yoga – sassyfitnesschick

Monday Musings

Welcome to another edition of Monday Musings. You know what’s been on my mind this week? Wondering how much wet, sloppy, soggy, foggy, soupy grey weather you have to be in before your feet start getting webbed.

I’m seriously so over it. I took off for a run on Friday, like I just don’t care anymore. Either run, or lay on the sofa and drink coffee.

Nah not really.

I’d do strength training or some other indoor activity. Ha rowing! That is an appropriate activity for such hideous weather.

We’ve had more grey, wet weather than sun this year.

South Texas people. This isn’t Seattle but the weather gods don’t seem to know that.

But today… as I write this… we had sun.

Sweet glorious, beautiful sun. Blue skies. Warm air.

I wanted to just act like a huge lizard and lay out in it but alas, I had projects. Fortunately for me, I could do those projects outside AND enjoy the spectacular day before it’s creepy counter part returns soon.

What projects you may be pondering?

If you’ve read the past few weeks I’m having fun doing some furniture flips. You can find more on it in this post….https://sassyfitnesschick.com/2018/02/19/monday-musings-4/

I should be noted that I only seem to manage to go get said furniture on some of these sloppy, grey, foggy days.

I’m becoming a pro at it.

So my recent acquisition I scored this last week.

I had been stalking a dresser on an online site. I loved the lines of it and the cute, big mirror, not to mention the nifty vintage hardware that it had.

Oh and she wanted 100.00 for it. Of course I was fully planning on negotiating that price with her. I can bargain like a fisherwoman 😉

Anyway, I was asking her a couple questions on it one morning and she just changes the listing price to 50.00! Ok I couldn’t message fast enough I was coming to get it.

Coming to get it in the wet, cold, pouring rain.

20180225_195738 — Dragging home my newest find

So I got the piece and headed home to unload it in the rain and I realized that I wasn’t “feeling it” and by that I mean when I get a piece I usually am already formulating a plan or vision for it. I’m excited over it. I am eager to get started.

It bothered me that I had gone through all of that and wasn’t feeling in love.

It was like trying to feel something in a relationship and nothing is there.

Oh no!

I decided to wait a day or so and go back and look at it again to see if I felt differently. I thought the weather was putting me in a bad mood ( haha) I made the determination if I didn’t start “feeling it” I could just flip it in it’s existing condition ( I bought it knowing it needed repair but that doesn’t bother me) and at least double my money.

Ok well…. after a day or so going by… and looking at it again… I saw it with fresh eyes. All the things I loved about it to start with. I realized what was bugging me was the horrible re done stain and varnish job someone had done to it. I also realized that with my skills it would look totally different when I got it finished.

20180225_083107 — A 50.00 vintage find… and it does look cute and I can hardly wait to start

20180225_094157 — Then there’s the cool hardware. I loovveee the lion heads 🙂 All they need is a little cleaning

Ok and one other object I acquired this week. A friend actually gave it to me, it had been her mom’s, and her grandfather made it. It’s like a little kitchen type thing. She knows I have girl grandbabies and thought I might be able to fix it up… I’ll let you take a look at what I started working with….

20180225_143108 — I’ve lovingly named it the Green Goblin

So I do have a vision for this piece and I think it will be SO cute… but first… I have to get it to a place a can work my magic on it… so I spent the sunny afternoon outside making it look like this….

20180225_184643 — Better now, yes? That orange and green was awful to cover up

So now I have a clean slate to work on, more or less. I can hardly wait to transform it. You’ll have to check back to see what’s up with it.

Gathering up furniture is work…

One thing I’ve learned I am grateful for… being strong. I’ve been dragging things around and sometimes I don’t have much or any help so it’s nice to handle things when I can.

One thing I’ve been focusing more on are movements that are good for upper body/core strength. I’ll share a few moves I’ve been adding into yoga for that…

I’ve been focusing on moves that really target my shoulders and upper body… planks and push up’s of all kinds are also kinda handy for that 😉

I wanna make sure I keep building upper body strength for life AND fetching old furniture 😉

Doing all that work makes me hungry….

Can I share some new recipes with you I experimented with this week that everyone went crazy over? Tasty and overall pretty simple… even better.

Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve figured out if I throw something in the crock pot, I can work on my projects longer and not stop to do a lot of prep for dinner… shhhh 😉

Really though? A hot tasty meal that’s slow cooked all day? How can you go wrong?

Speaking of meals, this week we’ll look at tasty inexpensive ones that are also healthy. Of course there will be some more spotlight posts, fitness stuff and whatever other goodies may come dancing out of my head.

Tell me. What’s been new in your week? Tried any new recipes? Do you use crockpots? Pushed yourself a little more athletically or tried a new workout?

The Rewards Of Rest Days

One of the hardest things I’ve had to learn as an athlete is the importance of rest and recovery times.

You’d think it should be easy, right? It should be easy to just take a day off and not train. It should be easy to come off of months of heavy training for an event and greatly reduce my training volume and just enjoy some easier workouts.

There’s a couple factors that can come into play here, well, at least for me. Once I’m disciplined to something it’s very hard for me to not do it. I can be rather driven with whatever I’m focused on. Mentally as well, it’s hard to not do it although I intellectually grasp the importance of focused rest. My body and mind thrive on it, that structured often intense training.

20170728_091156 — When I work this hard, rest days are essential.

My mind and body need the work but they also need the rest.

I’ve also learned active rest doesn’t involve laying on the sofa eating crappy food and being lazy.

Well what is involved with recovery?

Recovery times are designed to let our muscles heal and recover from all we put them through in training. It allows the body to repair and strengthen itself between workouts.

In a crazy way, when we exert stress on our muscles, it damages the muscles fibers causing them to break apart. During recovery these fibers heal stronger than before, which in turn makes your muscles stronger.

When we rest and eat good foods, our body heals, recovers and builds new tissue.

Active rest for athletes can mean anything from a brisk walk ( what I’ve used when I recover from running a marathon for a couple weeks after) to short easy runs, cycling or anything that doesn’t stress the body.

For me in the past year, yoga has been a good form of not just active recovery but it’s also a wonderful, different form of strength training. Not only that, it also stretches and works those areas that tend to get tight from my running, cycling and strength training.

I’ve come to embrace so many of the moves that although sometimes at the start are a bit stretching, lead to feeling so good. It gives me some looseness and I feel better with it.

And although it helps with recovery, I think it’s also a wonderful strength tool as well.

I did a couple articles on my yoga shenanigans, find them here….

https://sassyfitnesschick.com/2017/08/29/yoga-again/

https://sassyfitnesschick.com/2016/04/15/athlete-meets-yoga/

Stretching, bending, flexing and whatnot

Ok I’ll admit. For years I was awful, totally awful, about taking time to do some dynamic warm ups before running or anything else athletic.

I just wanted to get at it.

I was a wee bit better when I finished, but after always feels so good and my body has earned it after working hard.

Since then I’ve learned more importance in taking that time to do activities to help keep me loosened up and prepared for what I love to do.

…..although… I can still be bad about short changing myself on it….. you have permission to give me a hard time if I don’t.

Tools of the trade

There are other things I’ve been schooled on my road to being a ordinary, middle aged female athlete.

It took me a few years to get through this “school” but now I know how important some things are.

For instance a foam roller. I would’ve never believed how amazing a cylinder of hard foam could feel on my body.

Foam rollers if you don’t know, are a method of self massage that lets you really key in on areas that are tight and achy. They also can help promote blood flow to recovering areas and break up knots and tension in muscles.

Then I went to Airosti for some treatments a couple years ago and the therapist told me I should be using a pvc pipe to roll on ’cause my muscles would adjust to foam.

I laughed. I told her she was crazy.

A hard pipe??? to roll my body on?

Ah well, laughing isn’t what I do with it now days as it’s my favorite device of torture… I mean… recovery haha

20180219_200618

She was right. The pipe presses into muscles in a different way and doesn’t give as foam will. I use it on my back and roll up to my shoulders.

My quads seriously have a love/hate relationship with it. It kills my calves in a good way.

The pipe wasn’t the only thing I was schooled on.

A lacrosse ball became really good friends with me too. It’s perfect for working into arches of my feet into those muscles and tendons that need released. It also becomes a device of torture when you lay on the floor and position it in a tight muscle in your shoulder and press into it.

20180219_200508 — A solid ball of torture

Sweet mother of heaven. It puts me somewhere near death and blissful relief, I’m not sure which.

Another acquisition I got for Christmas is a roller with knobs all over it.

Are you seeing a weird pattern here? Devices that hurt, yet weirdly help haha

it looks something like this…..

20180219_200546

and it’s perfect to get areas that are knotted or tight.

All of these are wonderful tools for recovery to help tight muscles, to increase blood flow, and promote healing.

And of course, let’s not forget ice and heat which not only help recovery, but gosh, they can feel so good too.

Of course other factors like staying well hydrated and eating good whole foods also contribute to a good rest/recovery day or days.

Learning to embrace days of rest and recovery goes with the athletic process, I’ve learned. slowly but surely. You too should learn to embrace those days as times of healing and restoration for not only your body, but your mind too.

Tell me, if you train or workout, do you allow or take rest and recovery days? Is that hard to do? What are some methods you use for recovery?

Yoga, Again.

Yoga. I’m at it again. Well, I’m attempting to be at it again perhaps I should say. I went to some classes a year or so ago and have been doing my own thing.

I took home what I learned and at night while I watched some tv I’d get on the floor and roll out my muscles and then put some of those moves into practice. It felt rather nice to stretch and work my body in a different way than what my usual fare was.

But I haven’t done any organized classes since then… until now… and I’m thinking it will make a good “rest day” activity.

With all my training for the duathlon, I am definitely kicking my own tail and figured a little yoga could keep me loose for doing what I love.

Last week was my first class. Or is it? Is it my first class or a continuation of what I had already learned ?? ha

20170824_074243 — Hair and make up done with my athletic clothes?? I feel like a poser haha Off to my first ( in awhile) yoga class…

Anyway, it all came back to me really fast. And I quickly remembered a few things about it…

Yoga is a lot more slow paced

I’m fairly high energy and thrive on it athletically. Coming into a yoga class where all the sudden it’s single moves, being held, and a focus on my breathing …. yeah… a different game from flying down the road on a bike or running for miles.

There’s a reason why yoga is all about a turning inward, an inner mental focus and stillness.

It is a physically and mentally calming activity. I will freely admit it takes some work to rein in my active thoughts and just key in on what I’m doing, how I feeling, my breathing , and nailing whatever pose we are being led in.

Yoga forces me to slow down.

But before we go on… what IS yoga… exactly?

Maybe when you hear the word the mental image comes to you of a seasoned man sitting on top of a mountain lost in meditation for days on end.

I tease, but I’m sure there are images you may get when you hear the word.

Yoga is an ancient practice that has become increasingly popular. it is a meditative practice that leads you to focus on your inner self and to quiet your mind and thoughts.

Supposedly the reason why there are no mirrors in classes is so that you can focus on what you are doing and not be worried about what you or your neighbor look like in a pose.

The goal during yoga is to challenge yourself physically but not feel overwhelmed. At this point your focus is on your breath while your mind is accepting and calm.

I know from what I do on the road, how very important my breathing is to what I do. Deep, even paced breathing serves me well not only on the long stretches, but more importantly when I’m doing things like taking on big hills when I need my breathing strong and even and not shallow and rapid.

BUT get me in yoga pose, and I need to remind myself to breathe! ha

So the act of yoga is to quiet us, to quiet and relax our minds as well as our bodies. It’s almost humorous to me writing that line… because some of those moves are just flat out hard and not necessarily “relaxing” for me although it seems to come later after I’ve been stretched out well. Maybe it’s ’cause I’m still new at it and in time I will reach that perfect state immediately.

Are there other benefits to yoga?

Besides the obvious benefits of relaxation and mental clarity there are many benefits to actively practicing yoga.

On a physical level, yoga helps improve flexibility, strength, balance, and endurance.

About that strength thing… I remember my first class finding out how many moves really do require a great deal of strength. It was nice to have some strength to fall back on in those poses. I can see with consistent effort, yoga would build more body strength.

On an energetic level, yoga teaches you how to cope better with stress by cultivating a sense of ease in both active or passive poses.

On a psychological level, yoga helps to cultivate mindfulness by shifting your awareness to the sensations, thoughts, and emotions that accompany a given pose or exercise.

Trust me, you are aware of the sensations holding some of those poses!

Yoga is also good for circulation, improved posture, flexibility, it could help with fighting arthritis, builds muscle strength, protects your spine, and yoga could also help you become a more conscious eater as you become more mindful of yourself. Yoga can also help you become more focused as you have to learn to focus on the present. It can also improve your balance and better balance means less falls. This is especially a problem as we get older. Practicing balance moves could prevent falling.

Also, another by product of yoga is deep sleep, some studies suggest. Of course I’ve found long rides or runs can also contribute to it as well 😉

My yoga goals

If I want to have a flexible, loose body for the things I do on the road, yoga will be good to help keep my body loose and flexible.

Going to a once a week class will solidify moves in my head and then I can continue to use it as a rest/recovery activity in the evenings.

I need time to slow down in a physical way. Yoga reminds me that my high energy needs to be tempered sometimes and that’s ok.

I want to stay bendable! My instructor had us in this pose that was almost a half split and she encouraged us that with a little practice it would come to us. I did the splits ages ago but you know, I grew up and stopped doing stuff like that.

Back bends, head stands, the splits… activities we seem to put away as we get older. She said she never stopped doing them.

It was a reminder to me, and to all of us really, if we want to keep using our body and have it be strong and flexible, we need to always be using it.

Age isn’t an excuse to not use our bodies.

Stretching, bending, pushing ourselves a bit more shouldn’t be limited to a time in our lives, but it should be something we do ALL our lives to be strong and productive so we aren’t limited in the physical bodies we live in.

Use it or lose it. I don’t want to lose it.

It’s why we get weak, we don’t use our bodies to lift, bend, stretch and move. It’s why we stop being able to run because we act like it’s an activity for just the playground. It’s why we allow ourselves to sit on the sidelines as we get older because we haven’t used our bodies in the way they are meant to be used.

And a few of my favorite poses I realllllyy like….

BEGINNERS-Pose-Child-Pose — Childs pose. This is my go to move to just stretch my back, shoulders and spine. This is a “rest” move during yoga. It feels amazing.

front fold — Front fold. I love this for stretching out my legs and believe it or not, hanging upside down can feel really good.

yoga poses - Tree Pose position (vrksasana) — Tree pose. Excellent for balance practice. This is fairly easy for me but I attribute it to all those single dead lifts I do 😉

warrior — I saved my favorite for last. I love all of these poses. They do require a great deal of strength and maybe I enjoy doing them because they feel strong and powerful.

Tell me. Are you a yoga lover? Have you tried it before? Or actively practice it now? What benefits have you seen with it ?

Athlete Meets Yoga

20160412_174207-1-1 — With my beautiful, fearless yoga instructor, Tracye

As I sit in a coffee shop, sipping my morning coffee and writing this blog on yoga, it seems a far cry from the workout I just put in this morning….

a strong hour on the rowing machine, sweat flying everywhere, breathing hard, heart beating fast with edgy rock music blaring in my ears.

Nothing but pure, strong, energy. I love it. I thrive on the hard work required during a workout I’m throwing myself into.

It’s why I love running and cycling too… just the constant strong, fast movement and the heady rush that comes with it.

Therefore…. the idea of yoga… seemed so…tame to me.

Quiet. Still. Slow. Chill music. Peaceful mind emptied of thoughts.

The polar opposite of everything I feed on.

YET…. I have read articles galore about how good yoga is for a runners body, overall for the athlete in general. I had often pondered trying a class. I have a lovely friend who has taught for years and encouraged me to come… then the other day… the planets were all in alignment haha 😉

I read a post where she was doing an afternoon class for 5.00. Seriously? Timing and price were perfect… how could I not finally go try?

Ok I will admit to teasing her about not killing me.. torturing me in some awful moves. The reality probably was closer to… I didn’t wanna look goofy 😛

So I showed up to my first class ready to be bent, contorted, and peacefully molded.

I’ll tell you what I learned….

Ok first, she was awesome. And patient. And carefully showed the class modifications from easy to hardest moves.

Athletically, I’m used to using my strength to power through what I do whether it’s lifting weights, running or being on my bike. In yoga I quickly felt and understood that it would be my strength under focused control.

There were moves that I felt instantly grateful for my strength training as I had to rely on holding moves out ( hello deep lunges, with my arms outstretched over me and to the side) my muscles responded and did what was asked of them..it was still hard.

Balance moves? “The tree” you are posed on one foot with the other tucked to the inside of your thigh… planted.. like a tree… and hopefully…just standing strong and still like that. Hello…. thank you single leg deadlifts that I’ve been pounding out that has helped me develop really good balance.

There were a lot of flexibility exercises that it turns out.. hey…for all I do.. I’m pretty darn flexible. Bending, twisting, holding poses. Some weren’t easy but that made it even more challenging to me.

And speaking of that… challenging… I also learned… it appears I’m just as competitive with myself in yoga as anything else I do. I’m not sure if this is a good or bad thing haha

When she showed us all the moves from easiest to hardest… my mind immediately went to the top level. If it was suggested you could “try to do it” … I immediately went for it.

OMG… it’s a sickness… isn’t it? That competitive streak in me…

the icing on the cake of that? It showed me what I’m capable of that I didn’t know I could even do. When she had us tucked into a bridge position, she moved her hands over her shoulders and behind her head… and seamlessly moved into a backbend.

She indicated we could do that… I laughed… like that “there’s no way” kinda laugh….but as I started pushing myself that direction… and… oh my.. it was working… I felt somewhat like a sea whale attempting the move and dropped down… hoping I wouldn’t look like I was helplessly floundering on the floor…

at her encouragement that I had it… I went right into it again.. doing better the second time. I practiced last night… it’s starting to feel easier.

A back bend. At 51.

I’ve never done one in my entire life.

I was pretty excited over that stunt haha 😛

I also just learned a lot of great stretching moves which feel amazing. I find myself just stopping to do some of them during my day.

Of course, it is an activity where you focus on quieting your mind, breathing ( ha… I must remember to focus on breathing!) and just learn to relax in what I’m doing.

I admit… this will take a little time for me….turning my mind down is hard….

But… I like challenges… so I’m trying a class next week… we’ll see how that goes…

Tell me… do you or have you done yoga? Do you find it beneficial? What do you like about it? If you’re an athlete, do you find it has helped you?

Me? Do Yoga?

Yoga.

Did I breathe that word out loud ?

For years it conjured up in my head visions of people in white gossamer clothing getting in touch with their inner selves and eating tofu.

OK, admittedly, I am a bit more educated on it.

It’s supposed to help with flexibility, strength, better posture, help you with your breathing and over all reduce stress and make you feel more calm. Who wouldn’t be down for that ?

I’m sure there are a lot of other benefits too.

Here’s where it’s been kinda in my face for awhile….. it’s supposed to be really good for runners. I’ve read articles about the benefits of yoga as a recovery or strengthening process.

Alright so I’ll admit why I’ve steered clear…. don’t judge me now….

it’s just so… tame… and quiet….and not… intensely active like I’m used to….

It’s different than flying down the road on a bike… or running a zillion miles… or knocking the heck out of a punching bag.

I secretly wonder if I could handle such a wide shift of physical activities….. being more….still…. yikes.

Ok but then, as I runner, how can I ignore these promises of incorporating some yoga into all my other activities :

It can make you a better runner, improve form and balance, it can also decrease your susceptibilities to over use injuries. It can also improve mental focus which is so important before and during a race when mental staying power is as important as physical strength.

Now….how can I not look at that a little closer ?? Our local running store offers a runners yoga class once a week… and if I can ever get my schedule to bend that way I might check out.

As much as running can build a strong body, those muscles get tight in all kinds of places. Flexibility and fluid motion is so important in running. Things that are tight don’t allow for optimal performance.

I found some moves that were targeted at runners and even told you what muscles they opened or loosened. I figured… why not? What runner doesn’t want to be more strong and flexible ? So I’ve tried some.

Hahaha….. oh my gosh. You know that term hurts so good? I immediately found places in my hips that were tight… and let me know it. My back…legs… all kinds of tight spots.

On top of holding the pose… you have to remember to breathe… I realized… I kinda sucked at that part 😛

Then you get in this pose…and your “reps” ( which Is how I’m used to operating) are more like the amount of breathes you take holding that pose.

This is when I pondered : where is the woman who ran marathons who’s whining about this pose and attempting to breathe at the same time ? Here’s what I know thus far…….. I’m breathing hard from pain, not cardio exertion haha

I decided this could be a butt kicking adventure in a different kind of way. I think I’m definitely going to try and add some into my training with the intent it will benefit my body for running. It always comes back to that for me.

So my readers…. who does yoga? Do you like it? What benefits have you seen ? If you’re a runner, have you seen benefits from it ?