As promised, I said I would discuss some of the other exercises that I am doing to help prepare myself and most importantly, prevent injury. In my opinion, the best "other" exercise that I have been practicing daily - or almost daily - is yoga.
In 2009, I was lucky enough to be deployed to Al Asad Airbase. I had a room of my own, and inherited an old television that showed three or four Armed Forces Network channels. Lo and behold at 0630 every morning, I discovered a program called Namaste Yoga. I have always been fairly unflexible, and decided to give it a try in the privacy of my room, where noone else could see me practicing yoga. It turned out I liked the program, and it definitely helped with my flexibility. I ended up working the show into my daily schedule. We also had an XO who WASN'T afraid of yoga, and would got the entire Group outdoors to practice once or twice. He would get us into a pose and then pronounce, "Yep, you're doing YOGA."
For those not familiar with the series - it was on Fitness TV in the States, and you can get the DVDs from Namaste.tv - it was developed and narrated by a woman named Kate Potter. Ms. Potter is a Canadian yoga instructor and she has the best narrating voice. I would love to sit in on one of her classes. Add to that a great production value, and you have a really good yoga class at your fingertips. The production for the series was in British Columbia - Vancouver, I think - and the people in charge of picking locations found some of the most beautiful areas to film.
I have seasons one and two here with me now. I purchased them for the deployment, and have been using them almost daily ever since my computer arrived. There is something about yoga first thing in the morning that helps my body get ready for the day. And I definitely feel that daily yoga practice increases my flexibility and has had a direct impact on the fact that I am pain and injury free, even after the longest runs.
The trick will be to continue the practice when I get home. Like so much other exercise and good health sense, after I came home from the last deployment, I stopped practicing yoga. I tried to follow the yoga classes on Fitness TV, but the timing was off - and we hadn't bought our first DVR yet to record the shows. I should have bought the DVD set right away, but I blew it off. No excuses now - and even more incentive to get the latest DVD. If I continue yoga, there is no reason why I can't continue to train with distance running without injury.
Namaste!
In 2009, I was lucky enough to be deployed to Al Asad Airbase. I had a room of my own, and inherited an old television that showed three or four Armed Forces Network channels. Lo and behold at 0630 every morning, I discovered a program called Namaste Yoga. I have always been fairly unflexible, and decided to give it a try in the privacy of my room, where noone else could see me practicing yoga. It turned out I liked the program, and it definitely helped with my flexibility. I ended up working the show into my daily schedule. We also had an XO who WASN'T afraid of yoga, and would got the entire Group outdoors to practice once or twice. He would get us into a pose and then pronounce, "Yep, you're doing YOGA."
For those not familiar with the series - it was on Fitness TV in the States, and you can get the DVDs from Namaste.tv - it was developed and narrated by a woman named Kate Potter. Ms. Potter is a Canadian yoga instructor and she has the best narrating voice. I would love to sit in on one of her classes. Add to that a great production value, and you have a really good yoga class at your fingertips. The production for the series was in British Columbia - Vancouver, I think - and the people in charge of picking locations found some of the most beautiful areas to film.
I have seasons one and two here with me now. I purchased them for the deployment, and have been using them almost daily ever since my computer arrived. There is something about yoga first thing in the morning that helps my body get ready for the day. And I definitely feel that daily yoga practice increases my flexibility and has had a direct impact on the fact that I am pain and injury free, even after the longest runs.
The trick will be to continue the practice when I get home. Like so much other exercise and good health sense, after I came home from the last deployment, I stopped practicing yoga. I tried to follow the yoga classes on Fitness TV, but the timing was off - and we hadn't bought our first DVR yet to record the shows. I should have bought the DVD set right away, but I blew it off. No excuses now - and even more incentive to get the latest DVD. If I continue yoga, there is no reason why I can't continue to train with distance running without injury.
Namaste!
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