- Wed - Charlene/Stretching

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Hi ,

I think you would enjoy Charlene, they are somewhat hard to find since she did not sell her workouts through typical retail/e-tail outlets - just her website. Some may not be in print any longer as she didn't "upgrade" many of her releases to DVD. She is a good instructor though and worth checking in to - her strength workouts are good, too, somewhat like a lesson in anatomy/physiology/function. She is an older lady - I'm thinking she must be in her 60's now - and a few of her more recent workouts have featured her daughter. I sure wish she would do more - even if her daughter lead and she was a consultant.

That is great news about your DH's health! I guess depending on the amount of time the doctor has to spend with each patient very narrow questions seem to work best. I think my problem w/ foward bends is going farther into them than I should. A very knowledgeable person on my FitFirmies list mentioned that and a light bulb went off. I was probably able to do them with more comfort before b/c my back was over-stretched, now that is it becoming more "normal" I have to respect those flexibility limits. I think in the future, I will do foward bends w/ a prop (if at all) such as a chair or stool so I will not be tempted to bend as far. My chiro hates forward bends, he doesn't recommend them at all - and I can see why, it is easy to overstretch. I'm understanding where he is coming from a bit more these days.

I'll still be keeping you in my thoughts and prayers on the job front. It is a scary time b/c many people are going to be out of work at the same time. Enjoy pumpkin carving and DH's continued health improvements! (and some Brachs Autumn Mix!!)Donna

Subject: Re: Wed - Charlene/StretchingTo: exercisevideos Date: Wednesday, October 29, 2008, 3:39 PM

Hi Donna,

You're getting me really interested in Charlene Prickett! This sounds good despite the music. I'll have to check and see if it is on netflix.

Good for you holding back on the Rodney and doing your own, safer, stretching too! On standing forward bends I would guess that yes, the alignment of your spine has changed and now (possibly temporarily? ) they are less useful for you. Will be interesting to see what the chiro says though. Your experiences with him gave me an idea for my hubby. He's seeing his nephrologist next week (he only sees her once every 3 months right now and gets blood test monthly) and wants to ask about starting to exercise again. He's been steadily improving since his kidney failure back in May. It is extremely slow progress but a blood test last week showed more progress so we're thankful for it. He's still at reduced function but is now stage 3 instead of stage 4 renal failure which means they are just monitoring him and not talking dialysis or transplant at all anymore. It almost seems like a miracle considering she was sure he'd need it and

probably relatively quickly. Anyway, his anemia (which is related to kidney function) has also improved so he does want to exercise but isn't sure what would be appropriate. I told him instead of asking what he can do that he should have an idea of what he wants to be able to do and ask specific questions about those activities and exertion levels and that she'd probably be able to give him a better answer. He agreed but isn't sure what he wants to do. I told him that was his problem at that point! And, since I've hijacked this at this point I'll add that we're still waiting to hear more job news. They had a meeting today and were told there was still no work to do past mid-November and to use all their vacation time before the end of the year. In the meantime, I've been offered some more WW meetings to lead so I'm jumping on them. It isn't much but it will at least help.

Gotta go get my kids at school and then pick out pumpkins for carving!

Wed - Charlene/Stretching

Hi,

Today I did Charlene Prickett's Start Your Engines for cardio. This is classic Charlene low impact cardio - lots of big movements (knee lifts, curls, etc.) that has minimal impact and requires little in the way of space. Charlene also tacks on "toning" exercises like squats and lunges to keep the intensity up and the impact low. She has two backgrounders with her - her friend and another lady - I can't remember her name - ? Anyway, it was a good intensity workout w/out the impact - Charlene is typically chatty (but it is all fitness related, so useful) and the music is not the best (when you can even hear it). The set is a small indoor space w/ a large window. I do enjoy doing Charlene's low impact and step routines, though!

afterwards I tried Rodney Yee's Yoga for Your Week from my "on demand" service. The workout they were offering was twisting - I started to do it, and realized it wasn't great for my back, so I stopped and did some stretching on my own. most of the twists I did were one that I do anyway, but Rodney did them too fast for me - so I figured I'd just do my own stretching at my own pace. Also, I found that standing forward bends hurt my back - Rodney did them in this workout and it didn't agree w/ my back. Now, here is something weird, before going to the Chiro and getting my back more "under control" I didn't notice any particular discomfort w/ doing standing forward bends - is it b/c the alignment in my back has changed? Is it b/c I'm just more aware of my back since a lot of the time it doesn't hurt at all (in other words, it hurt all the time before so it was hard to tell what aggravated it...) Weird

- this and T-Tapp....

Anyway, tomorrow I'll do a longer Pilates workout.

Hope everyone has a good day!Donna