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Workout: Yoga Burn
Author: chaos

Well, December has gotten off to a bit of a bad start in terms of workouts. Mostly due to slacking off, although the first was largely taken up by essay writing. Anyway, decided to check out the yoga burn workout again. It was somewhat more difficult than I remember it being… this is probably either because my memory is faulty, or I was doing a better job of actually working slowly. Or possibly because I was hungry, and thus a little weaker than I would normally be. I’m still not sure how beneficial this workout is for me, at least when compared against some of my other options. It is fairly meditative, though, which is nice. I’m kind of curious to find out whether I’ll be sore tomorrow… it seems like I could be, which could definitely be a sign of the workout being good. Whatever. Anyway… not too sure what I’ll do tomorrow. Possibly pilates. I might do abs, but tonight’s workout had a lot of abs in it, so that might not be best. Until then…

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from yoga in the past week, not really intentionally. I’m not entirely certain what the problem has been… a certain lack of motivation, unquestionably, but I don’t really know why. In fact, I somewhat felt like doing yoga on many of those days, but couldn’t quite summon the energy to do so. Really, I was still having the same problem today, but I just forced myself to do a workout and hopefully get back into the groove. Went with py:strength… I certainly don’t know that I felt like doing it, but I couldn’t figure out what I might actually feel like, so that’s what happened. Went okay… I feel like I need to get my focus back, start really concentrating. I’m working on improving my eating habits as well… it’s difficult to build strength on an improper diet, at least when lacking in calories is the improper part. Anyway, just a note to say that I’m back in action, and hopefully I’ll regain my consistency here in the upcoming days.

Workout: Advanced Yoga: Hip Opening
Author: chaos

Had a bit of a potential setback in my yoga program today. While doing the log stacking pose and bending forward over it, I heard (and felt) an odd noise in my right knee. I decided to cut the workout short at that point, not wanting to do any further damage to the knee, but I’m worried that the damage is already done. While it feels okay right now, I have a bad feeling that it’s not going to bend very well for a while, at least not at sharp angles. I’m sure I’ll have a better feel for how that’s going to turn out later tonight or tomorrow. So, today’s workout ended up being cut short. I might do an abs workout later, but I have a feeling that I probably won’t. I’ll most likely get one in tomorrow, and we’ll see how the knee is doing after that to determine what comes next. At least this shouldn’t affect my strength training, so perhaps I’m not going to be too badly thrown off by this. I’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

My knee ended up hurting somewhat yesterday, so I ended up skipping the workout. Today, went with the anticipated abs workout. Things are okay… the knee doesn’t like bending sideways all that much right now, but I think the main part of that will heal fairly quickly. Deep bends to the side will probably take a while to achieve, unfortunately. I think a number of the flexibility options are going to be out for now… fortunately, straight up and down bending seems to be unaffected, or at least minimally affected. We’ll see what happens the next time I do a workout with triangle and the like… I think it’ll be okay, though. Anyway, decent workout today… surprisingly good focus overall, despite keeping mental tabs on the knee. The only thing I didn’t do was the exercise with the right leg turned sideways and pulled into the chest, since that would have been… bad. Felt twinges at a few other places, but I think that’ll go away fairly quickly, as long as I don’t push too hard. Might try to get an “extra” workout in over the next day or two, since I’m feeling a little bit like I’m missing out on workouts. That’ll probably depend on essay writing, though, so perhaps I should get to that. Until next time…

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

It does appear that I’ll be able to continue on with some semblance of my practice, anyway. Did the YfS:s1 session today, and had no real problems with the knee. The only modification I made was at the end, where I decided not to do the leg stretches out to the sides, and just do the straight leg stretch for longer. I also did shoulderstand for longer than the workout, probably 30 seconds or so longer. The workout was pretty good… I felt a little more in tune with my body today, for whatever reason. It felt like I was actually paying attention today, which is most notable because it demonstrates how little attention I have been paying lately. Not sure what I can do about it… it comes and goes. I am hoping that I’ll start focusing more on my workouts after this week… well, after returning home next week, I suppose. I’m also going to attempt meditation again, although I was really hoping to have at least simple cross-legged pose down before I did that, and I’ve been set fairly far back on that front. Nonetheless, the effort must go forward, so I’ll have to adapt. Anyway… things to do, hopefully a few less things to do after today. Maybe I’ll have time for an extra workout tonight or tomorrow night. Until next time…

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

I’m still having some trouble deciding what workouts I want to do, but at least I’m back to the point where I want to do workouts. Today, ended up going with py:flexibility. It went pretty well… some of the focus that I had yesterday carried through to today, which is both surprising and pleasing. I usually have trouble getting much focus on these faster workouts, so it was nice to have some for once. Hard to say how quickly the knee is healing… I’m trying not to pressure it, in hopes that will allow it to heal more quickly. For this workout, only a few modifications… instead of doing the pigeon lunges, I just held downward dog through that entire time. Working on my strength can’t hurt, and I couldn’t offhand think of a good modification for those poses. The only other mod was for the one-legged forward bend… I put the leg into position, but didn’t bend forward. This was actually fine. Overall, the leg injury might not be too bad of a thing… if I continue doing mods like that, I’ll be forced to really focus on rotating my hips properly, so as not to put pressure on the knee. I’ve gotten a lot better about that, overall… when I first started doing yoga, I think I put a lot of pressure on my knees, which was probably the cause of some of the long standing knee injuries that I suffered through. I’ve become far more attentive about that, but as the injury shows, not always attentive enough, although in fairness to myself, it did happen quickly, and I didn’t notice undue strain on the knee before it happened. If I had, I would have backed off. Still, I was pushing more than I should have been, and am paying for it. Anyway, I’m going to try and get an abs workout in tonight, I think, and then another workout of some type tomorrow before heading to Chicago for a few days. Until then…

Workout: Power Yoga: Strength
Author: chaos

Well, I didn’t get around to doing a workout last night, which isn’t terribly surprising, since I had some serious motivation issues yesterday, at least once the workout was done. I decided that I’d probably rather do abs tomorrow than today, so today I went with py:strength. It went decently… I had fairly good focus again. I’m really hoping that I can keep that focus up, especially when I move back into the longer workouts, which I plan to start on once I get back from Chicago. I’m a little behind on where I want to be on the b-school application process, but that’s not particularly surprising. I might be able to get a little work done on my apps while away, though, so that would move me back up a little. We’ll see what happens. I really just want to be done with the whole process at this point. Anyway. Good workout, held downward dog instead of doing the simple arm balance. That was the only major modification. The knee feels a little… sore, I guess, in general, but not so much injured. I’ll just have to continue working around it until the soreness goes away, I think. Which will probably be a while, but there’s not really any help for it. Hopefully I’ll get a workout in either tomorrow or Sunday (or both), but if not, probably a stretching workout before ultimate on Monday.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I managed not to be completely lazy today, and get a yoga workout in. I wasn’t anticipating that I wouldn’t have access to a dvd player here, but since I was planning on doing this workout anyway, it wasn’t really an issue. Fairly decent workout… the knee was a little more sore today than the last time I did this workout, but it wasn’t too bad. Hard to say how much it’s healing. Not sure what type of workout I’ll do tomorrow… maybe I’ll just skip, since I don’t have access to the videos right now, and I plan on playing ultimate on Monday. We’ll see what happens, I guess.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Getting ready to play some indoor ultimate today. I knew it would probably be too much for me to resist playing indoors while in Chicago, so I didn’t fight the urge too hard. I’m just hoping to take it a little bit easier, and not create any new injuries, and hopefully not aggravate any old ones. Went with a basic free form workout today… 6 sun salutations, incorporating triangle, side stretch, warrior II, and backbend lunge. Did jumps in the last two sets, and also did the pushup separator. For final stretching, just did cobbler’s, seated forward, reclining twist, reclined cobbler’s, and relaxation. Hopefully that’ll be enough. If things go well today, I’ll quite likely play Wednesday as well, so if I don’t get a workout in tomorrow, I’ll probably get one in then. So until next time…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I was considering skipping the workout today, but when I got some free time during the afternoon, I decided to go ahead and get one in. Just went with abs again today… I want to get back in the habit of regular abs, and it’s one of the easiest workouts for me to do without my videos. A reasonable workout… I was feeling somewhat sore from ultimate yesterday, but it wasn’t too bad. Ultimate was pretty good… a few minor scrapes and abrasions, but no serious injuries. Anyway, today’s workout was actually somewhat rough on the abs… for some reason, they seemed to be pretty tired. I guess the only real effect was that I really noticed my abs throughout the workout because they were sore. Probably going to play ultimate again tomorrow, so most likely another free form workout before that.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Going for another game of ultimate today. For the workout, went with almost exactly the same workout as Monday. Substituted wide angle forward bend for reclining twist, and maybe had a few other minor differences, but that was pretty much it. Still feeling fairly sore, but not as much as yesterday. Hopefully playing will get rid of a lot of that, although it’s hard to say how much will be back tomorrow. Planning on heading home tonight, so I’m probably going to try and start picking up the intensity on these workouts. We’ll see how that goes. Anyway, hopefully a workout tomorrow, probably one on Friday, otherwise.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Well, so much for playing a couple of days of ultimate unscathed. On Wednesday, I managed to dislocate the pinkie on my left hand. That’s not the hand that I jammed the pinkie on before, for those playing at home. What this probably means is that once it recovers somewhat (it’s currently still in the turning colors stage), I’ll have matching hands again, but not quite in the way that I was hoping for. So that’s rather annoying. On the plus side, much like the other hand injury didn’t really get in the way of yoga, I don’t think this one will, either. With that in mind, I decided to go ahead and try a light stamina workout today. It went fairly well… modified side stretch in the style of the highest YCfA modification, but that was pretty much it. The finger wasn’t entirely happy, but not terribly unhappy, either. Before the workout, played some Stepmania for the first time in a while. Didn’t play too long, because the feet are again unused to playing, so I didn’t want to cause them to blister. I’ll hopefully start playing again more often… that’s the plan, anyway. So, while this new injury will slow my return to full yoga a little bit, I think it’ll probably only be a week or so before it’s ready to start doing serious workouts.

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

Wanting to keep up with the workouts as much as possible, but wanting to keep things light, I went with the running, swimming, and all sports mini-workouts today. Went fairly well… I had to be very careful with my finger interlacing during the running workout, substituted warrior II for side angle pose in swimming, and substituted seated forward bend for Ardha Matsyendrasana during the all sports workout. It seemed like my knee was actually healing fairly quickly the last couple of days, but I think that was an illusion. I did notice that pushing fully into downward dog does hurt my pinkie a little, at least at the beginning of the workout. It didn’t seem to be a problem near the end of the workout… not sure if that was because I was compensating, or if whatever muscles were affecting it got stretched out enough. Either way, I’m planning on continuing to take it fairly easy for at least a few more days, since I think the healing progress is pretty decent, overall, and I’d definitely like to keep it that way. Next up… probably an abs workout, possibly pilates, since I think that might actually be a little easier on the finger than the yoga abs workout. Until then…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I decided to go ahead and try out the abs yoga workout tonight. It went really well, actually. I just had to be careful not to thump my head down onto my hands at any point, and leave my pinkie extended when holding on to my legs in any capacity. Surprisingly enough, neither of these things were particularly difficult for me to accomplish. I find it interesting how injuries are often beneficial in a way, because they make me pay that much more attention to what I’m doing. On that subject, my right knee was feeling better today as well. I was able to carefully rotate it for the rotated leg crunch type thing, and actually get in to the pose for the first time since I injured the knee. The trick is being very cautious in the initial rotation… the rest of the pose isn’t really a problem at that point. It was also less sensitive to other poses that have caused it to feel a little bit tweaked lately. Of course, it could just be the fact that I took some ibuprofen not too long before the workout, so maybe I shouldn’t read too much into it. Anyway, a fairly satisfying workout, as far as it went. I suspect that my finger is going to continue to limit my workouts for at least another four days or so, hopefully after which I’ll be able to get back to at least the majority of them. As always, further bulletins as events warrant.

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Continued with the trend of light workouts today. I did do the full workout today, just working around the bad finger. I’m not sure this is the greatest of workouts for my knee, though… I might stop doing it until the knee is a little further along in the healing process. It felt okay during everything, but it also felt like it was right on the edge a few times, and I think healing might be better without getting that close to the edge. Not much else to say about the workout… trying to keep up my focus. Today was okay on that front… I’ve had worse, certainly. Played a little Stepmania before the workout… I’m starting to make that a habit, which is good. I need to get better, and start working myself harder as well, to make sure I stay in shape for ultimate season. It seems like the distant future, but it’s really only a little over 2.5 months, now. Anyway… may take tomorrow off, since I think everything might benefit from the rest. Then again, I might not, since I seem to be in a mood to do the workouts currently, and I hate to let that go to waste. We’ll see what happens, I guess.

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

Took a couple of days off to rest up. Not entirely certain it helped all that much… I slipped on the stairs the other day, and tweaked my ankle again, which is pretty annoying, because it was feeling much better. My finger seems to be continuing to heal, slowly, as I continue to try not to do anything bad to it. I suppose my knee probably appreciated the days off. Anyway, played around an hour of Stepmania today, and then did a quick yoga workout. Just went with running and swimming today… wasn’t in the mood for all sports, particularly since a number of things objected to the twist last time. Really, it was more just to get me back towards habitual workouts than to actually have a real workout. I’m not sure how much longer it’s going to be before the finger is healthy enough not to object to bearing weight, at least downward dog-level weight. It seems like it’s taking longer than the other one did, but then again, that was just a jam, and this one was dislocated, so perhaps that’s not unreasonable. Anyway… I’ll probably try to get an abs workout or something in tomorrow, although I seem to be coming down with a cold, so it’s a little less certain if that will actually happen or not. If not, probably whenever I feel better, or can’t stand not doing a workout any longer, whichever comes first.