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Yoga
I think I've mentioned a few times that I've started doing yoga again recently. I've "started doing yoga" probably four or five times over the past five years or so. But this afternoon I finished my second complete rotation through my collection of videos, which means I've kept it up for nearly two months - something of a record for me and exercise, so I'm hoping I can finally blog about it without jinxing myself. Fingers crossed!
I had a few reasons for starting this up again:
- I was tired of feeling like a lazy slob, and rationalized that even low-impact yoga > no exercise at all
- I thought there was a chance it could help my back hurt less (I work on the computer all day, and generally come home and .. get on the computer, and tend to have rather atrocious posture in both cases)
- If I lost weight, that would be a plus, but not really the point.
After two months, I can say that I do feel somewhat less like a lazy slob, and my back problems may have lessened, though it's hard to quantify as they certainly haven't gone away entirely. I haven't noticed any lost weight, but people've told me I look slightly slimmer, so there's that. (I don't own a scale, so I measure my weight by how I feel about it and how well my jeans fit.) And I'm getting more flexible - not something I was particularly aiming for, but expected.
What I didn't expect was to notice any kind of a mental shift. Much to my surprise, I've felt generally mentally healthier, better able to let things go, better able to focus at work, and more in control of my life since I started practicing. I've always been pretty zen, but not this zen. And I credit yoga with helping me envision a future in which I am happy, and even fulfilled, right where I am now - even if grad school doesn't happen this fall - possibilities that have been right here all along, but I wasn't able to see. Which is pretty amazing, considering the headspace I've been in for the past few years.
(Yes, there might be other factors, blah blah, but yoga certainly didn't hurt, and I really believe that it helped.)
Anyway, video reviews.
I have four different yoga videos, one each with four, three, two, and one practices on them. I do one practice a day, three days a week, as soon as I get home from work on the days that I don't have class. As soon as I get home is key - if I even say "Oh, I'll just check my email first," it doesn't happen. That's the biggest thing that's tanked me all the other times I've tried to start up. Not trying to watch live TV has helped keep me disciplined on this, too.
I also get easily bored with repetition, and both bored and annoyed with listening to the same people say the same thing over and over, to the same music. Having ten separate routines (with three different instructors) helps with that, and I also like to turn the sound down on the TV until I can just hear the voice, and then drown out the background music with one of my own CDs (usually something new age-y, classical, or a film score).
I have two DVDs of Yogi Marlon, who you can sample on her youtube channel. (I haven't watched any of those videos, btw.) She's what you'd get if you crossed Lisa Cuddy with Deanna Troi. For the first week and a day, I do the four practices on Yoga for Absolute Beginners (I skip the first three tracks, which is basically just her talking). I definitely recommend it for beginners. It's very low-impact and emphasizes breathing and meditation. I may be slightly beyond the absolute beginner stage, but I still can't do all the poses on this DVD perfectly, and I'll keep using it until I can (and probably after). The Ujjayi Pranayama breathing technique was difficult for me to master, but one day it just clicked. (She says it's a sound in the back of the throat, but I didn't manage it until I thought of it as a sound in the chest. If I aim for the throat I strangle myself and then get a sore throat, but focusing on the part of the throat that's in the chest works.)
For the next two days, I do the practices that came with a yoga kit I bought several years ago. I can't find the same one, but this might be it, re-branded and re-packaged and more expensive. It's also billed for beginners, and is a bit more intense than Yogi Marlon's routines. The 20 minute workshop is great for showing you exactly how to move through each pose, and taking the time to get it right. My version has three people: David Sunshine, the instructor, who is kind of annoying, and two students, one beginner and one advanced - you can decide which of them to follow for each pose. It looks like they might have a man and woman in the updated version; mine has two women. The 45-minute vinyasa workout is a fast-paced workout, with the same side-by-side beginner/advanced format. And I think it may be my favorite of all the routines. It's a bit more difficult for absolute beginners, because it's very fast-paced, and there's a lot of downward dog.
Then I do the three routines on my second Yogi Marlon DVD, Yoga for A Healthy Back. It's in largely the same vein as her beginner DVD - slow and relatively low-impact with emphasis on breath. She's good at making sure you stay within your capabilities, while provide some extra depth for those who are more advanced. I'm not entirely sure it's helping my back, but it makes for a nice break, and I'll keep doing it till I can manage every pose. (It might be helping my back more if I did it every day instead of alternating with these others, but oh well.)
Lastly I have Lower Body Yoga for Beginners on VHS. It is definitely not for beginners! It's very fast-paced and has absolutely no place to pause and make sure you're doing it right. She recorded the instructions as a voice-over after the fact, and often her voice will be ahead of or behind her actions. You need to have some familiarity with basic postures, and be able to follow along mostly from the audio. At the end of the tape are some alternate postures using a block or a strap, but it's not very easy or organic to integrate those alterations into the routine. There are a few places in this video where I should really be using the block or strap that came with my kit - something I don't need to do for any of the DVDs.
(For anyone thinking about starting yoga, I'd recommend any of these except possibly the last one. I'd also suggest that you at least get a mat - it's much, much better than doing yoga directly on a carpet or on a hard floor. You can probably hold off on getting any other accessories unless you find that you need them, though.)
I've reached the point where I look forward to my yoga afternoons, I actually enjoy downward dog - and I'm hoping I can keep it up indefinitely this time.
I had a few reasons for starting this up again:
- I was tired of feeling like a lazy slob, and rationalized that even low-impact yoga > no exercise at all
- I thought there was a chance it could help my back hurt less (I work on the computer all day, and generally come home and .. get on the computer, and tend to have rather atrocious posture in both cases)
- If I lost weight, that would be a plus, but not really the point.
After two months, I can say that I do feel somewhat less like a lazy slob, and my back problems may have lessened, though it's hard to quantify as they certainly haven't gone away entirely. I haven't noticed any lost weight, but people've told me I look slightly slimmer, so there's that. (I don't own a scale, so I measure my weight by how I feel about it and how well my jeans fit.) And I'm getting more flexible - not something I was particularly aiming for, but expected.
What I didn't expect was to notice any kind of a mental shift. Much to my surprise, I've felt generally mentally healthier, better able to let things go, better able to focus at work, and more in control of my life since I started practicing. I've always been pretty zen, but not this zen. And I credit yoga with helping me envision a future in which I am happy, and even fulfilled, right where I am now - even if grad school doesn't happen this fall - possibilities that have been right here all along, but I wasn't able to see. Which is pretty amazing, considering the headspace I've been in for the past few years.
(Yes, there might be other factors, blah blah, but yoga certainly didn't hurt, and I really believe that it helped.)
Anyway, video reviews.
I have four different yoga videos, one each with four, three, two, and one practices on them. I do one practice a day, three days a week, as soon as I get home from work on the days that I don't have class. As soon as I get home is key - if I even say "Oh, I'll just check my email first," it doesn't happen. That's the biggest thing that's tanked me all the other times I've tried to start up. Not trying to watch live TV has helped keep me disciplined on this, too.
I also get easily bored with repetition, and both bored and annoyed with listening to the same people say the same thing over and over, to the same music. Having ten separate routines (with three different instructors) helps with that, and I also like to turn the sound down on the TV until I can just hear the voice, and then drown out the background music with one of my own CDs (usually something new age-y, classical, or a film score).
I have two DVDs of Yogi Marlon, who you can sample on her youtube channel. (I haven't watched any of those videos, btw.) She's what you'd get if you crossed Lisa Cuddy with Deanna Troi. For the first week and a day, I do the four practices on Yoga for Absolute Beginners (I skip the first three tracks, which is basically just her talking). I definitely recommend it for beginners. It's very low-impact and emphasizes breathing and meditation. I may be slightly beyond the absolute beginner stage, but I still can't do all the poses on this DVD perfectly, and I'll keep using it until I can (and probably after). The Ujjayi Pranayama breathing technique was difficult for me to master, but one day it just clicked. (She says it's a sound in the back of the throat, but I didn't manage it until I thought of it as a sound in the chest. If I aim for the throat I strangle myself and then get a sore throat, but focusing on the part of the throat that's in the chest works.)
For the next two days, I do the practices that came with a yoga kit I bought several years ago. I can't find the same one, but this might be it, re-branded and re-packaged and more expensive. It's also billed for beginners, and is a bit more intense than Yogi Marlon's routines. The 20 minute workshop is great for showing you exactly how to move through each pose, and taking the time to get it right. My version has three people: David Sunshine, the instructor, who is kind of annoying, and two students, one beginner and one advanced - you can decide which of them to follow for each pose. It looks like they might have a man and woman in the updated version; mine has two women. The 45-minute vinyasa workout is a fast-paced workout, with the same side-by-side beginner/advanced format. And I think it may be my favorite of all the routines. It's a bit more difficult for absolute beginners, because it's very fast-paced, and there's a lot of downward dog.
Then I do the three routines on my second Yogi Marlon DVD, Yoga for A Healthy Back. It's in largely the same vein as her beginner DVD - slow and relatively low-impact with emphasis on breath. She's good at making sure you stay within your capabilities, while provide some extra depth for those who are more advanced. I'm not entirely sure it's helping my back, but it makes for a nice break, and I'll keep doing it till I can manage every pose. (It might be helping my back more if I did it every day instead of alternating with these others, but oh well.)
Lastly I have Lower Body Yoga for Beginners on VHS. It is definitely not for beginners! It's very fast-paced and has absolutely no place to pause and make sure you're doing it right. She recorded the instructions as a voice-over after the fact, and often her voice will be ahead of or behind her actions. You need to have some familiarity with basic postures, and be able to follow along mostly from the audio. At the end of the tape are some alternate postures using a block or a strap, but it's not very easy or organic to integrate those alterations into the routine. There are a few places in this video where I should really be using the block or strap that came with my kit - something I don't need to do for any of the DVDs.
(For anyone thinking about starting yoga, I'd recommend any of these except possibly the last one. I'd also suggest that you at least get a mat - it's much, much better than doing yoga directly on a carpet or on a hard floor. You can probably hold off on getting any other accessories unless you find that you need them, though.)
I've reached the point where I look forward to my yoga afternoons, I actually enjoy downward dog - and I'm hoping I can keep it up indefinitely this time.