#i know it is not. probably for beginners bc i am still learning movement and like. The Loop. but i love launching myself into tha air

[pawbeanies]

doggy is getting better at monhun unfortunately and that is scaring meee. you mean i can play games that Arent turn based ...?!

[smallblanketfort]

what are your gym goals and can you make a beginners guide?

lol i still really feel like a beginner, but ye, i can share some things that have helped me!

i want to bulk up and get myself what puberty didn’t give me Lol. that is, a nice peach, bulking up my arms, keeping my abs defined. also using it to get a handle on mental health, managing anxiety and shifting chemical. so far so gooooood. i’m really happy.

first thing i did about a year ago when i started this was to watch many youtube videos. a lot. of videos. hours worth. it helped me feel like i knew what i was doing as soon as i walked into the gym for the first time. i knew what i was going to do, what to expect. wasn’t wandering around lost. so i suggest whitney simmons, jazmine garcia, nikki blackketter, grace fit uk, and heidi somers, if you’re looking for badass, genuinely lovely women to follow. 

i follow their instagrams and youtube and screencap workouts i like. sometimes i do them, sometimes i just incorporate exercises i like into my workout. these are great for a couple reasons. you learn to use machines and you learn good form. i’ve also bought jaz’s flourish strong program and such, and they’re helpful. bodybuilding.com is also a good resource :)

if you hated it one day, it might not be that you hate working out. i discovered a couple weeks ago that working out at 7 am (or just 40 min after i wake up)  is the worst possible thing i could do for my body. the time you workout also matters. the best time for me is mid afternoon or evening. depends on your energy levels!

eat a preworkout an hour-45 minutes beforehand. i like to have black tea for caffeine, and either a granola bar or a bit of fruit with peanut butter. even a piece of whole grain bread and peanut butter is good.

wear layers. dude it might be 98 degrees out, but i’m still going in there with leggings, a crop top, and a flannel. this is me and my anxiety and the need to feel covered lol. by the end, i have the flannel tied around my waist, but it’s like a security blanket. keeps me from feeling exposed.

your shoes matter. running shoes = cardio. think cushy, comfy nikes/adidas/whatever. flat soled shoes = weights. think converse, vans, i even end up wearing minnetonkas lol. lifting shoes = lifting. fat soles are 100% find, but some people find that the slightly elevated heal helps. i haven’t gone that far, but it might be an option for you.

take music. also, wear a baseball hat if you really want to keep yourself from everyone else. if anyone watches you, they’re either assholes or they’re gathering inspiration (seriously).

begin with some bodyweight activation/warm up if you’re doing strength training. that is, leg swings to warm up your hips, rolling your wrists and ankles and shoulders. do a few squats, really squeezing your glutes. calf raises. activate your muscles. warm them up. also a good time to use a foam roller.

stretch afterwards! damn it! stretch! so important to avoid injury!

keep track of your workout with an app like myfitnesspal. it helps me keep track of my weights and sets so i know for sure whether or not i’m increasing. also gives you something to do between sets.

take it slow! don’t put too much stock in numbers! so many really strong people still use 5 lbs for some exercises, doesn’t mean anything. speaking of which,

define your goal and work accordingly. fewer reps (1-5), heavier weight = strength mid range reps (6-12), mid range weight = muscle buildingmore reps (15+), lighter weight = enduranceif you’re trying to lose weight, do not forgo strength training. muscles burn calories faster than fat, so you’re going to want to lose fat and gain muscle. since fat is lighter than muscle, you might notice that your weight doesn’t change as much, but that’s cool. likewise, if you’re trying to gain muscle, cardio is also good for building endurance. stairmaster is your boo that will Actually Murder you.when you’re working with weights, it’s a good idea to calculate your max rep. enter what you usually work with, for how many reps you usually work with, and this calculator will tell you your max rep (the max weight you can lift at one rep). why is this important? so i’m someone who doesn’t feel like they succeeded if they don’t go to burnout/have pain. knowing your max rep helps you manage your fatigue. that is, you choose a weight you can manage for 11 reps, but you only do 8, for example. so i like to do 3 sets of 12 reps, so i should be going at about 70-75% of my max one rm.this can help you if you decide to lift heavier and less, or lift lighter and more.you can also combine these concepts. if you want, you can create descending/ascending reps for altered weighted sets. that is, for example, you can increase your weight and decrease your reps with every set, or decrease your weight and increase reps with every set.ALSO. i’d be doing you a disservice if i didn’t mention diet!!! start eating cleaner and according to your goals.  for example, if you’re bulking, you need to up your calorie intake, and your protein intake. no matter what your goal is, ffs, don’t use a ~diet~! no! my guy! diets are not sustainable, and we’re trying to build a happy lifestyle here. balance is everything. my coworkers have had success with going sugar free and/or vegetarian (i’m already vegetarian, almost vegan). but those are lifestyle shifts more than anything. they’re making good choices, rather than restricting and cutting out foods. i will say that once you get over the hump, you’ll crave less. gluten free made me cry once a week, but now i dont even crave bread or cake or pasta. this is coming from someone whose favorite foods were always those. same thing with cheese. regardless, get over the hump, build a lifestyle, and MAKE YOURSELF HAPPY. that’s the whole entire point.

end with a light, easy burnout on your focus area. your goal isn’t to make this hard, but just to exhaust the muscle group. so i tend to do bodyweight + 10 lbs on a small movement and just go until i can’t. makes me feel accomplished. THAT BEING SAID. do NOT burn out your body! im sooo sick of this “i vomited at the gym!” mentality. nuuh. don’t hurt your body. be gentle. you don’t need that. when i say burnout, i mean light, easy, and for one muscle, like your glutes. working out until you see stars or throw up isn’t good for you. at all. your body is doing its best. be nice.

workout in splits. this is why building routine is so important. currently, my workout schedule is a little sporadic, so i am there much longer doing a full body workout. however, if you can for sure get there more than twice times a week, make a workout split. the major muscle groups are as followed, with recommended pairings:back + bicepslegs + shoulderschest  + tricepsabsthe logic is in the fact that when you work triceps, you’re probably also working your chest in the exercise, so fitting them together makes sense. creating splits helps you isolate the muscle group and really get them done. 

rest 👏days👏are👏important👏 consider rest days a part of your split. as in, make. sure. you have rest days scheduled. do not workout every day. nope. your body needs time to rebuild iteself. give it that time. 

experiment to keep interest. there are a lot of ways to work a specific muscle group. the easiest example i can give is that i have found i love doing abs on an exercise ball. that is, depending on the way i drape my spine over the sphere of the exercise ball, i can go beyond a full crunch, since my spine is arched, while also receiving support on my crappy spine.

take classes and/or get a trainer. i havent gotten a trainer bc im poor af and would be too anxious at this point Lol. however, i love yoga classes so much. i swear by them. integrating yoga with strength training is a serious aid in terms of mental health, physical stability, and flexibility, which are also important when you’re bulking. so it all cross pollinates and gets my interest hyped! :)

afterwards drink a cup of lukewarm water and eat a protein bar. makes all the difference when you feel like you just died, i promise. alternatively, make a protein shake, drink protein water, however you’re getting protein.

take progress photos every month or so. same place, same poses. i take them in snapchat and use the date filter, bc it’s easy. i suggest dumping them all in a specific folder- and not looking in that folder for quite a while. that way, when you need motivation later on after progress has surely been made, you’ll see the difference. it makes me weepy and i love it even if some months i know nothing has changed. (that’s okay.)

so ye. really all my advice comes from doing research and keeping myself comfy. take it slow! do you! everyone in there is present for the same reason, to better themselves. we all start out sometime, we all have different goals, and we are all making progress. so are you. it’s all good.

[in-paradox-space]

That dream keeps coming back to me.

Everything I do, I think of it.

I was in an evening class that I’m taking this year. I was late at usual, I always miss education. I don’t show up half the time. So I had to write down and retain every single thing that was being said. 

I have to catch up from what is implied in the context. I also have to work to compensate for what I’ll miss in my next absent lesson.

Quickly jotting down and scribbling. In pencil. It’s messy. Watching the teachers movements, she didn’t want us to write at that point but I had to retain it. 

This girl next to me, she was crying. I must’ve known for a while but it’s all hazy. 

Fat girl, same age, wearing a white shirt. Kind of like a school shirt. 

I didn’t even process the fact that she was fat in the dream. Maybe the subconscious of my subconscious picked it up but I wasn’t acknowledging it for a second.

I knew I had just 5 minutes to quickly write everything I had to and more until the lesson began properly. Comprehending it and shortening to keywords, underlining the pieces that I’d need to learn later.

 I knew she was crying. She was at my right side, next to me. She was on the end of the long extension of 2 person table/desks. Typical white classroom, those curved, hard plastic chairs. It’s like a white, hard, wooden/plastic table with that little pebble-dashed pale grey pattern on it. The window was to the right, behind her. It lead onto a kind of road, in my dream the room for the classroom was in an industrial area but that’s just how it goes.

That’s just how it goes.

So, I knew I needed to do my work. I also knew it was my duty to try to make sure she’s alright.

I ignored her for about a minute, tried to prioritize what I wrote. I was thinking, I’ll speak to her afterwards.

The classroom kept going on, I felt guilty, sort of conscious that other people may notice that I’m just ignoring this girl who is in tears, in tatters.

I glanced at her to assess the situation.

White shirt collar, open kind of wide in a comfortable, unrestricted manner. She had some bits of pink fleece and grey kind of high school jumper material, mixed together in dream fog. I don’t know if I saw her with a white shirt on because it’s an association from high school or if that’s just what her style is like.

She had lightish brown hair, the kind that looks like a matte, disheveled grey. It’s not technically grey, it’s brown. Not like old grey. I would tell everyone that their hair is grey - when I was younger - because to me it only looks like grey. If you put them next to someone with brown hair they look different. They didn’t like it when I said their hair looks grey. They said it’s brown; that baffled me. I didn’t understand why nobody acknowledged it

but yeah, in that sunlight it looked grey; a little greasy and sort of held back in a bobble.

She was absolutely balling her eyes out. Folder and papers on a desk, her face is slipping in and out of her hand, bottom lip opening and closing in the air to make way for the sound of her incessant crying.

I knew I couldn’t ignore it, but I went back to writing it down. My undereyes kept tensing, it was maybe painful. Knowing that I’m actively ignoring her while I hear her cries meshing in to the humdrum of the classroom.

I dropped my pen onto the desk; I couldn’t ignore it. I asked her what’s up?  She kept on crying. Normally I wouldn’t do this but it was a dream, I put my arm around her, let her know she’s not alone through human contact. I asked “what’s wrong? Are you okay?” (something like that) my arm resting into the light squishiness of her back, hand growing warmer on her shoulder. She couldn’t really get the words out, ‘its just’, still sobbing and hiding her face. I was telling her its ok, trying to comfort her. My chair was touching hers, I was embracing her from my side. 

So she told me something like: ‘your writing. It’s so perfect. The grammar. There’s not a single problem with your grammar, how is it so flawless. You know just what to write, you’re so smart’. My handwriting was a total mess. It was like a bomb hit the page. Like I was writing it on a bus. Just some keywords, messy underlinings and a couple of quick half-sentences. There was hardly any grammar there. I think she was referring to the Korean writing though (it’s a Korean class I go to at uni once a week). I’m a fresh beginner. I had a tiny bit of practice from home, like 2 months of here and there home studying before the course. It’s a little more familiar to me than most of the others and I’ve picked up on that. 

I don’t exactly know what she was implying, but I was embracing her to the point where it was basically 1/3 of a hug. I do think, however, she was implying she’s absolutely terrible at it and that was the reason she was crying. She must have had very low self esteem and felt more insecure and hopeless that she wasn’t picking it up that easily. Now that I think of it, she reminds a little of, my older sister, just a bit, a girl called Catherine I used to go to college with, who liked Minecraft lets plays, FNAF and was quite autistic. She struggled with studies and had super low self esteem. She could work untold wonders with a passion and uniquely shaped mind like hers though.

well, I was taken aback by that. I wasn’t sure what to say, ‘uh no it isn’t.’ ‘yours is a lot better’, I know nothing about her so I cant say that. I didnt know how to ask if thats the problem, I was thinking what to say. I couldnt use icebreaker questions and small talk because it was an awful time for it. She was devastated, I was slightly wondering if she went through something awful recently. It seems like her perception was telling her she had no use in the world.

I was looking at my book, at my desk, attention divided towards her, wondering what my next move would be. I was trying to comfort her, but failing. She was going into panic mode, gasping on her tears, she pulled out some herbal supplements from her bag. I recognized the bottle as Nature’s Best,  I thought they was 5-htp which I bought. People use them for depression and anxiety because they turn into serotonin. It was something else, the tablet was a see-through grey like cod liver oil pods but not orange. She drank it or put it into some cereal looking travel mug container idek its a blur whatever. It was a response to her attack, it seemed, anyway.

I thought great, that’s something we can bond on in order to get talking. I was like hey, I use supplements from them too. Natures Best, right? She got her red bag and said I’m sorry, wiping away her tears, she swiftly walked out of the door behind us, down the classroom. Then left, with her pinkish smoky coloured fleecy top. Walking and jogging slowly into the empty road, grey skies, damp from previous rainfall, in the industrial zone. The ones where there’s still houses and buildings to rent but the view is just of grey spiky fences and overgrown abandoned lots.

I was going to chase her, I looked at the teacher, asked if I could go. She looked frustrated said no. dont go. I decided teacher knows best and it’d be foolish not to listen to her.

looking back, I think the girl was a metaphor for my sister, or all the girls I’ve hurt. Hurt with my ignorance, with, idk just how I am. Maybe because I try so hard to look good and impress people, so I dont feel embarrassed or ashamed of myself or whatever, it works. Maybe they believe I’m actually as amazing as i try to seem and that makes them inferior. Maybe I don’t notice because im just trying to make sure I dont come off as sleazy, maybe i dont notice how they actually feel bc im just thinking of myself. I’ve also been fairly abusive to my sister as well. She was on the chubby side, kind of looked like that in school, cried a lot. I mean, I had my reasons for being that way, she was hard to live with but, if we actually need to blame anyone which we dont, my mother should have resolved the issues we all had with each other. Now, they’ve lived on into adulthood and we have to assume how to fix them ourselves.

or, when I’m asleep at that time, my baby nephew, one and a half, is always crying and crying AND SCREAMING AND SOBBING AND EXCLAIMING A CRYING SCREAM OF DREAD, ANGUISH, PAIN AND SUFFERING. It’s Hellish. I was at a friends house, sleeping in a comfy, cozy, quiet bed away from any noise. There was no babies crying but, every single morning without dread, I hear him screaming and howling like a jackal. So when I’m in that deep sleep state of mind, the pathways of my brain must now be wired to accommodate for the tormented squealing of his tire-screeching wails.

So, idk, there was crying, in my subcionscious and it was associated with my sister. Associated with idk, chubby girls with brown hair, who i probably see as struggling with mental tasks such as academia. Whether they lack the knowledge and capabalities or not, they certainly lack the mindset, the self belief and perseverance to keep trying... which in turn yields the same result as being incapable, if not to them then to their perception of self and world. . So, she was crying, and I think it’s a metaphor for both what my negative impact is on my baby nephew and thus, his mother, my sister. She walked out the door, she left our moment together because she idk, she didn’t want to experience any of that. She was hyperventilating crying and just wanted out of the situation; maybe to cry and be sad. Or to do something she realized she had to do, for herself or whatever. 

I basically saw that as her quitting the course and giving up for good instead of trying. Then, I knew I had to chase her. I was fully ready to go run out that door, go through a very emotional chat and get to the bottom of everything. Inspirational speech, help her with whatever troubles. Assure her that she’s great, reflect her good side to her. Calm down her breathing rate, crack a quick joke to remind her what laughter feels like and walk her back into class. 

Yet, the teacher was cross, sternly shook her head and briefly instructed me not to before continuing her lecturing. She knew I’d missed enough already and wasn’t going to just tell me to miss more because one student has disrupted the workflow. Rightly so, I understood and respected her judgement, yet my heart still felt for her. I kept peering out of my window, into the light glowed up in the poofiness of the lighter clouds, covering all trace of blue on the horizon.

So in conclusion, the crying girl was a metaphor for my family, all of those I need to look out for, compromise with and help move forward. The teacher instructing me to use mind over mood, discipline myself and focus on work is my ambition. My desire for a better life, the knowing that I need to sacrifice my desires, my relationships and even often my conscience for the greater good of my future. Of my ambitions, of my businesses, of my legacy, of what I’ll leave behind, for my self. Otherwise... I’ll be stuck crying with them, gawking at the more admirable traits that others have as opposed to myself. 

If I was to chase her, I’d be walking away in the same direction with her. All you can really do is hope she straightens up herself, otherwise, the other option would be doing nothing.

So, that’s what I think that is. I had that dream when I drifted back to sleep after 1pm, monday, 21st Oct 2019. It’s all I could think about all day that day. A fat girl crying. I was jaded all day. Contemplative, even when I got home, I lay in bed, i felt ill after being around pets the whole weekend, eating literally uncountable masses of junk food. I kept sighing mentally, thinking back to the girl who kept sobbing to my right, I didn’t notice she was chubby until after when I reflected. I felt responsible. Then the day after (today) I was thinking of it. 

Then, this evening, just today. I was in the classroom, late as usual. I creeped in, teacher talking about many points. Straight away my pad and pen was out, scribbling. I noticed after a while, a kinda chubby girl, brown hair (actually vibrant in colour though), colorful fleece, was to my right. She was on the corner part of the table, no more chairs to the right. She seemed completely emotionally intact, however.

I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Every note I made I felt bad. I felt guilty. I felt scared, that maybe I’d upset her. I didn’t want to dominate her subliminally. I did know a little extra stuff like conjugations that hadn’t been taught yet and I was writing those down, wondering if she’s noticed. I couldn’t handle it, I looked at her pad, I had to compliment her. It must have been a sign, a vision, that came in a dream. I even considered asking her what she was doing at that time, when the dream occurred, I considered telling her about the dream. All sorts of forward things to strike a conversation with.

In the end, at breaktime, I asked her name. Straight away told her “your writing is so neat. Oh my God. How is your handwriting so neat? That’s unbelievable, wow!”. It was actually incredibly neat by the way I’ll proclaim that right now. Especially the hangul characters, they’re unfamiliar for us pretty much. They was small, spaciously together, in correct proportions, no lines bending the wrong way. When I write them wow, one is too big, a middle vowel will take up the bottom then i sort of squash the last really big consonant underneath, overlapping to the below line. It’s all disproportionate, just a mess... and thats just the English writing. 

So yeah, I didn’t tell her any of that dream stuff or whatever. We got talking. She’s doing third year maths at the uni. Took the course to bump her credits up which improves her overall grade. So she’s been taking it very seriously, she said she went over every single word in the textbook last night. She wants to pass. She’s clearly strong willed, intellectual, all the admirable treats. Very admirable indeed. Her favorite number is 7, mainly because she’s born on a 7th day. She enjoys graph theory in maths, dropped mechanics but did pure and statistics, then told me a bunch of stuff about maths i didnt understand but im the one who inquired so it’s kind of what I get. she also knows her runescape fairly well, but we both grew ambitions in the real world which took over, it seems.

we certainly broke the ice a little bit. I probably wouldn’t have even chatted to her without that dream. I’ll get to know her more again next time. 

[poppyisnotinacult-blog]

What Is Yoga? A Guide for Beginners

Since achievement popularity in the 1970's yoga has become one UK's favourite fitness classes, with fans ranging from supermodels to rugby players. Why all the agitation closely a shred of contortion and stretching?

Fancy giving yoga a go but don't know your asana from your elbow? Simply income a deep, slow breath. That's it. Breathe right down into your tummy. And exhale. There you go - you've performed your first yoga exercise.

Of course, there's a clue more to yoga than just breathing, but you really don't poverty to be able to do much more to get started. Scrap those images of sprite-like creatures, chanting their way to higher planes, legs twisted into seemingly impossible knots. Today, yoga is practiced by tribe of shapes, sizes, fitness and springiness levels, with classes widely available in vitality cudgel and parish spaces across the country.

yoga poses for beginners for weight loss

People do yoga for a huge jumble of reasons, but some of the main benefits cited by yoga admirer include strengthening and toning the whole body, better posture, feelings of wellbeing, jumps release, and reduced risk of injury from other forms of exercise. Not injustice for an hour or so on mat. But is it for you?

"I'd recommend yoga to anyone," says Barbara Currie, one of the UK's best known yoga instructors. "I was 29 when I took my first yoga class, and I was drunk as a board," she admits, "luckily though I was really inspired by my teacher. She was in her sixties, but had the corpse of an eighteen year old."

Balancing the Body

From elite athletes to those wanting to slim down and shape up, Barbara says yoga has something to submission everyone. "Sports tend to work one side of the body more than the other," she says, "or even if you don't do sport, a enclosure of people favour one angle without realising it. Yoga helps size this out."

You power be surprised to learn that sports stars like Wayne Rooney, wrestler Evander Holyfield, and even the Welsh rugby strip regularly employment yoga moves. And soccer idler Ryan Giggs recently released an exercise video inspired by yoga.

If you're more interested in shedding pounds than implementation on the sports field, Barbara Currie says yoga still has a pen to offer. "I always encourage tribe who need to lose weight to experiment yoga," she says, "and they are usually surprised at how quickly their carcass firm up."

As you've probably noticed, there are a market few fame who'll attest to yoga's mass sculpting benefits, Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, Meg Ryan, and Geri Halliwell to name a few.

Mellowing the Mind

But it's not all roughly the physical. Many people, celebs included, turn to yoga to help them through tough times. Jennifer Aniston spoke approx how she discovered yoga when departing through her high-profile split with Brad Pitt, saying, "Yoga calms me down. It's a attitude session, a workout, and meditation all at the same time."

While Gwyneth gushes, "Yoga has completely changed me. I try to do it every day, and the stamping is amazing. It's not just during the hours that I'm practicing. It's about how it filters through into the scales of my life. It type all the other bullshit dissipate. Who I am has emerged, and nature else has gone by the wayside."

Although no one can now say for sure, Yoga is said to have originated in India around 3000 BC. Archaeologists have even found images carved in stone that resemble some of the yoga poses (asanas) still practiced today. The manifestation "yoga" essentially stipulation "union" and it's all approx conveying a holistic approach to fitness. The aims are balancing, solidification and relaxing the mass using gentle movements, stretches, and controlled breathing.

"On a deeper level, yoga is something which type us sense great," explains yoga educator Sally Lovett. "By performing and reinforcing the junction between our bodies, intention and hearts, we feel more in tune with ourselves, others and the world around us."

"Finding a Plumber"

Barbara Currie advises asking around pal and clans to discovery a good yoga class. "It's a clue like discovery a plumber," she says, "a suggestion from someone you know is value a lot. But if you don't like the first castes you go to, don't give up. Yoga teachers all have their own styles of teaching, so you durability still enjoy someone else's classes."

Yoganearby.com has a searchable database of classes, where you can even specify the day and time of castes you'd like.

If you can't get to a station or would feel more comfortable experimentation it out at abode first you'll discovery a money of books and DVDs to help you get started available to buy online.

Yoga for You

Different types of yoga are more difficult and more energetic than others, so pondering about that before picking which one to go for, but yoga educator will usually demonstrate change of the condition to suit all levels.

"Some Yoga handling can be strenuous," says Sally, "but yoga teaches ourselves to be non-competitive and respect and honour our bodies. So you work within your own capabilities and accept where you are, rather than pushing yourself."

Like Barbara, Sally says no one should be put off by a avoidance of flexibility, "Many other beginners in the station will be echoing the same concerns," she says. "Yoga evidence address compression within your body, lengthening out your muscles and improving flexibility and strength."

Taking things at your own pace is key, especially at first. "Remember that yoga is there for you, you aren't there for yoga," says Barbara Currie. "It's a time for you, so don't worry if you can't do some of the poses at first, just enjoy it, maintenance practicing, and eventually you'll be able to perfect them."