I found that alternating between hard workouts and "negative exercise" reduces injuries and helps promote recovery. By "negative exercise", I mean yoga, stretching, foam rolling, massage, deep relaxation, or the like. Rather than having strength and muscle-building as the main focus, these negative workouts build flexibility and balance. Nowadays I do some form of physical activity daily. I reserve hard workouts like runs longer than 2 miles and weight training to every other day. I find that 10 min of basic yoga poses (neck and shoulder rolls, side bends, cat/cow, ...) before a weight training session helps reduce the soreness afterwards. A few hours after the hard workout, once I start feeling soreness, I follow up with a 20-min yoga session. The yoga poses help me survey my body, identify mis-alignments and soreness, and begin working sore spots for recovery. The next day, I follow up with a more comprehensive yoga and/or foam-rollin...
I lost 50 lbs. in the last five years, and I don't want them coming back! This blog is for keeping track of my exercise, diet, and healthy choices. It is to keep me accountable and strengthen my focus on taking a holistic approach to health and fitness. Follow me as I strive to motivate myself to run, try a new yoga pose, or try new recipes that meet my vegetarian diet and allergy restrictions.