Stretching Journal (7/7/16)

Stretching Journal (Day 5) , July 08 2016

1. Touch Toes - 20 seconds / 20 reps
   Knees to Chest - 60 seconds
2. Cobra Pose - 15 seconds / 10 reps
   Child's Pose - 60 seconds
3. Bridge Pose - 30 seconds / 4 reps
   Knees to Chest - 60 seconds
4. Lying twist - 30 seconds / 6 reps (3 for each side)
   Knees to Chest - 60 seconds 

Stretching Journal (5/7/16 - 6/7/16)

Day 3, July 5th 2016

1. Touch Toes - 20 sec / 20 reps
2. Bow Pose - 20 sec / 8 reps
3. Half Twist - 10 sec / 10 reps x2
4. Side Bend - 3 sec / 10 reps x2

Day 4, July 6th 2016

1. Cat&Cow Stretch - 10 sec / 10 reps x2
2. Plow Pose - 30 sec / 4 reps
3. Fish Pose - 25 sec / 4 reps
4. Locust pose - 20 sec / 6 reps 

In those two sessions I reduced the number of exercises and increased the number of reps for some of them to compensate. My body reacted well and today I felt a slight soreness in my back again, after a long time. This proves once again that changing variables in your routine doesn't let the body to adapt to the movements, which is good. 

Stretching Journal (2/7/16)

July 2nd 2016, Saturday

1. Touch Toes - 20 seconds / 10 reps
   Knees to Chest - 30 seconds
2. Camel Pose - 20 seconds / 6 reps
   Child's pose - 40 seconds 
3. Cat and Cow Pose - 10 seconds / 6 reps each (12 reps in total)
   Child's Pose - 30 seconds
4. Side bend with hand raised up - 3 seconds / 10 reps each side (20 reps in total)
   Child's Pose - 30 seconds
5. Lying twist - 30 seconds / 3 reps per each side (6 reps in total)
   Knees to Chest - 30 seconds 

It took me about 30 minutes to finish this session. It was a good session overall. Felt my back stretching like it should.

Stretching Journal Clean Slate (1/7/16)

Because I've been lazy as hell for the past month and I didn't exercise as much as I should have, I decided to start over again from today, July 1st. Wish me luck.

1. Cat&Cow Stretch - 10 sec / 5 reps x2
2. Cobra Pose - 15 seconds / 5 reps 
3. Plow Pose - 30 seconds / 4 reps 
4. Bridge Pose - 10 sec / 5 reps
5. Half Twist - 10 sec / 5 reps x2
6. Side Bend - 3 sec / 10 reps x2  

As you can see I experiment a lot with poses, number of reps, holding seconds and sequences. I don't like to have a rigid routine, it bores me. I don't think those details matter anyway. As long as you follow the scheme presented here you should be fine, aka an equal amount of forward and back bends in every session, and don't forget about twists and side bends. Remember to breath and stretch yourself to the maximum, in the limit of safety of course. The most important thing is to maintain intensity within your sessions, don't let your body adapt, constantly push forward.