Yoga

More on Yoga Timing with Other Training…

May 14, 2011 by Adam 1 Comment

Today’s question is a follow up from Troy on yoga timing and Wendler 5/3/1. Here it is:

“Adam,

Thank you so much for replying I have one more timing question.

My yoga class will meet Mondays and Wednesdays at 2 p.m. On Mondays, it will be no problem lifting in the morning and practicing yoga in the afternoon.

On Wednesdays, I work from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., so I don’t have time to work out in the mornings. (I would if the gym opened earlier than 6 a.m. ) Would I be too drained for yoga if I just did Wendler’s main lift and maybe some chins right before yoga?

Just wondering if you have further insight. This is something i can find out for myself.in August. ”

Thanks again for the questions, Troy!

(BTW, Troy’s original question and my answer is here: http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/adding-yoga-to-a-strength-program)

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.

Yoga Benefits for Adrenal Fatigue and Depression…

May 8, 2011 by Adam 1 Comment

This blog post is sort of a follow up to the discussion I had about yoga in this post: http://practicalpaleolithic.com/paleolithic-diet-blog/adding-yoga-to-a-strength-program

Yoga and meditation can have a central role in treating Adrenal Fatigue, depression, anxiety and a number of other disorders. The video above discusses some of these and points out a number of resources for further exploration.

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.

Adding Yoga to a Strength Program…

May 8, 2011 by Adam 5 Comments

Today’s question comes from Troy by email. Here it is:

“Hi Adam -

You mention your love of yoga and martial arts in a recent video. I’ve been a martial artist since I was seven years old. I started lifting weights two years ago, and I’ve very recently started Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 program.

I’m taking yoga next semester. (For college credit!)

What have you found is a good time to do yoga in conjunction with 5/3/1? Would you do a strength workout and yoga on the same day or should I do yoga and karate on off days?

Thanks!

- Troy”

Thanks again for the question, Troy!

Here’s a link to Sara Ivanhoe’s site where you can check out here DVDs:

Sara Ivanhoe’s Site

ttys

Adam

IMPORTANT! Adam Farrah is not a doctor or medical professional. This information is based on my own opinion and is not meant to be medical advice or to treat, diagnose, cure or prescribe in any way.

If It’s Not Working, Try Something Different…

April 7, 2011 by Adam 7 Comments

I tried something different today. It’s not something I haven’t THOUGHT of a million times or SAID I’d do a million times, but it’s something I really haven’t DONE before. I did yoga this morning. This morning. Not at noon, after 6 hours of drinking coffee and screwing around on Facebook, THIS MORNING. As in, around 8am.

What’s the big deal with yoga in the morning?

The big deal with yoga in the morning is that my stress level is WAY too high. Like, it’s off the charts high. Finishing my book didn’t really change anything. I barely felt any relief when I finished it and I just moved on to being stressed about all the other stuff I can be stressed out about – the stuff I was putting off so I could finish my book.

Enough is ENOUGH! I’ve had it with feeling stressed. I had a somewhat stressful situation that I had to deal with yesterday and it totally crushed me. My baseline stress level is WAY to high and I need to fix it. At this point, I feel like all my goals – especially the training ones – are getting held up here. If stress is high, digestion is compromised and cortisol will be high. Not good. Add to that, when I get really stressed I completely lose my appetite. Training progress is hard to come by when you’re under-eating. And, yes, my stress level is high enough that I consistently under-eat.

It’s Not Just About Stretching

Yoga has kind of a double benefit. It’s great for stretching and recovery, but it’s also great for your MIND. It not only connects your body and mind in a different way than hard training, it calms the mind too. It can slowly help shift your consciousness out of the past and the future and into the present moment. Life is moving faster and faster for everyone and a practice like yoga is becoming more and more essential just to keep from losing our minds. I’ve talked before about how fast things move in modern life. It’s not good and I’m damn sure it’s not Paleo…

It’s amazing to me how you can lose hours or even DAYS pointing and clicking and texting and checking and Facebooking and Tweeting and whatever else. IT’S SCARY! I LOVE technology and I LOVE Facebook and all my friends on there. What I don’t love is that the online world NEVER SHUTS OFF. If you don’t set clear boundaries AND get them integrated into a SOLID routine you’re going to have problems. I’m currently having problems…

A NEW Routine and A New Beginning…

So, this morning, I got up, fed Scamper and sat down with my coffee – AND my copy of “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle. I’ve read that book several times and, EVERY TIME I read it, I have a major shift in my perception. It’s been that great for me. I’m hoping this time I have the same fortunate experience…

Slowly, Gently and CALMLY make things better…

I want things to be better. I want to be better. I have so many goals and things I want to learn and do and get better at. Not too long ago, I wrote about some of these things and my struggle with the process in “It’s Always Right There…” What I’m working on doing currently is getting better at stuff in a more calm way. Avoiding what you should be doing is ONE form of resistance. Charging off into what you should be doing like a mental case is another form of resistance. Yeah, you’re doing what you should be doing, but you can’t sustain that energy long term. It’s just another ego deal when you get all wound up and motivated and go after something with a vengeance. Why? Because very little happens in life or training as the result of one heroic effort. From what I can see, the heroic effort is putting in the SMALL efforts day after day, month after month and year after year. You don’t nail a PR or build a business or create an outstanding life by getting all caffeined out and angry and making a HUGE effort ONCE. Maybe a little of that is good at certain points in the journey, but there is A LOT of calm, patient preparation and “showing up” that goes on before that big, angry push is needed to get the goal. The big, angry push is the little bit that puts you over the top – it’s not where you need to live to really make things happen…

If you don’t believe me or don’t think I’m qualified to tell you this, please know that my LIFE was one big, angry push up to about a year ago. It can get you some short-term results and can even work OK for you when you’re young and can recover more easily, but it’s NOT the way to go long term. Even if it worked really well in the long-term, I think the results vs. the energy expenditure would make it uneconomical. But, it DOESN’T work long term…

So, today is about creating a new routine that I live every day.

Here is my new routine:

Wake up and have some fresh-ground, organic coffee
Read something, while enjoying the coffee, that focuses my mind on The Now – No computer books, no Facebook, no “how-to” books. ONLY something that makes me feel thankful for being here, now. Nothing that makes me feel edgy and needing to “get to later” or get to some other time period besides the one I’m in.
Do a yoga DVD or a yoga routine I already have down, some qigong, joint mobility and/or meditation – I’m not going to be super strict on what I actually do yet, the main thing is to do something that helps recovery, is nurturing and focuses my attention in the moment
Drink AT LEAST a liter of water after practicing
Do this routine DAILY

I don’t think there’s any other way to do this. If I start writing or get on the computer first thing, I get all spun up and stressed and it’s extremely hard to pull myself away and do yoga later. It’s like, I HAVE to do it while most of the world is still asleep. If I don’t, it’s like I can’t tear myself away from all the “important” stuff that’s happening. In fact, I was supposed to start this routine yesterday and checked my email right before – and there was a mess I needed to deal with that I was alerted to and that was the end of yoga and nurturing myself… For God’s sake, don’t check email before yoga – EVER!

And, I have a crush on Sara Ivanhoe…

If you’re wondering where I do yoga, I do it at home and just about always have. I’m a big fan of the yoga DVD and I’m a massive fan of Sara Ivanhoe. I found her when I bought the DVD “Yoga for Dummies” several years ago. She’s an amazing teacher and is SERIOUSLY hot I know, not really necessary for a yoga DVD to be good, but it doesn’t hurt – especially if you’re a male… Actually, Sara’s “hotness” is more about her vibe and how patient and in the moment she is. It’s really inspiring to experience. SHE’S something inspiring to experience. I can’t really explain it. If you get one of her DVDs you’ll see what I mean, I’m sure.

Today I did the second practice on her “Yoga on the Edge” DVD. I can’t say enough good stuff about that DVD or her instruction in it. It’s a little more advanced that the “For Dummies” one, but most people with a little fitness can probably do it pretty well the first time.

BTW, Sara also writes a pretty cool column for The Huffington Post.

Now that I’m done crushing on Sara, I’ll get back to the important stuff. But really, my crush aside, her stuff ROCKS!

My favorite thing about Sara is that she coaches you to be in the moment and be where you are. She encourages you to just do the practice and not worry about being perfect. This is GREAT for me because I’m such a perfectionist mental case. Having someone continually give me permission to be not so good at something really helps. Probably in part due to Sara’s DVDs, yoga is one of the very few things I don’t demand perfection of myself in and don’t obsess about. I got a yoga DVD from another popular yogini a while back. She was COMPLETELY different – all intense and mental about form and serious and rigid. YUCK!

OK, NOW I’m done crushing on Sara…

We’ll see what happens…

That’s pretty much it. I’m going to work on this for the next week or two – EVERY DAY – and see what happens. My hope is that I’ll feel calmer, more in control and my creativity will improve. I’m also hoping I can get – and stay – in the moment easier. And I really, REALLY hope the morning stressing and pointing and clicking and tweeting and checking nonsense goes away permanently and is replaced by a much healthier habit…

ttys

Adam

Simple Yoga for Hips and Back…

February 13, 2011 by Adam 6 Comments

This is a simple and short yoga/stretching sequence I use to open my hips and keep my back lose. I’m FAR from an expert on this stuff, but I’ve learned a few things and I think our training community could do with more restorative stuff and information on how to do it.

I started doing yoga sometime around 2006. It was hugely apparent that I needed a way to nurture my body and coax it along in recovery as opposed to just taking a rest day, eating more and laying on the couch. That strategy worked in my 20′s but it was working less and less well in my 30′s. Beyond the physical aspect, I was becoming more and more aware that I needed to do something to rest my mind. Yoga excels at that and there is a huge body of evidence that shows can have fantastic effects on mental health in addition to its physical benefits.

I knew I was on the right track with the whole “nurturing the body” thing when I met Steve Cotter and Ken Blackburn in 2008 for the IKFF Kettlebell Certification I did. Steve and Ken are incredible athletes – and Ken is an expert in joint mobility and Steve is a Qi Gong Master. That – not to mention the work I did with them that weekend – convinced me that there was more to training and athletics than just going harder and faster. That there needed to be as much effort put into restoring the body as there was to pushing it hard and demanding more and more from it. That’s Ken up above at the Cert I did. When was the last time you saw a guy that size in a full split?

Incidentally, most of my yoga practice is STILL based on the Yoga for Dummies DVD I got ages ago by Sara Ivanhoe. If you want an easy and effective yoga routine that doesn’t take a lot of time to learn or master – that’s the one! BTW, if you’re a guy and are a little hesitant about watching something as silly as a yoga DVD, let me tell you: Sara is a major babe and you’ll have no problem staying “interested” in what’s on the screen. She does a great job too…

Seriously, this is a good place to start if you want some more flexibilty and a quieter mind.

ttys

Adam

Is Your Lifestyle Sustainable?

August 16, 2010 by Adam 1 Comment

Something that recently occurred to me is the issue of sustainability as it relates to exercise, lifestyle and adrenal health. I hadn’t thought about it in exactly these terms until I watched a great Sara Ivanhoe interview on the Bridging Heaven and Earth Show. (Warning: This thing is VERY “airy fairy” and metaphysical. It’s definitely “out there” so consider yourself warned. You can skip right to Sara’s interview, which is at about 37:34min – and you probably should. I did! LOL On the plus side, Sara is WICKED HOT so it might be worth watching just for that reason

What does all this have to do with Adrenal Fatigue and Lifestyle?

So, a point that came up during Sara’s interview is how many of us are making so much effort in our lives that we finally become so exhausted that we have to stop. We essentially realize we have to find another way. (This gets discussed starting around 41:00min.) We are so exhausted from all the struggling and all the ego, we actually “give up” and it’s from this point we can begin to truly live.

Here’s why I think this is important and how it relates to Adrenal Fatigue:

If your lifestyle is unsustainable you will be in constant stress. If your training is unsustainable (meaning, not periodized and well programmed with varied intensity) you WILL eventually become exhausted because your physical resources have been spent. This is overtraining.

But while we think it’s working we keep doing whatever stupid behavior we’re doing. It isn’t until we completely crash and burn that we (hopefully) realize we were going down the wrong path, reevaluate and get back on track. I’ve been doing this in every area of my life – intensely – for a while now…

Pema Chodron talks about this in her book “When Things Fall Apart – Heart Advice for Difficult Times.” In Buddhist terms, she basically says we get so tired we can’t make any more problems for ourselves… The training interpretation of this is that we get so overtrained we have to take a week or two off from training to recover.

So, in terms of practical training and lifestyle stuff, take a good hard look at what’s going on with you and decide if it’s actually sustainable and moving you TOWARD what you want and toward better health, performance and happiness. And, by moving toward I mean you’re already there on some level. How’s that for a contradiction? What I mean is, if you’re beating the crap out of yourself now so you can have something you want LATER, you better be seeing some indication that the work you’re putting in is working. If you’re working on health or happiness or performance NOW and aren’t at least seeing SOME positive movement TOWARD what you want, you better stop and reevaluate.

Are you consistently moving toward your goals?

Think about this one for a minute or two. Are you truly, TRULY moving toward your goals? Are you stronger and healthier today than you were last month? Last year? Are your relationships better? Does your life have less stress and more fulfillment? If these are goals for you – but you can’t answer “yes” to that question – you’re trying to live in the future and that won’t work. You need to create these things NOW so you know you’re going in the right direction.

Here’s a concrete example: Say your goal is to improve your health overall and take your deadlift from 365 to 405. Good, attainable goals, right? As long as you have measurable health goals like: improved sleep, better digestion, better mood, etc., you’ll be able to objectively tell if you’re moving toward your ultimate health goals. Add to that a good training journal with your poundage progression and you can tell pretty easily if you’re moving toward your goals or not.

If you’re NOT ON TRACK and consistently moving toward your goals in small increments you need to STOP and reevaluate your lifestyle and your goals and your methods. Don’t think you can keep doing what you’re doing and get different results than you’re getting now. There are no quantum leaps in health and training. Little improvements add up to create BIG improvements – and if you’re not seeing the little improvements you’re NOT going to see the big ones. Time to reevaluate…

I hope that makes sense – assuming I didn’t lose you a minute into the video

ttys

Adam

More on Yoga Timing with Other Training…

Other Posts You'll Like:

Yoga Benefits for Adrenal Fatigue and Depression…

Other Posts You'll Like:

Adding Yoga to a Strength Program…

Other Posts You'll Like:

If It’s Not Working, Try Something Different…

What’s the big deal with yoga in the morning?

It’s Not Just About Stretching

A NEW Routine and A New Beginning…

Slowly, Gently and CALMLY make things better…

And, I have a crush on Sara Ivanhoe…

We’ll see what happens…

Other Posts You'll Like:

Simple Yoga for Hips and Back…

Other Posts You'll Like:

Is Your Lifestyle Sustainable?

What does all this have to do with Adrenal Fatigue and Lifestyle?

Are you consistently moving toward your goals?

Other Posts You'll Like:

About Me…

Latest Posts

More on Yoga Timing with Other Training…

Other Posts You'll Like:

Yoga Benefits for Adrenal Fatigue and Depression…

Other Posts You'll Like:

Adding Yoga to a Strength Program…

Other Posts You'll Like:

If It’s Not Working, Try Something Different…

What’s the big deal with yoga in the morning?

It’s Not Just About Stretching

A NEW Routine and A New Beginning…

Slowly, Gently and CALMLY make things better…

And, I have a crush on Sara Ivanhoe…

We’ll see what happens…

Other Posts You'll Like:

Simple Yoga for Hips and Back…

Other Posts You'll Like:

Is Your Lifestyle Sustainable?

What does all this have to do with Adrenal Fatigue and Lifestyle?

Are you consistently moving toward your goals?

Other Posts You'll Like:

About Me…

Connect with Adam…

Latest Posts