Yoga/stretching post

[flexagon]

I worked late and was too tired to go to the gym last night, so I stayed in and did just a few strength moves (a pyramid on the pullup bar, some abs) and some stretching. I was fighting HLM for carpet space since he was practicing cello, and I think I must have arrived at a certain point in yoga, because HLM kept looking over and saying "that's insane." I thought about that, and yes, I remember thinking the headstand pike was insane too, the first time I saw someone do it. :) Now it's just a strength move; the next thing, the thing I can't do, is what's insane.

I also discovered something stupid and obvious: splits are progressive, like most other stretches. So, after I've warmed up each split in a kneeling lunge position*, it works just fine to simply alternate splits for a while. They get deeper. DUH! Why haven't I been doing that all along!?

It's been almost a year since I had HLM take a baseline set of flexibility pictures of me (3/6/2005). I am excited about that. Maybe this weekend is the time to take the one-year-later set. I had initially planned to wait two years, but nah, I'm impatient...


*(lunge, with the back knee on the ground, and sit straight up to stretch the psoas and quad. Then move the hips back to straighten the front leg and lean down to stretch the hamstring... repeat...)

Comments

[artana.livejournal.com]

You make me really want to try Yoga. I keep looking at my time schedule and realizing that I just don't see where I'd fit it in, but flexibility has always been an issue with me. Plus, it seems so much like meditating.:)

[flexagon]

Me too... always wanted to be flexible and never have been.

I would be excited if you started yoga. :) I understand the time problem though. I did it by cutting out other kinds of exercise (cardio) and crossing my fingers that it would still be okay healthwise. But if you don't have a lot of working out already in the schedule, geez, I don't know what it could come from. It's tough.

[artana.livejournal.com]

Do you have a video or something that you recommend that I could start with? I don't normally like doing that, but I think if I could just start with the basics at night three times a week, then as the kids need me to do things for them less and less, I could find a class to go to.:)

[flexagon]

That makes a lot of sense. I've never done yoga from a video, but this question gets asked all the time over on yoga. :)

I found one of the more recent threads on the topic for you:

http://community.livejournal.com/yoga/506245.html

Probably starting with those, seeing what people on Amazon have to say about them, etc, will get you far enough to find something you like.

[nevers.livejournal.com]

what's a pyramid on a pullup bar, and what's a headstand pike? (does the latter mean going through a pike up into a headstand?)

i think a year seems like a nice amount of time between flexibility pictures!

[flexagon]

I think so too! Pictures soon. :)

A pyramid is where you do one pullup, then rest briefly, then 2 pullups and rest, then 3 pullups ... until you get to a point where you fail or almost fail to do the last one (say, at 5 pullups). Then you decrease the numbers again, doing 4 then 3 then 2 then 1.

I've heard 'pyramid' applied also to any pattern in weightlifting exercises where you progressively use more weight on each set but do fewer repetitions (and then, sometimes, go back in the other direction). I do something like that with squats.

Headstand pike is where you do a headstand, then bring legs down parallel to the ground (now you're in a pike) and hold it. After I've held it I try to raise and lower my legs a few times, because it seems like a great lower back strengthener. But I can only do 2 or 3.

[nevers.livejournal.com]

ohhh, got it. i was thinking your body was visually making a pyramid :). (out of curiosity, how many can you do? i am very close to 1 and very excited)

i will have to try the headstand pike thing today.

[flexagon]

Yes, I see now it did sound like that. :)

I can do between 8 and 10 pullups with a palms-facing-each-other grip. On the bar at home I do a palms-facing-toward-me grip and I'm not sure how many... more, I'm sure, because it's an easier grip... but for pyramids I usually top out at 5 just like the example I gave. Anyway, congrats on being close to 1! After that, you'll find it probably not too hard to do a few in a row. It's all about knowing you can lift yourself.

Have fun piking...

[nevers.livejournal.com]

wow, i'm so impressed. did you work up to these just to be able to do them, or do they come in handy for some other activity you do?

[flexagon]

Eh, I started lifting weights one summer when I was stuck in a very small town with niralth and had nothing better to do. She was a good teacher. Around the end of summer I noticed that my lat pulldown weight was not terribly far from my body weight, and gave pullups a shot. It was just random.

Glad you enjoyed the headstand pike! :)

[nevers.livejournal.com]

also, the headstand pike was very satisfying!

[taeliesyn.livejournal.com]

The difference between palms-towards-body, palms-towards-each-other and palms-facing-out is the muscles used. Tis why some are easier than others.

Though you probably already know that. ;)

[savage-rose.livejournal.com]

I got your card today! It was so sweet and it made me get all teary. I'm so excited to be marrying Curtis, and it's exciting getting well-wishes from someone I feel so close to but have never technically met! It was a beautiful card and a generous gift, and from such a cool person :). Someday, we have to get together, and you can freak me out with your flexibility*, and I can freak you out with my ear wiggling. Ooh, and I can almost put my feet behind my head...I'm afraid to go all the way, I might never get them down again. Not sure you'd find that particularly freaky though.

You'll get a formal thank you later, but I wanted to tell you how much it meant to me now. THANK YOU!

::big hugs::

*Although it doesn't freak me out. I think it's really cool, and I find it really inspirational to get up and do something. And how far you've come! You should post before and after pics of your flexibility sometime :).

[flexagon]

Aw. Thanks for the big hugs. *blush* I admit it was a personal record of sorts for me... first time I've sent off a full-size wedding present to someone I hadn't met. But then, you've put up with more of my blithering in the last 3 years than a lot of real-life friends have in the same time period, so... YOU'RE WELCOME! I know you'll post the saga of the new roof someday, when the fund has been funded enough. :)

Also, your hips are naturally way more open than mine, it sounds like! (I can at least get both feet to my head now, but they started off really stiff). And such talented ears, too. If we ever get together my only freak-out option might be to write some code in front of you or something. But still, maybe I could do it while standing on my head, and that would be pretty good. *laughs*

[savage-rose.livejournal.com]

Heh heh heh, open hips. Ahem.

But you've but up with my blathering, too...it's not really putting up with blathering that makes you friends (although it's a necessary component!), it's finding people who's blithering/blathering is enjoyable and maybe even somewhat similar to your own.