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Workout: Intermediate Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I didn’t come to this workout quite in the way that I was intending, which was an earlier workout yesterday and then this workout today. I instead missed the workout yesterday, largely because of my rather odd sleeping schedule over the last couple of days. Well, yesterday, for certain values of yesterday. Anyway, since I was doing the workout during an appropriate time of the day, went ahead and got in the intermediate workout. It was somewhat of a mixed bag in terms of performance… I did better during the first section than I have been. I’ve even been getting somewhat into revolved triangle pose the last couple of times I’ve done this workout. Now that I’m starting to get that one, though, I realize just how much hip flexibility it requires. Pretty crazy amount, really. Anyway, that was the fairly good part. For the inverted poses, I was able to get into them all, but I wasn’t able to hold them for very long, except for headstand. Headstand was actually pretty easy in terms of getting up, but I couldn’t find my balance away from the wall today, which was a little annoying. But, since I seemed to be a bit weak all around, perhaps not all that surprising. Overall, definitely not a bad workout. I should try to get it in a little more often, just for the practice. I did want to note that I think I’ll take a week or two off from the hip opening workout… while I don’t think it’s really damaging the knee any more, I don’t think it’s beneficial to the healing process, either. Hopefully the other workouts will help me continue to work on my flexibility without straining the knee. Not quite sure when I’ll be sleeping, so it’s hard for me to say when I’ll work out next, but hopefully sometime later tonight or early tomorrow I’ll get something in.

Workout: Intermediate Yoga
Author: chaos

Decided to go for broke and bust out on intermediate yoga today. Certainly I had somewhat less success with it than I have been with the other long workouts this week, but that’s to be expected. I continue to experience some difficulties with my shoulders getting fatigued early in the workout. Not quite sure what the story is there. Of course, this workout requires a fair amount of arm and shoulder strength for the inverted poses, so that made life a little more difficult. Still, I only skipped one of the handstands, and one of the upward bows during the workout, and at least made an attempt to do everything else. I had decent success with half moon pose, and had probably my best revolved triangle poses to date. It’s a really subtle balancing of the legs, while at the same time relaxing the legs and the body. Not quite sure how to describe it, and I’m not actually sure I’ll necessarily be able to repeat it next time. Have to wait and see, I guess. During headstand I was able to balance my feet away from the wall for a little while, which was cool. I’m starting to get a little more of the sense of balancing upside down, I think. I need a lot more practice, of course, but you have to start somewhere. My right knee seems to be healing fairly well… as long as I’m careful, I can rotate it pretty much as well as I’ve ever been able to. So maybe I’ll get back to doing the hip opening workout soon. Not too much else to say, other than this was definitely the most tiring workout I’ve done in a while. I’ll probably take it a little easier tomorrow, maybe do flexibility or something. Might even take the day off, depending on some outside factors. Anyway, until next time…

Workout: Intermediate Yoga
Author: chaos

Unfortunately, ultimate was cancelled today due to inclement weather. Really, the weather wasn’t all that bad, just rainy, but since it had been raining much of the day, it was felt that the field would be in relatively poor condition. While annoying, the logic for that is reasonable, so I suppose I can’t be too unhappy about it. However, this left me without a proper workout for the day, since normally I expect to get in a few hours of exercise on a Tuesday. I thought about going for a run, but wasn’t particularly in the mood, particularly considering the rain. So I instead decided to take advantage of the unexpected opening in my schedule, and get in an intermediate yoga workout.
I was reasonably pleased with the workout. I was feeling a little tired somewhat early in the workout, particularly in the shoulders, but I don’t think it had a serious effect on the workout as a whole. Half moon pose went pretty well today. Warrior III to the right wasn’t good, but to the left was okay. I still can’t really do revolved triangle to the right. Of course, the sore tailbone problem doesn’t help that at all. I’m starting to get it down going to the left, but it’s still hard. Eventually I’ll get there, I’m sure.
Inverted poses weren’t too bad. I had some trouble kicking up into handstand, but eventually managed to get into both of them. I got into the arm stand without too much trouble, but it was really tiring today, perhaps because I got into the handstands. So I ended up coming out of it fairly quickly. However, I managed to get into headstand right away, and I was able to hold it for the entire time. I think I have a much better understanding of it now. I was even able to move my legs away from the wall for a little bit. So that’s a definite improvement.
The closing section was also a little bit better today, I think. I felt like I had a slightly better understanding of what I was trying to do with the bridge pose. I continued to work on increasing my hip flexibility, attempting all of the half-lotus poses. Admittedly, I don’t do them well, but I think if I keep working at them, I’ll start getting the flexibility I need. Shoulderstand was okay, but my arms were really unhappy for some reason. They were tingling pretty badly just from holding it for the time of the video. I must have been cutting off the circulation of something, although I’m not quite sure how. Anyway, I’ll probably take it a little bit easier tomorrow… I think I’ll try to get two shorter workouts in. Maybe intermediate mat workout and something else. Until then…

Workout: Intermediate Yoga
Author: chaos

Although I wasn’t quite sure I was ready for it, I went ahead and got another intermediate yoga workout in today. I was pretty happy with the opening section… I reviewed the disc the other day, so I had a better idea of what was coming in the workout, as well as what I wanted to do. The opening section went pretty well, although I was unable to do the revolved triangle pose with my right leg forward. I was able to hold it for a little while with my left leg forward, so that was a positive. I was quite pleased with both of my half moon poses… I think studying the workout a little more really solidified my conception of the pose. Warrior III also went quite well, although I did fall out of it on the left side. Overall, though, I’ve been happy with my progress on both of those poses during the last month or so.
Inverted poses were okay. Really, it was about the same as last time… did the initial handstand, didn’t get into the second one, did part of the arm stand, and did the headstand. I couldn’t quite find the balance for headstand today, though, so I wasn’t able to lift my legs away from the wall for any signicant amount of time. The need to develop more shoulder strength is quite obvious, though. I might start trying to work in either a handstand or the arm stand into some of my other workouts, to try and work on that shoulder strength. Or I might just put more emphasis on some of the workouts that have a lot of downward dog, like py:strength and yfs:s1.
I attempted to get my legs into half lotus today for the final section, although without much success. My hips just don’t turn in the appropriate direction, at least not yet. Perhaps one day in the future they will. I had a lot of trouble with upward bow today… wasn’t getting the positioning quite right. Shoulderstand wasn’t bad… I was hoping that by keeping my hands further down on my back, I would avoid the problem where they start tingling, but that wasn’t the case. So there’s still something to work on there.
Well, while I do want to continue building up my shoulder strength, I’m not sure that they don’t need a short break. I’ve been pushing them for a couple of days now, and while they’re not really hurting or anything, they have been getting tired a little easily during the workouts. However, with ultimate coming up on Tuesday, I’m unlikely to do a particularly strenuous workout then. So it’s possible I’ll do something like abs/py:strength tomorrow, or I may just take it easy for a day or two and see how the shoulders are feeling then. For now, I’m planning on going hard tomorrow, and then dialing the intensity back a little for the following three days, and picking it back up for the weekend.

Workout: Intermediate Yoga
Author: chaos

Finally got the intermediate yoga workout in today. I have to admit that after all of the anticipation, it was a bit of a disappointment. Really, that was only because I didn’t perform to quite the level that I would have liked. So I guess the problem is just that I let my expectations of my performance exceed what I was capable of. Well, the problem was arguably that I had expectations about the workout at all, but that’s a slightly different matter.
Started off the workout with some decent breath work, although that pretty much got lost when I hit the first warriors. They were a little bit faster that I expected, which was enough to throw me off a little bit. I settled in to my normal breathing pattern without a problem, so it wasn’t a real issue. I felt pretty good about a couple of the more challenging poses, half moon and warrior III. While I didn’t fully complete any of them, I felt that I increased my understanding of how to really expand into those poses, which is a good development. I think because they’re more challenging, it’s easier for me to stay mindful of everything while I’m doing them. Now I just need to expand that back to the rest of the practice. Revolved triangle was a disaster today, though. I could not maintain the balance at all, even trying it with a block. I’m not actually sure the block helped, though… since I’m not used to using one, I think it threw me off as much as anything else. Overall, I think my rotation is okay, although I’d like more, but I have a lot of trouble with the balance in that pose. Something for me to keep working on.
The inverted poses weren’t too bad. I managed to get into one of the handstands, headstand, and part of the armstand that’s kind of like a pre-headstand. I completely missed on one of the handstands, primarily because my shoulders were feeling the fatigue of some of the previous workouts. I tried adjusting my balance in a few of the poses, particularly the handstand, to having my legs away from the wall, but it’s very tricky. I did do better once I started really focusing on my body, and adjusted the balance from within. An interesting point to keep in mind. Overall, though, I learned that I really need to continue working on my strength, as well as eating correctly, to have greater success with these poses.
After that, the workout started to break down a little. I was feeling somewhat tired by that point, and just had a lot of trouble focusing on the workout like I should have been. I tried to be mindful and experiment somewhat with positioning, particularly during some of the twists, but it just didn’t feel very satisfying. I did have a bit of good stretching at the end, but the upward bows and even shoulderstand were a bit weak today. I probably should have eaten a little more earlier in the day, to make sure I’d have enough energy for the workout. Overall, the workout certainly wasn’t a bust, but wasn’t as successful as I would have liked, either. However, it does provide some motivation for continuing to work hard and improve so that the workout will be a success, and that’s not a bad thing.

Workout: Intermediate Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I indeed go to the intermediate yoga workout today. Unfortunately, I failed to eat enough earlier in the day, and realized fairly soon after starting that I was fatiguing fairly quickly. Part of this may have been related to the total body workout the other night… my shoulders started to get tired really quickly, which I suspect is partly due to the lack of decent workouts in the last few months. But I just started to tire quickly in general, which was a sign of insufficient energy. It was rather foolish of me… I knew that I hadn’t eaten enough, but I did want to try and get the workout in. Anyway, I ended up making it through the sun salutations section, although I was getting quite tired by the end. Regrettably, I skipped over the inverted poses section, which was the section that I really wanted to do. I just didn’t feel that I could make a decent go of it with my energy levels where they were, though. I skipped into the cooldown section, where I made an attempt at everything except for the upward bows. I started to position for the first one, and then realized that I really didn’t have the energy for it. Overall, this told me that I really need to start paying a lot of attention to my diet, to make sure that I have enough energy to do these workouts. I’m sure that in doing that, I’ll improve my general energy level and response to the day, as well. Anyway, today’s workout was a bit of a bust, but I’ll just take it relatively easy the next day or two, and come back at it once I return home.

Workout: Intermediate Yoga
Author: chaos

I’ve been feeling very lethargic for the last couple of days. Really haven’t been motivated to do much of anything at all, including yoga. However, I was determined not to let that trend continue any further than it already had, and since I had been considering doing the intermediate workout anyway, I decided to go for broke.
I started out with a quick review of what the workout actually went through. Since I’ve only done it the one time before, and that was several months ago, I didn’t really recall what kind of ground it covered. I remembered the inverted poses, of course, since that was the primary motivator in getting the workout in the first place, but wasn’t sure what else it entailed. As it turns out, the first part is somewhat similar to the first part of total body, but a little bit faster and with a little less in the way of gradual warmup. Anyway, nothing new in the intro section, except the revolved triangle poses. This time I was paying closer attention, so I saw how they were supposed to be done, but it’s going to be a while before I can do one properly. I don’t have that kind of flexibility yet. Actually, I’m not sure if the flexibility or the balance is the greater problem. I managed to get it going somewhat with the left leg forward… I’ll need some more work to get it with the right leg forward, even somewhat. The balance just isn’t there yet.
The inverted poses actually went fairly well. I haven’t really gotten to the point of supporting myself fully upright yet, but at least this time I was able to kick up into the poses. I seem to recall last time that I only managed to get up once, and wore myself out trying to kick up repeatedly. Even with the wall helping, it’s quite obvious that I need to build up my upper arm and shoulder strength quite a bit to have a high degree of success with those poses, at least unsupported. I think I was a little bit better off before the long break in shoulder related activities, but that’s why I need to start getting serious again and building back up into full length workouts all the time. Admittedly, I don’t have as much free time as I’d like to dedicate to that proposition, but I think I just need to be a little bit better about not procrastinating, and I’ll only need to squeeze my schedule a little bit more in order to get some harder workouts in.
The final section was stretching and relaxation, fairly basic stuff, except for the call for a lot of putting legs into half lotus. While my ability to approach half lotus has been increasing, I’m still not all that close to being able to do a proper half lotus, which made things a little trickier. However, I just got in as far as I could without strain, and worked from there. Even fairly pathetic attempts at half lotus will probably start helping me gain the flexibility necessary to do it properly, such that one day I’ll hopefully be able to fully complete the pose. Anyway, it was a pretty decent workout overall, and hopefully it will help motivate me to really get going with my practice again. I’m guessing that I’ll probably take it easy tomorrow with something like abs yoga, as I anticipate I’ll probably be a little bit tender from the workout today.

Workout: Intermediate Yoga
Author: chaos

Well, I expected that this workout would actually be more of a challenge than I was capable of, and I was quite correct. Just the beginning section was moderately difficult, although within the range of things I had done before, so it wasn’t too bad. With the exception of the revolved triangle pose, which was new. I didn’t get the placement correct for the attempt to the right side, but managed to get it very briefly for the one on the left. It’s quite a bit different from normal triangle pose. It’ll be some time before I become competent at it, I think, but I’ll probably start trying to integrate it into some of my free form workouts, in order to practice it more often than I’m likely to get back to this workout.
The inverted poses thoroughly kicked my ass. It’s actually hard to say that I was practicing them, because I spent most of the time trying to kick up into them. I got up once and fell back down again (I’m not really sure why, since I was kicking into a wall, but I guess I wasn’t really shifting my body for that… probably the main reason I had trouble kicking up, actually). I did get up for one of the poses, and it was fairly tiring. As I expected, it seems that I’ll have to build my shoulders and chest up some more in order to really do all of the poses. After the inverted pose section, things got back more towards normal, except for the workout calling for half lotus, which I still can’t do. Although I think I’m getting closer. Anyway, the summary is that it was a quite difficult workout, I couldn’t do about a third of it, and I’ll just have to keep trying it until I improve. I’ll probably take a bit of a rest day tomorrow, and just do an abs workout.