YWA Breath: 30-Day Yoga Journey

[bigm141414]

Day 5 done. This is a nice short video to wake up and get the blood flowing. My planks aren't as shaky and even the dreaded twisty lunges weren't bad.

 

Although I still can't do the whole downward dog transition to lunge transition smoothly. I blame my long dancers legs for dragging on the floor XD

[foxinthenorth]

Day 3 done!

 

2 hours ago, bigm141414 said:

Although I still can't do the whole downward dog transition to lunge transition smoothly. I blame my long dancers legs for dragging on the floor XD

I also have trouble with that transition but I can't blame long dancer legs... ?

[miss_marissa]

On 1/5/2021 at 5:48 PM, foxinthenorth said:

Planks are hard. I can usually hold 30s or more but I took a video of myself doing a push up last month and my plank form was not very tight especially around the curve of my lower back, so I do suspect my form could use some tightening and I paid more attention to the hollow body shape today. Unfortunately I think doing them is probably the best way to improve, although I bet some of the more dynamic yoga moves can gradually strengthen all the muscles needed to hold a plank longer. My biggest struggle with the day 2 routine was my wrists. I wasn't able to hold the second plank because the strain in my wrists was too much. I've found that Adriene's yoga for wrist pain video is really helpful, and when I'm doing yoga consistently my wrists are much stronger. But the planks were too much today.

 

On 1/5/2021 at 7:10 PM, SkyGirl said:

Planks are hard!! They engage so many muscles all at the same time! I know I tend to keep my hips up too high - Adriene's explanation of "reach your heels toward the back edge of your mat" in Day 3 really helped me figure out how to engage my quads and glutes to help with that a bit, but it's still a process. I did Day 3 today and I was shaaaaaaking after just 15 or 30 seconds of planks!!

 

 

This is helpful for me too! The wrist exercises in Day 2 were excruciating - I'm glad I'm not the only one who struggled with them!

 

Good to know I'm not the only one who struggles. I think I could certainly hold a plank for longer if I lose form, but I try to do them properly. After just a few seconds of squeezing all the right muscles, my whole body is shaking! I refuse to believe it is possible to hold a perfect plank for longer than 30s ? 

 

11 hours ago, bigm141414 said:

Day 5 done. This is a nice short video to wake up and get the blood flowing. My planks aren't as shaky and even the dreaded twisty lunges weren't bad.

 

Although I still can't do the whole downward dog transition to lunge transition smoothly. I blame my long dancers legs for dragging on the floor XD

[SkyGirl]

 No video today, but Day 4 done! This video felt SO good today and I really needed it to be a bit quieter.  ❤️ 

 

Also, my legs are pretty much the opposite of long dancer legs, and I struggle with the transitions to low lunges too! In fact, I think my short arms make them harder, because I don't have much room between my torso and the floor to squeeze my leg into!   

[TiogaGirl]

My biggest challenge with the low lunge transitions is dodgy knees, which I work around by keeping a yoga towel nearby to cushion the knee on the ground, but which gets commandeered by my cat or dog the second I’m not on it. I point out to them that Adrienne’s dog never barges into her space, but they don’t answer. ? Maybe time to invest in multiple towels so that everyone gets their own, but I suspect they’d still be jockeying for whichever one is directly under where my knee is supposed to be!

[miss_marissa]

9 hours ago, SkyGirl said:

 No video today, but Day 4 done! This video felt SO good today and I really needed it to be a bit quieter.  ❤️ 

 

Also, my legs are pretty much the opposite of long dancer legs, and I struggle with the transitions to low lunges too! In fact, I think my short arms make them harder, because I don't have much room between my torso and the floor to squeeze my leg into!   

After doing day 3 last night, having boobs seems to aid in this struggle

[bigm141414]

Day 6 zeeeeeee abssssss , theyyyyy buuuuuuuurn.

 

That is all

[foxinthenorth]

Day 6 done — we decided to go with whatever video was posted today so we could just click on the recommended video and not have to do any navigation or searching on the TV, so we skipped days 4 and 5. xP Anyway I would summarize day 6 as holy abdominals Adriene, and I'm supposed to breathe while I do this??

[miss_marissa]

On 1/7/2021 at 9:29 AM, bigm141414 said:

Day 6 zeeeeeee abssssss , theyyyyy buuuuuuuurn.

 

That is all

 

23 hours ago, foxinthenorth said:

Day 6 done — we decided to go with whatever video was posted today so we could just click on the recommended video and not have to do any navigation or searching on the TV, so we skipped days 4 and 5. xP Anyway I would summarize day 6 as holy abdominals Adriene, and I'm supposed to breathe while I do this??

 

I did day 4 last night and day 6 popped up next as recommended. Looking forward to the burn! 

[foxinthenorth]

Day 7 done!!!

[bigm141414]

Anyone else scared about what Day 8 entails? I get anxious when she says that the next workout will be "yummy". Yummy tends to mean I'll be a puddle of sweaty shaky muscles afterwards.

[foxinthenorth]

12 minutes ago, bigm141414 said:

Anyone else scared about what Day 8 entails? I get anxious when she says that the next workout will be "yummy". Yummy tends to mean I'll be a puddle of sweaty shaky muscles afterwards.

Yes

[bigm141414]

Okay so I guess 2020 has just jaded me to expect the worst. Day 8 was great. A fantastic session for right before bed time (even though I did mine in the morning after a pot of coffee). Totally saving that for future rewatches because the slow pace and focus on hips and lower back is a great combination for lifting recovery days

[foxinthenorth]

Day 10 done! I didn't do 8 or 9 over the weekend but Day 10 was an absolutely delightful start to the week. Only 20 minutes long, so it wasn't intimidating as I was stalling getting out of bed, good stretches and some full-body movement, breathing, and she made me laugh.

[SkyGirl]

Woohoo, way to go everyone!! I've been a little absent but I'm trying to get caught up - I missed two days last week because of working late or date nights, so I'm a couple of vids behind (just did Day 6 last night, and we hates it, precious). But still plugging away!!

[miss_marissa]

I'm done through day 7. I went to do day 8 today, and I think it was a little bit lower energy than I was looking for, so I skipped over it to day 9 and will go back and do day 8 tomorrow. 

 

Loved the burn on days 5 &6! Really enjoying this series, it's just the right amount of movement for me, where its long enough to be challenging, but not overbearing.

[Rhovaniel]

I managed to get to my mat all days but one so far, but for me, the focus of the day doesn't always sync up with what I need. I knew that would be the case so whilst I've mostly hit daily yoga, it hasn't always been that day's YWA video. 

[foxinthenorth]

Day 11 done! Another nice starter for the morning.

[bigm141414]

Day 11 done here too!

 

It appears we're done with the nice easy stretching videos and are starting the movement flows. As is tradition, there was a lot of flopping around today on the mat.

[bigm141414]

13 hours ago, miss_marissa said:

Loved the burn on days 5 &6! Really enjoying this series, it's just the right amount of movement for me, where its long enough to be challenging, but not overbearing.

 

 

Is this your first time doing the YWA 30 day event? It'll soon become a part of your yearly routine because of all of the reasons you listed.

[Rhovaniel]

Day 10 done. I'm a day behind but that's not too bad considering! I'm missing ending the session in savasana though, so afterwards I did a ~20 minute Yoga Nidra meditation video. It was super relaxing with a blanket over me   

[foxinthenorth]

Day 11 done! This one was under 20 minutes, but she got a lot of good movement in there.

 

9 hours ago, Rhovaniel said:

Day 10 done. I'm a day behind but that's not too bad considering! I'm missing ending the session in savasana though, so afterwards I did a ~20 minute Yoga Nidra meditation video. It was super relaxing with a blanket over me   

I can do like...one minute of savasana ? When I lie down my brain goes "It's not sleep time! What are you doing? Are you sick? What's wrong?" and I start feeling weird. I can relax for longer in the position if the yoga routine was more rigorous or lengthy, and it does help when she says things like "absorb the nutrients of your practice" so a guided meditation might work better for me haha. But major kudos for doing an additional 20 minutes!  

[bigm141414]

Today's video reminded me that my upper back, shoulders, and chest are all extremely tight and do not like to move. At all.

[foxinthenorth]

Day 12 done! My spine was grateful.

[foxinthenorth]

Cheated and did a short one today instead of Day 14. About to go off the grid for 3 days — see you all on Day 18!

 

(My count is off somewhere...looks like I counted Day 11 twice.)