Because I feel like I should continue to log my fitness progress over time, but I don’t want to track my workouts in fifty different apps (and by fifty, of course, I mean two or three), I decided to officially start an Exercise Log on my blog. This entry spans three weeks, just because.
Summary: For the most part, Mondays have been Kickboxing, and Thursdays have been Yoga Flow, with one scheduling exception last week. Over the last three weeks, I feel like my core has started to get back to its pre-yoga-hiatus strength and stability levels, although my back has been iffy. I should add my physical therapy exercises back into the mix to stretch and strengthen the specific muscles that need it.
Workout details follow…
7/25 – Monday’s kickboxing class. Boy howdy, my lower back. It doesn’t protest like this when I run, so I have to assume it’s more of the twisting along with the impact rather than just the impact itself. After a shower and a trip up the elevator, it’s feeling almost back to normal, but during class, I had to take the low-impact options and bow out of the standing cat-and-cow back rolls entirely.
Also, there’s a woman in class whose presence always makes me want to kick ass. It’s totally reverse psychology, though, since this woman — who has maybe ten years on me — is a lifelong dancer, and appears to be taking the Michael Jackson approach to fighting her invisible opponent. She always has great turnout, even when our feet are supposed to be parallel, and she never rarely looks like she’s actually trying to be fierce. (Maybe that’s as fierce as she gets, though.) At any rate, whenever she’s in class with me, I find myself going balls-out extra punchy kicky fighty from the get-go. This may have something to do with my overexertion-type back pain. 🙂
7/28 – Thursday’s Yoga Flow. Well-attended with eight participants, so hopefully this will get on the schedule more often. More strength than stretch, because that’s just how the instructor rolls. I’m good with that, though. I can feel muscle soreness in my lower back, on either side of my spine, which is where I need to maintain strength if I’m not going to mess myself up again.
I modified a few moves, but the only move I opted out of entirely was the rollover (plough), since I’ve been medically advised to avoid it.
7/29 – Chiropractor Appointment. Related to exercise, my chiro told me to take it easy for a few days, since I had more than the normal vertebrae out of whack this adjustment, and the sciatica had been messing with me after my last run/walk (which I didn’t admit had a running component when she asked).
Even though I have a spot this week where I could slot a run in over lunch, I think I’m going to opt against it, in favor of two walks.
8/1 – Monday’s kickboxing class. Much better than last week’s class — presumably due to my back being in proper alignment. I took the low-impact options early on in the class, then stopped modifying about halfway through, once I took stock of how my lower back and core were feeling. Ended the class feeling properly fatigued/energized but not in pain.
8/2 – Tuesday’s Yoga Flow. Felt fantastic, in the flow, back in the saddle, in my comfort zone (despite some slight hiccups in the instructor’s cues). I looked strong and confident, and I forgot all about how frumpy and down I’d been feeling that morning. I may even have smiled and laughed to myself a few times.
Then we had a flow from Pigeon to Split Downward-Facing Dog and I proceeded to pull or strain something in my right lower back. I was thinking about it in the shower afterward, and I realized that I had been so much in the zone that I didn’t have Doug (my old yogi) in my head, reminding me to lever myself up on that left leg first, up to a plank, then extend into Down Dog. I just followed Julie’s basic instructions without thinking — and with the back issues I have, that can cause problems.
I do hope this remains a staple on the schedule. Up until my injury, that was the best I’ve felt — mentally and physically — in weeks.
8/8 – Monday’s Kickboxing Class. My back still felt a little off, but not enough to keep me away from kickboxing. Good thing, too, because not only did I have a great class where I was intense and in the zone, but I also exercised my DGAF muscle by wearing a workout top that showed precisely where all my midriff rolls live.
Come to think of it, once I stopped caring about my visible spare tire (and noticing that, yes, other people have them, too), that was when I got in the zone.
My core muscles are getting back to where they were when yoga was still a weekly thing, which makes me Very Happy. My hamstrings are still hella tight, but I’m aware of that, and I don’t try to do any circle kicks or extra-high front kicks to exacerbate things in that area — it just makes things worse, especially if I use improper form to try to get my foot and leg where they’re “supposed” to be. I still took the low-impact option for all jacks and plyo moves, thanks to my tweaky back, but I feel fantastic overall.
8/11 – Thursday’s Yoga Flow. My glutes and hammies were still sore from kickboxing, but it was a good class, just the same. I was extra careful with transitions, making sure to protect my back (which is also still a bit tweaky on the right side), and I didn’t go as deep into some of the poses/flows as she did. I even bowed out of a few things, or modified them — like that last set of vinyasa flow through plank, alligator, upward dog, and back to downward dog, I modified to kneeling, just like I would in Doug’s class.
Julie said that Yoga Flow might not make it onto the schedule next week. If not, I’m seriously considering bringing a recording of Doug to work (or just using his Spotify playlist) and doing a late solo yoga workout.