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Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

I seem to be experiencing some difficulty with returning to a regular schedule of workouts. That’s always the frustrating thing when I get off schedule… getting back on tends to be a pain. Anyway, I intended to do this workout last night, but then ended up falling asleep early. I did do some Stepmania last night, and that went pretty well. Well, the dancing itself wasn’t that great, but I was able to do 9 footers, and my hamstring was okay with that. So that was good. I did a touch of stretching afterwards, but not enough to consider it even a short workout. Decided to go ahead and get some abs in today, since I had been neglecting them somewhat even before the hamstring injury, and haven’t really done any since. It went reasonably well… I thought my abs might be a bit sore from the Stepmania, but they were fine. I’m not sure I’d consider it an inspired workout by any means, but it wasn’t bad. I’m planning on playing ultimate today, so I plan on getting another workout in before that, a short stretching workout, of course. 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: Abs Conditioning: Yoga, Power Yoga: Stamina
Author: chaos

I went with the abs yoga workout that I was originally thinking about for tonight. It was somewhat tougher than I expected it to be… my lower abs were definitely feeling the burn, as it were. Good to see the pilates is at least making the muscles work. I got through without any real trouble, although my form wasn’t quite as tight as I’d like. My focus was a little weak as well, although I’m not sure that it’s been all that great at any point lately. I haven’t been paying enough attention to it, certainly. After the workout, I was a bit uncertain as to what I wanted to do. I was feeling rather hungry, so just eating was an option. I had originally thought about getting the hip opening workout in, but after a bit of reflection I decided that I wanted to do that after a Stepmania workout, and since I was planning on taking the night off from that, hip opening wasn’t happening. In the end I decided to just go with a stamina workout, because I wanted something fairly light. I considered just doing nothing, but the abs workout felt really light by itself, so I felt the need to get something else in. That workout was decent as well, although my legs were feeling somewhat stiff. That was another part of the reason I wanted to get something else in, try to work the stiffness out of my legs a little bit. The stiffness is that somewhat unusual stiffness that I was resting a week or so ago… I think it’s related to stretching more than I usually can, or something. I don’t know that it’s a bad thing, really… quite possibly means that my flexibility is increasing. Still, I plan on continuing to monitor the situation, make sure things seem okay. That’s all for tonight… not sure what I’ll do tomorrow… possibly pilates.

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

Started amping up my schedule today with a yoga abs workout and the hip opening workout. I’ve long meant to start combining abs workouts with other short workouts in order to increase the challenge and the rate of my progress, but have often had difficulty actually doing so, either do to motivation or injury. However, I’m currently at a point where it provides a more adequate level of workout, and I’m not overly injured, so hopefully this will be a new trend in shorter workouts. Anyway, wasn’t really that great of a workout day. The physical aspects were pretty much fine, but I wasn’t quite there mentally. At least for the abs workout. For the hip opening workout, I think I’ve regressed a little bit, but not actually all that much. I didn’t actually complete the workout, because my knee hasn’t completely healed, and I felt like I had put enough stress on it for the night. However, the fact that I was able to do many of the exercises was a good sign. So I’ll probably start trying to get this workout in more frequently again. Of course, with all the workouts I’d like to start getting in more frequently, I’m not sure I’ll actually have time for all of them, so we’ll see what actually happens. Since I can add this one to other short workouts, it might have a slightly better chance. Not quite sure what I’m going to do tomorrow… might be about time for another total body workout. Of course, I’ve been thinking about getting yoga burn in again, so that’s also a possibility. Most likely something long, though, whatever I end up deciding.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

As anticipated, went with another light workout tonight. Decided to go with abs, as I want to get back into the habit of doing them every third day or so, if not more frequently. Not quite sure how well that is going to work out, since Stepmania definitely uses the abs. Tonight’s workout was fine, though, no noticeable soreness or anything. Focus wasn’t quite as good as I would like, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. It’s been a bit of an off day all around, so it’s not terribly surprising. I haven’t played any Stepmania yet today, but I think I probably will a little bit later, unless I end up sleeping or something instead. Not yet sure if I’ll get a long workout in tomorrow or not… if not tomorrow, I definitely plan on getting one in on Friday.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I’ve had significantly more trouble than I expected getting back into the yoga habit here. This is largely due to the fact that I’ve been going to sleep strangely early… I think it’s a residual effect from being sick. The other problem is that I haven’t just been doing the workouts earlier in the day, when I’m awake. I may start doing that, though, just to avoid the potential of missing the workout. Anyway, decided to just get a short abs workout today to try and jump start the process of getting back into the daily habit. It wasn’t too bad, although given that it’s been a few weeks since I last did abs, I suspect that I might be a touch tender tomorrow. Maybe not, though. Not much else to say… did some Stepmania earlier, trying to get into a daily habit for that as well. I was a little bit better today, and got a bit better of a workout because of it. Must continue to improve so as to get the best workout possible, or something. Well, hopefully I’ve managed to get the process going again, and will have more workouts coming shortly.

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

So much for that increase in motivation. Totally slacked off yesterday, both on essays and on the workout. Somewhat made up for it today, actually doing both the hip opening and abs yoga workouts. I really need to start getting to the DDR… I think I’m suffering from a lack of cardio exercise lately. Of course, I need to get this one app out in the next couple of days, another one a few days after that, probably another one a few days after that, and one more by the 15th. So I probably won’t actually be getting to it nearly as soon as I’d like, unless I really do get my shit together here. Which really doesn’t seem to be happening. Anyway, I’ll probably hit something up for strength tomorrow, but I won’t put something like total body out of the question… depends on what kind of mood I’m in, I suspect. Anyway, until then.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Ugh. Another low motivation day. In general, not just with respect to the workout. Although the workout certainly showed that, as well. I had originally been thinking about doing the pilates abs workout today, but couldn’t summon the desire. I barely had the desire to do any workout, really. Kind of annoying. I really need to get myself on track here. Anyway, nothing too exciting about the workout. It seemed a little easy, to be honest, although I was trying to stay focused and really work the abs. While I think that I could have a better workout, I also think that I may finally be getting back to the point where this workout doesn’t really challenge me. So that’s a bit of a good thing. Now I just need to start pushing into the other workouts, particularly pilates, so that I am challenged. Hopefully I can start doing that. Anyway… who knows what I’ll do tomorrow. It’ll depend partly on whether or not I’m still in this motivation slump, I’m sure. Hopefully I’ll at least do a strength session of some type.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Still not really feeling my normal levels of motivation here. Decided to do abs simply because it’s been several days since I have, and I have been trying to keep to a regular schedule of abs. I also didn’t have anything else that I particularly felt like doing, so it made sense to go with something that doesn’t require all that much motivation, and already has a set sequence. My focus wasn’t quite as good as it had been lately, and I think the physical aspects of the workout suffered because of it. Not too much else to say… in the end, not as good as a workout as I’d have liked, but that happens sometimes. Hopefully I break back out of this small slump I’ve been in pretty soon, and get back to some good workouts.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I was really tired by the time that I got home last night, so I decided that I’d just forgo the workout, and not worry about “catching up”. However, I woke up considerably earlier than I expected to, so I decided to go ahead and sneak a workout in early in the day. Went with the abs workout that I had been originally thinking of. Physically, it went well… didn’t have the same problems with pain below my left tendon that I did on Thursday. Mentally, though, it was pretty poor… couldn’t escape the sense of having way too much to do in the time left to do it in. Which probably isn’t true, as long as I’m not slacking off today. So we’ll see what happens. Probably going to go play ultimate for a little while later, although I really shouldn’t. Hopefully that will cement the feeling of impending doom and cause me to be productive the rest of the day, though. We’ll see. Anyway, time to stop writing this and get on with stuff I actually need to do, so until later…

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

As anticipated, went with abs yoga today. I didn’t have the video with me, but I’m so familiar with it at this point that it’s easy for me to just do it from memory. It went okay… the left tendon problem was a little annoying, but this workout doesn’t affect that too much. I was happy that I managed to get up in time to do the workout before heading out to the events of the day, since I wouldn’t have another chance until late tonight. Hooray for the occasional motivation. For now, things to do, people to see, etc. Not sure what the plan for tomorrow is… something light and stretching, possibly.

Workout: Abs Conditioning: Yoga
Author: chaos

While I did manage to watch the Yoga Burn video today, I decided I wasn’t quite ready for it, and so I just went with abs yoga instead. Interestingly, it seems like the yoga burn video incorporates a number of elements from abs yoga. I’m not too sure what that means, but I found it noteworthy, anyway. Today’s workout was decent… I was actually a little surprised, because I thought it would be a little harder than it was. While I certainly wouldn’t categorize it as easy, I’ve had much more difficult sessions. Perhaps the fact that I’ve started making protein drinks after my workouts is beginning to pay off. Or perhaps my abs are finally starting to get used to regular work again. My ankle felt better today, but I didn’t really want to push it. Hmmm… random thoughts. I need to wash my yoga mat one of these days. Maybe I’ll do it Monday night, if I can remember to. I really need to be careful about my diet for the next week or two… without a keeper, it’s easy for me to start forgetting meals and such, which isn’t good. Must avoid. Anyway, that’s all for now. I think I’ll probably give Yoga Burn a shot tomorrow, see how it is. Oh, another random thought, my hamstrings are fairly sore from yesterday. Not quite sure what I did wrong, but… still working on proper technique, I guess. Oh well, until 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: 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: 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: 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.