Day 27 - 31

& so January ends with the Chinese New Year holiday.

I've been practising mainly
1. Forward bend
2. Downward Facing dog http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/491
3. Plank pose: http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/470
4. Cobra Pose : http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/471

for the past few days due to the holiday eating, outings and work.

I think I can keep up the touch my toes portion now, still takes a bit of effort, but usually after warming up and doing all the poses I can stretch abit further at the end of it.

Day 26

It's been a week plus since I actually properly did a few poses in a set .. I blame the previous week of work and late nights. so after I showered in the evening, I did the basics sun salutation, warrior and mainly focused on my forward bends and toe touching.

phew. Seems to be still doable.

Day 16 - Day 25

Combined posts - because I was a lazy yogini :(

1. Corpse pose - because i was dead tired and only managed to do this before I fell asleep most days. 

2. I did warrior 1 & II at least in the mornings. 

3. Forward bends as often as I could in the mornings and nights. 

Day 15

I was doing the same set as yesterday. i think I need to include more poses (more seating poses maybe) but the moment I sit down , bb takes it as an opportunity to sit down on me as well .

I wonder if Yoga can cause insomnia or restlessness at night. I feel that I haven't been sleeping very well every night. I don't know if its the bed or the exercise and I've minimised my caffeine intake.

Day 14

I did a set of

1. Sun salutation
2. warrior II
3. Extended triangle
4. Extended side angle
5. Big Toe
6. Extended Hand to Toe
7. Wide Legged forward bend
8. Bound angle
9. Seated forward bend (trying very hard... )


More on Sun Salutation :
http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/928
I never knew what this was in English until now. It's known to me as 太陽の礼拝 and because it's like a series of moves, (of which I have no idea about the names of each) I never knew how to read it up online until it struck me to do a literal translation and here it is!

• Tadasana (Mountain Pose)
• Urdhva Hastasana (Upward Salute)
• Uttanasana (Standing Forward Bend)
• Lunge
• Plank Pose
• Chaturanga Dandasana (Four-Limbed Staff Pose)
• Urdhva Mukha Svanasana (Upward-Facing Dog Pose)
• Adho Mukha Svanasana (Downward-Facing Dog Pose)

Day 13

Exhausted ..

I went to the office today. & I didn't sleep well for the past 2 nights.
a conf call just ended, & I stood up for a bit of a stretch and downward facing dog. and tried some forward bends - and damn i can't touch my toes again (T.T)

I can do plank pose with less difficulty now
http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/470

My arms used to shake after a few seconds (><) but it seems like after the initial muscle ache subsided, I'm ok to hold on longer now. improvement!

Day 12

Properly did a set today.

around 20 minutes i think?

 I tried doing the Bow pose :
Dhanurasana
http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/875

I could do an average lift up (chest above ground, tummy on ground) but I realised in the picture, they are doing an almost 90degrees backbend?! Maybe that will happen someday.

One question, why is it that everyday I feel like I'm unable to touch the ground again when I start to do my set??

Day 11

Reached SG! at 5.40am..

I did this:
Savasana (Corpse Pose)
http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/482

Basically Snoozing i guess.. it really is super relaxing, especially since I didn't sleep much on the flight. I had a good day of hotpot lunch. and then brotzeit dinner. I actually manage to taste and enjoy the food!

Day 10

Oops .. this is the day of the flight to SG.
I've spent the whole day trying to get ready, buying last minute items, packing etc - that the only yoga I've done is touching my toes ( calling it forward bends for the sake of Yoga) .

Day 9

I want to try this :
http://blogs.yogajournal.com/slideshows/?page_id=712&preview=true

but I didn't do this last night, I did a new set - 25 min this time, from the DS, so I'll save the link here for another time.

Came upon this yesterday: Eagle pose
Garudasana: http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/785

This is quite easy, until you try closing your eyes. It's strange, but it's very hard to keep your balance on one foot when your eyes are closed.

Camel pose again last night:

Probably one of the poses where i'm nearest to the correct pose.. http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/688

Day 8

No more aches!

So I tried to do the full 20 minute set from memory after a hot shower (which I felt made me more flexible) and without the yoga mat out, bb was less inclined to disturb me. Although, the moment I sat down for the sitting down poses, she thought it was a signal for her to come to me and sit on my legs too ...

I think my balance is improving - i didn't fall over when doing this: (Extended hand to big toe Pose)
Utthita Hasta Padangustasana: http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2473

Of course my extended leg is not straight, but still, try it, i'm sure you'll get what i mean when I say I can't really balance on the one leg when I do this.

I read this article about incidental yoga
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rudy-mettia/yoga-practice_b_4551273.html

I don't really get number 3, but the rest of the poses are definitely useful in daily life!

Day 7

Had a conf call at midnight and managed a 10 minutes session (ok.. lazy but at least I did something) doing my forward bends and downward facing dog. didn't have much time to think / reflect because I had to rush for the call.

Day 6

I decided I need to do an alternate day thing, to let my muscles rest a little and also so that I can have some novelty.

I tried this yesterday: Upward Bow or Wheel Pose
Urdhva Dhanurasana
http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/473

I always thought this is the bridge pose, after seeing this page then i realised it wasn't.
BB was very amused by what I was doing and thought i was making a bridge for her to tunnel through.


My legs are wrong and if i tried to follow the exact pose in the site, it was 10x tougher (Ryo had to help hold my back up) I needed alot more strength in my arms and back.

Day 5

I tried doing the same set as Day 3 at around 11.30pm. (I think that's my best time to do this cos I'm rather tired out and at the end of the session I felt like I could just zzz on the mat. (I couldn't because Ryo wanted to have his turn to try the simple beginner's yoga next)

I'm still aching quite a bit, but I can feel that my Extended Triangle pose is improving. I can balance alot more with my legs totally straight and not feel like falling over.
Utthita Trikonasana: http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/494

When I was lying on the ground at the end, I'm always just half-dozing off. Is that normal? I keep reading about that being the time to reflect and think, but I'm just thinking what I should think about, and if I concentrate on breathing, I semi-doze off.

Day 4

Extreme muscle aches everywhere (especially behind my legs) after last night's practice.

So today was only a minor stretching session to practise abit of the forward bend. I wonder if it is normal that the flexibility goes away day in day out.

Homecooked (halfpriced) kurowagyu steak for dinner. It was one of the few good steak meals, partly because of the price and the taste of course, but also because bb was quietly eating her own dinner with the ipad on the high chair.

Day 3

Today, we went to pray at 西宮神社 . It is after all a better shrine - so much more spacious and less punks and drunks around.

I wasn't able to touch my toes this morning at all, felt quite dejected. apparently the flexibility disappears in the morning ... and means I should not do any yoga in the morning.

Lesson learnt today - don't do yoga after skincare - hands were so slippery from the cream that they kept slipping off the mat.

Tried to set up my own combination of poses today and it seems to be quite a suitable one for me to improve all the flexibility options.

The new (or the pose I came upon today is this:  Utthita Hasta Padangustasana (Extended Hand-To-Big-Toe Pose)

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/2473

I'm not able to straighten my leg of course, am doing this with my leg bent (I keep thinking is it because my hands are too short!) but maybe this will happen one day?

Day 2

I think it might be too difficult to think of a title for all 365 days so I probably will just be counting the days.

Today I did my 20 minutes of yoga at around 10pm. (after digesting late dinner of fried rice.) The real difficult of this challenge is really figuring out how to steal time away from bb to do some undisturbed yoga.

Gomukhasana (cow's face pose) - I thought this was difficult, because the DS yoga included bending forward to reach the floor with your face in this pose (omg) and definitely my face became a cow's face grimacing in pain while doing that, but if it's only what this site is showing, then it's quite easy.

I think results are showing (slightly of course) . I can now touch my toes. I can also now almost touch my palms on the ground (for a few seconds at least) with my knees straight. Which brings me to the conclusion - Practising everyday is a must.

slight improvement after daily practice of forward bends for a few days..

Day 1 - Happy New Year

Challenge has started. But because this is the new year and I spent the whole day at the inlaw's place, I only managed to think about what I wanted to do today. In the end, with 15 min to the end of new year's day, i worked on my standing forward bend - uttanasana.

http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/478

I'll be working on this daily, here and there as this is the pose I want to achieve this month, and hopefully i get a chance to do a proper set tomorrow.

This might prove useful for running. 

Benefits

• Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression
• Stimulates the liver and kidneys
• Stretches the hamstrings, calves, and hips
• Strengthens the thighs and knees
• Improves digestion
• Helps relieve the symptoms of menopause
• Reduces fatigue and anxiety
• Relieves headache and insomnia
• Therapeutic for asthma, high blood pressure, infertility, osteoporosis, and sinusitis