Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose, Backbend, or Wheel) 6/26/04

About a month ago, I heard that a Japanese teacher of mine suffered a spinal injury and had to go through surgery and later physical therapies. When we found out that we will both be presenting at the same conference in November, she said she is going show me her skipping (as in hop, skip, jump). At the time, she could hardly get through her class standing. So I said I should show her something that I have to try hard, too.

James said, if you work on a pose everyday, it does get easier. And that was true for Ustrasana (Camel Pose). This pose is a lot easier on the floor on the stretch mat with sneakers on. I take nice, long, deep breaths, about 6 of them and actually feel like I can relax into the pose.

Back to my conversation with my friend, I said, I would show her Urdhva Dhanurasana (Upward Bow Pose, Backbend, or Wheel). It is usually practiced after Setu Bandha Sarvangasana (Bridge Pose). I know I have just about five months more to go, but it has not made too much progress. On a good day, I can lift my head, but usually pushing the head to the floor is all I can do. Thank goodness I do this on a stretch mat most of the time! Now, remember here, I am not light. This pose requires not only back bending, but tremendous amount of strength in thighs and arms, to lift BODY WEIGHT! I know I have to put my legs together, but I am playing with the placement of my hands.

My friend wrote to me last week and said she can skip at home just fine! So she already accomplished the goal. URGH. I still have several months, right?

Periodization 6/25/04

It has been almost a year since I signed up my gym. I think it is an excellent gym (that will be another entry). One reason I say so is that they provided two personal weight training sessions for free for me to get used to the gym equipment. Originally I started out yoga and swimming combination, but as I got busier in November, the weather got colder (even here in the desert) and after catching a cold, swimming didn't seem feasible as a year-long exercise option for me. So just before Christmas, I took one session with Sandra.

Because I said I try to come daily, she suggested lower and upper split routines with following exercises: Leg Press, Leg Extension, Leg Curl, Hip Abduction, Hip Adduction, CHest Press, Seated Row, Shoulder Press, Bicep Curl, Tricep pushdown. (Hey, I did this all from memory!) By the way, all references are from ExRx.net, most amazing site for weight training. I also own their CD-Rom. Samdra's suggestion was to do 2 sets of 12 reps. Once I get used to it, increase to 3 sets.

After reading that I have to change routines every 4-6 weeks, I learned some more machines from, what else, my favorite book, Teach Yourself Visually Weight Training book in February or so. In April, I took the second appointment with Mary-Beth, and she showed me more free weight exercises. She also pointed out the poster in her office about changing combination of sets/reps (periodization). She suggested that I do each exercises with 4 sets of 12 reps. Since I don't get into her office, I wondered what the rest of the poster said, until one day the same poster was sitting the end of Elliptical row. It has been about two months since I met with Mary-Beth, I figured I should change to 6 sets of 8 reps. Now I am on three splits: Chest/Shoulder/Bicep, Legs and Back/Triceps. Ab goes every other day, but since Debbie' Flexibility does warm-up with fairly rigorous abnominal exercises, I only get to do ab at the gym only on Saturdays. I finished each day with new 6 sets of 8 reps now and it is rather fun because I can challenge myself with heavier weight.

I have favorite yoga poses (that will be another entry), but at the moment, my favorite is DB Shrug. It is a small movement, but it looks funky and it is kind of fun to do. Tomorrow will include chest. I get to do another favorite, DB Bench Press!

Pilates (or a taste of it) 6/24/04

In today's Debbie's Flexibility class, we did 18 poses (do they call them poses?) of Pilates. Back when I first started exercising about a year ago, I tried all kinds of classes and Pilates was one. All I remember was that I couldn't do most of the stuff and my neck hurt.

Debbie's routine was something that "Anybody can do." I managed to do, somewhat, all of them. A Japanese teacher friend of mine showed me some moves in spring while we were at a conference. Even for a short time, it was still hard. Pilates is so popular these days and Pilates class at my gym is always PACKED! DVD's and books are plentiful. Pilates seems to use a lot of core muscles, such as ab. When you are heavy, like me, lifting legs up in the air alone is a lot of work!

I love yoga, I am starting to like Tai-chi a lot and I do weight training and get on the Elliptical. But I never tried step or any kind of cardio class. I don't know, maybe I am getting old... that kind of music and shouting instructor (to supposedly motivate you) may not be my style. But my weight has not changed for over 6 month. Grrr. Should I be taking up a little more vigorous?

We will do the same routine again on Tuesday. 乞うご期待を。

Will's Yoga class 6/23/04

In case you don't know me, I am not a fitness expert and my body shows it. What I wrote in Dummies Yoga DVD Review is very true. I started yoga about a year ago. Back then, when I bent forward, my hands dangled around knees! Now I am supposed to be more flexible than 70% of female in my age group according to Modified Sit And Reach Test that I had to do in Debbie's class at the beginning of the semester. Yoga does work!

Will is my favorite teacher and I slip into class after my own and I try to attend three classes a week. In case you don't know me, I am a teacher myself, so I am really picky on teachers, especially yoga ones. I only go to Will's and James'. Now I think about it, both classes have basic structure in common. As Teach Yourself Visually Yoga says (the only yoga book I own), practice should start with relaxation, warm up, cardio type exercise doing sun salutation, standing poses, balancing poses, back bending, twists, inversion, restortive poses then to the final relaxation. I think I like standing poses best. Will makes us work! In fact, he is not super flexible. He is pretty flexible for a guy. Tonight, we did Hand to Toe pose, but he had a hard time himself and it wasn't this beautiful. It was like mine; still trying to extend the leg fully. I am starting to think that my arms are short. I have the hardest time trying to reach my ankles with Bow pose, but once I grab, I am pretty OK. Or am I just complaining?

Music 6/22/04

People carry radio/CD player/MP3 player when they work out, but I never thought it was possible for me. If you can read Japanese, My bio shows I grew up playing in school bands. Music is just so part of me and I lose concentration. When I cook, I try not to play radio or anything because once I am in a good mood and good music plays, I can't stop dancing. There are times I end up burning food this way.

Classical music seems worst. Debbie plays calming classical music in Flexibility Training class (that will be another entry) when she does traditional stretching. Here are symptoms:

1) Start conducting.
2) Especially if it is in flat range (like B-flat or E-flat), I practice fingering for both B-flat and E-flat instruments.
3) Thoughts come to my mind such as: "Oh, wow. That French horn solo was divine!", "My god, English horn rules! (my favorite instrument of all time)", "Hey, second violin, you are going too fast!", "How many arms does this pianist have anyway? (listening to Moonlight serenade and suddenly realize there are three parts), "Gee, the piano solo could have had juuuuuust a little more pause..."

I have problems with some New Age music with words (that I understand) in James' yoga class and classic rock type music and rap on the floor. Sometimes guitar is very out of tune and I just want to scream! Strangely enough, I notice the music when it bothers me.

Tai-Chi class 6/21/04

It is a little early, but I am going to post about Tai-chi class. It is at the gym where I have to drive 30 minutes, but I am indulging myself this summer to make it a point to go there twice a week. Tom is a very good teacher and he looks like he has some Chinese blood and must have done martial arts for a long time.

In case you don't know, I am Japanese. That is why you see Japanese once in a while here. The other day, actually in a yoga class, I saw a guy wearing a T-shirt that said "カラテ karate 泰気 tai-chi". Well, in Japanese, I thought it was 太極拳. But the sound makes sense. Hummm.

I am still very new to Tai-chi and a lot of concentration requires to just follow along. However it is a very good workout and gives me different type of calmness and pleasure from yoga class. Tom asks us to pick up weights and we do Power Tai-chi, too. I thought about taking a class at TVI for fall. Besides that is where I teach part-time, I found out most of these fitness classes are free of charge. There is not semester or duration to Tom's class, so new people come all the time. I wonder if there is a beginning and an end to a class, maybe we get to learn forms a little bit at a time and build up to a long form towards the end of a semester.

I plan to go to Will's yoga class tonight. That will be another entry sometime later.

では。

Water 6/20/04

I was reading somebody else's Blog today and it said blogs take HTML! Here comes my territory. Let's try it.

I guess today's big thing was water. I saw 1.5 liter water sold at my gym and got two bottles. Only to find out that Albertson's had them slightly cheaper, but what the heck. I am paying them $30 a month (student rate) and go to classes 6 days a week! I was carrying 1-liter bottle until today, but I wanted more water available towards the end of the work out. So I am glad that I have a bigger bottle that fits right in the spot while I am on Elliptical machine.

Another water talk of the day is Propel. I have heard about it for almost a year and now see more people carrying around in the gym. I found peach, my preferred fruit flavor and tried it at home. URGH. Basic sugar water. Actually tasted like artificial sweetener. I guess I will stick with my no taste water and get vitamines from vegetables and fruits.

I did Sara's Joy of Yoga and forgot that that was the one had yoga push-up. I guess I really got carried away yesterday. Tomorrow is a back and biceps day for me. I want to try Concentration Curl. Oh, it actually works on different muscle than regular DB and BB Curl!

じゃ、またレポートします。