Today was the "tough" yoga class. Tuesday's class is more gentle, and focussed on moving slowly between the poses but holding them for longer. Friday is a different teacher and is more power yoga. For a lot of the Tuesday people, Friday's class is too much.
Most of the class was fine, but the last ten minutes was focussed on the abs. I have found in the last few weeks that it is very easy for me to "shake that body". All I need to do is 10 minutes of abs work and I am shaking like a leaf. I couldn't do the full set of exercises, but most of the others couldn't either, except the teacher and a few waif like creatures dotted around the room. Are women naturally better at abs work or is it just me that seems to make this observation?
Hopefully though, with my body becoming accustomed to doing 3 times per weeks abs work, it will start to adapt and maybe I will be able to do all the set exercises. And if not at least I can shake my body well on demand...
Friday, 11 February 2011
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Don't break the Swiss law when rowing
This morning I awoke early ready to do some indoor rowing, and decided I would try for the first time to row for one hour. Till now the furthest I have done is 10,000m and this took 42 minutes and 15 seconds. I checked the online rankings on the concept2 website and saw that the 50% percentile for men was somewhere around 14,000m in one hour.
With this in mind I set off at a nice steady pace and was well on target for 14,000m. Then suddenly I heard banging on the floor from the apartment below and realised that they were probably doing it in response to my rowing. My theory was strongly supported by the fact that they did this several times and usually at the points when I was rowing faster. As this was within the "quiet time" according to Swiss law I decided I had better slow down and keep the fan noise lower.
Final result was 13,521m but I finished as though I had just been walking in the park and can't wait to have a proper go at the 1 hour.
With this in mind I set off at a nice steady pace and was well on target for 14,000m. Then suddenly I heard banging on the floor from the apartment below and realised that they were probably doing it in response to my rowing. My theory was strongly supported by the fact that they did this several times and usually at the points when I was rowing faster. As this was within the "quiet time" according to Swiss law I decided I had better slow down and keep the fan noise lower.
Final result was 13,521m but I finished as though I had just been walking in the park and can't wait to have a proper go at the 1 hour.
Monday, 7 February 2011
Another early one
The weekend was rather uneventful exercise wise. We stayed in the igloo village in Davos on Saturday night and the plan was to go cross country skiing on Sunday. But I didn't sleep too well and really needed to get back to Zurich and catch up on lost sleep.
Yesterday was another early start though, waking up at 5am to go to the gym before work. This time I planned to do 2 hours on the static bike but once I got going I realised 1 hour and a half would be plenty as long as I worked hard during that period, and then I wouldn't be so rushed to start work on time. According to the machine I burnt around 1,000 calories which is a great way to start the day. Afterwards I made sure to do plenty of stretching, especially leg ones.
Then after work I had my second one to one Pilates lesson. This time I started getting the hang of which muscles I was meant to engage, and once I took the big ones like the quads out of the equation it was pretty tough on the core and I could really feel my "powerhouse" working. Both the Pilates teacher and my physio have noted improvements in my hamstring flexibility, so I guess the post exercise stretches and twice per week yoga instead of once per week is really paying off.
Shortly I have my third meeting with the physio and then at lunchtime my yoga lesson. Hopefully after work I will still feel like going on the rower for one hour, which would be the longest I have been on it yet. I can' wait to get out running again as I much prefer being outside even if it is cold, but still 2 more weeks break from running yet in order to follow the sports doctors advice and have the best chance of no further knee problems in the lead up to the Zurich marathon.
Yesterday was another early start though, waking up at 5am to go to the gym before work. This time I planned to do 2 hours on the static bike but once I got going I realised 1 hour and a half would be plenty as long as I worked hard during that period, and then I wouldn't be so rushed to start work on time. According to the machine I burnt around 1,000 calories which is a great way to start the day. Afterwards I made sure to do plenty of stretching, especially leg ones.
Then after work I had my second one to one Pilates lesson. This time I started getting the hang of which muscles I was meant to engage, and once I took the big ones like the quads out of the equation it was pretty tough on the core and I could really feel my "powerhouse" working. Both the Pilates teacher and my physio have noted improvements in my hamstring flexibility, so I guess the post exercise stretches and twice per week yoga instead of once per week is really paying off.
Shortly I have my third meeting with the physio and then at lunchtime my yoga lesson. Hopefully after work I will still feel like going on the rower for one hour, which would be the longest I have been on it yet. I can' wait to get out running again as I much prefer being outside even if it is cold, but still 2 more weeks break from running yet in order to follow the sports doctors advice and have the best chance of no further knee problems in the lead up to the Zurich marathon.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)