Sorry I'm a blogging slacker, but all this crazy workout business is making me very sleepy! I guess that's good because I usually don't get nearly as much sleep as I should. Anyhoo, so we attempted the yoga. The DVD was 90 minutes long. We made it through 30 before Josh got bored, and before I was afraid I might hurt my back. I know, ND, you warned me!
For those of you who don't know (and not that you care, but I'll share anyway), I broke my back when I was 16. More specifically, I was throwing a standing back tuck at gymnastics, felt a pop, landed on all 4's, crawled to the side, laid on my back for about 20 minutes until the pain settled down, walked out to my car, drove home, laid on ice for another 30 minutes, then went about my business with some pretty serious back pain. Yeah, um, I didn't go to the doctor for about 6 weeks when the pain just wouldn't go away. (I didn't go to gymnastics either though, because I was hurting too bad.) I was 16! I was supposed to be invincible just like every other teenager. Come to find out, I had a "Scottie dog" fracture at L5 (you want specifics, okay, bilateral spondylolysis of L5). Look it up. (If you look at those x-rays, just know that I could never really see the "collar" on the Scottie dog either. But I felt it, so I believed my doctor.)
Why should you care? Well, no reason other than it is relevant to my current post. Because of my previous injury (which I rarely have issues with now), I can't extend my lumbar spine (arch my lower back). I am physically able to do this, but it causes bad things in the following days, so I avoid it like the plague. I don't go back any further than neutral (standing up straight, essentially). Well, I wasn't thinking that yoga would be a LOT of lower lumbar extension, but turns out in this DVD that's about all it was. Even though I modified a lot of poses to accomodate my range of motion limitations, by 30 minutes, the muscles in my lower back were issuing me the warning that I have learned not to ignore. So, I'm a quitter. I believe I'll replace the yoga DVD with cardio and stretching next week. If I do yoga in the future, I'll do it in a VERY small class with an instructor who can help me do things correctly to compensate for my back issues. No offense to the P90X yoga.
As for the legs...it was do-able...but rough! My butt is so sore today that I don't even yell "Oh!" when I bend over or go up stairs (or try to get off the couch), my muscles just fail me. I've almost fallen more than once. Lovely, I know. Thankfully, the worst of it didn't start until after I got home from seeing patients...they might have been really concerned about me! It was LOTS of squats and lunges intertwined with lots of pull ups. As for the abs, well, I still hate that one. It was worse last night after doing legs (I never realized how much I contracted my quads when I did abs!), and I gave out on a lot of exercises before I got to 25 reps. I'll work on it!
Tonight is Kenpo X. I have no idea what that is...perhaps I should be more prepared. Josh says it's like tae-bo on crack. I really hope not!
2 comments:
Oh, yikes. I had completely forgotten about your broken back when I wrote my first comment about being careful with the yoga section! Yoga is FULL of back extensions -- with the idea being that we need to regularly twist, bend, and extend the spine to keep it healthy and flexible... I hate that you couldn't enjoy the yoga portion, but I'm glad you're not completely turned off yoga! Definitely try a class with a teacher who can help modify for your injury :)
Right now, I'm off yoga because of my rib. I finally see a PT next week! It's all wii active for me with no resistance bands, lol.
i'm so impressed with this!! did you measure your inches prior to starting? you should with all this crazy work out and eating good....you'll probably take off inches fast! always makes you feel better, ya know!!
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