Happy Friday everyone! Our favorite day of the week is finally here! Except for maybe Saturday.
Had another great session with my personal trainer yesterday. We (or I should say “I”, she didn’t do any damn work!) did another 7 minute spinning circuit (great workout if anybody was wondering), followed by ab circuits and arms/shoulders. We seemed to really hit the legs and abs hard yesterday which I never complain about. It’s probably the areas that will continue to need the most work in order to make through these future races.
I explained to my trainer yesterday that my knee had been feeling sort of up and down during the past week. Her reply was simple. “Yoga. Gotta do yoga. It’s the only way to strengthen the ligaments around your knee.” Now, I’ve done yoga several times in the past but I’m not sure how yoga will strengthen the knee in ways that lunges, squats, etc. are not able to. Perhaps someone who’s a little more knowledgeable in human anatomy can explain this to me. I’m not trying to get out of doing yoga by any stretch. In fact, I plan on trying it this weekend. I just need to better understand what to do to target the desired area and how it will benefit me. My wife is a certified yoga instructor and I’m sure she’ll be more than happy to put me through the motions. So I’ve got that going for me…..which is nice!
Also, I spent some time yesterday on the blog of A Marathoner and I’ve got to say reading his running history and background has gotten me as motivated as I have in a while to really pushing forward with my goals. His start with running sounded almost exactly like mine (specifically, being underprepared for a half marathon) and it was really nice to be able to read someone else’s personal account of what they did to knock significant chunks of time off of their PRs and how they got to that point. I’m going to hit the gym in about half an hour and now I’m determined to close out the week with a great run!
Completely off topic from training and exercise, I finished listening to the Tiger Woods press conference this morning. Not sure quite what to make of it. I suppose he said all the right things but it all felt very scripted and rehearsed. I could tell more than once he did the emotional pause thing but it didn’t seem at all emotional for him. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Let’s see what he does now. Anybody have any opinions on him?
Hope everyone has a great weekend planned. The weather’s supposed to be halfway decent this weekend so maybe a little outside time will be in order. So happy that spring is getting closer!
Filed under: Biking, Fitness, Health, Marathon, Personal training, Running, Tools, triathlon, Weight Loss | Tagged: ab, Biking, Fitness, Health, knee, Personal training, pr, press conference, Running, spinning, spring, tiger woods, yoga |
The Ultimate Fit Challenge 
Ha! Glad I could be helpful. I would love to incorporate yoga into the routine, but would need a note from God to alter the Earth’s rotation to include 30 hours in the day! 😉 Keep up the great work.
Ain’t that the truth!
My chiropractor is also a yoga instructor and was real glad to hear that I do yoga in addition to running. He says that it helps strengthen and stretch muscles you normally wouldn’t get to.
I’ve never heard of yoga being particularly good for strengthening the knee. And I’ve never had any doctor or physical therapist say the ligaments in the knee could be strengthened or needed to be strengthened–just the muscles around the knee. Weird. But I do think yoga is good to stretch too-tight muscles. I don’t think it’ll help your knee pain more than leg strengthening exercises though. Might want to check with a physical therapist who is more trained in anatomy than a personal trainer.
Thats so cool that your wife can help you with the yoga! I love yoga, I dont do enough of it.
And me…I just can’t seem to find my yoga mojo!
seems like everyone is doing yoga these days. except me haha