slacking? No...yoga

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (min)	½ lap breast stroke, ½ armless backstroke	Classic sprint	Steps at University	Start time
12 Sep	Ridge Pool	33	1 lap; 1:39.25 5 laps; 8:52.16			8:50
13 Sep	Run thru park			50.77; bike—49.88	1:09	8:05
15 Sep	Ridge Pool	18	5 laps; 7:52.86*	Sprint crawl, lap 1: 51; lap 2: 1:38		17:51

So it looks like I’ve been slacking off.  Not really.  I do some kind of exercise every day.  Oftentimes, I do yoga.  I think my problem with my shoulder may stem largely from the fact that I was doing push-ups and pull-ups almost exclusively.  I wasn’t doing enough stretching and limbering.  I wasn’t working my muscles to their extremities.  I was simply building up muscle. 

One yoga exercise I have done is Sun Salutations.  The exercise I found is a free one from doyogawithme.com.  https://www.doyogawithme.com/content/sun-salutations-i

The woman is very friendly and sweet; she takes people through the exercises calmly and with great patience.  It involves the “downward facing dog” that stretches my hamstrings—other exercises pull the arms up and get them moving. 

Lately, I’ve been doing Sun Salutations II. This one is hosted by the founder of https://www.doyogawithme.com/content/sun-salutations-ii  doyogawithme.  He is less sweet and motherly.  This is designed for people who know a bit more about what they are doing and don’t need as much handholding.  Several times during this exercise, I twist around in quite unlikely poses, stretching my muscles.  It feels good. 

Last night, I went to the Ridge Pool for what may be the last time.  They aren’t sure when they will close it for the season.  I did the 5 laps in a faster time than usual—I put an asterisk beside it because I didn’t swim half the lap in the customary “armless backstroke” because someone else was swimming in the lane next to the wall—I only do the backstroke near the wall because don’t swim straight if I am facing upwards.  I did an “armless crawl,” and this may have given me an advantage. 

To conclude the exercise, I did a couple laps in a standard crawl mode.  This is the stroke that I used to use all the time—when my shoulder was not injured.  By now, the shoulder is nearly healthy.  As I swim the crawl, I feel no pain at all.  I used to think that 60 seconds was a good time for a lap.  While I was swimming the first lap, I decided that if I completed it in under :40 seconds, I could quit for the night.  :51 was the result.  So I thought, “OK, I’ll do it again. If I get under :40, it’s all good.”  Then I thought, “Oh, my! Ten seconds quicker? No way.  I’ll try 5 seconds quicker.”  I pushed it and strained, but I got only 3 seconds quicker.  I decided that was good enough.

Before I started the pool, I stepped into the exercise gym, where there are many machines and free weights.  I took a 6 kg ball and moved it around and around with my arms.  Kind of swinging them through their range of motion.  This was good, then I sat down at a machine and put my arms back; I pulled them forward lifting weights.  It was good because I was pulling up a very small amount, and not stressing myself.  This is probably the best way so as not to reinjure myself.