Monday

Yoga for swimmers

If you have ever watched a good swimmer, one of the first things you might notice is their ease and grace. Their movements are smooth, balanced, and fluid; it looks as if they are exerting very little effort, while those around them struggle to keep pace. The reason for this is not that they are naturally gifted and do not have to try; they are working as hard or harder than everyone else in the race is. The reason their swimming appears to be so easy stems from coordination of muscle, breathing, and body, letting them focus their energy in the right places instead of expending it unnecessarily.

Breathing is an important part of Yoga - and swimming - Everyone knows that breathing is important. Without it we would die! Focusing on breathing gave me something to think about other than the pain that I might be experiencing. It also helps me get more oxygen, which in turn helps my struggling muscles. The same thing happens in the water. By picking a breathing pattern, and sticking with it, I can use all of my lungs, and focus on something other than the strain of the race or practice. I have found that with this comes a calmness that helps hold my stroke together longer - and results in improved times.

Arms can be strong - but your belly is stronger - Maintaining tension through the core muscles of your body can help take some of the stress off the little muscles that you are using. The same applies to swimming. One of the reasons that some people get more distance for every stroke is because they are not using just their biceps, triceps, and hands to move themselves through the water. They have connected the various muscles in their arms to their core body muscles and are using these much stronger muscles to do a lot of the work. Lat and oblique muscles are bigger and stronger than deltoids, biceps, and triceps - and can maintain your pace during a race for a lot longer than arms alone.

Yoga develops your sense of balance - both on land and in water - Balance can help you get through just about anything. In Yoga, balance is important for holding various positions. Similarly, your balance in the water can help you be more streamlined. By pushing your chest (or your back for backstroke) down, you can get your hips to ride much higher in the water. This reduces how much of your body is dragging through the water. You can pull with less effort to go the same speed. However, you have to hold your core muscles tight, otherwise you are just burying your head, causing more drag.

Flexibility is good for swimming - and Yoga makes it better - Finally, yoga helps with flexibility. Yoga involves a lot of stretching. The extra flexibility developed through practicing yoga applies directly to swimming. The more flexible your shoulders, arms, legs, hips, and feet are, the easier you will be able to kick, recover your arms, and execute a proper hand entry. Your body parts will move more smoothly and require less effort in the process.

I believe Yoga has made me a much better swimmer. I hope you can add it to your workout regimen and develop a smooth, effortless stroke, too. At least it will look effortless to those that do not know the secrets of Yoga!

XOXO
Selina Price

Monday

Currently listening to Fryderyk Chopin's Raindrop Prelude while it's raining outside on this cold, drab Monday morning. Apparently, after having 80 degree weather, the piedmont triad should be expecting snow!? North Carolina continues to impress me. I've lived in this state more than five years now and the weather is STILL unpredictable. Quite frankly, one can claim it's predictable for NC to BE unpredictable.

I woke up freezing this morning with layers of clothes underneath my big fluffy comforter. The heat hasn't been working in the dorms and the hot water is still MIA in my shower. I've felt like a homeless person toting my shower bag around in search of hot H2O. LOVE college and all of it's experiences.

I managed to roll out of bed, after twenty min of just laying down staring around the room!:] I decided to start my yoga practice today right away. I've recently accumulated a couple of online yoga sessions through "yoga download." I tried the solar flow this morning and loved it! The flow was a normal sun salutation, however, the use of the Eagle pose, or "Garudasana" was used. I had some trouble finding my balance so early in the morning. The solar flow was roughly around twenty minutes of practice.

I discovered yoga download last Tuesday when I was searching through some other health and well being blogs. It was a perfect find for the homework for Wednesday! My yoga instructor informed us that class would not meet in the movement lab but we should preform yoga on our own for an hour and a half that day, regardless. Four yoga downloads later, I think I completed the task to the best of my abilities. I incorporated three minutes of a shoulder stand to my time spent on the mat. The shoulder stand is an inverted pose and is probably my favorite asanas yoga pose.

Inverted asanas reverse the action of gravity on the body; instead of everything being pulled towards the feet, the orientation shifts towards the head. Similarly, on the emotional and psychic levels, inverted asanas turn everything upside down, throwing a new light on old patterns of behavior and being. I personally find these practices improve health, reduce anxiety and stress and increase self-confidence. They also increase mental power, concentration and stimulate the chakras.

The weather, being so cold and gray, had me craving comfort foods. The school cafeteria had a variety of fried foods and foods containing a lot of salt. I avoided my temptation to indulge in fried chicken with a side of mashed potatoes, or a bowl of chili topped with shredded cheese. Instead, I opted for a bowl of oatmeal with a spoonful of peanut butter and sliced of bananas. Washed down with a cup of coffee. YUM!!

After class I have plans to go to the pool for an easy 1600 yards with my friend Taylor!

XOXO
Selina Price

Sunday

While most college student my age are recovering from the night before, I got up at 9 am this morning to a COLD shower. (Thanks GC, for not having hot water for 2 weeks now) Me and my best friend Lauren, and her boyfriend Cory, went to church. I have to clarify: I'm not religious but it's been nice going to a non denominational church to just sit and listen. At the root of everything, it's comforting to grasp some sense of faith or hope. The foundation of today's service was about "peacemaking". There are three steps to dealing with conflict:
(A) Overlook the issue
(B) Talk it out
(C) Get Help
One thing not mentioned is the willingness to swallow ones pride and realize a conflict can be dealt with if one party surrenders their rights for a solution. Herein lies my issue, I'm terribly egotistical and I have a tendency to runaway verses confrontation :p I realize, however, it is easier to just let some things pass without blowing up every little issue. Not everything has to be confronted. Whether it's in a relationship, or at work, or even in class. Overlooking the issue is a characteristic that should be instilled in many individuals.

Talking out a conflict is never easy. I struggle to find the words that can adequately form the sentences of my opinion. Personally, I find that daily yoga and swim practices help connect my mind, body, and soul, which pushes me to an equilibrium of thought:] ( Plus, Girl talks are always a win)

During Wednesdays yoga session, my yoga professor lead us through a series of sun salutations and then finally had us preform shoulder stands. Everyone in the class was particularly giggly and talkative, which was awesome, the whole environment was chill. As "homework" we are to preform shoulder stands in our daily practices as well as a ten minute meditation. One minute of meditation literally feels like an hour. To avoid looking at the clock every thirty seconds I set an alarm on my phone.

I quit my job at Jimmy John's, that terrible corporate monopoly. (Subway fan foreva!) I replaced my working position as a hostess at M'Coul's, an Irish pub and restaurant in downtown Greensboro. I absolutely LOVE it there. The Staff is great and the environment is always fun.

There is an adorable outside patio both downstairs and upstairs, as well as two inside bars. (One downstairs and upstairs) The building is rustic, which just adds to the charm. My first day of work was a twelve hour shift on St. Patrick's Day. Yes, it was hiatus ALL day. I like to view it as a crash course in training.

XOXO
Selinaaa

Tuesday

During the spring semester, I enrolled in a yoga class that requires me to preform at least fifteen minutes of yoga daily, with the addition of journaling my daily experience in said task. Quite frankly, I find this requirement kind of daunting. To make it more enjoyable for myself, I've decided to blog about my yoga journey:] Of course, I'll have the occasional addition of an outside topic but it'll keep things interesting for me. Writing from ink on paper of what yoga poses I preformed was really boring. So I present to my audience, my health and well being blog! :]

Let's hop to it. After sprinting 1600 yards at swim practice I went to a yogalates class offered in the Reynolds Centers' movement lab. The instructor lead us through a sun salutation with the addition of pilates moves. FEEL THE BURNNN.
Every morning, once out of bed, I've been going through a short series of stretches I learned from my Wednesday Yoga class. My favorites are the "paschimotaanaasana" (forward bending pose) and the "Arddha arda" (Spinall twist pose)

In addition to being a full time student, and part time sandwich maker at Jimmy Johns:p I'm a competitive swimmer for my college. I swim events such as the fifty yard, one hundred yard, and five hundred yard freestyle. I recently competed in the ODAC/ Atlantic States conference with the rest of the swim team girls! The entire weekend consisted of Eat, Swim, Sleep, Repeat. Every swimmer on the team dropped time! My coach, Scot Budde won swimmer of the year and one of GC very own swimmers won swimmer of the year!

From left to right: Sarah, Danni, Sam, ME!, and Lauren:]

I am currently on an off season with swimming. My practices have been cut from doing roughly around 3000 yards a day to 1600 yards. Yesterday's practice consisted of;
500 yard warm up (Freestyle)
8x 50 yards: 25 Freestyle drill, 25 Easy swim
6X 100 Yards: on the two minute. My fastest sprint was a 1: 15:[
(During conference I preformed a 100 yard freestyle in 1:04)

I'm excited to be training now for next year's season. I literally have no clue what I'm capable of!

XOXO
Selinaaa