cherydactyl

Wow, is Wii Fit fun! We've been arguing about who gets to use it next. It includes a "body measurement" function that checks and tracks your weight and BMI (Body Mass Index), but it's pretty dependent on the user either weighing themselves with similar clothing load each day, or estimating how much their clothes weigh. It includes a reminder to use the measurement tools every day, which can be done without putting the Fit disc in the Wii via the installed 'Wii Fit Channel.'

I suck at the balance games much more than I thought I would. The aerobics look useful. I tried a few, and they definitely got my heart rate up. I wonder if they are all just a few minutes at a time. Hopefully as you unlock higher challenges one of the things increased is time. I have only done one strength exercise, but it seemed like the starting exercises were more advanced that I would have expected. I started out with push-ups and side plank, which was the one of first exercises available, for example. I had to do the six suggested push-ups from my knees.

I've done the first few yoga poses, and I think it will be helpful in developing my home practice regularity. I'm even thinking about the World Yoga Practice Month for January...30 minutes of yoga every day for the entire month. The apparent order of new yoga poses is a little baffling to me, as Dancer appears to be in the lineup before Up Dog. It teaches tree pose, one of the starting pose options, with the leg on the thigh, which is usually very challenging for a beginner yogi. The pose names are a little off...Sun Salutation seems really to be a half Sun Salutation according to S's report of it, and the Wii Half Moon is not Ardha Chandrasana that I am used to, which is a fairly advanced one-legged asana, but rather a simple side stretch, similar to the "blown palm" that my yoga instructor uses on occasion. I worry about anyone using the Wii Fit as their first yoga instruction, as my trainer/model's knee did a bad thing in Warrior (really Warrior II). One should never, never, never let one's knee slide to the front side; always keep it directly over the foot. Anything else could be really bad news for your knee.

The biofeedback aspect is really interesting. Using a target for center of gravity on the screen in games like the ski jump and slalom are really useful. Some yoga exercises also use a center of gravity target to measure steadiness and help focus. Interestingly, the Wii Fit BMI measurement seems to be getting S and M more aware that they are underweight and need to gain a little. I never would have expected that.

As you complete more activities and master challenges, the game unlocks extra exercises and tools. It doesn't just unlock new things in the area you are working in, but in other areas. I assume that's a deliberate attempt to get the user to change their focus and balance the activities. It really is exercise, because I'm feeling that beautiful soreness that shows I have been working out.

Yoga every day in January? You bet!

I just got back from Borders, after doing some birthday and holiday shopping. I found a very amusing book there on display: Bush Yoga.



More images at the web home if you click on the title above.

I leafed through the whole thing. It's not only accurate in the yoga discussion and tips from what I saw, it apparently uses a Dubya action figure to model all the poses. I say apparently because I'm still not 100% convinced at least some of the photos aren't enhanced. The satire is good too.

folkmew has been discussing shoes for the teaching professional in various teaching communities and her own LJ.

And now I really want some Earth Shoes

Such as the the Picnic, the Classy, or their Igloo boots:


I need some good winter boots. Hm.

Via yoga and Second Order Approximation, this is just wrong. On so many levels.

Namaste, as long as we can charge you massive interest!

In metta, we will make you feel good while you are mindlessly charging your venti soy--gotta be vegan to be enlightened, ya know--latte.

I have a ton of stuff to journal about from this past week and weekend. I participated in a 3-day intensive/teacher training with Twee, senior assistant to Shiva Rea, at my yoga studio. It was hard, it was great, it was awful, it was amazing. I am sore but not as sore as I thought I would be. I had a very interesting dream this morning. I went to a group advising session at EMU for their post-baccalaureate teacher certification program last thursday. That will all have to wait for further time, while I slog through the 150 email messages and LJ friends page and administrative stuff that needs attention and so on.

On a shorter note, I had my second OEDILF limerick approved over the weekend:

Searching archives, the bibliotist
Read papers perhaps best dismissed.
Bibliotics decoded;
His theory exploded.
"Brahms' Lullaby" wasn't by Liszt.

I just love that LJ's spell check is suggesting bloodiest, bubbliest, boldest, baldest, blitzed for bibliotist and Bobolinks, Bobolink's, Bulldogs, Bulldog's for Bibliotics. "Bobolink's"??? ::eyebrows raised:: LOL

The yoga studio I've been going too, which is very young as studios go, has applied to be approved for Yoga Alliance RYT program teacher training. While the application is pending, Sondra has a great workshop lined up for later in the winter. Twee, one of Shiva Rea's senior mentees, is coming to do a teacher training workshop February 24-26. The three-day workshop is approved for 20 contact hours for either Shiva Rea's training program or the Sun-Moon program when it's up and running. (It's also approved for contact hours for RYT continuing ed.) For the lower level certification, a 200-hour program, 180 contact hours are required. This would be a solid first chunk of required time. I signed up today.

It's good to get going!

BTW, if anybody reading this is interested, there is a discount if you sign up by February 8. (And, by "anybody" I particularly mean birdofparadox ;-) Here's a link: http://www.annarboryoga.com/twee-workshop.pdf