Fitness is Addictive

I’m currently in the seventh week of P90X and I skipped today’s workout. I still can’t believe that I skipped it. I can’t seem to get it out of my head and I feel consumed with fret about it. I’m going to blame my husband for this one. He was trying to be the voice of reason by advising me that, given my current blinding migraine, it might be best to skip the working out. I know he’s right, but if it was up to me I’d be upstairs right now doing Legs & Back; no matter how much my head hurt. Somehow I would get through it.

What is it about a fitness program that makes me so addicted? All I can think about now is, “What do I do from here?” Should I do Legs & Back tomorrow or should I do Kenpo, which is our normal Thursday work out? The best scenario would be to skip our Friday rest day and do both workouts this week. Only problem is that my husband and I have a date planned for Friday. Is it bad that I’m sitting here wondering if he would be mad if we postponed our date so we can get our full P90 week in? Oh God, I’m sick. This addiction must stop. Why can’t I be like normal people and not give slacking a second thought?

Problem solved. I just devised a plan. I will use my lunch break tomorrow to work out my legs and then do our regularly scheduled Kenpo after work. Phew. I feel much better now. I can finally relax for the rest of the night.

Yoga Teacher Training Moving Right Along

This weekend I finished the written test which consisted of 50 questions. I think my answers totaled seven pages worth of information. So much to digest and I wonder how much of it I’ll really retain. My next step is to write a three page essay on yoga and it’s relation to health. I have decided to write about how yoga can have positive benefits to cancer patients because restorative yoga is where most of my interest lies. I don’t have any intention of going out to a yoga studio to get a part-time job leading classes. But if I could ever utilize my knowledge to help people that really could use some extra help as they battle their way through a terrible ordeal, that would be very meaningful to me.

Once this step is complete it will be time for me to devise my own one-hour class routine. This is the part that scares me the most. I know I can happily do yoga by myself for an hour and cover all of my favorite asanas. But my ‘test class’ must be in the proper order and must address every group of poses, making sure to make special modifications for special needs students. This is the part of distance learning that is the most challenging. Nothing beats have the instructors in front of you showing you the proper moves. I have some videos to watch and I’m hoping I’ll get enough out of them. But maybe I should just focus on one step at a time. It’s time to start my restorative yoga research . . .

Plyometrics Revisited

This week I tackled P90X Plyo for the first time this year. I’m following the same schedule I did last year. I start off with, and complete Phase 1, doing the “Lean” version. Then during the first or second week of Phase 2, I replace Cardio with Plyo. Something about just ‘jumping’ into Plyo right off the bat scares me. And I think this method is really working because I got through the hour without any trouble. Seems that P90X is much easier your second time around. I remember talking to a friend who was also doing P90X for the first time last season. When I commented one day that I was planning to do it all over again the following year she was shocked and amazed. She told me that at the end of her 90 days she was planning to drive over all the DVDs with her car and never wanted to see them again. LOL.

I’m not sure if it’s because I know what to expect, or my body is still stronger from last year, but I haven’t had one day of dreading my workout or feeling as though it was too hard–and I’m a year older now! Is it possible that the conditioning I got last year is still paying off? That would be amazing, but it just may be.

Some random observations after starting Phase 2 include:

• My flexibility has improved. My down dogs are near perfect and I feel very strong in the position. I can also reach the floor on all the stretching moves.
• I finally figured out the real way to do the Drya rolls. Suddenly it just clicked and I found myself flying up without having to push with my hands. That felt great.
• My steam engines improved greatly. My knees are now flying up much higher and much easier than they were at the beginning of Phase 1.
• Unfortunately I’m not as strong with the push-ups or pull-ups as I was last year because I have not been supplementing with weight lifting sessions outside of P90X. This time whatever strength I build, I’m building solely from P90.

Win a Free YogaDudes T-Shirt

Although I am enjoying all my teacher training homework and all the fascinating reading, I sometimes ask myself, “Why am I doing this?” I have full-time job and a side business to run. I’m not planning to go out and actually teach yoga classes. This is just something that I feel I need to do. Sometimes the days aren’t long enough and the stress level is high. Sometimes I think I’m just crazy for taking more on my already full plate. So I’m looking for some inspiration . . .

Please answer my simple question, “Why should I become a yoga teacher?” by leaving a comment in the Comments Section below. Please be sure to include your email address in the comment. A winner will be selected on Valentines Day and notified via email.