Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
There are a lot of really cool yoga styles out there that take traditional yoga to a new place. My yoga teacher recently moved into a newer-bigger studio which happens to offer many of these classes. If you are looking for something different in your training or a new way to incorporate yoga and/or core work, check on of these styles out.
Aerial Yoga
Unnata® Aerial Yoga
How delicious does this pose look – I can just feel my psoas releasing!
The second I heard of this, I was all over it! The description on my yoga studio, South Boston Yoga’s, website is as follows:
Yoga using the support and enhancement of the silk swings. Achieve more length and depth with less strenuous effort, yet also challenge your core body strength. Feel the traction and opening of gravity as you hang or hold the swing to support your weight.
However, if you google aerial yoga, the first website to come up is Unnata® Aerial Yoga which provides the following information
Unnatais the Sanskrit word for “elevated,” meaning both elevated in spirit and physically elevated. Begun in January of 2006, Unnata Aerial Yoga classes use a low-hanging fabric trapeze to support the weight of the body.
With the weight of the body supported, students learn how to achieve proper postural alignment through relaxation rather than effort, enhancing a relaxed and peaceful state of mind as well.
As expressed above, this is really a supported yoga class that can do wonders for alignment, your back and your core. Back-bending is one of the most beneficial yoga movements for our society. We spend all of our time sitting at a computer, driving, sitting on a couch, in a semi-forward folded position. We desperately need to open up our front body and back-bend. The problem with back bending is that most people either (1) bend from the lower spine due to immobility in the upper spine or just not knowing how to open up the upper spine and/or (2) gravity pulling down on the joints/body and essentially compressing spaces you want to remain opn. Suspending a back bend not only gets rid of the compression but aids in bending from the middle and upper spin as opposed to the low back.
Check out the picture below, this is camel pose and when done on a mat, is done in the kneeling position with a backward bend. Just think of all the ways this could go wrong. However, suspending it turns it into a whole new experience.
Unnata® Aerial Yoga
Suspended camel pose - what an amazing chest opener!
After some additional google work, I was pleasantly surprised at how many places offer this style of yoga. I must also add that it is a wonderful core workout as well! This style is for anyone working through injury, who wants to get a great core workout, wants to take their practice to the next level, or who wants try something new. I also must add that you do not have to be advanced in your practice to check this out. Beginners are more than capable!
Acro Yoga or Partner Yoga
Acro Yoga or Partner Yoga is next up. While I must admit that I am not entirely sure of the difference between Acro and Partner yoga, each has its own website/teacher training and information. I am using this category to discuss acrobatic/partner required yoga. As you can see from the picture above, one person is essentially holding up the other.
Like Aerial, Acro/Partner provides suspension. The supported back bend seen above will get you to the same place as the Aerial back bend. (if these were the same poses). When I broke my wrist, this was the way my yoga teacher helped me back bend. He suspended my by his feet and took me through a myriad of back bends.
This style of yoga is great for anyone who wants to get a partner involved, take their practice to the next level, or just wants to switch it up. Go to youtube and search acro-yoga. There are some amazing things these practitioners are doing.
Afro-Flow YogaAfro Flow Yoga infuses electrifying dance movements of the African Diaspora flowing with a meditative yoga sequence of gentle yet powerful stretches. Deeply connect with the soulful rhythmic drums, energize your charkas, gain strength and flexibility and rejoice in the bliss of feeling renewed, grounded and peaceful!
I must admit, I haven’t taken this style yet. However, I’ve heard amazing things about it and it is now offered at my studio. I also bring this style up because it infuses dance with yoga. This is not the first time I’ve seen this. I know quite wonderful teachers who are beginning to meld dance in with their yoga practice and those classes are definitely worth trying out!
Get out there and try one of these new-er yoga-infused classes and let me know if you liked it!
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010
One of the very best parts of training for an event is the structure it brings into life. For the 10k that didn’t happen, as an MP4 athlete I had a plan for running, lifting and eating.
Well, fast forward a few weeks and I’m without a new event-goal, so I’m in that in-between place. But it’s fine. There’s no running but I am doing other cardio, and I’m still lifting (duh, I’m old. Gotta lift.)
My favorite part is that eating is still right on point. The plan Amy created for me was perfect. It did exactly what she planned for it to do. I was adequately fueled for the increased activity and yet still took off 5 lbs. (What’s up old Levis? Looking good! YeeHaw!) The event eating shook me out of the less than awesome eating patterns I had fallen into and by feeling great while training as well as dropping a few lbs., I’m reminded of the effectiveness and simplicity of eating like an athlete.
It was the little, very basic things that I discovered I’d let fall to the wayside and when brought back into the fold made all the difference in how I felt and performed. Like eating all five meals. Cooking ahead of time. Taking food with me. Eating every three hours so as not to become starving. Creating metabolic confusion by rotating calories and starches. Putting pencil to paper and planning the days eating ahead of time. The food journal is what enables all of the above happen, you know. The event got me back into eating like an athlete and you can be sure I’m still following all of these principles and loving the structure it brought back into my life.
So … am I the only one that has ever gotten lazy with her eating? Are any corners like the one I hacked off being cut out of your eating plan too? Where can your plan be tightened up too? You’d be pleasantly surprised at what a difference getting back to basics can make towards how you feel and achieving your goals.
Monday, September 27th, 2010
I took the last 2 days off of training. One intentional when my body signaled me that the week’s workouts had slapped me around, one by accident when yesterday just got away from me. So when I got to today, I had a moment much like what Kas described last week where, rather than feeling like a racehorse about to charge out of the gates to get to my kettlebells, I was feeling a big “meh” about the whole prospect of exerting myself. In my defense, I’m on vacation (at home, but still…), so there’s definitely been “activity” in the form of projects and such. Additionally, while guilt was spurring me toward my weight rack, I also had it in the back of my mind that I have a 90-minute Anusara yoga class tonight. So I cut a deal with myself to do some continuous effort for 20-minutes with resistance and call it good. The result: An unintended HRT workout that certainly did the job.
I almost always avoid high rep training. It’s painful and, as a bodyworker, I feel that too much of it unnecessarily wears the joints out and promotes inflammation. However, it certainly has its prominent place among worthwhile training techniques. According to well-known Tom Venuto, it’s most useful from a metabolic standpoint versus a neurological/strength-gain one. He states: “When you train with higher reps (13-20+), the adaptations are mostly metabolic and cellular. This rep range produces local muscular endurance, a small degree of hypertrophy in certain cellular components such as the mitochondria and the capillaries, and very little strength.” He and I both agree that there’s no hard line between neurological and metabolic training rep ranges. Clearly some training models encompass both. Just another reason to focus if your desired physique results and sport performance depend on it. Likewise, it’s another reason for those who are not heavily dependent on an uber-specific result to throw different techniques into the mix once in a while.
I include myself in the latter group. I want to be strong, I want a metabolic boost, I’d like some endurance as well, and I (desperately) want to keep my lean mass as I’m at an age when significant lean mass gains are not likely without some pharmaceutical assistance. Because I do not enjoy burning so badly from a training session that I’m eyeballing the nearby fire extinguisher for a squirt to my screaming muscles, and I am just not in power-lifter mode these days, I tend to stay in the 10’ish rep range most workouts, give or take 2-5 reps. That, or I do timed workouts and don’t count reps as I’m too busy yelling “Beep, dammit!” at my Gym Boss so that I can move on to the next torture…er…exercise. Today was a happy medium. I intended to take it easy, doing some rounds of 10’ish rep stuff at about 75% of my max (Jodi is cringing), but instead—fueled by the aforementioned guilt AND the knowledge that vacation = some extra cals in the diet—I ended up with the workout below. My shoulders are humming as I type, and Murphy’s Law dictates that tonight my yoga instructor will include a boatload of planks and postures involving crazy engagement of the muscles I just toasted, but, hey, it didn’t last long enough to have me running for an ice pack later, and I got some needed variety and a nice metabolic boost, as evidenced by the fact that my tummy has my spine in a chokehold. Helloooo lunch!
[All exercises done as double kettlebell lifts except medball(MB) chops and pushups. Heads up: I chose some exercises that require good foundational core stability as well as full body integration, so stop if you feel uh-oh pain or loss of good form anywhere during the long sets. Examples of potential issues you might not expect: fatigue lower traps during front squats or in gluteals during bent over row; low back buckling and/or knee lock out during overhead press. Be mindful! Make corrections or rest.]
x 3
x 3
Some might call this a sort of resisted cardio workout. I used enough weight and had to take enough breaks where it didn’t qualify as such for me. BUT, it could easily become just that with the insertion of some brisk cardio intervals a between rounds, including jumprope, squat jumps, burpees, mountain climbers, jumping jacks, and so forth, using a lighter lift load in order to keep the rests to a minimum in frequency and length. Likewise, for more of a cardio goal, the exercises could be jumbled and all 6 done as a giant set between cardio intervals versus doing them 2 trisets. I did them as written in order to purposely challenge certain areas a little more intensely than they might have been if I’d giant setted.
Resource:
http://www.freedomfly.net/Articles/Training/training29.htm (Tom Venuto on HRT vs. other RT)
Friday, September 24th, 2010
A few weeks ago Ashley Kumlien was our ModelPer4mance Athlete of the Week. Remember when we spotlighted her?
She’s the incredible woman on the 3,200 mile run across the United States to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis.
Well guess what?
She’s still running.
She has less than 100 miles to go until she reaches her finish line in New York.
I know we have a lot of MP4′ers in the New England area so if you get a chance, track her down.
Go out and cheer her on. Run a mile or 10 with her.
Or just pop over to her blog and leave her some MP4 love.
Just prepared to be inspired.
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
Are you wasting your time doing a four day split while trying to get ready for an event? Are you shoving things in on days that you are dead or missing whole days b/c you ‘got nothin’? Only to find that it’s not doing anything for your body composition any more?
One of the tools we love to rock at MP4 are complexes. They are fast, effective and all encompassing. You can substitute a day of cardio for them, aw well. Try them and let us know if you like them.
What are they?
They are a barbell workout designed around 4 to 8 exercises that are set up in a way so that they create a flow of movement around the barbell. All exercises are big muscle movers and major windsuckers so you are fully out of breath by the time you finish.
Isn’t that a circuit?
Umm…no. Any time you say the word circuit I cringe. Honestly, I have visions of women in regular clothing moving from machine to machine sans sweat who are there solely to pass time in between rounds of bingo next door at the church hall. Once the outer square and overall are done, they’ll go back in for round 2.
What’s the catch?
The catch is, you cannot put the barbell down once you start. So you do each exercise separately and complete all reps before moving on to the next exercise. This is killer! You must choose a weight that is challenging to the weakest movement and then go for it.
I’m Confused…
Ok…here’s a great complex: Overhead press, overhead squat, back squat, front squat, bent over row and Romanian deadlift. Perform that with a barbell and do 7 reps of each exercise. Once you start with the OH press, DO NOT PUT THE BB DOWN until you have gone through each exercise at least once. Do this for 4 sets of 7 reps each. Rest 120s between each set. Remember to bring a puke sack with you, you’ll need it right about the time you hit the 3rd set and you’re doing the back squat. OY!
This is cardio?
Heck yeah! Again…try it before you question. It’s also a great way to maintain muscle without having to kill yourself. AND…IT’S FAST!!!!!!!!
Please try this out and let me know how you do on it. I love complexes and I know you will, too!
