I’m currently on week 2 of Beachbody’s 3-Week Yoga Retreat, and today’s video is all about balance! I’m excited because this is one of the areas that I most want to improve and one of the reasons why I wanted to start doing yoga in the first place!
Before 3-Week Yoga Retreat, Day 3 – Balance: It’s 8:21 p.m. I’m feeling pretty good at the moment, maybe a little sleepy, but I got a chance to relax a bit after work, and now I’m drinking Energize, and that always helps me to perk up. My shoulders have hurt a bit today, too, but less than they did this weekend. Other than that, I feel good! I think my back is doing better, too, because I rolled on my Chirp wheels this morning, and usually I get a bunch of cracks, but today I didn’t get any. So I really think that shows yoga is helping to improve my back overall.
WORKOUT TOOLS:
1. 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 handy to have if you aren’t flexible or have poor balance and could use the extra support. I don’t have one and it’s definitely not required.
After 3-Week Yoga Retreat, Day 3 – Balance: Wow, this was probably the hardest yoga video I’ve done to date. Very challenging on the legs. I was really still liking it until we had about 6 minutes left and we started doing down dog split with knee circles and then knee pulls. I’ve done those moves in PiYo before and they felt good, but my wrists and shoulders just couldn’t handle staying engaged for that long today and the moves definitely hurt. I feel like I lost energy by the end, too, and was just struggling in general with that set of moves. I’d like to try this video again once I’m stronger and my shoulders feel better. If I’m able to do it more easily later, it’ll show that I’ve improved. 🙂
Right now, I have to rank this one as my least favorite that I’ve done, but I do love the balancing exercises overall and the first part of the video was fun. I feel like I got a good workout and that I’m going to feel this one tomorrow. It hit muscles I’m not used to using for sure. haha.
Tomorrow’s video is called Flow, which will be a vinyasa flow workout. I like flow because I definitely like moving through things more than I like holding them. When you’re moving, you have less time to think about how much your muscles are hurting at the time so those workouts tend to feel good, as long as you’re able to keep up with the moves while doing them in good form.
Whew, today’s workout tired me out. haha. Check back tomorrow for my thoughts on day 4: Flow! If you’d like to try this one out and see if you can handle it better than I could, let me know!
April Kolesar
Independent Beachbody Consultant