Mixing Things Up

Now that Summer is gone and Autumn is waning,  my ability to walk many miles in my local park after work  is pretty limited.   Darkness is coming early again and even though the park is generally safe,  there is traffic on it and it really is no fun walking in the dark in an almost empty park.     When it was light out,  I would take 3 nights after work and walk anywhere between 4 and 6 miles.   The distance pretty much depended on how much my dog lasted  (she is 8+ years old now and determines when it is time to turn around) .  Now that it is cooler,  she can easily do the 6 mile loop but in the Summer,  she lags a bit.  

It is my humble opinion that you need to do more than Yoga because Yoga has limited cardio impact unless you are really doing a fast flow.     Most of the classes that I take barely make me breath heavy so I always need to supplement.   This is why I have always done a ton of walking.  

Since September, I have added what I call the "Series from Hell" to my exercise routine.   This is a half hour routine that really gets the heart pumping and the breath flowing.    I start with as many wide armed pushups as possible  (generally about 40 ) and then when that is done,  I set a timer for 3 minutes,  do 100 crunches with lower back flat on floor and just lifting shoulders and chest that usually takes about 2 minutes).   I then relax (almost die actually)  for the last minute on the timer.      I then do the cycle again except that I do a set of only 20 pushups and 100 crunches.   This is repeated four times with the one minute break between the crunches and the next pushup series.   I finish with 50  regular situps  (bringing the body up) with my dog barking at me   (something about situps gets her pretty riled up) .  I usually follow this series with an hour long Yin Yoga session to get my body relaxed and stretched.   The Yang/Yin combination makes this my favorite time to do Yoga.    



 I chose to do the wide armed pushups  (my hands are outside the edges of my Yoga mat) because I do many Chaturangas  during my Yoga practice and because wider armed pushups put less stress on the shoulders and more on the chest muscles.      I cannot say that I look forward to starting but once the first series is done,  the follow up ones are not too bad.    My goal is to hit 50 pushups in one session and I think that I may be able to make it. 

When I first started doing pushups again,  I think I was able to do about 12  (I had started doing the pushup series about a year ago and then stopped after a few months).    Progress was pretty smooth but I have plateaued for certain and now I know I have to work to get to 50.   Getting to the point where I am pushing 40  (42 is my record) pushups most of the time  gives me a great sense of accomplishment.  It also makes me realize that our bodies are still able to work hard and get stronger and have more endurance even when we are past 50 years of age.   That is a good feeling.  

Namaste...