, playing either fives or sixes for most of the night. It was fairly short, though… the sun is just going down so early now, and it having been overcast all day certainly doesn’t help. Oh well, next week is the end of the season, so it won’t be so much of a concern after that. I think I managed to avoid any further damage to the finger, although I did scrape up my forearm a bit. Just a flesh wound, though. Anyway, hopefully will get something in tomorrow, perhaps not too late in the evening.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Since I’m hoping to start getting serious about my workouts again after the outdoor ultimate season ends next week, I need to start building my strength back up. Admittedly, eating properly would probably help, but that’s outside of the scope of this particular discussion. I didn’t feel quite like doing a py:strength workout… not quite sure why, other than I had some feeling that it wouldn’t necessarily work well with the current injuries. I’m not actually quite sure why I felt that, but I did. Anyway, I decided to go with YfS:s1 instead. I rather liked the slower pace of the workout… I had a little trouble with the breathing, but the pace was nice. The only problem with the workout came during the headstand preparation sequence… I abraded the skin on my left forearm when laying out for a catch yesterday, and it didn’t like being used to support weight, at all. So I just decided to skip the two segments that would cause that. Unfortunately, that’s at least part of the best strength training in the workout, but I did at least still do the two minute downward dog. Which was a little odd… it seemed tiring, and yet not. Not quite sure. Shoulderstand went fairly well… I was pretty pleased with my body control for it. It felt like I just had it today. Overall, a fairly satisfactory workout, and hopefully a precursor for more good workouts this weekend.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I was originally thinking of perhaps something a little more challenging today, but I wasn’t originally planning on having a headache all day, either. I considered a py:strength workout, but wasn’t sure if I was ready for back to back strength workouts quite yet. In the end, I decided to take it easy and just do an abs yoga workout. I’d like to get back to doing the hip opening workout as well, possibly in concert with this workout, but it can be tough on the ankles, so I’ve been holding off on that while my ankle recovers. I did notice that it seemed to be feeling somewhat better the last couple of days, so hopefully I can get back to it soon. Not much to be said about the workout, really… I’ve been working my abs enough so that they’re pretty much never fully rested, but they’re rarely overly worked, either. I’ll probably be cutting back on the frequency of abs workouts fairly soon, but upping the intensity by going with more pilates abs workouts. Anyway, that’s all for tonight, hopefully something a little more challenging tomorrow, presuming the headache goes away.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Went back to py:strength today. I’m starting to get pretty pumped up about the upcoming off season, and I’m looking forward to getting some serious yoga conditioning in. With that in mind, I’m trying to rebuild my muscles up to where they were at the beginning of the season, so I can start working on more advanced workouts as quickly as possible. Obviously I’ll have to wait for some things to finish healing, particularly my finger, but I can start laying a lot of the ground work now for those future workouts. Although perhaps the offseason won’t be quite as off as I was originally supposing… there’s some talk now of a Saturday late morning game, so I might be drawn out a few more times. It’s probably not going to be a high priority, though, since I really don’t like playing in the cold very much, and I do want to get some serious yoga work in, thus I don’t want to risk injury. We’ll see what happens… I’m not even completely convinced they’re going to get enough people out to make a real go of it. I’m sure I’ll probably go most of the time, just because I’m unable to resist the call of nearby ultimate. Maybe if I get involved in some other things, I’ll be less tempted.
Anyway, totally wandered off the subject of tonight’s workout. It was pretty good… I was staying pretty focused, felt like I was targeting the muscles pretty well, and keeping close track on injuries to make sure I didn’t aggravate them. Although my shoulders felt a little tired near the beginning, I worked through that and they didn’t feel as tired by the end, strangely enough. The workout was also far less tiring than the last time I did it, showing progress in both strength and endurance since then. I’ve been shying away from longer workouts recently, because I’ve been trying to rest up my ankle, but it’s been feeling quite a bit better the last few days, so I may attempt total body tomorrow, or I may just go for an abs workout or something. Until then…

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Made a fairly weak attempt to do the total body workout tonight. I wasn’t quite in the mood for a long workout, but I couldn’t really decide what I was in the mood for. So I eventually just started this workout, and went with it. But I didn’t get terribly far… for whatever reason, both my ankle and pinkie seemed a little bit unhappy today, at least as far as yoga was concerned. So I didn’t even make it through the first section before jumping to the last section. Still, it wasn’t a bad workout. Not as complete as would have been ideal, perhaps, but I felt like I got some benefit out of the stretching routines. So it wasn’t a complete bust. My hamstrings were a little sore from the last couple of days, but not too bad. Hopefully that will still be the case tomorrow. I’ll probably take it fairly easy tomorrow, with just the ultimate warmup as a workout. Lots of things to do, little time left to get them done and all that. I might pick up a bit on Wednesday, but we’ll see what happens.

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

Tonight was the last night for ultimate in Dearborn this year, as daylight savings time ends on Sunday, fatally reducing the amount of daylight available for evening games. To prepare, I went with the swimming workout and the first section of the full workout. It was pretty decent… I liked the stretching I was doing. I felt like I was a little more conscious of my movements than I often am in pre-ultimate workouts. Anyway, finished up and got out into the cold for the game. I think it’s the coldest we’ve actually played in all season, although I think the first week when we didn’t get enough to play was a little colder. However, since it was the last week (and possibly because there was a party afterwards), we actually got up to 7 on 7 for most of the time, which was definitely a cool way to end the season. The only negative was that I managed to tweak my ankle, again, which means another half week or so of taking it easy before it starts to feel okay to work with again. And that’s presuming that I don’t do anything to it on Thursday. But, either way, I’ll probably be laying off of it after Thursday, or at least taking it a lot easier in general, since it’s hard to say if I’ll avoid the call of Saturday ultimate or not. I have to admit that the cold didn’t seem too bad today, at least once we got going. Except for the one that bounced off my fingertips… that hurt. Anyway. At the party afterwards, there was some talk of the winter indoor league. It’s quite tempting, but I think I’m probably going to pass on it. Too much I want to get accomplished with respect to yoga this winter, and I just know I’ll accumulate minor injuries if I play indoors, because I always accumulate minor injuries. Hopefully Stepmania will do a good enough job of keeping me in shape over the winter, possibly with some other activity yet to be determined. Anyway, it’s been a weird day in terms of sleeping, so I think I’m going to crash for a few hours, and then hopefully have a really productive day tomorrow.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Combination of factors today resulted in another abs yoga workout. One was that I didn’t want to do anything much with my ankle, since it seems to recover fairly well if I don’t mess with it much in the first day or two. Another was that I wanted to get in a fairly short workout, so as to have more time to work on other things. Yet another was that it was about time for another abs workout, so it went into the schedule well, anyway. I did consider the other abs workouts, but did a random selection and came up with this one. Anyway, not much to say, except that the workout is noticeably more effective if I’m paying proper attention to it. Just had a little trouble focusing at the beginning, but I managed to pick it up after that, and had decent focus throughout most of the workout. Also, I really need to start working on my diet after I get through the next week or so… I think I’d both heal better and sleep less if I were eating properly. But that’ll have to wait for a bit while I go into panic mode, and get the things I’ve been procrastinating done. That’s all for now, short workout before the last day of the ultimate season tonight.

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

Went for the regular set of mini-workouts before the final outing of the outdoor regular season today. Not a whole lot to say about the workout… I noticed that my ankle wasn’t particularly happy, but I was able to work around that with little difficulty. After the workout, went out to for the last day of ultimate before DST ends. Conditions were reasonable, all things considered. Which is to say, it was cold, but fairly pleasant other than that. Had another fairly good day… most of the last two months were good, really. I think I finally learned not to overdo it, at least somewhat. I think my defense was also stronger over the last couple of months, and I always enjoy some good defense. Anyway, in a grand tradition of injury, I managed to end the season with a good solid knock to the head. Not entirely certain how the play went down, but it was something along the lines of getting hit just after I made the catch while running sideways and backwards, and then falling down on my back and giving my head a good solid knock on the ground. It wasn’t all that bad, really, but we had a sub at the time, so I decided to take a seat for a bit. It was pretty much the end of the game anyway, so that ended up being all for me. Which was fine… the catch I made was for a goal, and it’s always good to go out with a goal when you can. Anyway, it was a fun season, but I don’t think I’ll be playing much until the outdoor season starts again. I’m hoping to really start stepping up my yoga practices for the next few months, and to do that successfully, I need to not be injured all the time. Anyway, pretty busy for the next couple of days, but I’m going to try to keep getting at least short workouts in every day. We’ll see how that goes.

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Started in on my plans to get to more advanced workouts with another strength workout today. Obviously, it’s not an advanced workout in itself, just helping me gain the strength necessary to do those workouts. I think strength and flexibility are going to be the dominant themes of the upcoming months. Anyway, it was a pretty decent workout. I’m starting to really concentrate on form in these workouts, in a way that I’m not sure that I ever have before. Subtle stuff, mostly, but it makes a lot of difference. The only downside of this workout was that I was working around some neck soreness caused by my rather large collision with the ground yesterday. It took me a while this morning to realize what the soreness was from… I initially was just thinking it was from sleeping awkwardly, but then remembered that the impact could quite likely have caused it. It actually feels quite similiar to the time that I slid into the wall with my head when playing indoors. So I imagine it’ll go away tomorrow, or Sunday at the latest. Sticking with short workouts for the next few days, I’ll have some more free time by the middle of next week, at the latest.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Decided to keep going after my goal of building strength with the YfS:s1 workout tonight. It’s a bit longer than some of the other workouts, but it was what I really felt like working on tonight, so I went with it. I was able to do the entire workout this time, my left forearm having healed from the damage of last week. Predictably, I found the two minute downward dog more difficult to do after doing the other headstand preparations, although I think quite a bit of the difficulty was in the fact that I was having trouble keeping my hands from sliding. Other than that, it was a pretty straightforward workout. I noticed that I really didn’t break a sweat doing it, which is good. While it does have some challenge to it, it’s not really a workout that I should have to strain myself to complete. Anyway, that’s all for tonight… I’ll probably try to keep it short again tomorrow night, probably with an abs workout, although possibly I’ll go for pilates instead.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Balanceball
Author: chaos

Since I was already fairly certain that I wanted to do an abs workout today, I suppose it isn’t terribly surprising that I was able to easily figure out which abs workout I wanted to do. Still, it’s fairly rare for me to have the kind of certainty that I did today. I just knew that the balanceball workout was the one. I like to think of it as my body and mind starting to coordinate, but it’s hard to say how accurate that is. Anyway, fairly decent workout. I was having a little bit of difficulty staying focused at the beginning, but I managed to work through it without too much trouble. The workout didn’t feel quite as killer as it has at times in the past, but that’s probably because my abs have been getting stronger. It’d be nice to think that, anyway, given how much I’ve been working on them the last two months or so. Still have lots of writing to do, so I’m going to keep this short. I’ll probably be sticking with another short workout tomorrow… possibly py:flexibility, but I’ll leave it open for now. Until then…

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Keeping to my short workouts for at least another day or so. Went with PY:Flexibility today as a slightly different choice from the strength workouts I’ve been focusing on the last couple of days. I was pretty satisfied with the workout… I’m getting back to the point where a single one of these workouts isn’t a significant strain, at least not beyond the soreness my body already has from previous workouts. Which is to say, once I get used to daily workouts again, I’ll probably start considering combining these shorter workouts into a longer one, to get a more complete workout. While my shoulders did feel a little fatigued from my last strength workout, the most noticeable soreness was in my abs. I guess I pushed a little harder than usual yesterday, but that’s a good thing… staying on the offensive. Anyway, things to do and all that, so going to wrap this up. Soon, the madness will be over, and I can start getting to some longer workouts.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Wanted to keep things short today, so just went for a stamina workout. My hamstrings were a little sore from yesterday, and my upper chest is still a bit fatigued from the continual workouts, although it’ll probably recover by Thursday, since I think I’ll probably do an abs or pilates workout tomorrow. Going to keep this entry short, lots of writing to do tonight if I want to make the deadline. Hopefully this experience will help me with the rest of the process, since I’d really rather not keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again.