The Power of Arnica

I’m sold on the healing powers of Arnica. I’ve taken it before, both topically and orally, but never together. Yesterday I mysteriously hurt my elbow. Not quite sure exactly what I did, but it was sore and clicking strangely all morning. Might not have been the smartest idea to bust out 40 pushups and lift weights at lunchtime, but I did. And, of course, the pain got much worse. By the evening it was really sore and this morning I had trouble pushing myself out of bed, brushing my hair, and doing anything that required me to move my arm. It was even worse when I needed to both move my arm and flex my muscles. Gripping something in my hand shot pain straight to my elbow. This was not good.

So this morning I went looking for some muscle rub, even though I wasn’t sure it was a muscle problem. Seemed like it could also be a joint problem. When I looked into my drawer I noticed my tube of neglected Arnica. I can’t remember the last time I used it. Now seemed to be the perfect time to give it a try because Arnica is really for pain relief, not just soothing sore muscles. So I slathered it all over my elbow. Then the thought occurred to me that I also had little Arnica tablets that are taken internally. Well, that couldn’t hurt so I took those too and I’ll be darned. By noon the pain was almost completely gone. I won’t forget about my new best friend the next time I’m experiencing any sort of joint or muscle pain. This stuff really works!

Free iPod Workout Downloads

I just stumbled across a web site that offers iPod workout downloads. Some of them cost, but there are a few downloads available for free, one of them a yoga bundle. I downloaded the Glut Camp Workout this afternoon and I was quite pleased with it. I didn't actually put it on my iPod, but instead just watched it on my computer. It was very straightforward. They showed a model doing one of the exercises, explained what to do, and then told you to pause and do a set of reps at your own pace. Then you simply hit play again, watch the next exercise, and repeat the pause/play options until you get through the entire workout. This is such a great concept and so easy to take your workouts on the road. I think I will investigate more of these workouts in the future, but in the meantime, why not download the free ones and give them a try? Here's the link.

Yoga and Allergies - Not a Good Mix

Why does yoga make my allergies worse? Living in New England during this time of year is a big challenge. The pollen is out in full force and the rainy, low pressure days do very bad things to my sinuses. I started off this dreary day thankful that my usual sinus headache wasn't rearing its ugly head yet. But, just like I suspected, my afternoon yoga caused my sinus headache to appear. I think it has something to do with bending over. My head doesn't seem to like being upside down as that seems to make the pressure in my sinuses build. This really stinks. I find myself avoiding yoga for fear of either getting a headache or making the headache that I already have even worse. I wish I knew how to combat this issue. And on that note, I'm going to find some Sudafed . . .

Free June Desktop Calendar

Click here for the full size version. Then right click and Save as Desktop.

Uh Oh

Well, before attempting to hurt any students with yoga, I managed to hurt myself. This is not helping my confidence level at all. I was practicing my yoga routine in my office this week and my hand slipped in the middle of my vinyasa (as I was heading down to push-up position.) In an attempt to recover and prevent myself from landing flat on my face, my left arm and shoulder had to respond quickly. Not sure what my muscles did to recover, but whatever it was, it left me with quite the sore shoulder. I think I just learned an important lesson about cheating and doing yoga without a yoga mat. I've been doing this for years with no issues, but this little incident sent me immediately packing to the store to buy an extra mat to leave in my office. This was a little bonus lesson not covered in my studies. No extra charge, unless you count the cost of the BenGay.

P90X Abs Core Plus

I finally got around to trying out another P90X Plus video, Abs Core Plus. After my last Kenpo X disappointment I guess I wasn't all that thrilled to try more. But since my husband is out of town and I'm out of our normal routine I thought it was a good time to give it a whirl. I had expectations that I wouldn't be able to keep up. With the nice weather and the endless home chores, we've fallen off the P90 bandwagon. I figured I would do my fair share of cheating, with no work-out buddy keeping an eye on me, but was I ever surprised. I did every move on the video and I must say, I did them pretty effortlessly. I didn't even break a sweat and I enjoyed the whole thing. Ok, maybe not the whole thing.

The only parts that I found uncomfortable and difficult were the hanging moves. I did the first 3 or 4 sets with no gloves, which was unbearable. I don't have a nice cushiony bar like the folks on the video and my already-sore painting hands were being shredded. So I threw on some gloves for the remaining hanging sessions, but I still couldn't figure out how not to swing. I must have the wrong technique because my body seemed to swing much more than it should. I'll have to work on that.

Overall the video was excellent. The moves are all one minute each with no idle chatter in between. You just flow from one move right to the next without wasting any time. The 20 minutes flew by and I was pleasantly surprised at how well I did. I can say, without a doubt, that it's yoga that has keep my abs and core in tip top shape. Many of the moves involved balancing and I found them easy as can be. Yoga is solely responsible for my balance and stability. I will definitely add this video to my normal weekly routine.

Anatomy for Yoga

I spent an hour going through some of my Anatomy for Yoga lectures yesterday and it was fascinating. It left me with such mixed feelings. On one hand I feel much better about the parts of me that I consider "inflexible." I've always felt that I would never make a good yoga instructor because I'll "never be able to bend like that." I always thought it was because I just wasn't doing something right, or my muscles just aren't as limber as they should be. But I was completely wrong about that. In these lectures the instructor discusses the terms tension and compression. When you hit the wall and can no longer bend or flex your limbs any further it is because of one of those two terms. If it was tension, it would indeed be a tight muscle preventing you from stretching deeper. In these cases, the muscles can be worked on to increase the motion.

But much more often it is because of your bone structure. Literally one bone is hitting another which is called compression. In this case, no matter how much yoga you do, or how much you stretch, you're just never going to be able to move any further. This made me feel so much better about my yoga inadequacies. The instructor said repeatedly, "you either have it or you don't" meaning great flexibility. He also explained how everyone is built differently and how you could really hurt yourself if you don't understand this concept. The best part was watching him move a skeleton around to really understand what bones where hitting and how.

So that left me feeling much better about myself and what I can and can not do. However, it completely terrified me as far as instructing students through a class. How on earth will I know if they are hitting tension or compression? When you see a student not doing a pose 'properly' how do you know if you should try to make an adjustment or just assume they can't bend any more than they are already bending? I will be very happy to get my certification and I am really enjoying all this knowledge that I'm gaining, but I'm still not sure if I will ever be brave enough to put my certification to use. I have a whole new admiration for all you yoga instructors out there!

The Netflix Gym

A few months ago I discovered a great free sublemental training resource. I, like many, subcribe to Netflix movies in the mail. For years my husband and I have enjoyed the DVDs showing up in our mailbox every week. I knew that you could rent workout DVDs but I rarely did that as it took away from our weekend movie watching. But I recently discovered the Watch Instantly tab along the top of the Netflix page. After clicking on that you are presented with a long drop-down list of Genres, one of which is Sports. And inside that Sports category you will find another header called Workouts. Wait a minute, does that mean I can instantly stream workout vidoes right in my office? Upon further investigation I found even the Workouts section to be broken down into the following categories:

This was too good to be true. For the past 3 months I've been using Netflix approximately 3 times a week during my lunch break. Within just a few minutes I can natigate straight to my choice of workout. I shut my office door and have a great little workout. Sometimes I'll watch the full video, but other times I'll just pick my favorite parts. The more I do the different workouts the more familiar I'm getting, allowing me to scrub right to the section that I want to do. These have been a great supplement to my P90X evening workouts. And I have to say, and I'm not sure if I'm embarrassed to admit this, some of those Crunch workouts leave me sore every time. I'm hooked. For $8 a month I watch a current movie every weekend, I stream older movies and some TV shows at home, and now I'm doing free yoga, pilates, and more in my office. I love it and I highly recommend checking out Netflix for an inexpensive gym alternative.

Free May Desktop Calendar

The April showers have brought us the May flowers. This months free YogaDudes desktop calendar features some of those May flowers. Just click here for a larger image of the calendar. When this bigger image appears, right-click on it and "Set as Background."

Happy Spring to all.

Green Tips for Earth Day

Go green and save. Make simple earth and wallet friendly changes to your daily routine and feel even better about the money you're not spending. Why not make Earth Day every day?

At Home
Lower your water-heater temperature 25 degrees and you can save up to $50 a year.

On the Web
Go to the free website www.catalogchoice.org and unsubscribe from catalogs you don't need. Your house will be less cluttered and you'll be doing your part to preserve the forests.

In the Car
Drive 10 MPH slower and you'll increase your fuel efficiency by about 15%. Unless you drive a MINI, in which case you're getting great gas mileage to begin with and that car just shouldn't be driven slowly. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Kenpo Plus — A Disappointment

Tonight was my second attempt at a P90X Plus video. After getting my butt kicked by Interval, it left me a little hungry to try more. I reported back to my traveling husband that he will like Interval. He's been resisting giving the Plus videos a try because, as he said, he "didn't want to learn something new." Yes, he is an old dog and is resistant to new tricks. So I was thrilled to tell him how easy Interval was. There was nothing to it. The moves were as basic as can be. All you need to do is bring the muscle and the lungs.

I found Kenpo Plus, on the other hand, to be an annoyingly cumbersome work-out. I thought most of the moves were clumsy and awkward. Ok, maybe it was just me being clumsy and awkward, but why did it have to be so difficult? And by difficult, I don't mean physically challenging. In fact, I think it was a big waste of my time tonight. I wish I did anything else in place of this work-out. I couldn't give it my all and really put the needed uuumph into the moves because I was struggling to catch on and never felt well grounded. The traditional Kenpo is a million times better. It's controlled and precise and timed just right. I get a total body (including back and core) work-out with it. This Kenpo Plus was a joke to me. I am so not impressed and will very likely never try it again. My first P90X disappointment :-(

P90X Plus - Ouch!

Holy @$&% I thought I was ready for P90X Plus, but I guess I was mistaken. Today was my first attempt at it. Seeing as I breezed through most of the regular P90X I figured, "How tough can they be?" Well, let me tell you . . . tough!

Granted, I only tried one video and it was Interval. Actually, it was an accident too because I intended to do Total Body, but put in the wrong DVD. Since I don't yet know one from the other, it made no difference. Interval was an interesting approach. I think there are approximately 15 different exercises and you perform them at three different 20 second intervals. You start off at a nice manageable pace, then you move up to a little higher intensity, followed by (of course) 20 seconds of butt-kicking hard work.

I made it through the entire first half and was feeling pretty good about myself. But when Tony said that we were going to repeat the exact same sequence I think I cried. I was so not ready for that. I got through another 4 or 5 exercises, but with much less umph than I did the first time around. I think I was suffering from my typical problem. I didn't have my work-out buddy and I'm just not as driven when I work-out alone. Nobody's looking so I'm gonna cheat. But I still feel good, none-the-less, that I even attempted it. And based on the fact that I was sweating when I was done, I obviously worked hard. Most of the regular P90X sessions didn't make me sweat at all.

I am curious to see what the rest of the videos are like and will, no doubt, be checking them out shortly.

My Big Deput in the New York Times

I was very excited to have been interviewed by The New York Times for an article about Doga. After all, how on earth did the NYT find me and YogaDudes? After 15 minutes on the phone with the most delightful writer I really looked forward to seeing the article in print. But I have to say, I was a little disappointed.

The article made me sound much more negative than I really was. To recap, I did agree that calling the activity "yoga for dogs" was ridiculous. Being a firm believer in the very real art and science of yoga I do find it degrading and fad like to try to involve a pet. However, with that said, there was nothing wrong with a group of dog lovers getting together on a sunny afternoon to socialize their dogs. I believe that all the participants had a good time and enjoyed the hour of 'doga.' I guess I would feel better about it if 1) they called it something else that had no connection to yoga, and 2) the organizers didn't charge $15 per class. That just seems outrageous to me. After all, anybody without real yoga training could lead a doga class. I think it would make much more sense if a group of dog lovers got together and a fellow dog lover led a session on a voluntary basis. Then it would be all about the social aspect and the love of dogs and less about making an easy buck.

P90X Year Two Completed

I forgot to mention that last Friday ended my second year of P90X. Although it was a relief and felt great, it wasn't nearly as thrilling as the first time around. I guess that is obvious, seeing as I forgot to blog about it. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great sense of accomplishment. I think the reason why I wasn't quite as thrilled this time is because my husband and I are planning to continue doing as many videos per week as we can. Case in point, we came home from work today and did Back & Biceps, just because we felt like it. Sick. I know!

Last season we started P90X later in the year and ended up stuck inside when the weather was really getting nice. This year we started on January 1st to ensure we would be done before Spring really sprung in New England. It sort of backfired because the weather is still pretty darn crappy here and the streets are still filled with sand, making road biking undesirable. So now we have to continue with P90X until all the conditions are just right to go outside and play. sigh

With the big P90X commitment behind me, it's time to put more focus on yoga. I've set a goal to have my one-hour class rehearsed and performed by the end of May. And the clock is ticking—gulp!

Free April Desktop Wallpaper Calendar

Since I couldn't think of a good April Fool's joke, I'm sharing a new April wallpaper desktop calendar. Just click here for the larger image. Once it appears in your browser, right-click on it and "Set as Background."

Happy April!

Welcome to Recovery Week

What could feel better than entering into your final Recovery Week of P90X? Oh wait, I know . . . finishing your LAST day of P90X! And that day will be this Friday. That's right. I said this Friday. I have to admit, it's not quite as thrilling as it was last year, but none the less I am looking forward to it. My husband is insisting that we should continue the workouts as if we never finished. This is the same guy that I had to beg and plead with last year to give this 'P90 thing' a try. Now I've created a monster and I can't stop him.

I really need to shift my focus over to yoga starting next weekend. This whole P90X thing has really gotten in the way of my yoga teacher training. I've done a good job with the book portion of my training, but now I'm to the point where I have to create and practice my first lesson. I have it on paper (seems the paper portion is much easier for me) and now I have to commit it to memory. My goal is to practice my own lesson plan every day next week and perform on tape by May. If all goes well, I'll have my certificate by my birthday in early July. That's the goal anyway. I need to hop to it.

My New Recovery Drink

I found my new recovery drink—POM Wonderful Pomegranate Juice. I have been intrigued by the magazine ads lately, and finally decided to give it a try. Tony always mentions the importance of drinking a ‘recovery drink’ after the P90X workouts, but I never tried his. The reason is that I didn’t want to get hooked on some expensive drinks that I had to order online. I wanted something healthy that I could just buy at a grocery store. Enter POM Pomegranate Juice.

First of all, the bottles are so darn cute I almost have a hard time tossing them in the recycling bin. I’m constantly trying to come up with a craft project to re-purpose them. At first I thought the bottles were so little that I would need to drink 3 of them after a workout, making them just as expensive. But there are a couple of reasons why that is not the case. First, you only need 8 ounces of this wonder juice to reap the healthy benefits of it. And secondly, I discovered that mixing the juice with my favorite pomegranate-seltzer is a real treat. I compare drinking the straight juice to a glass of Merlot; strong and bold. But mixing it with seltzer gives it a lighter and yummy twist. Perfect for an after workout guzzle.

And speaking of red wine, tests found that ounce for ounce, pomegranate juice has 17% more polyphenol antioxidants than red wine. With incredibly high levels of very potent, naturally occurring polyphenol antioxidants, POM Wonderful Pomegranate Juice is truly the antioxidant superpower. And I don’t know about you, but guzzling red wine really puts a damper on the rest of the day.

Scientists believe that antioxidants may help protect the body from free radical damage. It makes sense that exercising regularly and eating a healthy diet full of fruits and vegetables including antioxidant-rich POM Wonderful Pomegranate Juice may help you stay young. It’s cheaper and more pleasant than Botox so I’m willing to give it a try.

Urban Zen Foundation

The Well-Being Initiative of the Urban Zen Foundation is committed to changing the current healthcare paradigm to include integrative therapies and promote patient advocacy. Their vision is a healthcare system where the patient is treated, not just the disease… a system where eastern healing techniques, yoga therapy, aromatherapy, and nutrition are used in combination with western medicine in a holistic approach to patient care.

As part of the Well-Being Initiative, the Urban Zen Foundation has launched two new programs in 2009 featuring instruction by Rodney Yee:

The Urban Zen Yoga Teacher Training Program is an in-depth 200-hour yoga teacher training program that can be completed on its own or taken as a suggested pre-requisite for the Urban Zen Integrative Therapist program. This program begins March 13, 2009, in New York City, and will run through September 2009, one weekend a month, with a break in July.

The Urban Zen Integrative Therapist (UZIT) Program is a 500-hour advanced program focused on integrating multiple therapies into patient care. The current year-long program started in NYC in January 2009 and the next training will start in January 2010.

For more information visit www.urbanzen.org

One Step Closer

• 50 question written test -- DONE
• 3 page essay on yoga and health -- DONE
• 1 hour lesson plan for my first yoga class -- not even close

I have to admit, I'm completely intimidated with building my first lesson plan. This is the class that I will need to lead in order to achieve my certification. It needs to be perfect. It needs to address all the different aspects of a well-rounded yoga class. It needs to take into consideration the different issues of special needs students. It needs to include only poses that I CAN DO. It needs to be an hour long. And most importantly, it needs me to be serious and on track for the duration. That will be the biggest challenge. My mind has a tendency to drift . . . . Where was I? Oh yes, worrying about how I will lead my first one hour class with the stress of a camera rolling the entire time. Yikes.

To help me prepare my class I'm reading one of the text books provided in my training kit. It's called "The Sivananda Companion to Yoga" and it is a wonderful book. I just love it. It is beautifully illustrated and well laid out. My biggest gripes with my other text books were the cheesy illustrations and the horrific pictures. But this book is simply lovely and will be an invaluable source of information as plan my lesson.

After reading a few chapters and watching a long DVD of instructor tips I thought I was ready to use my husband as a crash test dummy and lead a little yoga class at home. I did positively no planning and tried to just wing it with my newly gained knowledge fresh in my head. Well, it didn't go too good. We both ended up silly and laughing. How on earth will I pull off this taping?

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.