Free Yoga during National Yoga Month

National-Yoga-MonthGuys, September is National Yoga Month. I’m not sure how I found out about it — perhaps on the radio driving to the climbing gym to do my yoga. How funny.

After a long relaxing break in Newfoundland, I got back into my regular fitness regime last week. I went to a couple of yoga classes, and holy quac — not going to yoga for over a month seriously limits my already poor flexibility. It felt really great getting back in and stretching my hips during yin yoga, a favourite class of mine to go to.

Yoga-selfieI had the studio all to myself for a couple of minutes.

Did you know that you can often get a one week free trial to a local yoga studio near you, during this National Yoga Month? It’s available both in the USA and Canada. Can’t leave my Canadian buddies out. I was interested to see if any local yoga studios within a 5 mile radius was in on this, and three studios were! So it’s a pretty good way to test out a few studios to find your best fit, without spending money trying to figure out where you want to practice.

Do you practice yoga?

What are your favourite poses?
If we’re being real, child’s pose and savasana are my favourite. But if I had to choose a third, I’d say the half swan pose except your leg isn’t on the ground, it’s the one where you look like you’re about to take off on a running race? What is that one called?

What style of yoga do you do?
Yin for me, I love holding the deep semi-painful stretches for lengthy periods of time

Do you have any pet peeves during yoga?
I’m not a fan of the loud breathers or the people who are loud in general coming into the room after yoga has started

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Fitness Recap: I swore during yoga class

Yeah, during Power Yoga last Thursday, with our intense Russian instructor, with an accent so thick she’s hard to understand. So I’m there looking around to see what everyone else is doing, then copy.

Does anyone else get their left and right’s mixed up during a yoga class? I really have to think about what I’m doing, to make sure I’m following along correctly.

At one point she had us doing handstands, which was fun for me, as I’m used to doing them (against a wall) at CrossFit. We did that for a bit, but then we switched for a forearm/headstand. It killed my brain, and felt like it was getting smooshed. I might have let out the f-word when I was falling down after a few attempts. I did manage to get up though, and was much more stable in that position, than the handstand. Score.

I feel like a lot of bloggers are getting into yoga lately. It’s a good thing! For any sport really. I remember thinking it was for hippies a few years ago, but man — I almost crave going.

I’ve only been doing yoga regularly since late May, and I’ve been noticing tremendous amount of change in my flexibility. I’m enjoying it! I usually go to a yoga class, and immediately follow through with an hour or so of bouldering. Which I feel makes me a stronger climber.

Boulder V4 greenSo much so, I’ve been working on this green V4 pinchy problem. Some of the holds suck, especially towards the bottom, but once you get to the top-ish, it’s okay. I cannot get the second last green hold. Your left foot is not stable at all on the under-hanging pinches. It’s awesome, and frustrating.

One more thing before I jump into the fitness recap. The Guy and I bought a family membership to a pool!

Let’s get to it:

Monday June 16: 90 minutes of bouldering, and 30 minute pool lane swim!

Tuesday June 17: 75 minutes of yin yoga, 90 minutes bouldering

Wednesday June 18: Off

Thursday June 19: 75 minutes of power yoga, 45 minutes bouldering, 35 minute lane swim

Friday June 20: 75 minutes of yin yoga, 3 hours of top rope climbing with Ellen

Saturday June 21: 3.6 mile run (outside) with The Guy

Sunday June 22: Off

swim selfieSwimming pool selfie. Had to. Like I said earlier, I hadn’t been lane swimming since I was a teenager, training to be a lifeguard – which I failed. I can finally swim one length (25m) of the pool without stopping. Now I have to work on the breathing.

climbing shoe selfieIt’s going to sound cheesy, but I love it when Ellen and I go climbing together. For the most part, I do yoga and bouldering on my own. But about once a week, we get together and climb for hours. Literally, we are there for 3+ hours together, and while most of it is climbing, sometimes we just sit down on the cushiony carpet and just chat about anything and everything. I had to take a climbing shoe selfie of our feet the last time we were climbing together. Ha.

Tone It Up Gym bagMy Tone It Up gym bag is $24 off if any of you were interested in purchasing it. Gah. It’s still expensive.

When is the last time you went swimming?

How many times a week do you normally work out?

Are you watching any of the World Cup soccer games?
I honestly think world cup soccer players fall down easily because they want to catch their effing breath! No I’m not even joking!

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Fitness Recap: What I think of Yoga

I left you last week with my first fitness recap in … months. I’m here again to tell you what I did last week starting from Monday.

I forgot how much working out changes your mood. Not that I was ever in terrible moods, because how can you be in a bad mood in this beautiful California weather? But I feel more limber, healthier, and overall great when I get a workout in each day. I’m thinking of incorporating two workouts in a day, but not every day because I’m pretty sure it’d burn me out. I do yoga and bouldering in the same day, but I consider yoga to be more stretching of the muscles, and opening of the hips. Mind you, I did had a sweat-sesh at yoga on Saturday. It was nuts.

I work best in a scheduled and structured day, and I’m thinking of documenting my weekly eats into these fitness recaps too. Would you be interested in seeing? I think that will keep me from eating pizza, cokes, and candy, if I have to write it down, snap photos and upload it. What do you think? I did it while on the 30 day paleo challenge…

Each time I go to yoga, I finish the class all warmed up then jump on the bouldering wall, I felt so ready to conquer the boulder problems. Yoga definitely limbers the body up, and I felt as if I could climb for many more hours than I did. I had to leave because I was hungry. Selfies before driving off, as you do. I got caught taking this one and the dude smiled at me while I laughed at my embarrassment.

I have to say, the yoga class I did last Monday was a little weird. I was the 3rd person to enter the studio. What I failed to realize was that the other two ladies were also newbies. I asked one of them a question on what we needed and I got a snide remark about how she didn’t know. Am I being overly friendly? Am I being weird? Are you not used to strangers asking you a question? What? Why is it, that I get a few snide remarks from strangers on a weekly basis? I simply don’t understand, but I try to not let it phase me. Perhaps I’m being too Canadian-friendly. Let’s see if I smile at you again though! ;) Three people left the 60 minute yin yoga (Yin yoga really focuses on opening the hips and lower back) session while it was going on. I’m thinking it was either the loud breather, the really old guy in his nude spandex (which made him look naked), or the sub-in instructor. I’m not going to let that deter me from going again though, and I didn’t. I loved it because it was full of deep stretching.

Monday May 26: Off

Tuesday May 27: 1 hour yin yoga, 2 hours bouldering

Wednesday May 28: 2 mile run in 19:29

Thursday May 29: 1 hour power yoga, 1 hour bouldering. Then The Guy asked me to join him at the gym and I wasn’t feeling it, so I did 3% incline walk for 1 mile (15 minutes) ha!!

Friday May 30: Off

Saturday May 31: 90 minute(!!!) Vinyasa Flow yoga, followed by 1 hour bouldering

Sunday June 1: 3 mile run without stopping (finally!) at 5.9 pace on treadmill. Time: 30:23

I’ve declared this orange boulder problem rated at a V2, my project as of last Tuesday when I put in two hours at the gym. I can’t seem to get the second last hold. They’re all decent sized, but I feel like it requires more power and a dynamic movement which I’m not used to doing. Ellen told me, “You’re the most graceful climber I’ve seen. It’s like watching a ballet” a huge compliment as I try to make the most out of my movements and not waste energy and scramble or power myself up the wall. I’m more of a technical climber than a strong boulderer, so this V2 is hard!

I did manage to pull down a few V3’s on Saturday afternoon, after that long 90 minute session in yoga. These yoga classes are hilarious. There’s always something going on – this time a dude fell asleep during the savasana at the end.

Okay, let me know what you’ve accomplished this week, or what your goals are for the upcoming week.

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