Bikram yoga - 90 minutes of strenuous yoga in a heated room. They say 105 degrees F but it gets up to 120 pretty regularly. On especially humid days when I lie down on my sopping-wet towel I feel like I am buried under a pile of hot coals.
Totally (totally) kicks my ass every time, but is strangely addicting.
I’m still feeling a hit I took in the side of the head just above the mask line - that was FRIENDLY FIRE fer cryin out loud! Really makes worthwhile all the effort crawling into a sweet spot right between the lines where I picked off 2 of their guys who had NO IDEA where my fire was coming from.
Did an easy 30 min on the elliptical yesterday, and am feeling pretty close to my normal creaky old sef today. The guys in the locker room sure got a hoot out of joking about my polka-dotted body! 
Who would be better for a son and his freinds to pepper with paintballs than good ol’dad? 
Glad you had so much fun! It’ll keep you limber…one would hope.
I so want to try this. I wish there was a place in our area that had it available.
I raced my first half marathon some months ago. It was the first race longer than 10km that I participated in and only about 6 months after I stopped smoking and took up running. I had run the distance by myself before, but on race day I left everything I had on the course and as a result walked funny for almost a week afterwards.
Before I got in shape I would also be absolutely trashed after a motorcycle trackday.
One day Presidential range Traverse - 19 miles, 8500’ elevation gain, rocky/rough terrain for most of it. Took me 16 hours, but I think I could drop that to 14 hours if our group was a little quicker.
I love Hot Yoga - although while I am doing it I always vow I will never do it again as it’s hell when you are there.
Then the next time I end up there thinking - What am I doing here again?
I spent the weekend at the Pitchfork Music Festival and am just now feeling my normal self.
Too much fresh air and excitement (read: beer) for this guy, I suppose.
After eyeballing the weight machines at my Y, I finally worked up enough nerves to try them. (I’d been doing the stationary bike, but I need to build muscle mass to decrease injury from osteoprosis, for crying out loud.) Anyway, first session was cool–I did more than I ever thought I’d be able to do, especially since I’ve never lifted weights before. However…I paid for it dearly the following day. Motrin was my friend, my close, loving and dear friend.
That was last week. Last night, I went again (as I have done several times since), and I walked out of the Y feeling like a pumped up Queen (which isn’t as weird as it sounds). I’ve even managed to increase the amount of weights and the reps. I love, love, love it.
Several years ago I was on a business trip to San Francisco, and I stayed in the city for a couple of days after the conference.
The weather was so nice that I went down to Fisherman’s Warf and rented a mountain bike for an hour or two. They had a little map mounted between the handlebars that showed the way to go over the Golden Gate, so I started pedaling.
It didn’t look too far, and I used to ride my bike a lot when I was younger.
About three quarters of the way to the start of the bridge I was dying, and I lay the bike down and struggled to catch my breath.
A couple of twenty-somethings rode by and asked me “Are you all right?” with enough sincerity that I imagine I looked pretty bad.
When I made it over, I opted for the ferry from Sausalito rather than consider riding back.
This incident was one of the motivations behind my current running hobby.
I assume you have tried Googling Bikram Yoga Locations or directory or whatever? I know there are sites that try to list all the places in the U.S…
and yeah, **Poysyn **- I wonder what I am doing there while I am doing it, but making it through a tough session feels like pushing the Reset button for my body…and it is so helpful mentally, too - it slows me down…
I’m not old (36), but last Saturday me and the wife spent 3 hours wandering around a local town-wide yard sale. Damn, I had weird foot, back, and leg pains the next day.
Buying stupid cheap old stuff kicked my ass! I guess the routine of walk-stop-bendover repeated 10,000 times can take it’s toll on a body.
The first time I tried doing the CrossFit workout Linda about a year and a half ago:
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 reps
Deadlift: 1.5x body weight
Bench press: body weight
Cleans: 0.75x body weight
I scaled down to about 80–85% of the prescribed weights. I was about 80 kg (176 lbs.) at the time, so 100 kg (220 lb.) deadlift, 65 kg bench press (143 lb.; BP is one of my weakest lifts still) and 60 kg (132 lb.) clean. Add up all the reps, and you get 55 reps. I scaled further by doing only evens, so 30 reps total.
Yes, that’s still a massive amount of weight, and yes, it’s a bad idea to do that unless you’re in good shape. I’d been doing CrossFit for a few months already and thought I could handle it. I was oh, so wrong.
Looking back on what I did, my form broke down on the cleans and I started rounding my back. Just slightly, but that was enough. Around set 4, I had to stop doing the deadlifts and cleans. I did finish the bench presses though. I didn’t feel a snap, pop, or anything like that, I’d just severely fatigued my back muscles and strained some of them.
For the next week, I was in serious pain because the muscles were in spasm. I have a pre-existing problem of a slight curvature of the spine that is either a result of, or cause of, a muscle imbalance in my back that’s been around since I was about 15 or 16. I had to make an effort to straighten my spine, because otherwise I looked like I had a case of scoliosis. Several stretching sessions a day, attention to my posture, tight stomach to support my back, and I was back to normal, but that 7–10 day recovery period was hellish. I understand now why back problems are so seriously debilitating.
I’ve since done that same workout without incident. It still is a serious challenge, but didn’t lay me out like that again. It helps that I’m even more vigilant of my form now, especially when fatigued. At about thirty-four years old when I did that, I was still pretty young, but I just don’t recover as fast as I did when I was in my 20s. If I keep up with the exercise and avoid injury I’ll probably be in good shape even into my 50s and 60s, but I know for sure that I won’t be able to really push myself for more than about another 10–15 years, and I’ll pay for it if I screw up.
On the other hand, if I don’t exercise I’ll probably feel like crap just from walking down the street or picking up a bag of groceries. So, I plan to keep working out at the highest level I can handle without messing myself up.
I remember the first time I put my back out. I was in my early 20’s and was standing there, leaning forward, to open a stubborn window. I felt - no, heard - a crickle in my back. And it’s never geen the same since. Pain comes and goes for no rhyme or reason.
I hung with Li’lChief for three sets of tennis last Friday evening. He’s 16 now. I lost 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. I feel like a hundred. On Monday I still hurt.