Sad day, my friends!  John and I were suppose to be heading out this afternoon headed for the hills, but, alas, it’s not to be.  The weather is against us this weekend so we made the call to wait for a bit more sunshine.  I’m disappointed, but we’ve come up with a backup plan that should still be a lot of fun!

Before I get this weekend started, I wanted to do a quick recap of how the yoga challenge went this week.  Courtney is hosting the challenge for October, and she’ll have her link-up on Monday.  Check it out!

I have to be honest, guys, this week was hard for me when it came to yoga.  Well, it was challenging when it came to exercise period.  For some reason, I just wasn’t feeling it.  We all have those slumps, right?  I hope I’m not the only one!  I did manage to get in two yoga sessions, but I’ll admit my heart wasn’t in it.  As a result, I don’t feel like I got as much out of it as I did last week.

My first session was back with Jillian.  I’ve joked a few times that the reason why I’ve shied away from  yoga this week is because I’m scared of her, but the more I think about it, it may not be a joke!  I know many of you have experience with her, and no workout she’s in charge of could be defined as easy.  Even though I feel like I didn’t get as much out of it this week, I have to say that I did feel so much better after pushing through this yoga session.  It’s great for elevating your heart rate, and it feels so good to stretch out every inch of your body.

I decided to switch up my next session for a few reasons.  Obviously, I want to branch out in my yoga practice and not get stuck doing the same DVD routine over and over again.  That’s definitely a recipe for me to eventually get bored and give it up.  But, more importantly, the last two weeks I’ve been feeling my runner’s knee flare up, and it was especially noticeable when I was doing Jillian’s DVD on Wednesday night.  I know from experience that nothing will shut down a hiking trip faster than my knee giving me problems (at that point I thought we were still going!), and I was not willing to take that risk.  So instead I pulled out Rodney Yee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, I know it’s an A.M. session, but you must work with what you have!  I’ve had this DVD for awhile, but I’ve never used it before.  I’m sure it was one of those impulse, good-intentioned purchases that got relegated to the back of the cabinet.  It looked like it would be pretty low-impact so I decided it was time to give it a try.  It was actually a really good one.  It’s much lower key than the Jillian DVD, and focuses more on waking your body up and getting ready for the day.  It was a great way for me to relax after the somewhat stressful week I’ve had.  I’ll definitely be doing this one again.  Now if I could only talk myself into waking up at 5 A.M. to get it done……..

I ended the evening with a few sun salutations, and a few minutes of these.

Please excuse my, um, perspiration. I had just gotten off the treadmill!

I’m very new to yoga so I know next to nothing about poses, but I love this one.  This is camel pose, and it stretches everything!  I really feel a myriad of different muscle groups working while I’m in it.  Camel also has the added benefit of not making me feel like I want to die.  Win!

That’s Week 2 of the Yoga Challenge.  I’m gearing up to do even better in Week 3.  I even hoping I’ll have the opportunity to attend an actual class.  Details next week!  In the meantime, I’m going to go relax on the couch and enjoy this rainy weather.  Have a wonderful weekend!

How are you doing on the yoga challenge?  Anything exciting going on this weekend?