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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: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

Ended up missing another day of working out. I think I’m starting to get back towards the right mindset, though, which is good. Anyway, went with pilates abs today. It was pretty tough… don’t think I did quite as well as I did the last time I tried it. Still, not too horribly. Although I think I regressed a little… I had some sort of insight last time, but didn’t get the same thing this time. I might have to check and see if I wrote it down. Something to do with working the lower abs more, I think. Anyway. I was planning on doing the hip opening workout with it, but my knees weren’t overly happy today, so I decided to hold off on it. I do want to get back to it sometime soon, though. Haven’t played Stepmania the last two days due to the foot abuse last time, but I think I’ll be ready to play again tomorrow. I might try to do a little more… hmmm, exercise oriented in my attack, I guess I’d say. Maybe work on my footwork some, not try passing tough songs as much, but have a more continuous flow. Something like that. Hopefully I’ll get another workout in tomorrow, start to pick it up again.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

When I first thought about switching the focus of my yoga workouts, I thought that I’d probably start taking it easier on the abs workouts as well. I’m not quite sure why I was thinking that… it was certainly a fairly ridiculous thought, anyway. Obviously abs work is very important for the core muscles, and it makes sense to have those developed as fully as possible, since it really helps prevent injuries, particularly in the back. Not that I have a history of back problems or anything, but I’d like to keep it that way. The workout today was fairly decent… I was pretty satisfied with my form overall. Particularly at the end of the workout, I think I was doing somewhat better than I normally do. After the pilates, got in around an hour or so of Stepmania. Nothing too exciting to report there… I continue to get a little bit better each time, or so it feels like. After that, cooled down with a little bit of light stretching, not even enough to really call it a workout. Just sequenced up whatever I felt inspired to do. Pretty much all slow… I was trying to stay focused. Don’t know that I did a great job with that, but… can’t worry about it too much. Not sure what I’ll do tomorrow… might depend on how I’m feeling. I’ve been a little low on energy the last couple of days, might be fighting off a cold. I’ll just play it by ear and see what develops. Until then…

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

And I’ve finally managed to get back towards my normal schedule with this workout. Not sure how long it’ll last, because my sleep schedule is still pretty crazy right now, but I’m going to try and hold to it. I do prefer getting to the workouts a little… earlier than I have been lately. So to speak, anyway. Anyway. Decided to go back to pilates abs today. It wasn’t as tough as I feared it might be. I mean, it was really tough, but it was a little bit easier than last time. I managed to fight my way through the entire workout this time, at least, although I’m sure my form suffered a bit near the end. I was feeling fairly drained after the workout, but decided to go ahead and get another workout in anyway. Not wanting to take it too easy, I decided to go with py:flexibility. That wasn’t too bad… it wasn’t the greatest, because I was definitely feeling the fatigue from the abs workout, but I think I did reasonably well. I need to start cleaning my mat more often, though. It’s getting slippery again, relatively speaking. For tomorrow… I think perhaps yoga burn. I don’t think I’m really feeling like doing total body again so soon. Perhaps I’ll come up with something else that I feel like doing more, though, so who really knows. Until then…

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

Although my abs were feeling a little bit tired, I decided to go for the pilates abs workout today anyway. In retrospect, perhaps I should have gone for one of the other pilates workouts, or perhaps balanceball. But, hindsight and all that. It wasn’t really all that bad… I did have to sit out for a few of the double leg raises, and my overall technique wasn’t as good as it has been at other times, but it wasn’t terrible. I managed to struggle through, anyway. After that, apparently not having absorbed enough pain from the abs workout, I went ahead and got in the hip opening workout. I’m still not quite sure where that one stands currently… my right knee did ache a little bit at a few points, but not to the sharp level of pain that accompanied the original injury. I was quite focused on opening the hips today, which seemed to be fairly successful. I think a number of these workouts are having a positive impact in that area, although clearly this one is going to be the most concentrated. Anyway, now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, it’s time to get back to the longer workouts, I think. For tomorrow I’ll probably do either total body or intermediate yoga, depending on when I actually get around to doing the workout. So until then…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates, Yoga for Strength: session 2
Author: chaos

I managed to go ahead and bust out with the double workout tonight. Started off with pilates abs. It went fairly decently… I don’t think the workout overall was quite as strong as the last one, but it was still pretty good. I think it’s definitely something that I just need to keep at in order to really build up the abs. Decided to follow it up with some YfS:s2. I’m not sure that was actually the best of ideas… I was somewhat drained from the abs workout, and just wasn’t really able to do that well with the strength workout. I suppose it went okay, but it was definitely somewhat lacking. Tree pose was fairly much a bust, as was warrior III… I think I was just too tired to balance properly. Pendulum was also a bust, but that’s pretty much usual. Everything else was okay… I even managed to pull off a fairly decent crane, which I was reasonably happy about. Anyway, not too sure I’ll try combining these two workouts again, at least not for a while, but it was good to make myself do a second workout in combination with the abs pilates, even if it didn’t go all that well. Depending on how tired I’m feeling tomorrow, I think I’d like to do either total body or intermediate… it’ll probably also depend on when I get to the workout. There’s an off chance that I’ll even end up taking the night off to give myself a bit of a break, but we’ll see. I’m not sure it’s quite time for that yet.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

I’m beginning to think that my recent success in doing long workouts lies not necessarily with better conditioning, but in a willingness to push myself closer to my limits. While I don’t think I’ve had to push too hard, I think there are times in the past where I would have wimped out instead of continuing to work through. This occurred to me tonight because I managed to do the entire pilates abs workout, but I really had to push myself to keep going during the series of five. I did notice today that after the series of five, the workout gets a little bit easier for a bit to let you recover, or at least I think it’s easier. During the workout I mostly follow the more advanced line, but I follow the modified line to do the series of five, because I know I’m not yet ready to do that with the full version. Anyway, pretty happy with the workout overall, although my abs are definitely feeling a bit worked. That’s good, though. It’s nice to be getting back into the habit, even if I’m still having a little trouble motivating to get the workout in at times. Going to go do a little Stepmania now, see if I can’t make a few improvements in my technique. Not sure what I’ll do tomorrow… Maybe something like YfS:s1 or something, or possibly I’ll even bust out and try intermediate, although I think I’d rather wait until Friday if I’m going to do that.

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: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

Got back into it with an abs pilates workout. It was okay… some good, some not as good. Things started off pretty well, I was feeling fairly strong. I really hit the rockers today… I practiced a couple earlier in the week, and I think that I understand them a little better now. The key for those is really the focus, I think. If I’m focusing well, they’re fairly easy. If I’m not, they don’t go so well. However, either through good technique or general fatigue, I had trouble with the series of five. I followed the modified version, but I still had to sit out the last five double leg raises. I’m going to have to start practicing those sometime when my abs aren’t already beat, and see if they’re really that hard. I don’t think they are. Picked up again after that, finishing off fairly strongly with the exception of the teaser. Actually, I think good focus is key there, as well. The first one really sucked, but then I started really concentrating, and the other ones were better. Not great, but better. My shoulder was okay for most of the time, although it clearly was feeling a bit of the effects of straightening all the way on a few exercises. Overall, though, things went reasonably well, and I think I’m about ready to really start getting back into the workouts, at least until I injure myself again.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

I was having some trouble motivating to do this workout tonight, despite having planned on doing it. However, my partner decided to do it as well, and that helped me just go ahead and get it in. It certainly wasn’t my best workout, but it wasn’t too bad. I considered following the modified version throughout, but then I went ahead with the full version for most of it. The only exception to that being the series of five, which I knew there was no way that I’d make it through with the full version. I did make it through with the modified version, although not easily. I have to admit that it doesn’t feel like my abs have been gaining a lot of strength lately. I don’t know if this is because I haven’t been eating as well as I could, or if I’ve just plateaued for the moment. Maybe I need to do some sort of different abs exercises to shake things up. On the other hand, it could just be that I’ve been doing them often enough that they don’t fully recover from the last session before I hit them again. Anyway, the session was okay. I have trouble with the rockers again today… I seem to have lost the sense of the balance for those. Teaser was probably a little bit better today, perhaps because I hadn’t killed myself in the series of five. Anyway, I’m anticipating ultimate tomorrow, so I’ll likely go with mini-workouts before and free form afterwards.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

I wasn’t quite sure I was ready for this workout tonight. My legs were feeling a little sore from ultimate in a way that suggested pilates abs wasn’t going to be particularly easy. However, I’ve let myself off the hook for this workout too many times in the past, so I decided to go ahead and just do my best. It wasn’t all that great, relatively, but not too bad. The rockers were a little off today, for some reason. I was having trouble rocking back to the right position. I just gave up on the double leg raise after about two of them… they really weren’t working well with the soreness, and I figured I’d have a little more to give later if I just skipped them. And I was right… that was the best crisscross I’ve done in a long time, and later on, the teaser was definitely better than normal. Still, I don’t feel like I got quite as much of a workout as I normally do, but I suppose that’s the way it goes sometimes. Not quite sure what I’ll do tomorrow… it’ll probably depend on how sore I’m still feeling. Preliminarily, I’m think something like YCfA, but we’ll see how I feel then.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates, Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

Got in the anticipated pilates abs workout today. I was very pleased with the beginning of the workout… I was really trying to have optimal form, and I think that was helping to make the exercises even more effective. Of course, in a situation like this, there’s a penalty to having more effective exercises… in this case, quicker fatigue of the abs. Still, I think it’s a step in the right direction, with the eventual goal being to actually have optimal form throughout the workout. That, of course, is still a very long ways in the future. But the more often I do this workout, the stronger my abs should become, so hopefully I’ll be pretty close by the end of the year or so. I have been getting much better about making this my go-to abs workout, instead of slacking off and doing yoga abs all the time. I did have one observation… I think for the middle exercise in the series of five, I should just follow the modified version, at least for now. It’s not a particularly easy exercise for me anyway, and trying to do it without my arms just kills the abs, right before the double leg raise, which is just silly. So I think I’ll just accept that modification for the moment, until my abs get much much stronger.
After finishing up the abs workout, I was feeling a little tired (I always do after that workout), but wasn’t quite ready to throw in the towel. So I decided to go for some mini-workouts. However, I ended up choosing to mix things up a little, and try out a couple of the ones that I don’t normally do. So I started off with the golf workout. There was a fair amount of twisting, presumably to help balance against all the twisting done in golf. After that I did the cycling workout. That contained a lot of backbends, including the deep lunge. I don’t think I had realized that before, or at least I hadn’t remembered it. I may start going back to that one a little more often in the future, at least if my back is feeling a little achy. I finished off with swimming, but with a few modifications. I decided just to sit out the triangle pose to the right, staying in the lunge instead. And instead of the wide angle standing forward bend, I did a regular seated forward bend. The idea was that since I hadn’t really done anything to the right tailbone with the rest of the workout, it would be a shame to strain it right at the end, and so I modified around it. I think I did extend it a bit with the side angle poses (one in cycling as well as the one in swimming), but not too badly. For tomorrow, I think I’ll go for something longer, perhaps total body or even possibly intermediate yoga. I’ve been getting these workouts in a little later the last couple of days, and I’m hoping to get back into a better schedule, although clearly I’ll get to the workout earlier on Tuesday, so perhaps it’s not that important. Anyway, until tomorrow…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates, Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

I’ve been feeling quite a bit better over the last couple of days. Mentally speaking, that is. My motivation to do things has returned, and I’ve felt ready (and perhaps even eager) to move forward with things. This has shown in my yoga practice, as well as other things… I’ve been getting in better workouts, and I’ve noticed that the workouts seem insufficient when I take it too easy. For today, I wanted to mostly rest the legs up, and getting in some good abdominal work seemed like an excellent way to do that. I was pretty happy with the workout… I followed the full version almost the entire way. The only exceptions were during the series of five… I did two of the scissor like things without my arms, but finished the last three using them, and I didn’t do the last two or three double leg raises, because my abs couldn’t raise the legs anymore. The bicycle was fairly weak, as usual, but other than those things, I felt like I did one of my best jobs in terms of form. Overall, I’m not really complaining. After I finished that up, I wanted to get a little bit of hamstring stretching in, because my legs were feeling a bit sore from the workout yesterday. So I just did the running workout. I was hoping that would allow me to stretch the hamstrings, without putting any strain on the tailbone, since it was pretty much a day off in that regard. I did notice that my hips felt quite flexible for the first stretch, quite a bit more so than usual. Or at least, they felt like they were already stretched, and didn’t need to warm up. Something like that. For tomorrow, I’m not quite sure what I’ll do before ultimate… possibly free form, just to mix things up a little.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates, Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

As I expected to do, I went in for a pilates abs workout today. The only somewhat surprising thing is how early in the day I managed to get it in. I figured it was the type of situation where if I didn’t get it in now, I wouldn’t get it in until fairly late, so I just went with it. Hopefully it’ll be the beginning of a good trend of getting my workouts in earlier. The workout went pretty much the same way as last time, where I pretty much did the unmodified version the entire time. The only exception was during the extended single leg kicks or whatever they’re called, the third exercise in the ever-deadly series of five. For the full version, you’re not supposed to use your arms for the last five kicks, but after doing one like that, I knew there’d be no way I could continue on with the double leg raises if I did them all like that, so I followed the modified version. I then struggled through the rest of the series of five, and went on with the rest of the workout. It was better than last time, overall… the rockers went pretty well, a lot better than any other time lately. Overall, I just felt stronger than the last time I did the workout, which certainly feels like a sign of improvement.
After I finished the abs, I wanted to get a bit of stretching in, so I went in for the running and swimming mini-workouts. My hamstrings have had a nearly continuous low-level soreness for the past week or so, so I’ve been trying to get stretching in as much as possible. Today went pretty well for that, I think… I felt pretty good about the initial stretch in the running workout, and then added an extra single leg standing forward bend into the end of the swimming workout, right before transitioning into the reclined cobbler’s pose. That also felt pretty good, and I was consciously making adjustments to the distribution of my weight by the location of the pelvis. The only bad part was my mat was a little slick at that point, and my back foot was attempting to slip when I bent over my right leg. I’ll need to make sure to position myself in drop spots in the future. Anyway, outdoor ultimate season starts tomorrow, so I may go with a free form workout in order to warm up. It’s supposed to be fairly cold, though, so I may also decide to do something a little more extensive, in order to minimize the possibility of injury. Until then…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates, Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

Pretty much managed the full workout tonight. Not that I’m up at the proper level for the full workout, or anything like that. But I at least managed to struggle through the entire thing, which may be the first time that I’ve been able to do that. I say that like it’s not a big deal, but I’m actually pretty happy about it. It may be that I’m starting to have enough desire to really push through to the next level in my workouts. Such a difficult mental balance at times… not straining, and yet working as hard as possible. I think that’s something that I largely lost at some point… the desire to push myself to the utmost, to give everything I have in pursuit of my goal. The only time I really see that now is in ultimate… which, not uncoincidentally, is pretty much the only time that I lose myself in the moment. Hmmm. I think there’s a very valuable lesson there… now I just have to figure out how to apply it.
Anyway, it was a decent workout, if not outstanding. Rockers were better today, although not perfect. I think I’m arching too much in the double leg raise, but that’s something I just need to keep working on. Teaser was better today, although that’s probably the pose I’m furtherest from actually doing well. But it was miserable the last time I did it, so this was an improvement. After I finished off the abs, I wanted to get a little bit of stretching in, so I threw on the swimming mini-workout. I tried to take that fairly easy, stretching my hamstrings a little but not getting too intense. They’ve been sore for the last couple days, and I’m hoping to get them to recover fairly soon here. Like, tomorrow would be nice. Anyway, I’m hoping that I’ve gained some new focus, and will try to run with that in the next couple of days.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates, Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

I definitely think my overall motivation levels are increasing. I briefly considered being lazy and just doing an abs yoga workout, but decided that if I really want to get good at the pilates abs workout, I just have to keep doing it. Probably not as frequently as I was doing the abs yoga workout when I first got it, but often enough to really get the workout down. Anyway, so I went with the pilates workout. The beginning went a little better than last time… I wasn’t even feeling at all tired by the time I hit the series of five. Because of that, I attempted to stick with the full workout line throughout. That somewhat worked… I made it through those parts, but then died on the double leg raise. But I stopped pretty quickly on those, after just two, so after resting through the next three, I finished off the last five and then finished out the workout. The rest of the workout didn’t really do as well, though… in particular, I had a lot more trouble with the open leg rockers than last time. The rockers are still somewhat erratic for me, though, so it’s hard to say that it’s definitely related. Anyway, I think it was a slight progress overall, but only slight.
After I finished that off, I went in for some YCfA mini-workouts. My hamstrings were a touch sore from yesterday, but nowhere near the levels they used to be after a total body workout. I really am quite pleased with my new understanding of standing forward bend… not only does it keep me from being sore, but it also makes the transition up and down from mountain pose seem much more controlled. I feel a lot more steady with that than I used to, particularly when I’m starting to get tired. Anyway, did running, swimming, and all sports today. It seems kind of funny, since I’ve called two of those three a workout in the past, but tonight it seemed like I still could have done more. However, I definitely don’t want to get too carried away, and besides, it’s not like I won’t do another workout tomorrow. Not too sure what I’m going to do… I may take a slightly easier day, and just do yoga for energy or perhaps one of the yoga for strength workouts.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates, Yoga Conditioning for Athletes: Mini-workouts
Author: chaos

Well, I finally made my return to pilates abs today. And, as expected, it hurt. I started out by following the full workout, and mostly did that, except for the series of five. I followed the full version for the first exercise, then followed the modification for the rest. Even that wasn’t enough… I died during the bicycle. After recovering a little bit while the video went on through the rest of the bicycle, though, I was able to complete the workout, again following the full version. Overall, I’m not too unhappy… while my abs were certainly hurting, it wasn’t as bad as I feared it might be, and I seem to have retained most of the knowledge of how to execute the poses. So if I do start making this my primary abs workout, I should be able to run through the full version pretty well in… about a month or so, I’d say.
After I finished the abs workout, I really wanted to call it done for the night. However, I’ve been trying to stop letting myself off the hook for things I planned on doing and then bail on or do a lighter version, so I went ahead and got in a few of the YCfA mini-workouts. Swimming and running, to be exact, in that order. Normally I do them in the other order, but running feels like more of a cool-down than swimming, and since I wasn’t planning on finishing with all sports, that order seemed more appropriate today. My knees have been aching a little bit the last few days, particularly in sitting cross-legged pose, so I’m trying to lay off of them for a bit. They just feel a little stiff, but I’ve been pushing them quite a bit lately, so I figure I’ll try to take it a little easier for a few days in terms of poses that really extend them. That’ll probably require a few modifications to workouts, but that’s okay. Hopefully I’ll still manage to find ways to keep extending the hips, though, and working on that flexibility. Anyway, I might try for the Intermediate Yoga workout tomorrow, but we’ll see… could be a busy day of working, so perhaps not. Until then…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

Another long break between pilates abs workouts leads to much abdominal soreness when the time comes to actually do another one. On the plus side, I was able to follow the harder course through much of the workout… I just died in the middle of the double leg raises, but I doubt it would have mattered which track I was following for that. So I skipped those, and I think there was one other part where I followed the modified version, but overall I followed the full version. Rockers were reasonable today, single leg circles or whatever they’re called weren’t all that great. I’m sure there were several things that probably weren’t done ideally, due to ab fatigue. But I think I might be about to the point where I’m ready to start taking this workout on on a consistent basis, so that’s certainly good. Anyway, another stretching workout too early tomorrow morning, and then ultimate at lunch.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

After a very long break, I have once again returned to pilates abs. I went with the modified workout, figuring that the full workout would probably destroy me after such a long break. It actually didn’t go too badly. My abs held up a little better than I was expecting, overall, although it was obvious that it’s been quite a while since I did the workout. The rockers were probably the most notable thing… I had trouble maintaining the balance, particularly during the basic rocker. It got better as I went through the different types, probably because I started to remember how to maintain my balance after rocking forward. I was able to do everything with only the faintest twinging in the shoulder, with the exception of dropping into pushup at the end, which I decided to skip. Or at least modify how I got there. I think my shoulder has pretty much healed to the point where as long as I’m not putting weight/pressure on it while rotating, it’s fine. So hopefully it won’t be too much longer before it’s completely restored, and I can get back into the full workout set. I’ll probably continue to take it relatively easy for the rest of the week, and think about getting a little more aggressive next week, depending on how things progress.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Pilates
Author: chaos

Man, this is one tough workout. Every time I think that my abs are getting stronger, and that I’m really going to be able to handle this workout, it knocks me down again. I wasn’t too sure how today was going to go when I started, but I felt like my abs were pretty rested, so it should go reasonably well. Unfortunately, it also seems like I’ve been taking too much time off from this workout. It actually started out quite well, wasn’t feeling the effects yet heading into the series of five. Unfortunately, as usual, by the time I got to the other side I was pretty much groaning and my abs felt severely beaten. I managed to continue on with fairly decent form for the rest of the workout, but it’s still just not up to the level that I’d like. I’m actually wondering if I should go back to making yoga for abs my standard for abs workouts until I can get my breathing form more consistently where I want it to be. I did okay today, but it was a constant effort to keep track of it as I attempted to do the moves. Anyway, a rather hard but useful workout today… not really sure what I’ll do tomorrow, maybe something in the power yoga series.