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Thursday, December 6, 2007

Day 74 - My Yoga Belly getting smaller

It's the same-old-same for Yoga today. It's become a workout that I highly look forward to doing. I close myself off from the outside world, put on some nice smooth relaxing music, push play and the Breathe. That's it!!

I'm not going to lie, Yoga really wasn't/isn't that enjoyable at the beginning of my journey. All through Phase I and most of Phase II, I was Mr. Uncoordinated, Mr. Off-Balanced, and Mr. "OH MY GOSH, THIS POSITION SUCKS!". I counted down the minutes till the workout was over. Not anymore! Each and every time I've done Yoga, my "inner-self" has become stronger, "balanced", stretched out, and "quieted".

I don't know how it worked out, but after 3 days of some intense P90X, work, family, problems, bills, "you name it", having Yoga on day 4 is perfect. It couldn't go in any other days' spot.

Yoga has be the aid to "put my mind right."

Over the course of the past three months, the following is what I've learned by incorporating Yoga X and Stretch X to my life: (It's what I "think", it may not be true for everyone, but it's what I belive Yoga and stretching has done for me).

If you watch someone practicing yoga, you will notice that they are not straining or breathing heavily and that their face is placid and calm. Perhaps you may even notice that they seem very focused and they are not distracted by what is going on around them.

Yoga meditation and breathing techniques can relieve many of the physical symptoms of stress (palpitations, shortness of breath, insomnia, nervousness and more). It will help to tone and stretch your muscles and keep your body flexible, and they bring live-giving blood and oxygen to every part of your body.

How Yoga accomplish this? Essentially, the total yoga workout (physical, breath and meditation) works on the central nervous system and through that conduit, it lowers blood pressure and evens breathing to take the strain off your body and mind.

Yoga requires you to enter and remain in an altered state of mind and focus. When you focus your attention on your breathing, you allow problems and other thoughts to pass through your mind and continue on their way, and you remain connected to your body in the here and now. You don't become distracted by other thoughts or stressors. This takes some practice, but it is something that ANYONE can do!

When you relax your breathing and take longer, deeper breaths, you feed your body and help your mind and emotions relax and focus as well. Instead of the short, shallow breath you take when you are under stress or worried, your breathing becomes even and slow and you breath into your abdomen instead of up in your chest.

P90X has become more than one of those fly-by-night workout programs that come and go like a One-Hit-Wonder. Being that I'm in the final two weeks of P90X, I thought I'd try (knowing what I know now) to find a workout/nutritional program that can match (or beat) P90X. I've looked, and without going into a lengthy list of the programs I've read into, I have NOT found anything that comes close to matching what P90X can do for someone.

P90X has become a lifestyle for me that I will never give up. Not P90X itself, but the process of working out in a set pattern, eating healthy, incorporating jump training, stretching, and Yoga.

P90X... "It IS the Best, so forget the rest..."


I'll be back tomorrow pushing play.

2 comments:

ace said...

This is a really insightful post. I've been reading around on the internet and seeing people that are actually unhappy about the P90X program. (I know there are always some in every crowd.) For the most part they all had one thing in them that was similar. They hadn't done the workouts as prescribed by the program and had substituted or eliminated whole sessions. The number one omission I ran across other than the diet was Yoga. They took yoga out of the program completely. Now there were various reasons for this. Guys would say it was sappy and women routinely said it wasn't relaxing and too hard.

I think you really get at something in this post that a lot of people truly miss. Yoga is about slowing down and becoming aware of your body and your breathing. It is to take you back to a more relaxed and natural state of mind and body. In this way I think the YogaX workout is probably one of the most beneficial in the whole P90X program. But like most P90X work it is intense.

But what most people may not understand is yoga is supposed to be intense. It, like martial arts, is a discipline designed to bring you to your edge. The reason for this is because at the edge, where you are not in your comfort zone, is where you will find your truth. If you aren't doing the Yoga in this program, it says more about you than you realize.

I had been doing yoga for almost 2 years before P90X so, I already had a pretty good collection of Yoga videos. YogaX is probably my favorite because it is the closest I have to the more advanced Yoga workouts I get when I go to the studio and practice.

Yoga gives you so much focus. But it also gives you more control over your muscles, so much more range of motion. Honestly without it I don't think you see the incredible increase in strength and muscle quality that P90X is famous for.

Congrats on being able to keep your mind open and change your body so completely. And thank you for sharing your insights and your journey. I know it helped a lot for me to know you were still working at the program when the end got so close and so hard for me.

Train well...

Anonymous said...

Hey,

I ordered P90X today after doing to fit test. I wanted to thank you for talking the time to write down everything you have been doing through while on this program.

I'm really scared about what I've gotten myself into! I used to be a gymnast but 4 years ago I got really sick and had to quit. In my mind I feel like I should be able to do all this stuff but I know that once I get these DVD's in the mail I'm in for a major butt kicking! Your results are incouraging for me, because you're looking awesome! Take care. hope your shoulder gets better!