Sahaja

There is a lot of great advice in this thread, but @mdwill gave the perfect example of the right way. First off he didn't dive in with a crazy time commitment, the right way is to find an activity you enjoy enough to do at least a few times a week. It can be a gym, enjoying walks with the stroller, yoga classes, or dance lessons. It's a surprising snowball, first make an activity you enjoy into a habit, then you'll find a bunch of other enjoyable activities. He also made changes in the kitchen, but small scale. You're not doing a science experiment, so you don't have to count every calorie. You don't need to join a diet based religion either, you just need to feel better. The right way is to just make healthier choices... often enough and long enough to see the changes. Make small, good changes, then make the changes into habits. Then as you make more small changes, the first ones aren't even habits anymore, they're just how you live. That's the right way.

I second the yoga idea. Look for a restorative chair class geared towards folks dealing with age, injury and other issues, or ideally you would want to find an IAYT certified yoga therapist to work with one on one. They could help you tailor habits and routines to help address the aches and pain, the depression, and the weight, and they go out of their way to make the habits as easy as possible to adopt. http://www.iayt.org/search/custom.asp?id=4160

You'll never be a Sith if you keep stopping people from destroying themselves like that!

Don't know if this is technically a respawn, more of a shift in practice. Two factors have popped up that are changing my weekly routine... The first change is finally getting an angry elbow bursa to calm down and heal up. It started causing a ruckus late last march so I had to give up my heaviest training habits and go to restorative practices. Many months of sticking to easier yoga and rehab movements I finally got to the point where all the abnormal weakness, twinges of pain, and day-after-rehab soreness are gone. So a couple weeks ago I started adding basic arm balance work, light dumbbells, and kettlebell swings, I get mild soreness in the same areas I was getting it through my rehab process so it seems normal and manageable. I'll spend another 4 weeks or so getting ready to work heavy again. The second factor is... The small yoga studio I teach for has moved classes into a local gym. We got cheaper rent, it's closer to most of our current students (and me), and we get access to a new base of possible students. We also get free access to the gym. It's not super fancy but it has the basics, friendly folks, lots of free weights, and it's in a nice neighborhood in downtown Fredericksburg. Also keep in mind that I'm 46 years old, I need to be pain free and limber enough to teach several yoga classes a week, and I like to have energy to live a life. In other words, my goals aren't about maximizing, getting huge, or getting competition strong. My goals are about quality of life. I want my workouts to be productive and have easy recovery so I can enjoy whatever activities I have going on outside the gym/studio. I want to be strong and move easy, and I want to keep in good enough shape to be taken seriously as a professional yoga teacher. To those ends I've set up a routine that only works heavy twice a week. One that only pushes one movement near training max and keeps reps low, but still includes a useful head-to-toe workout each trip to the weight room. It also includes the fitness habits already in my life. Weekly Routine Elements: *Daily restorative yoga/meditation (15-30min) *A couple focused, deep yoga practices (75-90min) *A day of body movement work (30-60min) that includes Pranayama after two or three of the following: -Turkish get ups -Grip/Wrist/Elbow strength work -Gracie Drills -Burpees -Advanced asana (Inversion/Arm Balance progressions) -Kettlebell swings -Random, what ever I feel like messing with, play *A couple days of resistance strength work (60 min), based around these movements: -Squat/dead-lift (lower body) -Bench/OHP/Dips (u.b. Push) -Rows/pull-ups (u.b. Pull) *A couple days of rest with nothing but restorative yoga/meditation, and maybe a walk. My Strength workouts will look roughly like this: *Strength day 1 Squats Bench Straight leg dead-lift/leg curls Dips Rows Hollow rock prog. Reverse Butterflys *Strength day 2 Overhead/Arnold press Dead-lift Hanging leg raise Side bends/Side plank Pull-ups Back Lunges Curls/Hammer Curls These two days are really 4 workouts over 2 weeks. The first two movements of each day are 'target' movements that I'll train near my max capability (Squats and Bench, Overhead press and Dead-lift), but I'll only do one of the two at full weight for 3 sets, the other target move will only get 1 set at full weight, then I'll swap the main targets each week. The other way I add variety is each line where I list two movements with a /, those two will get rotated week to week. Those pairs either hit the same muscles in a different way(Overhead/Arnold press), or complimentary muscles that work with the ones targeted in the other move(Curls/Hammer Curls). Warmups for Strength days:~5min easy roadwork, a handful of Sun Salutes, a set of 10 Kettlebell swings. 'Main' target movements: 3x5 warm up starting light progressively adding, finish with 3x5 at target weight. 'Off' target: 4 sets of 5 progressively adding weight, last set at target weight. Accessory work: ~3x5 with reasonable weight, or wherever I am in progression Cool down for Strength days: 10 Kettlebell swings, a handful of Sun Salutes, Cow Face Pose (and a Savasana relaxation if I can get away with it). I welcome any questions, comments, and good wishes

Fun Fact: The footwork for Ballet was adapted from fencing also, following =)

There's another technique, that I should have mentioned in your practice Draegon, it's good for relaxing and getting ready for bed, or for just calming down (if you can do it and not look like a crazy-person). If you're working out late in the day or before bed it's useful to add at the very end of the routine. It's really simple, easy, and quick, it's just called tension release: Lay on your back, make your legs really straight, and squeeze the muscles tight, pull your toes up towards your face, ball your hands up and activate your arms, squeeze! Activate your buns and belly, squeeze your chest, back and shoulders, open your mouth as wide as you can, stick your tongue way out, squeeze your eyes closed tight! Take a huge inhale and squeeze everything tight from the soles of your feet to your scalp! Squeeze out a noise like Arnold doin a massive lift, "AAAAARRrrrgh"... Then let it all go Turn the sound into a sigh... "aaaaaahhhhhhh...". Feel all of the tension you've been holding, all the baggage from your day, all of the effort from the workout, just melt into the floor and disappear. Then take a moment and see what your breath is doing, do you feel it lift your belly or your chest? do you feel it in your throat or your nose? Don't change it, just observe a few breaths. In my yoga classes I use this technique as the first step of the savasna relaxation. Just letting go and relaxing in the warmth from the practice and enjoying a visualization for a few minutes is a great way to reinforce the practice, whether it's goal was to get up and ready for the day, or to slow down and get ready for bed. *A note of caution... doing this repeatedly in a short time will rev you up more than slow you down, the activation starts to overpower the release. Once should almost always be good, a second time might be ok if you REALLY need to, but more than that and you're working against yourself.

Take time to warm up and work out your wrists specifically. You might have to work through some pain for a while to get the joints strong enough to hold up to heavier weights again. Stick with basic movements and easy stretches at first... Flex and extend, and side to side, both with palms up and down. Gentle wrist circles and rotation. Maybe add in a little light grip work. As they improve you can find more challenging ways to work on em. For pushups, if you fold a towel and put it under the heels of your palms, it lifts them up a little so your wrists aren't at such an extreme angle. That often takes enough pressure off to control that pain. It sounds like your body is asking you to back off of some the exercises you're used to, and do some that focus on your wrists and hands for a little while instead. About all you can do is try to get them strong, and manage the pain and inflammation. Regular gentle exercise like yoga, where you can modify to control the stress and effort in the wrists, can eventually counter most of the symptoms. Looking into an anti-inflammatory diet, using heat or cold, self massage, even an occasional OTC painkiller can all help in the short term as well.

Glad to be helpful, that's why I study this stuff

Yeah... I probably went overboard, I hope you can find something useful in all that.

Start supine, hands at your sides, thumbs up Begin an inhale, keep your arms straight and slowly reach your hands to the ceiling, and keep going until your thumbs reach the floor above your head. use the whole inhale for the movement and slow it to the speed of the breath, don't speed the breath to match the movement. Begin an exhale and reverse that motion, slowly bringing hands up then landing them next to your hips. repeat for 3 to 5 breaths. One at a time, start with the right, lift a knee and grab hold of it with your hands. try to keep your tailbones down on the floor and move the leg around in the hip socket. Just play with the range of motion for a minute or so, then turn the leg and grab that foot with one hand and rock the leg around getting the hip loose from a different angle. finish by stretching your heel to the ceiling and using your core to lower the straight leg back to the floor. Bridge pose, you'll modify this from how it's usually performed. Instead of rolling through the spine and arching your back to lift your pelvis to the ceiling, you're more doing a backwards plank. You'll activate your core and lift your back as one solid unit. you'll stop when your hips are in line with your knees and shoulders instead of arching up. Then you'll consciously activate your abs, lift your pelvic floor and squeeze your buns. Activate that Tantien point and pull the points of the hips together. Only hold for a breath or two. Play with happy baby for a moment, then roll over into child's pose. While in child's pose walk your fingers forward and pull your tailbone back, as you inhale feel your back expand, think about adding space between your vertebrae and you'll take a ton of pressure off your spine. Now lift up into table pose (hands and knees) for Sunbird. Reach the left foot back and try to get that leg parallel to the floor, point the big toe straight down and then make sure your hips are level. Don't roll the hip up to lift the leg, use your bun. Keep your eyes focused on the mat between your hands, then if you're stable enough reach your right hand forward (thumb up) and pull that lifted hand and foot away from each other. Hold for a few breaths and repeat on the other side. Cat & Cow, slow and gentle, stay away from any pain. 3 to 6 breaths. Proud Warrior (Warrior 2), you'll do this dynamically, bending and straightening the knee of the turned leg. Try not to lean in and out of it, if you've done Taiji or Chi Gung you might recognize the flower pot metaphor. Think of your hips as a flower pot, when you bend and straighten the knee you're moving the pot, but the whole flower goes along too, this keeps your spine vertical and balanced through the movement. Attach the movement to your breath, exhaling as you bend the knee and inhale as you straighten it. Make sure your knee is tracking straight out over the ankle too. Standing A (Wide legged forward fold), keep your knees bent and core engaged, with a flat back set your hands on a chair, yoga block or the floor. Start straightening your legs, only straighten them as far as you can with a flat back, when it starts to curve play with that edge for 10 to 12 breaths. Your looking for 2 effects here, you should get a good stretch of the hamstrings, and with your head below your hips, especially as you get flexible enough that it's near vertical, gravity pulls your head down and stretches your spine, taking all the pressure off it Mountain... http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/88421-good-posture-or-how-to-stand-up-straight-in-way-too-much-detal/ you're going to skip the part at the end where you release the buns and belly and let the bones carry the weight, you'll stay engaged in the lower core, not squeezing like crazy, just lightly activated. Cat & Cow, slow and gentle, stay away from any pain. 3 to 6 breaths. Plank or Side plank (feel free to alternate day to day) Cobra. Focus on length. Don't use your hands to push into the floor! Use the middle of your back and shoulder blades! Keep the neck neutral Child's pose walking your fingers forward and pulling your tailbone back, as you inhale feel your back expand, think about adding space between your vertebrae. Reclined hand to big toe stretch, use a strap if you can't grab your foot with a straight leg, hold a few breaths with the leg straight up, and a few with the leg out to the side (keep that spine neutral!) Slide a folded blanket or towel under your tailbones (lift em a good couple inches) and lift your legs straight up in the air, if that's not comfortable you can rest your legs against a wall or on a chair, or put a strap across your feet and hold the ends to take some of the effort. Keep the legs up for at least a good 12 to 16 breaths. 2-3 minutes is ideal once it's comfortable. Come off the pad and play with happy baby for a moment then sit up and make yourself comfortable, sit on a pad if you like. Pull on an extra shirt or blanket if you're cooling off. For your first breath practice, each exhale you'll squeeze your belly to force the breath out in three bursts making a Ha sound... Ha-Ha-Ha. Not loud, but quick and forceful. Inhale slowly though the nose and repeat for 3 or 4 rounds. Your second breath practice is to put your hands on your belly, as you slowly inhale through your nose, press the belly against your hands moving them away from your center, as you relax and exhale lightly squeeze the back of your throat so you make a soft noise like snoring or waves breaking. Do 4 to 6 rounds. Enjoy a meditation, or savasana with a visualization, and then a good nights sleep.

First off let me give you some information and cautions. I'm an RYT200 teaching primarily restorative yoga with 8 years experience. In December I'll finish the first of 3 academic years with the Surya Chandra Healing Yoga School's Yoga Therapist Certification program. When I finish this first year I'll be qualified as an RYT500. My initial yoga experience was from the Integral Yoga tradition founded by Swami Satchidananda, and Mukunda Stiles Structural Yoga Therapy. My current training adds the Krishnamacharya tradition to the mix. All three influences focus on using yoga as a tool for health and healing. This practice is designed to decompress and stabilize the spine, mobilize the hips, to relieve pain and tension, and get your mind and body ready for sleep. If you're lower back is in active pain before you start, skip the bridge, Mountain, and Plank, and keep everything else small and gentle. If any of these poses cause any pain back off the effort until the pain is gone or come all the way out of the pose and rest. Most of the poses that I give detailed notes on are modifications of their normal presentation, usually to avoid a possible hazard to that damaged disk. Let me know if you have any questions, and keep in mind that it could take a couple practices before you learn it well enough get the full effect of the release that will help with sleep. The pain easing should start right off the bat. The Summary: Arm movement with breath Supine hip openers Bridge Happy Baby Child Sunbird Cat Cow Warrior 2 Standing A Mountain Cat Cow Plank Cobra Child Hand to toe Legs up Happy Baby Pranayama Meditation/Savasana

I'll take some time over the next day or two and write up a practice for you, I'll aim for a 30 to 40 min practice that targets your needs. let me know if there's anything in particular you really love and want me to include. In the mean time I'd suggest you make some adjustments to how you do a few asana. Specifically to avoid unneeded stress on that bottom disk. -in forward folds and twists you should start each movement by consciously activating that Tantien, and trying to pull the points of your hips together. Focus on keeping that lower core activated to support the lower spine through out the movements and holds. -in all forward folds, keep that lower core active and keep the spine long and neutral. Fold from the hips and only go as far as you can go comfortably, before your spine starts to round. Let that rounding be your limit. -in twists you also keep that lower core active and only twist 10% to 25% of your range of motion in the lower half of your spine (below the ribs), if you want to hold a twist pile some pillows or something to support the legs in a supine twist, or rest your lower legs on a couch. Keep it VERY small, like it'll feel ridiculous it's such a tiny twist! With the conditions you describe your approach to avoiding problems and pain is going to have to be centered on strengthening, stabilizing, and supporting that lower end of the spine, while gently opening up the hips, getting them strong and flexible. You'll notice I say activate, strengthen, and stabilize a lot. With lumbar disk problems, the Yin style of releasing into deep stretching postures can actually work against you by allowing more movement and strain on the most damaged structures. Your practice for your lower back should be active, strengthening, and stabilizing to protect it, instead of working for increased range of motion and potentially aggravating the damage.

In yoga one of the basic ideas is working from gross to subtle. From the way the eight limbs are organized, to the way practices are ordered. Pranayama (breath work) is a more subtle practice than Asana, so in practices it should follow Asana. In more modern / western terms, we want to do breath work after we've worked our bodies a little. It lets us be warm and relaxed, have an active but calm nervous system, and good gas balances in our blood. The Asanas prepare the mind and body for Pranayama, wich prepares the mind and body for meditation. The idea of a Hindu pushup is a little different from what you're describing. It doesn't involve the holds, and you never land in child or sphinx. My teacher calls it a flying cobra, you start in Down dog, lower your knees till they're about to land (or right before you lose control and drop them), then keep the knees low as possible while you ride forward with your nose as close to the mat as you can and flow into an up-dog. That's the easy direction, going back the other way is a lot harder. The whole time only your hands and feet touch the floor. I wouldn't suggest it with a degenerated disk, it puts a ton of compression and stress on the low back. Especially if you intend to do this practice shortly before bed, I think you should put the cell phone away before you start. You can have your practice written or drawn out. Take some time to learn how many normal, calm breaths you take in a minute, and simply count breaths to measure the time in each pose. This will let you keep your focus on what you're doing and you wont be interrupted by acknowledging or interacting with anything but your props and your practice. Your practice will become more personalized this way as well, you'll be able to feel each pose and let your body decide what you need to hold a little longer, and what to release a little sooner. It will also let you observe your breath in each pose and feel where in your body it moves. The Tantien corresponds to the Uddiyana bandha in yoga and it's only activated in certain situations, usually involving deep concentration, challenging physicality, and other bandhas... not so much releasing into stretches. When you release into deep stretches you want to observe the breath, and eventually recruit it to deepen and massage each stretch. As you can see, I can drone on and on. If you don't mind I can plan out a gentle, before bed practice for you over the next day or two. It won't be quite as slow as a Yin practice, but it should get you warm, relaxed and ready for bed, and help you stabilize that lower core to stay outta trouble. Do you have regular pain? Do you usually use yoga to relieve pain or prevent it?

One thing I forgot, try not to end with asymmetrical poses like twists or single leg/hip stretches. Happy baby or child are easy poses that will get your two sides back in line before your practice ends.

The traditions of yoga that I've studied are based on a very different philosophy from Yin yoga, but I'll offer what I can... -You mention a bad hip & lower back. What's the trouble? Do you often have pain? Do you have any other physical issues you're trying to address? -In purely technical terms (according my background)... --Have you considered moving the breath work to the end of the practice, right before savasana? --You might want to think about doing the cat & cow to start the practice, dynamic movement gives the body a little preparation to settle into long holds. --In the middle of the practice you follow a Down Dog with a child pose, two transitional poses (rest poses to my training) seem redundant, maybe make that an either/or and let your energy level that day dictate your choice. --Why did you eliminate all the straight legged folds? --How do you track your time in each pose, and what do you do with your mental focus ? -Why Yin yoga? It doesn't seem to fit with your workout goal, and it's not the most effective sleep aid. Your addition of dynamic and weight bearing poses makes me think you're intuitively moving to a practice that meshes better with those goals. You are absolutely a yogi. Being a yogi doesn't mean to be a master, a teacher, or a guru, it means to recognize the value of attaching your actions to your intentions. Anyone that makes an effort to improve their Self is a yogi.

I got this to carry yoga and gym stuff when I take the motorcycle. I got the zipper. http://yopabag.com/ I've had it a couple years now and it's been awesome.

Yes, no, and dear God please don't do that to yourself. -Yes you'll gain some muscle fiber as the back works to stabilize the push movement. -No, your back wont get significantly stronger, you're not training the nervous system to use that little bit of extra muscle fiber. Every muscle that moves one of your joints works with other muscles to stabilize the joint and move it back the other direction. By only training push movements you'll be strengthening and shortening your pecs and front delts, and lengthening the rear delts, lats, traps, rhomboids, and several other smaller muscles. Those back muscles that you aren't training wont be strong enough to pull back against those strong front muscles. You'll build an imbalance into the shoulder, and joints that are weak on one side and strong one the other are injuries waiting to happen. so... -Dear God please don't do that to yourself. If you keep that habit long enough, first your arms will develop an internal rotation (your knuckles will point forward and elbows will point out to the sides), then your shoulders will start rolling forward and down, that will lead to Kyphosis of the upper spine (hunchback), the head will push forward and you'll develop chronic back and neck pain, and eventually your chest will sink in and you'll have respiratory problems. Granted all of that happening is the most extreme possibility after habits that last years, but don't go down that road.

Try going all in, 100% committed to making changes in a careful, methodical way. Your body adjusts to small consistent changes a lot faster and with fewer unpleasant side effects, than it does to drastic changes made overnight. If wading in isn't an option, if making smart changes to chase your goal isn't in your make up, then failure to meet those goals is more likely.

Are you stepping forward or back into the lunges? Stepping back into them is more balanced, puts less impact on your joints, and it's easier to control the intensity/speed of the movement.

Talk to your MD about what types of activity to avoid, what kinds are safe, and how to prevent symptoms. It sounds like your problem isn't one that will go away and you'll have to manage and learn to live with it. If you're doing cardio to lose weight, maybe concentrate on your diet instead, if you're training for LARPing and Dagohir you might have to decide if that makes sense for you, or learn to approach it in a different way. Maybe try looking into yoga or taiji, things like that can be a lot less intense than lifting or pushing your cardio, but still improve strength, flexibility, and balance.

If you're having any trouble with sleep besides getting way too much, look into yoga nidra practices. If you enjoy yin yoga, you'll probably enjoy nidra meditation too.

I wasn't tryin to imply anything Draegon =) I was pointing out to Smorgs that if you're just starting out there are activities that make it easier to find that mindful connection than walking.

Bananas and Carrots are sugar sources, and I'm not sure how you could make low carb bread. There wouldn't be much protein in them either. They would be better than skipping breakfast, but not as good as a healthy protein. Yogurt and nuts are easy, eggs need more work but if you need to make em ahead of time hard boiled are perfect, Sardines... well some people will just never like sardines, but if you do they are amazingly good for you. You could try some home made protein bars (most store bought ones are really expensive, loaded with sugar, or just plain nasty) to make ahead too. Vegan choices are ok if you're vegan, otherwise they're mostly substitute foods that often taste worse but cost more. I prefer to look for normal, but healthy foods. The less canned, soaked in sauce, or loaded with salt and sugar, the better. I will make one concession to the vegans, a lot of food that you would usually fry in butter or fat is amazing if you fry it coconut oil! Eggs, fish, chicken, even veggie tempura, yumm yumm! I tried this recipe for some homemade protein bars, they were decent: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/89736-decent-low-sugar-home-made-protein-bars/

Almond Coconut Protein Bars 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats 1 cup chopped almonds 1 cup puffed brown rice cereal 2 servings of vegan protein powder 1 cup shredded coconut 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 cup pitted dates 3/4 cup water 3/4 cup creamy almond butter 1/2 cup dark chocolate, melted to drizzle (I use Lily’s since it is sweetened with stevia) Directions: In a large mixing bowl, combine rolled oats, chopped almonds, brown rice cereal, protein, coconut, cinnamon and salt. In a medium sauce pan add the dates and water. Simmer over medium-low heat until the dates begin to break down, about 5-7 minutes. Stir the almond butter with the dates until everything is combined and smooth. Remove from heat and pour over the dry ingredients. Stir to fully combine dry and wet ingredients. Pour into the 8 inch prepared pan that is sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with parchment Press down the mixture evenly in an 8 inch pan. Optional drizzle with melted chocolate, crushed almonds and sea salt. Refrigerate for at least 60 minutes before cutting. Store in the freezer. You can cut them into 8 large bars or 16 smaller ones. Read more at http://womensrunning.competitor.com/2015/06/running-on-veggies/make-your-own-protein-bars-with-this-no-bake-recipe_42329#ulOsgv7JaUayfl6V.99

Try to mix it up too, the best way to make sure you get all the nutrients and minerals you need is to keep the diet varied.