Do You Yoga When You're Sick?

I'm at the tail end of a bad cold, and it's put a damper on my workout schedule.  There seems to be a lot of conflicting information out there about whether or not you should exercise when you're sick.  The consensus is that, if you have a fever, you should not work out.  But what if you're just congested and stuff?  And do the same rules apply to yoga as to cardio and weight training?

Because yoga isn't the same.  I mean, jogging doesn't usually involve being upside down.  And breathing is such a key element of yoga.  So if you can't breathe...?

The first day, when I barely had a throat tickle, I went to yoga, and it was fine.  I mean, that was probably the point when I was contagious, so it might not have been fine for everyone else in the room.  But I felt okay.

Then a couple days later I felt so bad that leaving the house just wasn't even an option.  So I skipped yoga that day.  Then a couple days after that, I was starting to feel a bit better, but still not great, and I debated on what to do.  So I Googled.  Which is, ideally, the best way to find out your health information.  Not.

But seriously, what I found in general was this:

You shouldn't do any of the inverted poses if you're congested.  This means any pose where your head is below your heart.  Like downward dog, forward fold, or headstands (as if I do headstands, but whatever).  I could see where this might make one feel worse, but I actually found several sites cautioning that it could make you sicker by forcing gunk into places it doesn't belong.

Some gentle, upright poses can be helpful.  Things like chest expansions and side bends.  But in general, you shouldn't do any strenuous poses.

And the advice that finally made my decision for me was this simple question:  Do you want to be in a closed up yoga studio with someone who is hacking, sneezing, and sniffling?

Ummm...no.  And I realized I've actually had this very thought before while I was relaxing into a corpse pose and listening to the person next to me cough up a lung.  "Really?!  You felt the need to come share all that with us?"

So I stayed home.

What about you?  Do you work out when you're sick?

Give Up the Funk

I've been in a funk lately.  More so now, because I'm sick.  But then, that's the way I do.  I work and stress and do too much until finally my body says, "STOP."  And I get sick.  So, Friday my body put its foot down, so to speak.

I had gone to yoga Thursday, and was actually doing okay.  I've been doing the harder class for a couple months now, and it's gotten to where the gentle class is too easy.  I'm contemplating trying power yoga soon.  (I thought it might be today, but ummm...no.)

I've even started jogging a little with my walks.  Not a lot, just a lap, a block, the distance between two mailboxes, then I walk until I catch my breath.  And the reason I did this at first was not to improve my cardiovascular fitness.  It was not to lose weight.

It was because I was mad.

I was having a horrible day, and I decided to walk it out.  I went to yoga early and walked on the track, and I swear, the longer I walked, the madder I got.  I think every person there was out to get me.  People standing in the track for no reason.  People hogging the lane.  One crazy old man doing some bizarre form of martial arts/torture/fit throwing that involved tying himself to a post with a stretchy band and flailing about every time I walked past.  (I'm not even kidding.  It was weird.  Had never seen him before, and haven't seen him since.)

And finally as my anger rose, I decided the only thing to do was RUN.  And I ran.  And I felt better.  So I kept running.  Sort of like Forest Gump.

Then last week, I was walking, and contemplating starting to run a little, when who stepped out onto the track but someone I dislike intensely.  Someone I hadn't seen in over a year.  And there she was on MY track.  At MY gym.  Oh, Lord, what if she goes to MY yoga class???

I rounded the corner and kept right on walking out the door.  I just couldn't face her.  And I was so livid, I was shaking and near tears.  I calmed myself down and decided I wasn't letting her keep me from yoga.  Yoga has been the only thing keeping me sane these days.  I tentatively walked back in the building, looked both ways, and made a break for the yoga studio.

Thankfully, she did NOT attend class.  But now I'm freaking the he!! out that she'll be there next time I go walk.  I mean, really, I go to the gym to get AWAY from people who upset me.

I've decided I need to suck it up.  If she's there, she's there.  And honestly, she has every right to be there.  No matter how personally I'm taking it.  It's a public place.

Seriously, she won't keep it up anyway.  I know her.  She won't.

And that's very un-yogish of me to think.

New Yoga Pants

If anyone else out there is ridiculously short or abnormally tall (which really, I cannot even imagine), I thought I'd share that I just got some great yoga pants at Target.  They come in short and tall sizes, as well as "normal" and they were marked $27.99 but are actually on sale for $19 right now.

I decided I deserve new yoga pants, since I'm going to yoga twice a week now.  I usually wear capris because I get way too hot in long pants.  But Stacy and Clinton always say that if you are short you should never ever wear capris.  And aesthetically, I know they are right.  Temperaturely, I wear capris anyway.

These pants came in both lengths, and I decided to buy one of each.  I wore the longer pants today, and honestly, I was too hot.  But I looked thinner.  So I might just have to be hot more often!

The Only Thing I Feel Like Doing

I had a rough day.  I've had a rough couple of days.  And it's not like there's a good reason for it.  Nothing hugely horrible happened.  In fact, a couple of really good things happened.  But I've felt awful for a couple days.  No energy, bad mood, not sleeping, anxiety for no good reason.  Blah.

Tonight was yoga night.  Not even easy yoga night, but harder (okay, medium) yoga night.  I kept thinking as I got ready to go, "I do not feel like doing this right now."

And then I stopped myself.  Because in reality?  Going to yoga was the only thing I DID feel like doing.  I did NOT feel like doing all the rest of the cr@p I had to do today.  But I wanted to go to yoga class, and I knew it would make me feel better.

So I went.  And it was hard.  And hot.  And awesome.  And I do feel better!

Meeting Myself Coming and Going

Sometimes you just have to mix up your exercise routine a little.  So you want to know what I did today?  I walked my entire route backwards.  I mean, I didn't walk backwards.  I walked frontwards.  But I walked the route backwards of the route I usually walk.

This is my version of being wild and crazy.  R is laughing hysterically at me as he reads this.  So is EG.

Anyway, it's a tiny thing, but it did make a difference.  I'm a serious creature of habit.  And I've gotten to know my walking route so well, I could probably do it with my eyes closed.  But today I felt like I needed to mix it up a little.

So, I started at the end and worked toward the beginning.  And it was kind of cool that during the parts where I'm usually exhausted, I was fresh and energetic.  At the part where I'm usually thinking, "Oh Lord, I've only just begun, and my legs hurt already," today I was thinking, "Wow, I can't believe I'm almost finished!"

It gave me a little extra push, and you know what I ended up doing? I added one more little "leg" to my walk and did more than I've done in years.  It felt good.

Most Awesome Walking Song I Heard Today:
"Do you know what I wanna do?  Do you KNOW what I wanna DO?!  Strut."


Stayin' Alive by The Bee Gees

Back on the Mat

I went back to yoga class last night, after the three class hiatus my instructor took over the holidays (how dare she?!).  I'm not gonna lie.  It was hard.

It's amazing how quickly I can get out of practice with stuff like that.  But I was proud of myself for going, and I plan to go every Tuesday and Thursday in January.  My goal is to stick with these two classes per week for a month, and then if I feel up to the challenge, I might try the Power Yoga class on Mondays during February.

Might.

I'm a little scared of that.  So, we'll see.

I've been back into walking also, and the longest I went without walking over the break was three days.  Note to self:  You can miss one day of walking.  You can even miss two days in a row if necessary.  But don't skip three days anymore.  It's just too hard to get back into it after taking that long off.

So how are you doing with your fitness goals so far in January?

Two Great Workout Apps

R got me an iPhone for Christmas.  He has this knack for buying me electronic gizmos I see no need for, but soon realize are absolute necessities.  It started with my pink RAZR years ago.  *Sigh*  I loved my pink RAZR, and held onto it for years after it became obsolete.

Then it progressed to XM satellite radio.  Could not live without this now. I got the home kit the next year, and it made my work life infinitely more bearable.

So, now I have an iPhone, and I love it.  R keeps telling me I'm going to run out of my data plan before the month ends.  Anyway, I've found two apps that I just love, and I'm really enjoying playing with them utilizing them in my workouts.

The first is Moodagent.  This one is free.  Yay!  It allows you to choose from a range of moods, and then it customizes a play list from your iTunes to fit that mood.  You enter whether you're feeling sensual, tender, happy, or angry (or a range of those) and then you select the tempo you want.  You can also select one song from your list and then have it create a playlist of songs similar to that one.  It's fabulous!

In general, I tend to prefer more mellow, soft rock type stuff.  However, when I'm walking, this doesn't work.  So, I've found myself in the past skipping 15 songs in a row before I get to one that's appropriate for my workout.  This handy tool eliminates all that.

I'll give you one little hint though.  If you're like me, the songs that are perfect for working out to, Moodagent considers "angry."  I was having a hard time getting just the right mix, until I jacked the "angry" all the way to the top.  Then it was pouring out Lady Gaga, Madonna, Bon Jovi, and P!nk.

The second app I'm loving is called Quick Sleep, and it was 99 cents.  It's designed for ummm...sleep...Hence the name.  But I'm loving using it for yoga.  It has a selection of sounds, everything from thunderstorms to wind chimes, to New York at night from a rooftop.  And what's neat is, you can mix them!  So I can put in say a cat purring, a flute song, and waves crashing, and have a nice relaxing yoga soundtrack.  Fun!

So there you go.  If your New Year's Resolution involves getting more exercise, and having fun while you do it, I highly recommend both of these toys!