Ultimate Lotus

Closing it out.

Finished off the month with the stamina workout, as expected.  I'd like to say that it was easy, but it really wasn't all that much... the side is now causing pain in a fair number of poses.  I think it's pretty safe to say that I've overextended myself this past week.  I really didn't think the injury was anything much to worry about, but now... well, I don't think it's serious, but I should at least be paying attention to it.  At this point, I'm definitely thinking that I'll be taking Thursday off, and hopefully that will let me recover.  But I did manage to at least close this month out on target, so I'm happy with that.  A little uncertain if I'm going to be able to extend that into next month at this point, but these things always end, and pretty much always by injury, so not all that shocking.  Anyway, that's it for now... ultimate tomorrow, definitely no early workout, and probably rest on Thursday.

Over the limit?

Went with the normal pre- and post- workouts tonight, although I'm thinking that I really probably should have backed off.  Doing the pushups was rather challenging, to say the least.  Where by challenging I mean painful, in this case.  I'm definitely thinking that I've overextended myself in the last week, too caught up in my objective to step back and realize that I need to let myself heal.  The DDR was fine, warmed up with some endless standard, then started working on Ultramix 4 on heavy.  Mostly easy stuff for the first songs, but I hit a bunch of 9s, and the pain was starting to increase, so I just called it a night after that.  Since I pushed today, I'm probably going to take it pretty easy tomorrow, likely just the stamina workout to finish off the month, and then will evaluate what I want to do from there.  Until then...

Pushing too hard?

Went with the balance ball abs workout today.  Although my side was feeling a little more tender from the workout last night, I really wanted to try and get a more challenging abs workout in.  For the most part, it was fine, although the angled crunch-type exercises were a little rough.  I tried not to let it affect things, although... not entirely certain that was the best strategy to take.  But, I was pretty happy with the workout that I did get, so I guess there's not too much to complain about.  Anyway, that's it for now.  Going to try and do my normal exercises with the DDR workout tonight, we'll see how that goes.  Until then...

Slightly more work.

Went with the full YCfA workout tonight.  I was looking to do something a little more challenging than I have been, but didn't want to get too carried away.  So this seemed a good compromise.  Also, it would give me at least some of the hip stretching that I've been avoiding since I hurt my knee on Wednesday.  That's not going terribly well... I think it's going to be a long time before that heals fully.  Blah.  Anyway, I tried to be very cautious with the knee during the first section, since that is definitely the most dangerous part of this workout for this injury.  Think I did okay.  Ribcage was a little more tender, although it's changing slightly... I'm wondering if I've strained a muscle or something, and now the pain is just difficult to distinguish.  Hopefully just a temporary matter.  Overall, was pretty pleased with the workout, especially the stretching aspects, those felt pretty good.  That's it for tonight... will likely go with balance ball abs tomorrow, with DDR in the evening.  Until then...

Stepping it back up a bit.

DDR again tonight, as expected.  Usual warmup and cooldown, went with two sets of pushups in the warmup today.  I'm considerably less sore than I was Thursday, although I'm still trying to make sure I don't push too hard.  Started off with some endless standard, and then flipped to some 9s at the end.  Tried to pass the remaining ones in 8th Mix... managed to pass Trip Machine Survivor, although it didn't record it for some reason.  Got maybe halfway through Stoic, and yet again fell a bit short on Cartoon Heroes (Speedy Mix).  If I could make it to the chorus on that, I think I have a decent chance of passing, but I keep failing right before I get there.  I think those two are the only remaining 9s on 8th Mix that I haven't passed, and there are a couple of 10s that I haven't even bothered trying, I won't pass those.  Did a few random 9s after that, just trying to get a bit more work in.  That's it for tonight... hopefully my ribcage will finish healing pretty soon, and I can start being more serious with my yoga workouts.  Will figure out tomorrow based on how I feel again.  Until then...

Still holding back.

Went with the yoga abs workout this afternoon.  I was a little concerned about my side, so I didn't want to push too hard with either of the other workouts, and thus came to this.  Even so, I could feel a little bit of strain in the side and in the knee, but it was probably the best choice for abs for today.  Just trying to establish a new routine, really, and also not let injuries keep me from getting my workouts in.  That's it for now... planning on playing some DDR later tonight.  Until then...

Easing off the throttle.

Dialed things back a bit tonight with the YfS:s2 workout.  I had a hard time figuring out what workout I wanted to do... didn't want it to be too easy, and yet didn't want to push too hard, either.  In the end, this seemed like a good compromise.  The workout went well enough... the ribcage isn't as sore as it was yesterday, so that helps.  My elbow doesn't seem to be recovering quite as quickly as I might like, and actually, my right arm is more sore than I would have expected... I wonder if I was subtly shifting my weight yesterday while doing pushups in order to try and protect my ribs.  Minor matter, anyway.  Planning on playing DDR tomorrow night, and hopefully getting an abs workout in during the day, since I've not done one for a few days now.  Until next time...

A bit battered.

Yesterday was definitely a rough day for me.  My knee is still feeling rather off from overextending it, and my ribcage is definitely somewhat sore.  Wasn't too sure what workout I wanted to do, given these factors, and eventually decided that I wanted to play some DDR.  This does make a certain amount of sense... overall, it's less damaging to my current injuries than many of my yoga workouts would be.  Went with the normal before and after, but only one pushup set before... and that was pretty challenging, I must admit.  I started out pretty decently on the pads, got up to around an 1170 combo on endless standard, which I think is a new record for me.  Then jumped to heavy, and finished off 8th Mix as well as I could.  Took me two tries to finish two of the 8s, and four tries to finally beat Vanity Angel... I was having real trouble with that one, despite it only being an 8.  Not really sure why, something about the rhythm and the gallops, I think.  But I did manage, so I've now passed everything that's less than 9, and I think I only have two or three 9s left.  I think I'm going to start trying to double up my workouts on DDR and ultimate days, I would have today but didn't realize I was going to play DDR until later in the day.  That's it for tonight... not sure what I'm going to do for my workout tomorrow, probably depends on how I feel.  Until then...

A bit too aggressive.

Got to ultimate somewhat earlier tonight, so I had plenty of time to warm up. Went through a fairly complete free form yoga routine, jogged around, warmed up my throws. We got off to a good start tonight... actually scored the first point, a welcome change from our 0-3 and 0-4 starts the previous weeks. They scored two after that, but then we got going for real and started controlling the game. Went into half up 8-3, and just cruised from there for the most part. Not even sure what the final was, but we were up by 6 or so. I was a little too enthusiastic about going for one of the discs though... a little miscommunication between the thrower and myself, and I tried to save it from out of bounds, but ended up landing partially on the supporting concrete wall. Just with my arm and hitting my ribcage a bit, I did manage to protect my head. I think I scared my team though... actually, pretty much everyone there. I guess it looked worse than it felt. Cooled off with a little more light stretching, and then the team went out to a bar afterward. The entire team actually went, which is fairly impressive. I wasn't planning on staying all that long, but then we started playing euchre, so ended up staying a little later. Still, got home not long after when I figured I would, so not bad. Knee still felt kind of off at ultimate, so I'm not too optimistic about how well it's going to recover, in the short term of course. We'll see how I'm feeling tomorrow. Until then...

Overextending.

Didn't end up doing the hip opening workout last night. I was just feeling... extra lethargic, I guess. Since I had already somewhat planned on doing two workouts today (although I had been hoping one of them would be an "extra" workout), I decided just to push it off until this afternoon. Not the best... I overextended my left knee during the one legged half lotus forward bend. Not sure if it's going to be serious or not, but... I'm not terribly optimistic. It felt like I had pushed too hard when I did it, and hasn't really felt like it's improved since then, which is probably a bad sign. That's what can happen when I lose focus, especially in this workout. Hopefully it won't be too major, because that would take months to heal, and would be very frustrating. I'll probably have a better idea tomorrow, after it has rested for a while. Anyway, ultimate tonight... I don't think the knee will have any major impact on ultimate, just on yoga, really. Until then...