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Entry tags:
Updates on previous topics
Points:
I cannot believe that I redeemed all those AmEx points for things that are, essentially, exercise equipment. The wireless headphones and iPod nano have arrived, been set up & charged, and tested. The headphones are surprisingly comfortable, and not only worked on the treadmill, but as I ran back upstairs and to the back of the house as a test.
I am, however, amused at one little change. When I was a teenager, a "headphone adapter" was something you plugged a thick headphone jack into so it could work with the new thinner headphone slots. Now it's the other way around.
The nano (which is amazingly teensy) has, after only about 8 minutes of swearing, been set up to update from its own little corner of iTunes and is set to shuffle the contents of that "pool" of exercise songs that all have the same beat (which is now about 3.5 hours of music, promising an infinite variety in the mornings). However, now that I have the headphones, the TV and associated DVD/VHS players are back into play as well, which means that I think I'm going to work my way through my back catalog of classic Who episodes, which are also conveniently 25 minutes in length.
Note: I notice that the iPod website is no longer advertising the 2 GB nano now that the new video nanos have come out, which means that if you want one, they're probably about to become a bit more reasonable on ebay.
Yoga:
In just the fortnight I've been doing this, I've already noticed a distinct difference in my flexibility, even though I'm staggering through the exercises before the crack of dawn when I'm as coordinated as overcooked spaghetti.
The routine has changed slightly, in part to adapt some exercises that don't require as much coordination, and one that requires a lot more, as a little ambition is good.
The New Routine:
1 - Roll to back. Flex feet and roll ankles in each direction.
2 - Bring knee to chest, put your arms around it and pull in until you feel the small of your back and the back of your thigh stretch. Hold. Point that leg straight up for a moment. If you flex your toes back towards you, you'll get another really nice stretch down the back of your leg. (illustrated in my first post). Do the other leg.
3 - Sit up and touch your toes, or as close as you can.
4 - Sit crosslegged and roll your neck and shoulders.
5 - Put your arms behind you and arch your back, dropping your head backwards.
6 - Put your right arm a little more behind you, your left hand on your right knee, twist as hard as you can to the right (turning your head too), then bring your right arm up and bend to the left (illustrated in my first post). Do the other side.
7 - Spread your legs so your ankles are on each side of the bed. Lean forward with a straight back. Now bring the soles of your feet together and lean forward again, dropping your knees if you can. (Last picture on this page, although her posture is crap.)
8 - "Morning Juicer" - I have a link to this in the previous post, because you really have to see it to grasp it. This really does get me very awake, although I'm hardly giggling like the girl in that shot, not at 5 in the morning.
9 - Stand up and do what is called (depending on where you're getting it) the half/crescent moon pose to each side.
THIS IS WHERE IT CHANGES.
And I'm sorry, I've been poking around google and youtube and cannot find a good illustration of this. It's from a book of regular, not yoga, stretches.
10 - Stand up, face the bed, and bend over to put your hands on the bed. Your legs should be straight down from your hips and your hands just barely on the bed, your arms straight down from your shoulders. You'll feel your lower back stretch. Hold.
10a - Keeping your feet flat on the floor, start leaning all your weight onto your hands, bringing your hips closer to the bed. You're' doing it right when your heel-to-shoulder line and the bed look like: -\ and you'll feel the stretch all down the back of your leg, especially along the calf. Hold.
10b - Drop your head between your arms and rock your weight back onto your heels (you can even bring your toes up) so that your arms and legs are at this angle: / / with your butt up in the air. This description is crap, but when you feel the stretch in your lower back, you're doing it right.
This whole thing is a sort of mutant downward-facing dog pose, only instead of doing it all at once, you're isolating it so that you're doing the top half in one part of the exercise and then the bottom half in the other. This is all I can cope with right out of bed; real downward-facing dog that early gives me a headache and makes me fall over. Rock back and forth a couple times, holding at each end. This replaces the pseudo lunge and the spine roll of the first version, and provides more stability because you're holding onto the bed and not trying to twist around on your toes.
Finally 11: Quad stretch (the foot-to-butt one, illustrated in the first post.) If I'm not feeling ambitious, I still do it that way, holding onto the headboard for stability. However, by now I am feeling a bit ambitious, so I do the dancer pose, levels 1 & 2 according to this picture. Sort of. I can't do the splits thing, so I'm tucking one leg up, sticking the other arm out, and bending over the bed so thatwhen if I fall, I'm falling onto the mattress.
I'm off to check this interesting set of YouTube videos: Yoga At Your Desk, parts one, two, three, four.
I cannot believe that I redeemed all those AmEx points for things that are, essentially, exercise equipment. The wireless headphones and iPod nano have arrived, been set up & charged, and tested. The headphones are surprisingly comfortable, and not only worked on the treadmill, but as I ran back upstairs and to the back of the house as a test.
I am, however, amused at one little change. When I was a teenager, a "headphone adapter" was something you plugged a thick headphone jack into so it could work with the new thinner headphone slots. Now it's the other way around.
The nano (which is amazingly teensy) has, after only about 8 minutes of swearing, been set up to update from its own little corner of iTunes and is set to shuffle the contents of that "pool" of exercise songs that all have the same beat (which is now about 3.5 hours of music, promising an infinite variety in the mornings). However, now that I have the headphones, the TV and associated DVD/VHS players are back into play as well, which means that I think I'm going to work my way through my back catalog of classic Who episodes, which are also conveniently 25 minutes in length.
Note: I notice that the iPod website is no longer advertising the 2 GB nano now that the new video nanos have come out, which means that if you want one, they're probably about to become a bit more reasonable on ebay.
Yoga:
In just the fortnight I've been doing this, I've already noticed a distinct difference in my flexibility, even though I'm staggering through the exercises before the crack of dawn when I'm as coordinated as overcooked spaghetti.
The routine has changed slightly, in part to adapt some exercises that don't require as much coordination, and one that requires a lot more, as a little ambition is good.
The New Routine:
1 - Roll to back. Flex feet and roll ankles in each direction.
2 - Bring knee to chest, put your arms around it and pull in until you feel the small of your back and the back of your thigh stretch. Hold. Point that leg straight up for a moment. If you flex your toes back towards you, you'll get another really nice stretch down the back of your leg. (illustrated in my first post). Do the other leg.
3 - Sit up and touch your toes, or as close as you can.
4 - Sit crosslegged and roll your neck and shoulders.
5 - Put your arms behind you and arch your back, dropping your head backwards.
6 - Put your right arm a little more behind you, your left hand on your right knee, twist as hard as you can to the right (turning your head too), then bring your right arm up and bend to the left (illustrated in my first post). Do the other side.
7 - Spread your legs so your ankles are on each side of the bed. Lean forward with a straight back. Now bring the soles of your feet together and lean forward again, dropping your knees if you can. (Last picture on this page, although her posture is crap.)
8 - "Morning Juicer" - I have a link to this in the previous post, because you really have to see it to grasp it. This really does get me very awake, although I'm hardly giggling like the girl in that shot, not at 5 in the morning.
9 - Stand up and do what is called (depending on where you're getting it) the half/crescent moon pose to each side.
THIS IS WHERE IT CHANGES.
And I'm sorry, I've been poking around google and youtube and cannot find a good illustration of this. It's from a book of regular, not yoga, stretches.
10 - Stand up, face the bed, and bend over to put your hands on the bed. Your legs should be straight down from your hips and your hands just barely on the bed, your arms straight down from your shoulders. You'll feel your lower back stretch. Hold.
10a - Keeping your feet flat on the floor, start leaning all your weight onto your hands, bringing your hips closer to the bed. You're' doing it right when your heel-to-shoulder line and the bed look like: -\ and you'll feel the stretch all down the back of your leg, especially along the calf. Hold.
10b - Drop your head between your arms and rock your weight back onto your heels (you can even bring your toes up) so that your arms and legs are at this angle: / / with your butt up in the air. This description is crap, but when you feel the stretch in your lower back, you're doing it right.
This whole thing is a sort of mutant downward-facing dog pose, only instead of doing it all at once, you're isolating it so that you're doing the top half in one part of the exercise and then the bottom half in the other. This is all I can cope with right out of bed; real downward-facing dog that early gives me a headache and makes me fall over. Rock back and forth a couple times, holding at each end. This replaces the pseudo lunge and the spine roll of the first version, and provides more stability because you're holding onto the bed and not trying to twist around on your toes.
Finally 11: Quad stretch (the foot-to-butt one, illustrated in the first post.) If I'm not feeling ambitious, I still do it that way, holding onto the headboard for stability. However, by now I am feeling a bit ambitious, so I do the dancer pose, levels 1 & 2 according to this picture. Sort of. I can't do the splits thing, so I'm tucking one leg up, sticking the other arm out, and bending over the bed so that
I'm off to check this interesting set of YouTube videos: Yoga At Your Desk, parts one, two, three, four.