stolenbliss's Journal, 09 May 2011

4 hours of exercise??? WOW! You are crazy girl!!! I have pretty bad shin If the elliptical hurts, the bike may be another option?? I hope it works out for you. 

Well, it wasn't four hours all at once. I did some yoga, ran a mile and a half...then later that night we walked to a club that was a mile away and danced for two and a half hours to techno music on a sweaty little dance floor. I was DEFINITELY exhausted when I got home! 

As you should've been from all that! Those sound like fun activities, way better then sweating inside a gym for 4 hours as I pictured. :) I wish I could get into yoga, I just don't have the flexibility or coordination to be any good at it! 

Your flexibility will come to you! I am naturally a very flexible person, so I can't say how much it's helped me exactly, but half of my class are males over the age of 40. You're bound to be much more flexible than them and after some work they're getting really close to doing some pretty flexible things. It just takes work. Also, the beginning poses are really simple—they're not putting you into pretzels even in the intermediate classes! I recommend it for the muscle control (I can press my shoulderblades into my spine and lower my trapezius down my back), flexibility, detox (OMG THE DETOX!), and stress relief. Yoga is the highlight of my week! 

Oh, and it's not all just the simple stretching everyone thinks it is. I don't know how many yoga classes I've come out of where I have to take a shower afterward because I was sweating SO MUCH.  

I am so going to look into this! Right now, I am at a gym that doesn't offer any classes, but when I move at the end of the summer, I will be looking at gyms that offer things like this (I am bound to a 1 year contract with my current gym, wahh!). Thanks for the advice girl, I can't wait to try some classes as soon as I can. 

If you can, try to find a place that offers Ivengar yoga. It's a type of yoga that uses props to help get into poses and concentrates on alignment. They teach you were basically every major group of muscles should be in each pose so you can get the maximum out of it. This pose called tedasana (http://www.womenfitness.net/wfimgank8/ypga_tadasana_samasthith.jpg) looks ridiculously easy but there's certain ways to work your feet, ankles, calves, thighs, inner things, buttocks, shoulderblades, trapezius, abdominals, chest and neck! They might teach you all of those things in other yoga classes (like hot yoga), but from the conversations I've had with friends who do the other types/hot yoga, they don't pay THAT much attention to it. I really enjoy this kind.  

Eugh, the link didn't work. Make sure you look up tedasana so you can see what I'm talking about!