Exercise? I've heard of that somewhere...

[tcepsa]

Well, it took me about an hour, but I finally did a session of Pilates. By myself. Alone in my apartment. Which is (mostly) clean.

I hate to say it, but we're running out of signs before the Apocalypse gets here...

And I feel great! Sore, but great nonetheless ^_^ I finally decided that I really was sick of getting headaches at work because my back and neck are so tense, and now I am doing something about it. Hopefully future sessions will not be quite so time-consuming, because in this one I had to stop before each exercise and read through it first. Next time I will still do that a bit, I imagine, but probably not as much. And after that, I can probably have it down in half an hour. 45 minutes, tops :)

As my reward, I am going to work on chainmail while watching a movie. Most likely it will be one with time travelie goodness...

Comments

[medusa13.livejournal.com]

Are you following a manual? Or a dvd? Or both? Have you taken a live class before? I'm just curious because my attention span isn't really what I'd like it to be. I can't following written instructions, figure out form, and follow through without getting distracted, unless there's a person (live or media) instructing. But anyways, Pilates is fun, go you!

[tcepsa.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm using a manual. I have taken a class, once, when I was visiting Judy in Sedona--it was really terrific; much more relaxing than the "yoga" that I had been doing at the time. I think I know what you mean about the attention span. This is about the fourth time I've tried doing it on my own. I've had the manual for several months now (i.e. since before Christmas) and just never got started. I've had a DVD as well, for even longer, but the one time I tried that it did more harm than good since I got a bad crick in my neck trying to watch it all the time ;) Plus I wasn't able to keep up with it. Very discouraging.

The manual is much better, since I can set my own pace with it, and if I want to do a few more reps on a particular exercise I just do them--no need to pause the DVD or try to catch up on the next exercise. Of course, there's that little--but loud--part of my brain that was going, "You can't do this! Your hips are crooked! Your spine is out of alignment! You're breathing all wrong! No, no, you're supposed to pull your abdomen IN! That's not what it's supposed to look like! You're going to hurt yourself!" It took a real, conscious effort to say, "Maybe, but I want what this offers. I remember how good it felt the one time I did it, and I want more of that in my life. I'm tired of feeling all scrunched up and hunched over. Maybe I am going to hurt myself doing this, but I doubt it'll be worse than what my poor posture will do in the long run. It's a risk that I am willing to take."

So I went through and I did the movements as best I could and I'm sure they could have been better. But I survived. It felt good. I'm pretty sure that, if I had been doing things wrong, I wouldn't feel like my back was actually loosening up, and my neck was becoming less stiff. So while I'm maybe not getting the maximum possible benefit that I would get if I was in a real class with a real instructor, what I am getting is far, far better than doing nothing ^_^ I will probably seek out a class sometime (know of any good ones that are easy to get to on the Metro? Or are in Alexandria? ;) but for now this is a good beginning :) (and yeah, this comment is partially to help me keep myself motivated ;)

Yay Pilates! ^_^

[medusa13.livejournal.com]

Yup. Something is definitely better than nothing in this case. An instructor led class at some point in the future is probably a good idea. If only to check in with yourself, to see how if anything that you've been doing is different from how it's taught by someone else. And you can usu. pick up some good pointers.

I don't actually know of any classes in this area. Lately I do Pilates if it's a segment of another exercise class, or I follow along to a tape at home. So if you hear of a good class let me know, I might want to come with.

Another sign of the apocalypse

[emeraldliz.livejournal.com]

I crashed last night too tired to even masturbate.