Because of my bizarre sleeping schedule (and inability to get to sleep at a decent time), I did Yoga X last night as soon as I got home from work (11:10pm). I wasn’t dreading Yoga X as much as I had been in the first round, but I wasn’t all too excited about it. This time, however, I was determined to at least try what I know I couldn’t do last time. So, I did and I got AMAZING results!!
Let me first start out by saying that I wasn’t able to get today’s workout in this morning either because of some feet issues I was having that kept me up till about 5:00AM. I slept all the way until it was time to get ready for work but I am determined to get Legs and Back in tonight as well. So, that’s that.
The first time I ever tried Yoga was about the first week in January. Needless to say, I was in less than peak physical condition and wasn’t able to do much. (I’m still in less than peak physical condition, but 40-something pounds of weight makes a huge difference in how flexible and balanced you become.) It was one hour and thirty-two minutes of Yoga X, which seems horrible when you put it to exercise that is more relaxed than the other workouts you’ve done. Well, it was horrible, but at least I tried it.
I was stumbling, fumbling, falling, and groaning, of course, because yoga is like one big stretch!! After that first time, I tried it a second time and got a horrible headache because of all the downward movements (I’m thinking too much pressure and blood gave me this bad headache.) Anyway, from that moment on, I decided to skip past the first part and just go to the balance postures (which gave me 42 minutes left of the video.) I was able to do these a lot better than the first half, but I still fell down quite a bit.
Ok, I admitted it. Let me now highlight the hardest moves that I encountered during Yoga X. I will try my best to include pictures because it’s a little hard to describe the positions in words. For the first half of Yoga, you go into a number of “warrior” positions. Things like Warrior 1, Warrior 2, Warrior 3 (1), Reverse Warrior (2), yeah, a lot of Warriors. But, you start out in Downward Dog (3). From Downward Dog, you put one leg in the air (4) and swing it through to Runner’s Pose (5). Got me so far?? After each leg goes through the warrior poses, you get to plank, chaturunga <<which I can’t do, and then downward dog again, only to repeat on the other side or to go to a different warrior pose. Well folks, that first round of P90X was tough because I couldn’t even swing my leg through to Runner’s Pose!! I never had enough momentum to get my leg in between my hands. It would always land somewhere by my knees. But, NOW I CAN SWING MY LEG IN BETWEEN MY HANDS!!!!! <<Warm Fuzzy!! (the only move that I had trouble with was the Warrior 3. I still need to work on my balance a good deal and having one leg in the air and one arm in the air is kind of tricky.)
^(1)Warrior 1, 2, and 3
<<(3) Downward Dog
<<(4) Leg in The Air
<<(5) Runner's Pose
After that very exhausting, yet deeply fulfilling 45 minutes of work, my thighs were on fire! But I was so ready for the last 45 minutes of Yoga. These were the balance moves and although there were quite a few, I will highlight the ones that I made the most improvement on.
While this first move isn’t horribly difficult, it can become such if your balance isn’t good, like mine when I first started. Tree (6) and Royal Dancer (7). When I first started doing them , I was losing my balance and as above mentioned, actually fell. <<haha! When I did them last night, I was able to get my balance with only minimal teetering and keep it for the time (30 seconds on each leg). So, that was a nice improvement!!
<<(6) Tree
<<(7) Royal Dancer
Now, here comes the most amazing change that I’ve seen so far: Plough (8) to Shoulder Stand (9). I tried these a few times but I couldn’t control my back. It had a “kink” in it, as TH says. So, I wasn’t able to do that correctly. (And, my legs weighed so much, I couldn’t put them in the air.) Then, TH told us to stay in the Shoulder Stand but to scissor our legs (10). Haha, yeah right!! So, I just skipped that part and went onto the next one that I could do. Last night, I was able to do all of those poses!!! Blew my mind!!! (And, I was able to hold it for the allotted amount of time, which was a little more than one minute!!)<<I was as calm as a cucumber too!!
<<(8) Plough
<(9) Shoulder Stand
<(10) Shoulder Stand with Scissored Legs
One of the things that I was also able to control more was my mind. In Yoga X, TH tells us to relax our mind and to simply not think about anything. (Haha, he’s not a woman, so he has no idea!!) But, I was able to rid myself of the To-Do Lists that I would fill my mind with the last time. In fact, the only thing I was actually thinking about was “Holy Batman!! I can do this now!!” It was an intense feeling of self-pride (the good kind) because my body was getting even better and stronger!!
So, folks, what started out as horribly dreadful is now not so bad. I’m actually very excited that I can do the entire video now!! It’s just a testimony to how much the body is able to do when you keep exercising and stretching! So, for all of you out there that are doing exercises and find that you can’t do much now, if you stick with it, you’ll be able to do what once was practically impossible!!
I promise I’m almost done. Before I had actually done my yoga, I was thinking something…”Dedication is a PM workout.” (Not to say that dedication isn’t an AM workout.) But, most of the time, at the end of the night, it’s kind of hard to get yourself up to do exercise. Before Ab Ripper X the other night, I really didn’t want to have to stay up to do it, but doing it made me see that I really am dedicated. I could have given an excuse, but I didn’t, I just did it. Besides, day or night, if you choose to workout, you’re still improving your body and your life.
Here’s something that I saw on Pinterest. I didn’t Pin it but it goes something like this: “No matter how slow you run, you’re still beating everyone on the couch.” <<Love it!!
Signing Out,
It’s Possible!!
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