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Workout: Advanced Yoga: Hip Opening
Author: chaos

I was originally kind of thinking that I would go for a pilates workout today, but I decided instead to do some Stepmania and then just do the hip opening workout afterwards. It didn’t really go as well as I hoped… perhaps because I had a rather suboptimal day of Stepmania, and so didn’t end up being quite as warm and loose as I might have been. It wasn’t all that bad, I guess… it still feels like I’m putting too much strain on my knees, though. Although they feel okay after the workout, so maybe it’s not that bad. I do seem to be a little more flexible now. Still a very long way to go before I’m really satisfied. I suppose I have the time, though… I just have to be sure to stick with it during ultimate season. Which shouldn’t be too difficult, I don’t think. Not too much to say today, really… just don’t think I was quite in the right mindset for working out or whatever. Don’t think there’s a whole lot to do with that information other than accept it and move on. No idea what I’ll do tomorrow… I’m feeling pretty low energy at the moment, so I’m unlikely to imagine anything challenging right now, but perhaps I will be then.

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

Had another mediocre night on the pads tonight. Slightly better than last night, but that’s not saying much. My timing seems to be a little bit off the last couple of days. I really should clean the pad, though… I think the arrows are starting to get a little sluggish. Not all the time, but sometimes. Not that it’s been a major problem, but it would be nice to get the pad back up to maximum performance. After the workout, decided to go ahead and get a little bit of stretching in. The YCfA mini-workout trio was pretty much what I was in the mood for, so that’s what I did. I was fairly happy with it, actually… just what I needed, I think. Not sure what I’ll do tomorrow… I might take the day off entirely, or I might do some abs work. I’ll probably take the day off from Stepmania… the last couple of days my legs have felt tired, so I could probably use the break. I suppose I’ll see what tomorrow brings, as usual, so until then…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates, Advanced Yoga: Hip Opening
Author: chaos

Took a couple of days off. My body was starting to feel a little worn out again from all the abuse, so it seemed like a bit of rest might be in order. Really, it was partly rest, and partly laziness. I guess I have been up to a few other things, but nothing particularly… critical. Nothing that would prevent me from getting a workout in, anyway. Almost took today off as well, but decided that I really didn’t need any more rest, so it was pretty much pure slacking off at this point. Pretty happy that I decided to go for the workout… had a pretty good one. I seemed to be somewhat in the zone for pilates. I think I’ve had better, but this one was pretty good. I felt like I had good focus on form. Then I went for a hip opening workout, which went pretty well as well. I tried to make sure I didn’t push too hard on anything, and think I succeeded. At the end of the workout my hips felt opened, and my knees only felt a little bit like they were abused, which is better than usual. I think it’s time for me to get back to regular workouts again, so I plan on doing something tomorrow, such as it is. Not sure what yet, but quite likely total body again, or possibly the full Complete Workout sequence. Or maybe even YCfA, who knows. It’ll depend on what I feel like. So until then…

Workout: Power Yoga: Total Body
Author: chaos

Had a pretty satisfying total body workout today. I wasn’t quite sure I was actually going to get to a workout today… I was considering doing some Stepmania, and thought that I might just do a light stretching workout with that. But I was feeling more in the mood for a good yoga workout, so I decided to stick with my original plan and do a total body workout. I think that it worked out pretty well. I felt like I was pretty well in tune with the workout, and staying involved throughout. I think the highlight was probably the upward bows… I really felt like I was getting more extension than ever before. No idea if I actually was or not, but that’s what it felt like. I do feel like I’ve made some improvements in my flexibility during this off-season… now I have to try and maintain them during the season. It shouldn’t be too hard, as long as I keep doing some serious workouts, and don’t injure myself such that I can’t stretch properly. No idea what the likelihood of that is, but it’s a good theory, anyway. Tomorrow… most likely I will go with Stepmania and a light stretching workout, particularly because it’s been several days since I got on the pad. I’d do some now, but last time I tried it after a total body workout, it didn’t work out so well, and I suspect that I’d have a similar problem today, so I guess I’ll lay off for one more day. I’m probably going to “lose” a workout in the next couple of days, as I’m trying to flip my schedule around to be more… well, in line with the part of the world I’m in, anyway. There’s a possibility I’ll double up one of these days with a “morning” and then an “evening” workout, but it’s more likely I’ll just drop a workout, essentially. At any rate, until next time…

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

Wow, I’ve stuck to a workout plan for a few days in a row. How refreshing. Anyway, played some Stepmania today followed by the normal set of mini-workouts. Wasn’t a particularly great day on the pad, but it was nice to get back to it. Not sure how much I’ll be playing once the ultimate season gets going. I’m hoping that I’ll still play at least once a week, but we’ll see. I’m kind of sore from the workout yesterday, in the way that suggests that I was in fact extending more than I normally do. My back is a bit sore, and the hamstrings, although that’s pretty much normal. That’s the one overall advantage to never taking days off, my hamstrings tend not to get sore as often. Fairly normal cool down… focus wasn’t all that great, but that’s the way it goes at times. I should work on it, but who knows if I will. Tomorrow… hard to say. Should be an abs day. May be an abs day. May be an off day. Probably not, though. I might just do a pilates workout, since they’re fairly ab heavy anyway. Change of pace, or something. Whatever. Until then…

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Ended up deciding not to do any ab work tonight. I was in the mood for more Stepmania, so I went with that. Had a pretty good night… passed a few 9-footers that I hadn’t passed before. And even had fun, for the most part. Just went with a light workout afterwards to stretch out, particularly my calves. I’m pretty close to the end of my “day”, so I’m feeling pretty tired. I was staying fairly focused, I think, because of the fatigue. Sometimes that works to my advantage, sometimes not. Overall, the workout was decent, and a fairly good stretch. I’ll quite likely go for an abs workout of some sort tomorrow, possibly with the hip opening workout.

Workout: Intermediate Mat Workout
Author: chaos

Ended up taking the day off yesterday. A number of factors, but mostly just that I was really exhausted by the end of the day, due to getting up way too early and not sleeping all that much. Not for any particular reason, either, which was kind of annoying. Anyway, played some Stepmania tonight, and then went for the pilates intermediate mat workout. Fairly decent workout… I was feeling a bit mentally tired during it, which helped my focus somewhat tonight, I think. The only problem was later in the workout, my leg muscles were starting to cramp. Nothing major, but a bit of an annoyance, and a slight concern. I think the problem was that I hadn’t consumed enough water during Stepmania. I drank some water right afterwards and then tried to do the hip opening workout, but I started cramping again, so I decided to abort that. I might go for it tomorrow, but I might not. I think tomorrow I’ll probably go for the full YCfA workout, as a nice stretch before the first day of ultimate season on Tuesday. So it’s probably not all that likely that I’ll do the hip opening workout. Maybe Tuesday sometime, possibly after ultimate. Anyway, that’s all for now.

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

Ended up not doing a workout yesterday. Not really what I had in mind, but whatever. Not a big deal, either. For today, did my usual YCfA mini-workouts before ultimate. Nothing much to say about that. The weather was absolutely beautiful for the first day of ultimate, about 70. Way better than could have reasonably been expected. It won’t be that nice again for a while, I fear. Anyway, it went pretty well. My quads felt like they were potentially thinking about cramping. They didn’t, of course, but I wasn’t overly thrilled about that. Maybe just needed more water today, I was running a bit short I think. Other than that, I guess my training over the winter was at least somewhat effective, because I really didn’t have any problems with breathing or anything. Not that I was playing too hard, because I didn’t have cleats, and it was muddy, so I couldn’t cut worth anything. That’s fine, I’ll have them by next week, so I should be ready then. I definitely need to concentrate on working harder during the game. It’s harder when there aren’t that many subs. Which there probably won’t be for a while. That’s okay, it just means my conditioning will be even better. Did a little bit of stretching immediately afterwards, and then did some more an hour or so later. Nothing too exciting, just trying to minimize stiffness tomorrow. Going to be on the road the next few days, so I’m not entirely certain what workouts I’ll be doing, although I’ll likely try and get something in. Definitely a stretching workout on Friday if nothing else, since I plan on playing ultimate.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

I failed to get in a workout yesterday, and partly because of that, I ended up waking up really sore today, mostly in the quads. So I decided to start off the day with a light free form workout in order to stretch out my legs. They started off pretty tight… I couldn’t get much further down than a toe touch to start off the workout. After a few rounds, things started loosening up a little. I pretty much ran through the beginning of the total body workout through the first warrior II sequence, and then just did a little bit more leg stretching. I ended up still being fairly sore after the workout, but at least the workout alleviated some of the soreness. I don’t know that I’ll have fully recovered by tomorrow, but at least it should be a relatively light soreness by then. Of course, I’ll be doing a stretching workout before ultimate as well, so I should be pretty much good to go. Not that it really matters, since I’d be going anyway, but I hope not to be too sore, since that would lower the enjoyment a little. Anyway, just kind of rambling at this point. I’ll try to get a nice complete stretching workout in tomorrow, and hopefully do some stretching after ultimate, too.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Another free form workout today in order to get ready for ultimate. I went with a pretty traditional free form workout for this… started off with the very beginning of power yoga in order to stretch my legs a little, then segued into the triangle, side stretch, warrior II, and backbend lunge sequence. From there, did a wide angle standing forward bend, then Ardha Matsyendrasana, and then finished off with some forward bending and reclined leg stretches. I had pretty decent focus today, helped by the fact that I had a lot of time, so I wasn’t worried about having to be somewhere. I managed to find new cleats yesterday, so I’ll be trying them out today at ultimate. I’m a little concerned, because the right one feels a little tight on the outside at the front, but I think they’ll expand once I break them in a little bit. Still, I’m hoping that my feet aren’t in great pain by the end of the game. Don’t know what I’ll do tomorrow, although I’m guessing another stretching workout will probably be in order. Until then…

Workout: Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

Ended up taking yesterday as another day of rest. I felt something like a small pull in my right hamstring on Friday right at the end of ultimate, and it was causing me some pain the rest of the day when I moved it in certain ways, so I was a little concerned that it might take a little while to heal. Fortunately, it seems to have been a very minor problem, because I didn’t really notice it yesterday, and couldn’t feel it at all today. However, the muscle adjacent to my shin bone has been quite sore both yesterday and today, particularly the one on the right leg, which was aggravated by driving home yesterday, I think. Anyway, I thought about taking today off as well, but then decided to go ahead and get a light stretching workout in. Not too much to say about the workout itself… I tried to get a good stretch of my legs, and I think it was reasonable for that. I’m hoping that maybe after another week or so, I’ll stop being so sore from ultimate, and I’ll be able to get back to more complete workouts. I think that will probably be the case, since my quads seem to have recovered from Tuesday’s outing, and my shoulders aren’t really feeling sore anymore, either. I suspect that each muscle group will be sore for a few days after I use it the first time, but then should mostly be fine after that. I think the shin muscle problem didn’t appear on Tuesday because I didn’t have cleats, and thus wasn’t really cutting at all. Speaking of cleats, the new ones worked out quite well… by the middle of the game, they weren’t feeling overly tight at all, so I think they’ll be fine. I’ll probably try and get something a little more complete tomorrow, although I doubt I’ll make it all the way to a long workout. I might throw in a hip-opening workout tomorrow with whatever else I do, but we’ll see. I want to keep up with that, since my hip flexibility has been improving, and I’d like to continue that trend. Anyway, that’s all for now, hopefully I’ll actually get to something tomorrow, and start being a little less lazy about the workouts.

Workout: Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Well, after Sunday’s workout, I decided that my leg really didn’t get a lot of benefit from the workout, but could probably use a few days of rest instead. So I took a couple of days off to let it recover. I really should have done a workout yesterday, but I allowed the forces of laziness to overcome me. Disappointing, but there you have it. Anyway, rather unfortunately there was no ultimate game today, so I definitely planned on getting some exercise in. Went for a walk earlier because it was pretty nice out, and then did some Stepmania just before yoga. It went pretty well… at first I was a little out of it with the arrows, probably because I haven’t played in at least a week and a half, but after I got back into the reading it started to go really well. Possibly because I haven’t really done anything for the past three days, so my body had pretty much fully recovered from previous ailments. Wanted to get in some good stretching after that, so I went with the flexibility workout. The things I really need to keep going for during the season are flexibility workouts and abs workouts, I think. I’m not as worried about the longer workouts, since that’s not my focus right now, and certainly my cardio conditioning should be getting considerably better, so I don’t anticipate any trouble when I do come back to them. But I don’t want to lose the gains I’ve made in the abs area, and definitely don’t want to regress on the flexibility, since that’s been rather hard fought, and will continue to need work for a long time. Something I have to be aware of, so that I don’t get sucked into the routine of only doing stretching workouts. Tonight’s workout went pretty well, although my muscles felt like they wanted to cramp, at least a little bit. I think I need more potassium in my diet. Something I’ll start working on. Well, that’s all for tonight, I think I’m going to try and get regular workouts in all weekend, probably with some other exercise as well. Possibly running, if I can convince myself to do it, probably just more Stepmania otherwise.

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

Ended up being lazy again yesterday, and not doing a workout. There were some mitigating factors, but it was mostly just laziness. Anyway, to try and make up for it a little bit, I decided to push myself a little bit more today. Started off with a run, 1.5 to 2 miles. I should measure it sometime, I suppose. That went reasonably… the first mile, approximately, was pretty good. Slowed down somewhat after that, but since I haven’t really run in a long time, and haven’t played much ultimate yet this season, it wasn’t too bad. After that, came home and played 35 to 40 minutes of Stepmania. That went pretty well… I could feel the effects of the run, but I just kept going. Being warmed up might have helped somewhat, because after the first couple of songs, I started being able to do 8 footers really easily. Which is somewhat unusual, only in that I’d normally fail some of them. But I was passing pretty much everything. After that, I went ahead with the YCfA mini-workouts. Normal workouts, but changed the order up a little, doing swimming first, and then running, and finishing with all sports. That was practical… given how sweaty I already was, I didn’t want to get the mat too slick before doing swimming. That went pretty well, too… I had good rotation to my left during triangle, which I don’t always have. Anyway, that’s all for tonight. I’m guessing I won’t be quite so motivated tomorrow, but hopefully I’ll still get something in, perhaps abs.

Workout: Advanced Yoga: Hip Opening
Author: chaos

I was thinking about going for a run again today, but it didn’t end up being quite as warm as I would have liked, so I didn’t. Instead, I played Stepmania for about an hour. My legs were a little sore from yesterday, but not too badly. Mostly they were just tired, I think. Definitely wasn’t quite as “on” as I was yesterday, although I was able to pass a few 9’s today. I can tell I’m getting better, although on days like yesterday where I’m really reading the arrows well, I’m much better than on other days. After Stepmania, jumped into the shower to rinse off so that I wouldn’t soak the mat, and then after a few minutes went with the hip opening workout. I’ve been wanting to get back to it for a while, and it’s definitely easier to do this workout when I’m already warm, as long as my muscles aren’t trying to cramp. They were fine today, so this worked well. I’ve been fairly pleased with my progress, overall… I’m getting to the point where I can almost sit in half-lotus and not have it look absolutely absurd. There’s still some progress to be made, but I can actually see notable improvement since, say, early November. So I’m definitely hoping to keep up with this. Finished off with just the running mini-workout, just to get a bit of stretching in for the legs. I was thinking about doing abs today, but I was working my abs pretty hard with the dancing, so I decided to pass. I’ll definitely plan on hitting them tomorrow, though, especially since I’ll probably take the day off from cardio, unless ultimate is canceled that far in advance. I doubt it, though, since it’s supposed to be warm on Tuesday, although potentially rainy. We’ll see what happens. Either way, the plan is for some type of workout again tomorrow, so until then…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga, Power Yoga: Flexibility
Author: chaos

Well, as of last night my thoughts for the day were taking the day off from cardio, and doing some ab work. However, when I started thinking about it earlier, I realized that while I didn’t want my feet to be overly sore, I really wasn’t too worried about my legs, since I’m not overly concerned about my ultimate performance right now, anyway. Pretty much pre-season until about late May, as far as I’m concerned. So with that in mind, and given the fact that it was a really nice day, decided to go for a run again today. I figured that the route I’m running is just a little over 2 miles, so I’m doing a little bit better in terms of time than I estimated. I really should be doing windsprints and hill training, though. I’ll probably start getting to that soon. It’s harder to motivate to do that, though, since I know it’s going to hurt. I’m fairly impressed with how well Stepmania actually kept my conditioning up, though… I didn’t think it would be quite that good. Playing on heavy for the last two months has helped a lot, I think. Anyway. After the run, went with the py:flexibility workout. That’s in keeping with my trend of not always doing the YCfA mini-workouts. Decent workout, I was pretty flexible after being nicely warmed up, go figure. I could have stopped there, but I did plan on doing an abs workout today, and I want to keep up on the abs work, I decided to get a yoga abs workout in. It was actually pretty damn tough… apparently I wasn’t wrong when I felt like my abs got a huge workout from the Stepmania yesterday. To complicate the matter a little bit, my legs tried to start cramping halfway through the workout. However, I was able to stretch them a little bit and then resume the workout, so it was okay. I just had to be careful for the rest of the workout. It was good to get it in, though. Hopefully there will be ultimate tomorrow… the temperature is supposed to be nice, but there’s a chance of thunderstorms, so hopefully it works out. If not, I might run again, and I’ll probably play some Stepmania, so I’ll get my exercise in either way, I guess. Until then…

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

Got in the normal set of YCfA mini-workouts today before ultimate. Focus wasn’t very good, largely because I was wondering if we were going to play. There were some thunderstorms that passed through about an hour before game time, but we still ended up being good to go. Unfortunately, the advance thunderstorms seemed to have scared most people off, so we ended up with only 6. And there was some confusion with the cones, so I ended up running back home to get them and then running back, so I got in an extra mile run. Although we only had 3 on 3, it turned out to be a lot of fun, actually. We played some regular ultimate, then played a little bit of hot box. I got a cramp in my right calf during the second game of hot box, so that pretty much ended things for tonight. Which actually worked out okay, since it started drizzling a little bit harder just after we stopped, which probably would have ended things anyway. When I got home, I decided to do the py:stamina workout in order to try and stretch out the muscles a bit, and also hopefully help the muscle that had cramped. Focus wasn’t the greatest for that, either… guess I was just a little off today. I think I did help the muscle somewhat, and of course got some general stretching in, so that was good. Tomorrow… I’m not sure. I might take the day off, since I’ve been working pretty hard the last couple of days. Of course, I might be addicted to the exercise now, so I might not. I am anticipating ultimate in Southfield on Thursday, though, so… I think I’ll take it fairly easy tomorrow, and then start going hard again over the weekend. So, perhaps a workout tomorrow, perhaps not. Until next time…

Workout: Free Form, Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

Took yesterday off, which I think was a good thing for the body. My legs feel fully recovered today, which they haven’t felt since Saturday or so. Not surprising, considering I kept working them out through that period. I’m considering making Wednesdays a day of rest, and working hard the rest of the week. We’ll see how that goes.
Went with a free form workout before ultimate today. Started off with the intro to Total Body, then after the second downward dog switched into my normal free form series of triangle, side stretch, warrior II, and backbend lunge. Switched into a mixture of the running and all sports mini-workouts after that, getting a little more leg stretching in. Ultimate itself was a bit of a disappointment tonight, since we only had 7 people show. No idea what the problem was tonight, as the weather was clear, if a bit cool. Anyway, got some good running in, as we decided to play some double hot box. That was pretty tiring, but also really good for conditioning, so I wasn’t too disappointed by it. By the time I got home, I was feeling somewhat recovered, so I decided to play some Stepmania for a while. That went surprisingly well… I can definitely tell I’ve improved quite a bit, just in the last couple of weeks. Even though my legs were somewhat tired, I was still able to pass some 9’s that I hadn’t passed before, and fairly easily passed another one that I had barely passed before. After that, I cooled off with the running and all sports mini-workouts. Decided that I didn’t really need to do swimming, since I wasn’t feeling particularly in need of the stretching, and I had already done plenty of cardio for the day. Not sure what I’ll do tomorrow… I think maybe I’ll try and get some abs in. Getting the abs in twice a week might be the way to go. Can’t push myself too hard tomorrow, though, since I agreed to play ultimate Saturday morning. Although abs certainly doesn’t stand in the way of that. Maybe I’ll just run and do yoga, and pass on the Stepmania until Saturday some time. Well, I guess I’ll figure out how I feel tomorrow and work from there.

Workout: Free Form
Author: chaos

Through a combination of weird timing and laziness, I managed not to do a workout yesterday. I’m a little annoyed about it, since I was going to do an abs workout, probably pilates. I’ve definitely been slacking off on the pilates abs lately. Anyway, before ultimate today I went with a pretty similar workout to the one I did on Thursday. Trimmed it down a little bit due to time constraints, but only a little. Ultimate was okay… it was a practice, which was good, ‘cause I got to learn some stuff and do some drills. I was also really trying to work on my defense, which was somewhat effective, but it was also a good cardio workout. The bad things were that my skills were pretty off today, overall, and I strained my right hamstring a bit. It doesn’t seem too bad, so I think it should recover pretty quickly. I spent some time stretching it out at the field after we were done, and then did another free form workout when I got home, with an emphasis on stretching the hamstrings. Not sure how effective it was, but it certainly seemed to be helping on the field, at any rate. Not quite sure what my plan is now… I was going to at least play Stepmania tonight, but now I don’t think I’m going to. Definitely better to rest the leg. No idea what I’ll do tomorrow, as it will most likely heavily depend on how the hamstring is feeling. So, I guess I’ll get back to the workout whenever I feel ready. Until then…