Throwing Down the Guantlet

Throwing Down the Guantlet

Quote from the Gloom:

As some dude named Eric Paskel once said, “Yoga is not about tightening your a** rear end. It’s about getting your head out of it.”

Great job to the men who showed up this morning with an open mind and endured whatever came out of Zin’s tailpipe (sorry Paper Jam; you apparently made a poor choice with mat placement). More specifically, this morning’s broga practice went something like this…

The Thang

• Warmup
  • Prime the Pump (Fairly rapid calf raises while steadying self against a wall or piece of playground equipment.)
  • Cat and Cow poses (alternating for about five breaths each)
  • Inchworms (from standing walk hands out to plank, push up, walk hands back to standing, calf raise) x3
  • Upward Dog (hold for about five breaths)
  • Downward Dog (hold for about five breaths)
  • Rag Doll pose (hold for about five breaths)
  • Quad Stretch (hold for about five breaths each side)
  • Dead Pigeon pose – optional leg extended skyward (hold for about five breaths each side)
  • Boat pose (hold until the core really burns)
  • Hallelujah Toy Soldiers (like Toy Soldiers, but with arms extended above the head the whole time)
• Vinyasa (Flow) Portion
  • Sun Salutations x3
    • Mountain Pose at Prayer
    • Mountain Pose w/ Arms Raised
    • Swan Dive to Forward Fold
    • Flat Back
    • Back down to Forward Fold
    • Jump feet back to Plank pose
    • Chaturanga (i.e., “yoga pushup”)
    • Upward Dog
    • Downward Dog
    • Jump back to Forward Fold
    • Mountain Pose w/ Arms Raised
    • Mountain Pose at Prayer
  • Crescent Lunge / Warrior Poses
    • Crescent Lunge (both sides)
    • Warrior 1 (both sides)
    • Warrior 2 / Triangle Pose (both sides)
    • Reverse Warrior / Twisted Side Angle Pose (both sides)
  • Mix it up
    • Tree pose (both sides)
    • Pigeon pose (both sides)
    • Side Plank pose (both sides)
    • Two Knee Spinal Twist pose (both sides)
    • Boat pose (final burn)
  • Closing Sequence
    • Shavasana (Corpse pose)
    • Easy pose (cross-legged, hands on knees)
    • Namaste

Moleskine (i.e., Spreadsheets from the Gloom)

Note to self: Include in the pre-workout Disclaimer: Prickle & Goo comes the morning after Taco Tuesday; space your mats accordingly.

Self-Progress: It has now been 75 days since I started with F3 here in Waxhaw. I love it. I started out doing one workout a week (as my body adapted) and have upped it quite a bit lately. Today was my 47^th Post and my second Q. I have really enjoyed both the progress in my fitness and meeting so many great guys around the area. I even got to reunite with a former colleague this morning with Hot Yoga joining us in the gloom after being absent for a while.

I will be out of town for the next month or two visiting family out West, mostly in the Salt Lake City, UT area. It looks like they have a much smaller F3 group out there, so I’ll see what I can do to help them out. I’ll try to keep y’all posted.

Reflections: I had a couple of goals today: (1) Not bomb my first Q at Prickle & Goo and (2) prove that yoga can be a killer workout. The jury is still out on the first goal, but I think that there was plenty of sweating beyond just what the humidity brought.

One thing that I love about yoga is that it brings together flexibility, strength, and balance—all things that we need more of in our lives, both physically and metaphorically. And, it can be a killer workout. I remember EH’ing a coworker to come to a yoga class a few years ago. The dude was very fit with muscles to spare. After one yoga class he told me that he wasn’t going to be coming back because it was “just too hard”. To those doubters out there…the gauntlet has been thrown. We’ll see if you pick it up and challenge yourself with some broga.

Goodfella is on Q next week and he loves to channel his inner Tony Horton.

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