Yoga is, as it's practiced, isn't nearly as ancient or mystical as it's sometimes made out to be. It's basically several turn of the century exercise regimes put together, with some breathing exercises, and a veneer of energy centers and mysticality to capitalize on the British and American craze for mysticism going strong at that moment in time. It was designed for export.

The actual basic poses and breathing exercises can be very beneficial, but they're not going to cure your cancer so much as build some core muscle and keep your limbs and neck well stretched. Parts, it turns out, aren't as good for you, and hopefully any decent class would do without those poses/maneuvers.

I'd hope most community center or community college yoga classes wouldn't be awfully churchy, but you never know. The main use of doing one in a class and not by yourself is to have someone else looking over your form and keeping you from trying something too complex and potentially damaging.

Good luck and all.

TYVM Gio.

Giovanna wrote:

toxins

You know me better than that.

Glad to hear you're healthy, Valeli!  And that you're still at the gym!

Valeli wrote:

More tangibly I've been able to start doing more weight than I could at first. Not a lot more, but you know it's real change when you're doing something you simply couldn't at first (ie: an extra 10 pounds is barely anything, but it's proof positive of change when you couldn't have done the exercise with that weight at the beginning).

This is one of my favorite parts about exercise: success is often measurable.  One reason I haven't been posting here, actually, is that my success measurements haven't been so strong recently.  I'm still keeping up with my running, but I tried turning the machine up just slightly faster -- like, six and a half seconds per mile faster -- and suddenly I lost all my distance.  Maybe it's just that I don't have a half-marathon in the immediate future anymore, but my last three runs have been four miles, four miles, and five miles.  Not exactly my usual.    But I'll keep chugging along and work back up!

Playing a tennis tournament this weekend.

Have to play 5 matches in 3 days.

My 2nd match of the night, I was in the zone or flow or whatever. Not flawless, but I wasn't tight or tense. I was swinging free and without stress.

I wish every match I play in competition could feel like this one, even when if I lose.

One of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had in a tournament.

1st place in a tennis tournament last week.

3rd place in the Corporate Challenge racquetball tournament this week.

It's been a productive beginning to the summer competitive season.

Hopefully, my momentum will hold throughout the rest of it.

I played racquetball this weekend too.  I played really hard, and sometimes I even hit the ball!    Maybe one of you will humor me the next time we're all in the same place!

I don't actually go to the gym anymore but found the 100 push up challenge and 200 sit up challenge helpful.  Doing couch to 5k, as well, but my running progress is slow. 

Otherwise, I've been extremely out of shape most of my life so there's been a lot to learn.  I've, at least, learned the importance of stretching.  It's kept me from getting muscle tears for a while. 

My fb friends may know I'm under a certain time constraint to get into very good shape for the job I'm going for, so there is a lot of pressure.  I wish, just for the mental satisfaction alone, that I started sooner.

Three days to the Kansas City Open tennis tournament, and guess who is the #1 seed in her division?

Ashnod! Go, Ashnod, go!

Oh yeah, I'll be competing there too.

Brian, what do you do for your distance running prep? Once you're getting to workouts of that magnitude, a lot of people will use various things like choline caps to replenish what the body is consuming. Though not as familiar, I believe runners will also carb load before runs? It might be the circumstances diet-wise leading up to your run that seem to be making it or breaking it for you.

satyreyes wrote:

a good night's sleep and with carb-heavy food in my stomach

Ah, carbs. The pizza is probably working better for you because it has a variety of carb sources that release at different paces (glycemic index.) This is important for distance running because of the length of the exercise. Pasta on its own would be ideal for something like high intensity interval training, which is designed to bang out the workout in less than 45 minutes or so.

With pills (actually for serious users, the powders are about five thousand times cheaper, but to test how they work for you pills are fine.) There are TONS of pills that various lifters and runners use. I can post a list of them that I'd shamelessly steal from another forum, but overall I've only really found huge use for only a few. Though the research on any of these is less conclusive than 'Viagra gives you boners', they're actually pretty well researched as benefiting people who need them. Packing in grams of amino acids and shit isn't going to make your wussy 20 minutes of lazy cardio any more effective (seriously lady your makeup isn't even running.) You'll just pee it out because your body didn't need it. But if you're about to run for 2+ hours, or weight lift for power, there's more to gain.

Beta-Alanine - Blah blah helps with lactic acid removal in the muscle blah blah. This is used specifically for endurance in situations that would exhaust your muscle potentially before your heart-exhausted. For example, it won't do much for walking for three hours. But if you're running three hours, it'll help push your muscles to last longer. In weight lifting, it's the difference between me being able to do 3 sets of 8 reps and 4 sets, however it's not making me able to lift heavier weights in this endeavor. The effective dose is about 3g, and for efforts longer than an hour and a half, adding another gram or two halfway through is recommended. (You'll see quickly why the pills are a rip-off, 3g will take like 4 or 5 pills. The doses stated on the bottle are completely ineffective.) Beta-alanine can cause nausea, though I've not had that problem, and TINGLY EXTREMITIES. Yeah it's kinda weird and doesn't always happen but for some reason it just makes you work harder because you don't notice it if you're distracted.

Choline - A precursor to acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that's just everywhere. Skeletal muscle relies on it, and extra access allows them to fire more effectively. Inversely, it has an inhibitory effect on the heart, slowing its rate--that sounds bad but it's actually quite favorable for training. Your heart will never beat too slowly to maintain you, but it'll beat slower than it would if you're freaking it out doing ridiculous cardio. The normal dose is 1.5g. This doesn't effect endurance in the same sense that bela-alanine does, but it keeps you mentally focused. You know that feeling near the end of a lot of working out where you're starting to mentally wander to your grocery list or masturbation? It helps with that, and in fact tends to make me a ridiculous machine in the gym. Sure Gio, you haven't done serious weights in ages so lets lift our maxes FOR THE NEXT TWO HOURS. Without choline, I've found my workouts blow out about an hour in and I phone in whatever else I had left to do.

Caffeine - Self explanatory.

Ephedrine stacked with Caffeine - Ahem. This used to Dexatrim. It 'used' to be how truck drivers stayed awake for 20 hours on the road. It 'is' how I manage to crawl out of bed at 5am when everything about my body says I should have gone to bed 20 minutes ago and I just wanna die. 16 to 24mg of ephedrine (as in Bronkaid) stacked with 200mg of caffeine has a huge effect on energy and focus. It will also make your heart race and sometimes makes you nauseated. It's not fantastic for your heart in long term use. This is a prime case of the nurse that knows why she shouldn't do it thinking that awareness permits her to do so. That said, it's very, very popular among serious gym folk, and most anyone you see blasting it away in a gym is probably using it. JSYK, ephedrine is not legally sold in the US and Canada as anything but a decongestant. Canada doesn't restrict the amount you can by, though, just the dose in each pill. The US will take your addy and name when you buy Bronkaid. This is because ephedrine is a precursor to meth. So like, don't make meth with it. And don't try to buy 10 boxes of Bronkaid at once. Because then you're probably trying to make meth. Oh, I should add that this stack is also used extensively by nursing students and med students who don't know someone to buy Adderall off of. The energy it gives doesn't necessarily need to be spent working out. It'll also get you, productively, through a massive cram session. Note that there is absolutely nothing illegal about using the drug this way, the drug got pulled from most things because of the potential it had for making meth. It wasn't removed entirely from shelves because it's simply too effective at what it does for asthmatics and others with trouble breathing.

Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) - This one may or may not benefit you depending on your goals. Unless you're trying to work out on an empty stomach, you actually take this after. (Amounts vary, 5-15g is the average.) It's one of the more scientifically proven ones, and it's used to help you recover (good for marathon running) and build muscle (for lifting.) Basically it's providing the components your body needs to recover from the beating you just gave it. Most lifters take it with protein powder, but protein powder is more of a muscle building thing and may be less useful than carb replenishment post workout. Pills are horrifyingly bad at giving you a useful dose. (Seriously they're like 1g every two pills.)

You'll want to go to a GNC.

Also, I've never heard a doctor not say that SUPPLEMENTS ARE BAD MKAY, even when I know them to use workout supplements I'm looking at you doc from my emerg practicum.

satyreyes wrote:

Life lesson learned yet again: if you go on vacation and skip a couple weeks of workouts, you pretty much start from scratch.

Heh, I'm more than a couple of weeks behind on workouts.; Yeah, it will be fun to work myself up again...