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Workout: Cardio Pilates
Author: chaos

Decided to go in for the cardio pilates workout today. Mostly just for the pilates part, although I did do the beginning of the cardio section today. I had forgotten that it actually provides a decent powerhouse workout, as well. Anyway, decent session. Concentration was fairly good. I managed to hit pretty much everything, which is unusual, and a sign of good focus. Anyway, just trying to keep going with the workouts for now. Was slightly more productive today, which may or may not be a sign of anything else. Past performance not being a guarantee of future results, and all that. Anyway, I’ll probably go for another strength workout of some type tomorrow, since I think I’ve now recovered from the previous few.

Workout: Cardio Pilates
Author: chaos

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

Workout: Cardio Pilates
Author: chaos

I originally planned on getting more workouts in over the weekend, but I didn’t originally plan on being sick, either, so it’s not surprising that plans got slightly rearranged. Not that I was seriously ill or anything, just… fatigued. Rather annoying, really, but as far as being ill goes, not that bad. Anyway, decided to dig out the cardio pilates workout tonight. It’s been so long since I last did the workout, I couldn’t even really remember it. It was actually a little more challenging than I remembered it being… the entirety of the series of five is present in this workout, if not quite to the level of the pilates abs workout. It did feel like it was missing something, although I can’t quite place what it is. Still, it did provide a reasonably challenging workout, at least to someone who’s a bit out of pilates shape. I decided to skip the cardio segment, since I’m getting plenty of that in these days, and should be until at least the end of October. Hopefully beyond that as well… but I’m not ready to divulge that potential plan, at least not yet. Anyway, feeling fairly fatigued after the workout, although I’m quite certain that’s from the residual illness rather than the workout. So, off to the shower, and then perhaps a few hours of sleep, since I seem to be sleeping in small increments lately.

Workout: Cardio Pilates
Author: chaos

Well, my shoulder certainly wasn’t feeling up to a yoga workout tonight, so I decided to go ahead with the pilates workout. I was somewhat concerned that that would also create some problems for the shoulder, but I figured that I could probably modify around the potential problems. It went reasonably well. For the most part, I was able to simply modify the motion of my arms a little bit in order to avoid trouble. Until the side kicks, at least. I probably should have avoided doing those, but I was hoping that I could hold my body stable enough to handle it. It wasn’t all that bad, really, but it still probably would have been better avoided. I did skip the mermaid, since that seemed like it would really be asking for trouble. I also passed on the cardio segment, since I’m quite sure that my shoulder wasn’t going to be able to handle the arm motions for that. So, a little less of a workout than I might have liked, but still probably good to change from abs. I’ll probably end up doing abs balanceball or something tomorrow, and go back to just staying away from any shoulder work for a few more days.

Workout: Cardio Pilates
Author: chaos

It’s been a long time since I’ve done this workout. That’s partly because once I started playing ultimate and DDR fairly often, the cardio part became less necessary, and partly because I like the intermediate mat workout slightly better. But since I was trying to avoid straining my shoulder, and I knew that the intermediate mat workout had a decent chance of doing that during the side kick section, I decided to try the cardio workout.
It was okay… I felt a little bit rusty in my knowledge of the movements, but I actually thought that most of my motions once I remembered what I was supposed to be doing were pretty good. For some reason the rocker really worked today, after the first one. No problems balancing whatsoever. The closed leg rocker wasn’t as good, although it was still better than many times in the past. This workout does have a side kick section that I had forgotten about, but it wasn’t too bad. Still a little harder on the shoulder than I’d have liked. I was intending to do the cardio section, but decided fairly quickly that neither shoulder was too happy with that idea, so I scrapped that. Overall, the workout was a little unsatisfying, but I’ll continue to attempt to heal as quickly as possible here, and then get on with better and more satisfying workouts.

Workout: Cardio Pilates
Author: chaos

Had another pretty good workout today. It was kind of funny, because my head has just been… running in circles today, not very clear at all. Okay, despairing is probably more accurate. I really didn’t have a particular sense for the workout tonight, and my partner chose this one. I had been thinking that it had been a while since I had done any pilates, and getting some in wouldn’t be a bad thing. So it seemed a reasonable thing to do.
It ended up going surprisingly well. For whatever reason, I was very focused on my breathing and movement tonight. This was true during the pilates segment, but strangely it was even more true for the cardio segment. The cardio segment really clicked for the first time for me tonight. I understood the proper breathing and the way to keep my abdomen firm and supporting my back. I really got into the rhythm of the workout tonight as well. I don’t know… can’t really explain it any further, I guess. Suffice it to say that it was a good workout, and hopefully I’ll be able to keep up this trend of being very present and aware for the workouts.

Workout: Cardio Pilates
Author: chaos

I wasn’t too sure about the workout tonight going in to this one. Not feeling too inspired, I was afraid that it was going to be another fairly difficult session. Surprisingly, though, it actually ended up being fairly decent. It was tough going at first, especially through the segments that really used the abs. For whatever reason, my abs seem particularly worn out the last couple of workouts, so I think that I’ll rest them for a couple of days.
Anyway, once I got past the early exercises, things started to get better. I don’t know if I started getting more mentally involved, or just didn’t have to work as hard physically, but it definitely felt like an improvement. I was fairly pleased with the cardio segment… I think that my form is improving, and it definitely felt like a workout. I should probably be hitting this workout more often, or at least be doing some cardio in addition to my regular workouts. Maybe once the weather starts to get a little nicer that will happen a little more. Of course, the way things are going, it doesn’t feel like that will happen until June, but it will probably actually happen in late May. Oh well. I’ll probably try to pick up a good yoga workout tomorrow, possibly total body again.

Workout: Cardio Pilates
Author: chaos

Another cardio pilates workout today. Concentrated on keeping my abs scooped again today. It’s a little bit easier, since Ana constantly reminds you to do so. I still don’t really know what the advantage is, but it does seem to work the lower abs a little bit more. I’m getting a little bit better at the pilates moves overall, I think… they’re coming more naturally. Although I have a bit of trouble with having my feet in pilates stance… they’re too curled. I need to work on having the toes relaxed.
The cardio section went a little bit better, despite being mocked for my marching style. At least I’m not as tired afterwards. I presume this means that my cardio is improving, at least a little bit. I’m also getting better at the side lunges, although that still needs a little bit of work as well. I guess that I’m just very stiff in my movements overall. Something at which I’ll perhaps get better with time and practice. I’ll probably check out a new video tomorrow before it has to be returned to the library, so we’ll see how that goes.

Workout: Cardio Pilates
Author: chaos

Tried out the cardio pilates workout for the second time tonight. The pilates part went pretty well, for the most part… I’m definitely getting better at those motions, overall. This workout does incorporate a few things that aren’t in the abs workout, in particular a side leg lift sort of thing that really stretches the hips. Mine, at any rate. It’ll be a really long time before I can do that like Ana does, if ever. I’m not actually certain my hips are capable of doing that at all. But it will probably improve my hip flexibility, which is all I’m really looking for from it.
The cardio segment went slightly better. Well, in a sense… I definitely felt like I was working harder than I did last time. I don’t think it’s a particularly intensive cardio segment, so just the fact that I even notice it is showing me that my cardio could use some serious help. But then again, I already knew that… which is part of why I got the video. So at least I should be taking the beginning steps towards having cardio fitness in addition to… well, whatever type of fitness I get from yoga. I’m suspecting that I probably won’t manage to get an extra workout in this weekend, and will just go with my normal balanceball abs workout tomorrow afternoon.

Workout: Cardio Pilates
Author: chaos

Woo. Tried out my new cardio pilates workout today. It’s a bit different than I was imagining… it’s really a pilates workout followed by a cardio segment. I was envisioning more of an integrated workout. I’m not entirely certain how that would work, but then again, I’m not a pilates instructor or anything. Anyway, I think it’ll be a decent workout. Many of the pilates exercises are the same as the ones on the abs conditioning video, but with some new ones thrown in. The side kicks in particular really challenge my flexibility, which is good… maybe if I keep with them they’ll help increase my flexibility. The cardio segment is fairly basic overall, largely repeating the same four movement types a bunch of times, until near the end. But, it does get the heart rate up, and it would probably do an even better job of that if I weren’t rather awkward while doing the moves. I was definitely getting better as I did them, except for the lunges to the side. Those seem to be completely outside the realm of my traditional movement types, though people used to cardio style workouts would probably laugh. Anyway, I practiced those a little bit more after the workout, and hopefully I’ll do slightly better with them next time. For tomorrow, probably a balanceball workout, and then perhaps something tomorrow night as well.