Lets talk stretching. So many poses. So many stretches. Ya’ll have probably heard the importance of stretching in injury prevention, and in elongation of tight muscles. So, I won’t bore you with information you already know, but I do have to say this: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TAKE TIME TO STRETCH!
I use my legs quite a lot, as the workouts I do are either a)cardio, or b) high intensity plyometric movements (AKA lots of jumping). Consequently, most of my stretches are centered around….tada…my legs!
In my workouts, I usually stretch twice. The first time around, I stretch after doing some light cardio (5 min walk/jog to warm up). I also stretch after finishing my workout. When I’m stretching, I hold each pose for about 30-45 seconds! You should feel a slight pull, and some healthy tension. This is good, as it may be indicative of you increasing your flexibility.
However, it should not HURT or ache in any manner. Please be careful. Don’t go pulling your pretty little muscles!
Without further delay, here are some of my favorite stretches!
This is your basic reach. I repeat this with each leg, and I finish with putting both legs together, and touching my toes!
This is the pigeon-pose. I cross one leg underneath my tummy, and stretch long with the other one. Repeat on the other side.
Hey guess what? You can also get an awesome quad stretch by altering the pigeon pose just a little bit! Yay!
This is a modified version of the basic reach again. Since you’re positioned vertically, this time around, it’s really working the backside of your legs!
Dancer’s pose ❤ Great for an overall leg stretch!
Modified lunge!
The butterfly pose! This is a great inner-thigh stretch! Just hold both feet together, and push your tummy closer to your thighs. Most people do this stretch ineffectively, as they want to get their foreheads to touch their toes. I did this too, until my yoga instructor told me otherwise! The best way to stretch the inner thigh or adductor muscles is to lean your hips/lower tummy towards your thighs. This way, your back remains straight, and unrounded.
This one is great for the hip flexors!!!!! I discovered it recently and I fell in love with it! Cross one leg over the other. Make sure that both of your sit-bones are touching the ground! Now reach as far as you can. You should feel the best kind of pinch in the back of your hip. Bahh. is it obvious that I’m kinda sorta obsessed with this one? And, on the plus side, I feel like a cat doing this pose.
Yeah. Yeah. We hear it all the time. A part of us may even register that when we get down to the literal aspect of things, we really are all we have. We are the ones who inhale the oxygen, break down food into usable energy, and use water to sustain our literal lives.
Let’s change one word in the above mentioned statement.
How about “you’re all you NEED”?
Like me, some of you may agree with that statement. I mean, I KNOW that it’s true. I think most of us do. But, how many of us can say that we truly, without a doubt, BELIEVE that we are all we need?– that we possess all the resources, connections, and tools we need to, not just, survive but to create a fulfilling and meaningful life?
Do you believe it? Would you like to believe it?
How ironic is it that in the most significant moments of our lives, we are alone? When we come out of our mothers womb, we are alone. When we are faced with death, we are alone. We came into this world with no one, and we will leave with no one.
What if we truly are strong enough to deal with life? And not just deal with it–but really mold a colorful, and beautiful one?
I think that if we truly believed that we are all we really need—that we are enough, there would be much less fear in the world. Violence, hatred, envy, harm—these are all sons and daughters of fear.
On a global level, fear has been masked as tyranny and terrorism. We only feel the need to oppress other beings because we feel threatened. We “need” to create a hierarchy so that we can establish that “I am stronger/higher/smarter/better than you.” But, why would we need to assert our control over others if we believed that we were enough, by ourselves?
On a more individual level, fear has refracted into countless rays: addictions, abuse, depression, self-harm, eating disorders. You name it. Why would we need to turn to alcohol, drugs, food, other people, and other things if we, 100%, believed that we were enough—that everything we needed to create a meaningful and satisfying life was already within us?
I really want us to think about that statement. What if all the things we have ever wanted and have been within us this since the day we were born? Entertain this thought with me, for a second.
If that was truly the case, the first change we would see within individuals, within families, and consequently, within the world would be a reduction in fear. There would be markedly less frantic, fearful, hasty energy demolishing Mother Earth.
Imagine how it would feel to really believe that… to believe that you are all you need. You are enough.
In fact, I want all of you to do something silly with me.
I want all of you to scream “hello”, loud inside your head. Let it ring inside of you.
“H-E-L-L-O-!”
Notice, that there are two different presences inside of you. There is a voice that bellowed “hello”, and there was a different presence that, simultaneously, heard the “hello.”
There was a voice that spoke, and there was a voice that listened.
So often, the only voice we hear is the loud one–the one that speaks, barks, criticizes, ridicules, judges. What about the other voice? The one that isn’t as charged? The one that resides in the deepest part of us, and simply observes.
I want to share something with you, girls. I wrote a letter for you. From you to you. From me to me.
I want for the wise voice within you that listens to say these words to the frightened, panicked voice that, so often, speaks.
I know. I hear you. I know it feels like the world is going to crumble sometimes. I’m hearing your panic. I’m hearing your voice. No one is ignoring you. I’m here. It is going to be okay. I know that a part of you is petrified. And, I so, wholeheartedly appreciate and honor that part. Look at how brilliantly resilient you are! Look at you throwing these resourceful solutions to me about turning to alcohol, or drugs, or food, or other addictions. I don’t hate you for saying those things. I don’t think you’re bad for saying them.
Instead, I want to thank you. I want to thank you for trying to protect me. I want to thank you for sensing that I’m scared, and I want to thank you for trying to resolve the fear in ways that we’ve previously dealt with it. But angel, I need you to hear me when I say that it’s safe. You are okay. You are going to be loved and accepted. You already are. You deserve to be cared for, to be loved, and valued. And I am here to take care of you. I’m not going anywhere. I’m not leaving you. Nothing you can/will do is going to make me turn away from you this time.
I realize that its going to take you a little bit of time to realize that I am here to stay. But I am no longer going to ignore you, or push you into the dark. I am not going to beat your bones till they are broken, or mentally annihilate you. You are and never were bad, wrong, or not enough. Deep down, I know that all you’ve ever wanted was to feel okay—to feel loved, accepted and cared for.
You want to feel like you have a home. You want to be accepted, understood, and valued for just being you, at this moment in time—no expectations, no strings attached. There will be no more: “I love you when’s…” You are enough, now. And no matter how scary that is, I want you to know that I am working on accepting and loving you the way you desire.
I am making the choice to take care of you, and to honor you. You may not have received that essential love, approval, and value when you were only a child. But you grew up. I grew up. A part of me is capable of helping you now—for giving you all that you have ever wanted.
I’ll need your help. Will you help me, sweetheart?
I’m not asking for you to discard your fears, or your concerns about being alone. Being isolated, alone, and abandoned are really scary things. I am not asking you to throw away your apprehensions, because I know that this situation is unfamiliar. For so long, I have pushed you away; this fearful relationship between us is what has kept us functioning. This is how you survived. This is how WE survived. But I am imploring with you to allow me to reach out to you now. I’m asking your permission to let me in.
I am not your best friend who betrayed you. I am not your mother who abused you. I am not the boyfriend who cheated on you. I am none of those people that hurt you in the past. I know that I may have pushed you away, but I want you to know that it was NEVER because I wanted to hurt you. It was never because I thought not you were bad, unworthy or unlovable. It was and has always been about me being scared too. I pushed you away because the intensity with which you need me scares me.
I don’t know how to handle the loneliness you feel. I am afraid that I won’t be able to be enough for you—that I’ll fail you.
I know it’s a risk. It’s a really scary thought to think that, together, we can make it. But if you give me a chance, I am willing to understand and try to be what you need. I will not let you down. I will fight for you.
I’m here now, telling you that you deserve to be happy. You deserve to live wholly and fully. I realize that you’re scared to hope, because a lot has been taken away from you. It’s been really hard. You’ve had to shut off so many parts of yourself to make it this far.
I’m so thankful to you for allowing me to feel your pain. I honor your apprehension but I see the immense courage that you already have. I’m so amazed at your strength. Your will to survive, and to be heard is incomparably astounding. You never gave up. You may have tried to feel loved, accepted, and cared for in really bizarre and maladaptive ways, but you never gave up. I am so thankful to you for not giving up despite what other people said, or what circumstances brought.
I am most thankful, however, that you did not give up on being heard, despite how cruel I was to you. I know that I am not perfect, but I am willing to try. I am here to tell you that I am willing to try to accept you, to love you, and to show you, that together, we are enough. We are all we’ve got, and we are all we need.
Perfect. So, we’ve got what “vision” means. A vision board is a collage, on which you pin quotes/pictures that remind you of your own vision–of your own goals and ideals that you aspire towards. Optimally, the board should be hung up in a place where you can see it everyday, so that you’re consistently reminded of the extraordinariness that you are destined for. ❤
One of my visions is to feel happiness–to live a life that is so beautifully lavished with gifts of joy, gentleness, and love. So, today, I wanted to share some pictures from my “happiness” vision board with all of you 🙂
Yayyy! I’m smiling as I write this because I’m imagining all of you smiling as you read this. Let’s smile together. Okay. Ready. Set. Go. SMILEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
See how connected we were in that moment? YAY! Before, I share my pictures with you, I wanted to let you know something interesting; when I ventured out to create my board, the only pictures I chose were those that my heart responded to first (prior to any mental registration). I chose pictures that made my heart tingle with absolutely no mental explanation as to why. ❤
❤ go find pictures that make you happy, and look at them every single day!
My niece, who just turned two, has two pet-words that she uses all the time. Any guesses as to what they are?
“That’s MINE.”
This led me to thinking that so many of our troubles become nascent in possessive pronouns. Even the very language we learn is indicative of the profound false illusion we all live in: that we have unlimited, unbound control over our lives. Like other members of the animal kingdom, we live our entire lives defending—consistently preoccupied with defending encroachment from others. As children, we start guarding OUR toys and OUR things. As teenagers, we begin to guard OUR friends and OUR partners. As adults, we begin to guard OUR careers and OUR family.
The underlying misconception to that thought process is that nothing is truly “ours.” We are not even truly ours, as each and every one of us will cease to exist. The root of human suffering arises when we feel that our lovers, and friends are OURS. Our view towards them becomes that of possession. We almost begin to believe that they belong to us. It is no surprise, therefore, that we become profoundly wounded when unfortunate events lead to our best friends betraying us, our boyfriends cheating on us, our careers falling through. In so many ways, we all experience the same primordial emotion: Loss; it’s as if we win the lottery one day and find ourselves bankrupt the next. The intensity of how severely we “hurt” is directly correlated with how much we identify with the false illusion of life belonging to us.
Some of us break. We shatter; every little ounce of strength within us seems to evaporate away. There’s no shame in admitting this. I have been there. In fact, I, still, find myself back there often. We are the ones who worry too much, stress ourselves into ulcerated infernos; we are the “control-freaks.”
Nothing is permanently ours. That friend, that boyfriend, your favorite shirt, your health–every single thing is a gift that must not be taken for granted.
I mean, how mystifying are human beings? We work assiduously to find cures to the most deadly diseases of our time, however, we cannot seem to accept such a simple concept. We have trouble comprehending that our family, our friends, our boyfriends, our clothes, our houses, our wealth, our children, our pets–“our” everything is not ours. Each of those things can be taken away in a moment. In fact, this very LIFE is not ours. It is an opportunity–for some perceivers a curse, and for others a gift.
Each time something or someone is taken from you, you may fall apart. But honey, “falling apart” is a magical and beautiful blessing. It is a reminder from the universe, God, or whichever “higher power” you confide in. It is a message that serves to redirect your attention back towards the beautifully frustrating truth: nothing is yours forever. Things are not going to go the way you plan. The people in your life are not yours to keep. They never were. They never will be. For godsake, you’re not even yours.
This brings me to back to the title of this post: surrender. In no ways does surrender mean relinquishing all control of our lives. If this was the case, criminals would not be held accountable for their actions. Instead, “surrender” means to turn our attention to the things we can control, and begin to let go of the rest. It seems as if some of the only things we possess control over are deep within the inner cores of our mind and heart. We can only manage the internal environment created by our thoughts, feelings, and actions. As for rest, I suppose, we surrender.
I recently discovered an old letter I had written to God in my time of distress; I wanted to share it. I know that many of you reading this may believe in different higher powers, or may simply believe in the governing laws of the universe. Consequently, I ask of you to read the proceeding letter with an open mind and an open heart, as I truly and wholeheartedly believe that every person, regardless of their faith, can relate to it.
Dear Universe/God,
I am back, once more, your wounded soldier. I am tired of fighting, blinded, all for a nonexistent cause—a cause that ceases to exist. I am struggling so hard towards an impermanent goal…in an even more impermanent world–one that will likewise cease to exist. The breeze of realizations has kissed my face once more. In actuality, nothing, not one thing that I lovingly call my “prized possession” truly belongs to me. Not the soothing words of authors that grant wings to my lifeless dreams, nor the light parental touch on the forehead that sends my broken soul to its plight, or those tender kisses gifted by a true love’s mouth; nothing; nothing is mine. And now I see. My bleeding heart, my fallen soul have gifted me with eyes to see, to comprehend, to know that each momentary breath is not mine, and whenever you so please, the chains of death can ensnare me and then, even I, so “powerful” of a being, will cease to exist. I will go, soaring back, like that destined loose leaf traveling back up to the majestic tree of life that Abraham,Jesus, Moses, Mohammad (pbuh), Gandhi, Mother Tereasa, Buddha and other enlightened beings descended from.
I am a tired artist; tired of molding, drawing, shaping, sculpting, and painting this masterpiece called life. I am running out of colors, running out of designs, running out of direction—i’m fatigued and why? Because I am fighting my own brush; each dainty stroke that tries to coat over the endless white paper, I consciously stop. Each beautiful stroke is willed by you, Magnificent One; one that may transform this ordinary sheet of nothingness into a work of art even more valued than de Vinci’s La Gioconda. I stand here, your wounded soldier, tired; tired of fighting the extraordinariness destined for me; tired of denying the greatness that was bestowed upon my ancestors, tired of fighting blindly for my foolish cause, for my foolish stubbornness, for my foolish desires.
So here I am, my own adversary, fallen to my knees, in tears, pressed into this lonely corner of your world. Here I am, once more, suppliant, begging, pleading, beseeching one glance from you. Just one so that I may be rescued from the boat of life that I have mistakenly commenced to sink. Now, that I see no beginning and seek no end, please take hold of my paintbrush, take hold of my hand and help me paint the extraordinary masterpiece I was destined to create. Please carry me till I am strong enough to walk, please place the fragile, glass pieces of my splintered being together. Oh higher power! Please respond to my piercing cries! Here I am, your wounded solider, calling out to you. I have not yet become a “fallen soldier”, only wounded, because till this moment in life, You have not let me fall. Grant me with wings so that my soul may sour once again.
Your wounded soldier
Surrender. It is not a choice for the weak-hearted.
Surrender is not a passive, hopeless choice. It is not in anyway “settling” for less. On the contrary, “to surrender” is one of the most ACTIVE and magnamonious choices any person can make. For it is the act of surrender that allows for our internal energy to become aligned with the magical, and majestic ways of the universe. It is in surrender, that we choose to stop expending nervous, fearful energy towards external circumstances that lay outside of our control.
Active surrender restrains us from barking orders at life, and instead, begin to gently question it. “What is it that YOU, the universe, want from me today?” And sometimes, the only answer, we may get is: “to breathe” or “to be.” I’m starting to believe that, not only are those perfectly acceptable answers, but that they are also the best ones. But that will be the topic for another blog.
For now, I’d like to end with this compelling thought by Nisargadatta Maharaj
These are both pictures of my legs at different times
I feel like this deserved a blog post on its own because this is probably my most FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTION.
Okay, so by “rarely” I mean that I do not do repetitive leg exercises that target isolated leg muscles such as lunges/squats/calf raises. I may do a set here and there, however that’s really it. If I do decide to do the above mentioned isolated exercises, I tend to make them plyometric movements. What does this mean? In simple terms, this means: “ADD A JUMP”. Jump lunges, jump squats, jumping calf raises. I do these as fast as possible without causing fatigue. As soon as I feel the burn coming on, I STOP and rest before repeating.
As a mesomorph with a relatively low body fat percentage, I TEND TO GAIN MUSCLE LIKE NO TOMORROW. Even slight increases in muscle size look quite noticeable, as there isn’t a substantial amount of subcutaneous adipose tissue (fat) covering them.
So MIIT/MISS is my ARESNAL for training my legs! I’ve found that, personally, I cannot go wrong with this type of training. So, what is this?
MISS: moderate intensity steady state cardio: stay at a moderate heart rate zone for > 25 minutes.
MIIT: moderate intensity interval training cardio: train at a moderate-higher intensity heart rate zones, step off to the side/slow down to allow your heart rate zone to drop into the moderate/low training heart rate zones. Speed up again to push heart rate back up. Make sure you are not staying at your high intensity zone for too long. You should barely be entering it.
This post is about actively losing MUSCLE. So this post is mainly geared towards lovely people who feel that that their legs feel excessively “hard”/lack cellulite/feel bulky. If you find that you have more fatty tissue, you must do all types of cardio/eat at a greater deficit to decrease your overall body fat percentage and weight.
I recommend doing cardio with a very light meal prior to it. I, personally, can’t do fasted cardio, as I feel faint, and dI have passed out from it before. So why a light meal? Well, the only time that there may ever a need for your body to turn to your muscles for fuel is in the late stages of extreme endurance running. When glycogen or carbohydrate stores are depleted, your body will turn to the only fuel source left — amino acid proteins in your skeletal muscles. Only then, will it turn these into glucose for fuel.
So please note that losing muscle is HARD. Our bodies do not, naturally, want to do this. So please be patient with yourself during this process.
By the same token as above^^, we don’t want to rebuild this muscle, as we are looking to LOSE some bulk. I recommend simply having a carb instead of protein so that you can refuel your glycogen stores. Snack on these carbs in moderation, as once your stores are replenished, the excess will be stored as fat.
The cardio i do is usually my mixed cardio routine posted a few slides ago. Sometimes it’s purely MISS/MIIT depending on my body, energy level, and lethargy. I want to quote something I read on wayofgray’s profile yesterday
Actually enjoy the foods you’re eating and workouts you’re doing. I love HIIT and my predominantly plant based diet, and that’s why I stick to it. If you hate running on a treadmill, try something else! I promise that you’ll find something you enjoy!
It is so important to LISTEN to your own body. So, if you get anything out of this post at all, please let it be the following: DO NOT KILL YOURSELF TRYING TO ADAPT TO THIS PROGRAM. This is what worked for my particular body type. You are SO wholeheartedly encouraged to tweak my recommendations to help YOU achieve what you desire.
You got this 😉 Please remember to stretch! This will be key!
This is the pigeon-pose. I cross one leg underneath my tummy, and stretch long with the other one. Repeat on the other side.
This is a modified version of the basic reach again. Since you’re positioned vertically, this time around, it’s really working the backside of your legs!
Dancer’s pose ❤ Great for an overall leg stretch!
Modified lunge!
abidmaham 