BlackChampagne -- no longer new; improvement also in question.: Ramblings on this and that.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Ramblings on this and that.
I returned from my week in Kauai last Friday, and no, I've not gotten around to blogging anything about the trip yet. It was enjoyable and quite active; lots of swimming and hiking and snorkeling and hiking and more swimming. I managed to get badly sunburned only once, when I wore a sleeveless shirt on a long hike and didn't put on any suntan lotion since the hike began with heavy clouds. I thought I was under trees almost the whole time, but somehow I had glowing red shoulders and upper arms that night.
The damage has mostly faded and peeled away since then, but I still have clear demarcations between my slightly-browned upper arms and my white chest. For the first couple of days after I returned I had a visible tan across my chest and stomach; there was a whiter line below my waistband, but that's since faded as I return to my usual cave-dwelling self.
It's hard to believe it's been almost a week since I got back; my re-immersion into website work and several hours of fiction each night was so rapid that it already feels like I never left. In a good, but also bad, way.
I've sorted through about half the hundreds of photos I took, and will post a bunch at some point. It's slow going since it was so frequently cloudy that the pics are desaturated. The intense greens and colors of the garden isle are wasted with gray skies, so on the bigger photos, such as the ones I took from atop Wiamea Canyon, I'm going through and magic wand selecting the sky, then reversing selection and adjusting the levels on the hills/trees/ground, so their colors return. A better camera would probably have captured the pretty colors in the first place, but I didn't have one, so that's neither here nor there.
On Thursday I took a break from my photo sorting to hang for a while with the IG and show off my tan lines. She's recently started taking some yoga classes, of the Birkan style, in the super-heated room. I'd read about it but never tried it before, and after a 90 minute session today I can safely say... it's fucking hot. I've probably sweated more than that at some point in my life, but I'm sure it involved a lot more exercise. Just last week in Kauai I jogged most of the 4 miles back from the Hanakapi’ai Falls to the trail head, and when I arrived I couldn't tell which foot had stepped in the river and which was just swimming in sweat. Everything in my backpack was soaked, to the point that brochures and trail maps were disintegrating, and that was all sweat. But I still think I dripped more at yoga class today.
When approaching a session of Bikram Yoga, you want to bring two towels. One to stand/sit/pose on, and another to dry off afterwards. Spare clothing is, of course, also essential. I took a big beach towel to stand on in class, put it into a plastic bag afterwards and brought it home, and several hours later when I pulled it out to hang it up, there were literally puddles of water in the bag. The towel wasn't wet, it was actually dripping. I'm talking "just out of the washing machine" wet. Actually, wetter than that, since washing machines do a spin cycle and wring out most of the water.
I don't know if that's a warning or an enticement, but just be aware that you will sweat like you have (probably) never sweated before, even while your physical activity isn't stressful enough to do more than slightly elevate your heart rate. I never felt like mine was beating hard, but I work out almost daily, so it takes a lot for me to feel my pulse maxing out. I wasn't short of breath, but I did feel like I was on the verge of passing out a few times, after holding various poses for the full 30 or 45 seconds of stress. From the heat, not the stress of the movements, which weren't very stressful at all.
My surprise from it was where I was tight. I hardly felt any stretching in my legs, which is what other people were usually clutching, and what the IG said she was getting pulled in. I would have, but I could never bend far enough to get to my legs, since my back/shoulders/neck always drew tight first. I assume all the weight lifting I do is to blame, along with my generally non-flexible body, but it was surprising how much it kicked in. I stretch my legs and hips all the time at the gym, but I do most of it with my back straight and head up. Most of the Bikram yoga stuff had me bending over and curving my back, with arms extended upwards, and that's where I was getting tight.
It was funny, the most basic movement, one you do first and then repeatedly through the class, is a pose with your arms straight overhead and your palms clasped together. You hold that in the middle, stretch to the sides, as that hideously contorted man is demonstrating. That pose is returned to frequently throughout class, as a sort of bridging movement between the other 25 poses.
That was literally the hardest thing for me to do in the entire class. Well no, it wasn't hard. I just couldn't do it. My shoulders won't go up that way, the right one especially. I can hold my arms over my head, but straight up is really an effort; I have to strain and it's a painful, tiring stretch for my shoulders. I simply can not do it as demonstrated, since it's impossible for me to touch both my upper arms to my ears at the same time. It was funny, since that's not even supposed to be a stretch. It's just how you hold your arms while doing the back/side stretch. Those I could do fine, I just couldn't keep my arms straight overhead while doing it. Shooting pains down the top of my right shoulder and the outside of the arm.
So everyone else is effortlessly holding their arms like that and doing the stretches, and I've got my arms at this diagonal angle, the elbows bent and sagging near my ears, and I'm killing myself to get to that point. There was another one, demonstrated by the hottie in this video, that was even worse. Laughably impossible for me. I'd need a scalpel to get my palms flat down on the mat in this pose. The fact that I strained my left wrist on some rocks in heavy surf at Kauai didn't help, but there's just no way my shoulders will turn as required. I couldn't even sort of approximate that pose.
You know all those jokes about body builders who can't reach up, or wipe their own asses? Um... yeah.
Amusing difficulties aside, the class was pretty good. I felt totally wiped out afterward; hardly able to walk, stomach rumbling hungry, and I just thanked Dog that it was cool outside, since the chill was all that kept me moving for the block and a half to my car. Half an hour later, once I'd cooled down and bought a big bag of frozen rats for Snaker noms, I felt like I was pretty much back to normal. And then I got to the IG's apt and almost couldn't make it up two flights of stairs. After a shower and a decent pasta dinner I was okay, though. Eight hours later I feel fine; less tired than I would half a day after one of my usual workouts. I think it's mostly the heat that makes it such an ordeal; 90 degrees wouldn't be so bad, but 105 is just crazy. Humans aren't meant to exist in such temperatures -- this one certainly isn't. I'm uncomfortable over 80, in most situations. 105 with high humidity and BO stinks is rough.
If I go again, and I probably will, in part since the IG really enjoys it and wants me to go with her, I might smear some vapo-rub on my nose, like Clarice during the autopsy. The sodden floor of that place was just rank with body aromas, even through my own towel and yoga mat. The heat steams them out, and that on top of the temperature was what had me woozy a few times.
There are tons of Bikram yoga videos and guides online; check out youtube for some videos of the sweating that goes on. And yes, everyone in class was dressed like that. Most of them you'd rather they had more clothing on, since there were hairy backs and poking little penises and saggy spare tires (on both genders) on display, but the guys were all in just shorts and most of the women in spandex pants and a sports bra or a bikini top. Way, way, way too hot to think anything that sexy, but a couple of the women were fairly attractive, in the class I attended.
I blogged about recent albums to my liking while in Hawaii, but I saw this link tonight and wanted to pass it on. One of the better songs on the very good Green Day album, and transcendentally-clear sound quality for a live show. I like the opening minute, with just the guitar and the banging drums, while Billie Joe monologues. Such a simple, punk-style riff and percussion, but perhaps all the more effective because of it?
Finally, the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law sounds great on paper. I'm not sure about this trailer though. I like the look of the characters and sets, but is this Sherlock Holmes in the Matrix, or what? He doesn't need to be entirely erudite, sitting around smoking that big ass pipe; I'm fine with some comedy and action too. But in theory he's a brilliant detective, not Charlie's Angel: London 1843. He solves things with his brain and wits, with a dash of action. Not vice versa?
