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Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Taking it a little easier today with only a YfS:s1 workout and some Stepmania. I was originally planning on getting some abs in as well, but given the heavy abs work of the last week, it seemed like I’d probably be pushing it a little to get it in. So I just went with the first part of the workout, as it were. Went pretty well… I’m not sure how I can get my mat to be stickier, though. I have a lot of problems with my hands sliding during downward dog, especially if I have to hold it for very long. Perhaps more cleaning will help… I’m not really sure. Anyway, decided to go for a little bit longer with shoulderstand today… probably went for three or four minutes. I’d have to time it off the video to be sure. Didn’t actually feel all that tired after the workout. Did some Stepmania afterwards… I hadn’t originally planned to, but I was feeling fairly good. Didn’t challenge myself overly much today, as I wanted to take it a bit easier on the feet. Practiced a few different songs that I know have sections that I have trouble with. Slight improvement. If I keep practicing, I’ll eventually be pretty decent, I think. That’s all for now… not too sure what I’m going to do tomorrow. A longer workout, most likely, but no idea which one.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

The problem with the shorter workouts, once I’ve started getting into the longer ones again, is that they no longer seem particularly challenging. Sure, they have some challenging aspects, but overall they’re just not that difficult. Of course, sometimes that’s for the best… really, this is more of a note than a complaint, per se. Anyway, was having some problem motivating to do the workout, but eventually managed to go ahead with YfS:s1. I wasn’t quite up to a hour long workout tonight, but this is definitely one of the more challenging of the shorter workouts, if mostly for the headstand preparation sequence. Anyway, it was a fairly decent workout, no real complaints. For tomorrow, I think I’ll probably try and do an abs workout with another workout, possibly pilates and hip opening. We’ll see… not quite sure I’m ready for hip opening again so soon. And not sure I’ll feel like doing much else after pilates abs. But I’ll probably at least try to throw in py:stamina or something light like that if I end up deciding against hip opening.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

I have to say that this is one of the best workouts I’ve had in a long time. I really felt like I was in the groove for the workout today. The only problem I had was during the two minute downward dog, my shoulders got really tired. I’m not quite sure what the deal was… I could feel that they were a little tired early in the workout, so I rather expected the fatigue during the downward dog. I just don’t know what they could have been tired from, really. Anyway, other than that, was really happy with the workout. Played some Stepmania earlier in the day, that was decent. I definitely think practicing frequently is going to help me get a lot better. And, of course, hopefully keep me in decent cardio shape. That’s all for tonight… not sure what I’ll try to do tomorrow, might depend on how sore I am. If I’m not sore, I might try for total body or something, if I am, probably a pilates workout.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

It does appear that I’ll be able to continue on with some semblance of my practice, anyway. Did the YfS:s1 session today, and had no real problems with the knee. The only modification I made was at the end, where I decided not to do the leg stretches out to the sides, and just do the straight leg stretch for longer. I also did shoulderstand for longer than the workout, probably 30 seconds or so longer. The workout was pretty good… I felt a little more in tune with my body today, for whatever reason. It felt like I was actually paying attention today, which is most notable because it demonstrates how little attention I have been paying lately. Not sure what I can do about it… it comes and goes. I am hoping that I’ll start focusing more on my workouts after this week… well, after returning home next week, I suppose. I’m also going to attempt meditation again, although I was really hoping to have at least simple cross-legged pose down before I did that, and I’ve been set fairly far back on that front. Nonetheless, the effort must go forward, so I’ll have to adapt. Anyway… things to do, hopefully a few less things to do after today. Maybe I’ll have time for an extra workout tonight or tomorrow night. Until next time…

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

I managed to overcome my desire to slack off tonight, and get the workout in. It actually ended up being a fairly decent workout, as well… I have a new idea on how to keep my hamstrings from getting so sore. I think I have to relax them when coming up from standing forward bend. It’ll be harder to keep track of during faster workouts, though, so we’ll see how it goes. I doubt I’ll really be able to tell from tonight, since I don’t think they’re usually sore after this workout. Anyway, workout was decent. I’m definitely pleased that I managed not to be all lazy about it. Well, things to do tonight, like finish my essays that are due in just over 24 hours, so I should probably be on to that. For tomorrow… hard to say. Might just go quick and easy, or I might take a long workout, depending on when everything gets finished. So until then…

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Having some definite motivation problems the past couple of days. It’s probably partly the fault of my diet… I lost a few pounds while traveling from not eating enough, and I haven’t been doing significantly better since returning home. I haven’t been losing weight, but I have been sleeping a lot, and that’s most often a sign of insufficient calorie consumption, I find. Also of avoidance, but that’s a slightly different issue. Anyway, went with a workout I’ve been thinking about doing ever since getting home, YfS:s1. I really wanted to do the shoulderstand sequence, for some reason. Workout as a whole went pretty well… the two minute downward dog was interesting, I was having some problems with trembling, yet at the same time, I wasn’t really feeling fatigued. Kind of odd. I definitely felt like I could fairly easily hold the pose a while longer, though, which is a good thing. Not too much else to say… I definitely feel like I’ve been neglecting the cardio aspect of things this month, though. I have a few things I want to try and knock out by the end of the month, but after that, I want to get serious about the whole physical fitness thing again. Which means I need to get this other stuff done, so I can get on with it. Anyway, those are the thoughts for today, hopefully I’ll come back tomorrow with another good workout, or at least a pilates workout or something.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Decided to keep going after my goal of building strength with the YfS:s1 workout tonight. It’s a bit longer than some of the other workouts, but it was what I really felt like working on tonight, so I went with it. I was able to do the entire workout this time, my left forearm having healed from the damage of last week. Predictably, I found the two minute downward dog more difficult to do after doing the other headstand preparations, although I think quite a bit of the difficulty was in the fact that I was having trouble keeping my hands from sliding. Other than that, it was a pretty straightforward workout. I noticed that I really didn’t break a sweat doing it, which is good. While it does have some challenge to it, it’s not really a workout that I should have to strain myself to complete. Anyway, that’s all for tonight… I’ll probably try to keep it short again tomorrow night, probably with an abs workout, although possibly I’ll go for pilates instead.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Since I’m hoping to start getting serious about my workouts again after the outdoor ultimate season ends next week, I need to start building my strength back up. Admittedly, eating properly would probably help, but that’s outside of the scope of this particular discussion. I didn’t feel quite like doing a py:strength workout… not quite sure why, other than I had some feeling that it wouldn’t necessarily work well with the current injuries. I’m not actually quite sure why I felt that, but I did. Anyway, I decided to go with YfS:s1 instead. I rather liked the slower pace of the workout… I had a little trouble with the breathing, but the pace was nice. The only problem with the workout came during the headstand preparation sequence… I abraded the skin on my left forearm when laying out for a catch yesterday, and it didn’t like being used to support weight, at all. So I just decided to skip the two segments that would cause that. Unfortunately, that’s at least part of the best strength training in the workout, but I did at least still do the two minute downward dog. Which was a little odd… it seemed tiring, and yet not. Not quite sure. Shoulderstand went fairly well… I was pretty pleased with my body control for it. It felt like I just had it today. Overall, a fairly satisfactory workout, and hopefully a precursor for more good workouts this weekend.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

As I somewhat expected, went with YfS:s1 today. I considered tacking on an abs yoga workout, but some people came over just as I was finishing up the workout, and since I had already considered taking it a little easier today, I decided to go ahead and call it a day. The workout went pretty well… I was fairly well focused, although I did have a little trouble with the breathing at points. The slower pace of this workout throws me off sometimes. I was trying to emphasize the shoulder work, particularly in the headstand preparation section. I think that actually doing headstand a few times has really helped me understand what I need to work on for the inverted arm balances. Mostly shoulder strength, although once I’ve gotten that up somewhat, I’ll probably find some other things. Because of that, I think that I’ll be spending more time emphasizing the strength workouts in the next couple of months, in order to more quickly advance my abilities with the intermediate workout. I should get decent flexibility practice from the longer workouts, like total body, as well as on days that I play ultimate, without needing to focus on that aspect as much right now. I did have one observation during tonight’s workout… I just realized that setting up the legs and feet for bridge pose is basically the same as setting up for upward bow. Now that I realize that, I’ll be sure to pay even more attention to the footwork for bridge pose in the future. Anyway, I’ll possibly do total body tomorrow, although I may decide that I want to get an abs workout in, and go with pilates abs and possibly py:strength instead.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Well, the process of flipping is progressing, but still not quite there yet. I feel like it’ll be complete by tomorrow, though, so I decided to hold off one more day in the hopes of getting that intermediate yoga workout in. In the meantime, I went with yfs:s1. I wanted to continue to work on my breathing, and also wanted to get in some extra downward dog. I’ve modified my hand positioning slightly, and I’m trying to work on that. I still don’t have downward dog to the point where I’d consider it a resting pose, at least not for extended periods of time. I’d like to get it to that point pretty soon… I think it will be critical for advancing with the intermediate yoga practice. Not too much else to say… breathing didn’t go quite as well as I would have liked. I don’t think I had proper focus tonight. I did pick it up a few times during the workout, but couldn’t maintain it. My shoulders were getting pretty fatigued by the end, but I did manage to hold for the entire two minutes. It was somewhat different tonight, though… it felt more like a muscle fatigue from an unfamiliar position than muscle fatigue from trying to hold my weight up. So perhaps I do have the position down now, and just need to build up the necessary support. I need to examine strap positioning in shoulderstand a little more carefully… my biggest problem is that my arms start to tingle after a while. Not sure what that’s all about. For tomorrow night, pretty much definitely a long workout, even if not intermediate yoga. Oh, I did want to mention seeing a new Rodney workout, Advanced Yoga. The picture on the cover is… inspiring, to say the least. And way inaccessible right now, as well. I need to bust out on intermediate yoga so I can get hardcore. *grin* Also saw Yoga Burn, which looks like it might be an advanced Yoga for Strength. Might pick that up at some point relatively soon. I wish I could preview these videos before purchasing them. Then again, I suppose they’re only about what a class might cost, so it’s not like it’s a huge money commitment. Anyway, that’s all for tonight, forward into daylight savings time, and hopefully some earlier workouts in the upcoming days.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Well, I got to this workout rather late today, but perhaps that was a good thing. While I’ve certainly been having some issues with really being motivated to do my workouts lately, I actually felt pretty good about getting this one in. The thing to that being that it took me all day to get to that point. Still, just getting to that point at all lately has been difficult, so I’ll take what I can get right now.
The workout went pretty well… focus was definitely stronger today. I was especially happy with my side stretches, and pretty happy with the triangle poses… I’ve been concentrating more on my footwork, and I think that’s definitely improving the poses. The two minute downward dog was a little spotty… I need to wash the mat or something, try to improve its stickiness. I find that I slide too much when I’m in downward dog for longer than ten seconds or so. Shoulderstand felt good, as usual, and I think I was doing well with the leg stretches… releasing in the hip and thigh instead of pulling on the hamstring. I think that I’m finally getting caught up on rest, and so maybe I’ll be able to get an extra workout in sometime in the next couple of days before heading back into the fray, as it were.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

I overslept this morning, so I just called in and worked from home today. Which was probably a necessity, since I really haven’t been getting anything done at work the last few days, as I’ve been too tired. So extra sleep was something I was in very great need of.
Getting to the middle of the day, so I decided to get my yoga workout in. Through a random selection process, went with yfs:s1 again. That was a fairly pleasing choice… not hard on the knee, and a fairly good workout. Didn’t feel quite as good as the last one, but that’s largely because my back hadn’t been feeling a little worn from previous days of activity. Nothing too much to note about the workout… focus wasn’t quite as good as I’d have liked, but I had uncommon levels of activity going on at the time, so it’s not surprising. Shoulderstand went well, I was perhaps a little happier with it than I was last time. One of my better implementations, I’d say. Anyway, going to try and get some more work done before tonight’s activities, so I’ll sign out for now.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

I really didn’t feel like doing another free form workout today, so I thought hard about what kind of workouts I could do that wouldn’t have a negative impact on my knee. This ended up being the top contender from the yoga side, and since I wasn’t really in the mood for pilates, this is what I went with.
I think it went pretty well, overall. I was quite focused for the workout, especially during the opening vinyasa sequence. So I think I got some good results out of the poses, particularly the triangle and side stretch poses. I was also quite pleased with my shoulderstand, later in the workout. I was feeling quite in touch with what I was doing at the time, and that’s always a good thing. The rest of the poses went decently. Overall, it felt like a solid workout, and a nice change of pace from the free form routine I’ve gotten into. I think I’ll try and get an abs balanceball workout in tomorrow, and hopefully start integrating more abs work back into my schedule in the next week or two.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

This was my first workout on the hardwood floor at the new place. I don’t know that there’s anything particularly significant about this fact, other than it means that I’ll be doing most of my workouts on hardwood in the future.
The workout was fairly decent. I couldn’t decide what workout to do for a while, but once I thought of this workout, quickly realized that it was the one that I wanted to do. It was reasonably rewarding… I felt like I was focused through the vinyasa sequence, the shoulderstand was pretty good, and I may have gained a little insight into the leg stretches, specifically about not tightening into them. So all that was fairly good.
Anyway, that’s all for now. A few errands to be run tomorrow, DSL will hopefully be installed, and ultimate will hopefully be played. Lots to be done in the next few weeks, but if I can survive all that, I should be fairly much golden. Until then, I’ll probably largely be stuck on the single workout schedule, but I’ll start breaking into some more challenging stuff if I get the chance.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

I had a lot of stuff going on in my head tonight, so I was hoping that getting in a good workout would help me clear my mind somewhat. I didn’t really have a lot of hope for that, but it actually worked a little bit better than I was expecting. While I was definitely having trouble maintaining focus for any appreciable length of time, I was able to keep pulling my mind back to the workout for short periods of time. So that was actually a little better than I expected.
The workout itself was decent. While I didn’t have the type of mental focus that I desired, my focus on the physical aspects was still pretty good. I think that in a few ways it was a little better than usual, probably because I was trying to let go of the mental congestion, and so I was using the physical poses to keep my mind in check. I did finally achieve a short period of mental openness during shoulderstand, but I was having the problem where my legs were starting to tingle again, so I just held it for the time of the video. Other than that, things were just fairly solid, but not outstanding.
Anyway. A lot going on. I might have a lot more time for my practice soon, although I don’t really anticipate that. In many ways I wish it were the case, but it most likely won’t be. But if it turns out that way, look for a lot more solid workouts with an increased meditative focus in the relatively near future.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Went in for this workout today, mostly because I felt like doing shoulderstand. Not because I had any particular back pain or anything, it’s just something that I felt like doing. I’ve noticed in the past couple of months that I periodically feel like doing inverted poses. I really should get the intermediate yoga workout one of these days, since it contains more inverted poses, and I also feel that I’m pretty much ready to advance in my practice. Well, advance might not be the right word, but to start taking on new challenges in terms of poses.
It was a fairly decent session. My concentration definitely could have been better, although I was doing reasonably well at the beginning. Still, I definitely let my mind wander too much over the course of the workout. The good news was in the hamstring… I didn’t really feel it at all over the course of the workout until the very end, when doing leg stretches, during which I felt the slightest tightness in it. Hopefully between this workout and the previous one, it will be fully stretched out by tomorrow evening when I want to play ultimate. Although if the forecast doesn’t improve, there might not be any ultimate to play. That’s okay, though, as it will just leave me heal for a few more days and potentially able to check out the Thursday night ultimate action, so it definitely wouldn’t be the worst thing if there were no game tomorrow. Anyway, I’ll try and get an abs workout in later tonight, and potentially something in the morning tomorrow. If not, I’ll probably just do a stretching workout before the expected ultimate time.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Returned home today, and unsurprisingly, fairly quickly took a nap. It was more like a day’s worth of sleep, given the amount of sleep I often get, but that’s okay. Anyway, woke up a little lethargic, but went ahead and crawled out of bed to get the workout in.
It went reasonably well. I liked the vinyasa sequence, although I was feeling a bit out of it. I didn’t have any trouble with it, though, except for listing a bit as I went from standing forward bend to mountain pose. Balance didn’t seem to be quite as good as usual. Breathing was pretty decent, I was getting some decent focus there.
The rest of the workout was okay, if not spectacular. I felt pretty good about the headstand preparations, but the two minute downward dog was pretty tough. I’m not even quite sure what the problem was, since it wasn’t really my shoulders… just general arm fatigue, I guess. Shoulderstand was decent, but I decided just to follow the timing of the video today and not go for an extended time. I tried not to overextend in the leg stretches, but won’t really know until tomorrow if I was actually successful with that or not. Anyway, hopefully I won’t stay up too late, and will manage to get a decent amount of sleep for the first time in a while, but I’m not overly optimistic.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Today, I again knew which workout I wanted to do for the day, several hours in advance, actually. I definitely enjoy when that happens, because I think I have much better workouts when I know (or, perhaps more accurately, my body knows) which workout it feels like doing. The connection between mind and body seems much stronger, perhaps. Really, I’m not quite sure what it is, but it definitely helps.
Let’s see… no major highlights from the workout, as it was mostly just a very solid workout overall. I want to start trying to work the ujjayi breath into the workout. I was able to do it a little bit, but really only when doing the sequence from mountain into standing forward bend. I think with a little practice I can integrate it more fully into the workouts. Headstand preparation went pretty well, the two minute downward dog wasn’t bad at all. I may (finally) be starting to get it. Shoulderstand was good, held it for an extra minute or so. I was getting a better sense of when my body was actually getting too tired to hold it well, which is good. Anyway… these last few workouts have been creeping pretty late into the day, so over the next couple of days I’ll probably be reversing that trend and getting back into some earlier workouts. As always, we’ll see how that actually goes.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

A relatively satisfying workout today. Breathing was fairly good, motions were good. I liked my downward dog, although the two minute one was almost too long. I have that problem every time I make adjustments to it, though. Shoulderstand didn’t go quite as well as it has been recently, though. I just didn’t feel like I ever got set up quite right. Not sure what’s up with that. I must need more sleep or something, though, because I was dozing off in relaxation pose at the end. I guess I was both fairly relaxed and fairly tired. Not sure what I’ll get to tomorrow… depends on how I’m feeling, I suppose. I was kind of tired today before the workout, but this one sounded good. Anyway, until tomorrow, then.

Workout: Yoga for Strength: session 1
Author: chaos

Another YFS:s1 session today. I seem to be going back to this session a lot lately… probably because it covers so many of the basics. And also probably because it’s the only practice I have that includes shoulderstand, which is one of my overall favorite poses. Which actually makes me wonder why I don’t incorporate it into my free form workouts more often. I’ll have to consider that when I get back to doing free form workouts.
Anyway, today’s workout went pretty well. I continued practicing all the things I’ve been working on recently, particularly the downward dog modifications. It did feel like it was starting to wear a little by the end of the two minute downward dog, but I think once I get the appropriate muscles fully built up, downward dog will become much easier overall. It may even finally hit the point of being a resting pose, but I could be getting carried away here. There will probably be some other as yet unknown modification that I need to make to truly get there. Oh well. At least I’m pretty much continually learning something new, or at least remembering something that I had forgotten. Anyway, a satisfying workout for today.