Thursday workout and yoga thoughts

[Guest guest]

Today I did Sansone's Fast Firming and the "Good Morning" practice from Yoga Complete for Every Body. I've done Fast Firming a few times and I like how she does at least a little bit for all the body. This workout uses a resistance band for all of the exercises. Doing abs with the band is interesting. I think I liked it. I wrote another post with questions about using the band so I won't go into more here. I think though, that if I felt more comfortable using the band, that I could get some good bang for the buck from this one in under 40 minutes. It seems like a good one for traveling too.

After I got done with that one, I wanted to do a very short yoga practice but couldn't find any on YCFE that were less than 25 minutes. I told myself, if anything, yoga is going to help me relax, I need this, 25 minutes is fine (it was). So I picked Good Morning, just because it was 25 minutes and sounded fairly generic (not body part/issue specific). I've never done it before but I really enjoyed it. It is all done seated. It is labeled as a beginner practice and I'd say that is accurate. The poses were not challenging but were very effective at stretching you out. J.J. Gormley shows lots of variations for different levels of flexibility, like she does throughout this DVD and uses very specific instructions. The shavasana was about melting (I don't know how many different shavasanas she does on this but I haven't done the same one twice I don't think and I've already done 3 or 4 practices from this DVD). I was able to put my whole mind into the firming workout and all of this practice and not think about my husband's health until I got to the shavasana. The "quiet" made my mind loud and frustrating. I forced myself, somehow to just focus on J.J.'s "instructions" and my breathing and I eventually "melted" into the workout. I felt like I was floating towards the end, it was so relaxing. Afterwards, as I sat up, I realized that my emotions were really close and I finally had the good cry I've been wanting to have since we saw the doctor yesterday and I was able to really pray with my whole heart, which I've been having trouble doing lately. It all felt really good. I will try to remember this experience the next time I'm tempted to skip a yoga workout when I've already planned to do one!

I need to start working on next week's workout schedule soon. It has been extremely helpful to stick with my workouts, despite my schedule being really strange because of DH's doctor appointments (I didn't work Tuesday or Wednesday) because I already had them planned and haven't had to think at all. I also reorganized my videos the other day so I'd be able to find things more quickly and easily. Both have been key to keeping me on track. I'm glad to work out too, it is helping distract and relax me and I'm feeling pretty good overall right now (so thinking/writing about working out helps too!).