So it’s really late for any normal person to be working out, but I’m a night owl and it’s a Saturday, so I suppose this is typical for me. haha. Today’s video is titled “Relax” so I figured it would be a good way to end my night after I’ve worked hard around the house all day. I’m drinking a half scoop of Energize in water right now to try to perk up a bit though, which probably isn’t a great idea if I want to sleep tonight. haha. But hopefully it’ll wear off by the time I’m actually ready for bed.
Before 3-Week Yoga Retreat Day 6 – Relax: It’s 11:48 p.m. Suuuper late and I’m feeling a little sleepy, but I feel like this video is going to be mostly stretching and hopefully not too challenging, so I’m hoping it’ll be a good way to destress. I’m feeling pretty good otherwise. My back is a little stiff, but I’m not feeling sore or fatigued, body-wise. I’m looking forward to seeing what tonight’s video is like!
WORKOUT TOOLS:
Yoga mat. Yoga is really, really difficult to do without a mat because it’s much harder to stabilize yourself and hold the poses without one. I learned this from doing PiYo in the past, so if you don’t have one, I really recommend getting one.
2. Optional yoga block. This is only used to sit on in the cross-legged position if it is more comfortable for you than sitting cross-legged without it. Otherwise, you won’t need it for this video.
After 3-week Yoga Retreat Day 6 – Relax: Just as I suspected, that one was much less intense than previous videos. This is one that would be good to do if you’ve had a stressful day and just need to release some tension. We didn’t do anything super challenging on the muscles and even the stretches were meant to be gentle and not uncomfortable.
One funny thing though is I cry sometimes during workouts, and this one made me tear up a couple times when we went into full relaxation with just letting the body completely relax. It’s possible I may just be really tired tonight and I’m more likely to cry when I’m tired, but I also believe that sometimes I cry during workouts because my body is releasing emotional pain. I don’t feel sad when it happens, but it does feel like a release. I went through a few years of near-constant, intense stress and anxiety, and it sort of did a number on me emotionally. While the situation has improved and I’m doing much better, I think there is still some pain in me that needs to be healed, and sometimes when I work out, some of that pain releases. I believe this is one of the reasons why exercise is so very important for emotional health just as much as physical health. So if you’re struggling with feeling anxious, sad, angry, irritable, any of those emotions that are hard to feel and that are usually caused by emotional pain, please give working out a try if you aren’t already.
Anyway, I’m really enjoying this program. I’m finding it beneficial and I just keep looking forward to the next day’s video. Tomorrow is actually 3 videos, each 10 minutes long. One is to be done in the morning as a wake-up flow workout, the second is a core workout which I’m assuming is to be done sometime mid day, and the third one is another relax video to allow you to destress before bed. I’ll put my review of all 3 in one blog post. Thank you for reading. If the 3-Week Yoga Retreat sounds like a program you would also like to do, please send me a message. I would be happy to help you get started.
April Kolesar 🙂
Independent Beachbody Coach