What was your first workout of the year?

On Christmas eve, I found myself walking along the gravelled path of Mt Amos, in the Eastern Coast of Tasmania.  It had been my dream to see the curving shoreline of Wineglass Bay ever since I spotted it on Pinterest.  The only way to the lookout is to walk uphill to the vantage point. The track is short but fairly steep and continuously uphill. My heart was racing within 10 minutes and I could feel my limbs slowly getting tired. After numerous water breaks, I made it to the top and was rewarded with fabulous and unique views of the bay. I went on to do 2 more hikes later in the same week.

But it made me realize how much I had been neglecting my cardio workouts.  The past few months I was solely dedicated to increase my flexibility, so that I could reach my goal of doing splits. But in the process,  I hadn’t been concentrating on other parts of the body.

So the first fitness goal this year would be to concentrate on a balanced practice. Keep all the systems running and well oiled. 

yoga fitness goals

Among other things, I spent the first day of the year doing a 2 hour full body workout, which included repetition of Suryanamaskar, plank variations, pushups and yoga inverions. I was hitting the mat after 2 weeks of no workout . That day,  I could hear my limbs creak with every low lunge.

yoga inversion forearm stand
Forearm stand or Pincha Mayurasana

Handstands took way more jumps than before. This is what happens when you are out of practice even for a fortnight.  So this year I plan to be more consistent with my practice and take less gaps between workout days. 

yoga inversion forearm stand

The past week, I had been working on my backbends too – doing more floating camel (👇), camel, and a half dropback wheel. I really want to improve my wheel pose.  And so adding it to my list of yoga/ fitness goals.

I was soaking in sweat by the time I started doing inversions. More so because of the scorching Sydney summer.  Thankfully I got gloves with rubber spikes as my palms become extremely sweaty, which in turn affects balancing yoga inversions.

yoga inversion handstand

My husband often tells me that you don’t have to do too many ‘almost’ push ups.  Just do one, and do it properly. The one he taught me includes lowering your body till the chest touches the floor and then rising up, without losing the alignment. Frankly,  I can do exactly 1 of that. So this year,  I would like to increase that number. 😀

My last year yoga goals were to improve both my strength and flexibility. There were a few hits and misses. I can almost do a split but my backbends are the same. I improved my forearm stand, can do a fallen angel and side crow now,  but no improvement in handstands. There’s always this tussle between mind and the body.  Mind says ‘go go go’,  body is like ‘not yet bro’. 😂

Hopefully, this year I will see more improvements.

Tell me all about your goals and workouts in the comment section. I would love to read about them. 😀

Fitness goals

Stay strong and humble.

 

 

Related Post: 7 Fitness Tips to stay motivated

29 thoughts on “What was your first workout of the year?

  1. Hikes are hard but look at you. You are such an inspiration when it comes to workouts. Keep up the good work in 2018 too.

    So something funny happened on the night of 31st December and I guess that’s a part of growing old. VT and I were at a friend’s place to ring in the New Year and at exactly 11:30pm, we decided to push off. Yes, everyone was shocked. We reached home at around 12:10 and actually brought in Jan 1 in the car. Then we slept and I woke up early to hit to Yoga class. Loved doing an hour of good workout on day 1 of the year. Year has been going well so far and this year, I am working on my body’s strength. I am seeing that if I focus on that and continue with Yoga, may be I can work on being better at Yoga 🙂

  2. I like your updates about your treks. They really make me want to take up trekking in the near future. Your workouts are fab, as always. I hate running/walking on the treadmill for cardio. I do it by other means. I am yet to start my workouts in 2018 since the last 2 weeks saw me falling a little uneasy first and then D went down with viral fever. I shall be resuming from tomorrow by all means.

    1. Cardio is such a pain… Makes me cry 😅 I am thinking of following some youtube tutorials to get started 😀
      You and Druv would love trekking…do get started.
      Thank you so much for stopping by.

  3. You’re simply unstoppable, Raj! I admire your dedication. I’m not much into working out other than brisk walking for 30 mins every morning for six days a week. But I’ve been unable to keep up with it due to my health issues. I intend to get back to it once it’s warmer. It’s challenging to pull myself out of my cozy rug in winters! 😉

    1. I hope you are back to your healthy self. Being sick is auch a damper. Glad you have a routine going on 😊thank you so much for your kind comments.

    1. Ohhh squah needs so much stamina. The one time I tried playing I almost died 😅 wish you good luck. Keep going 😀

  4. Love the photos! I’ve been practicing yoga for a few years now, and I really want to go even deeper into my practice in 2018. I started the New Year with a 30-day yoga challenge where I do about 20-30 minutes of yoga each morning. I’ve been doing Yoga With Tim’s Yoga Challenge on YouTube, and I absolutely love him as an instructor.

    1. That’s a great way yo start the new year. I will also check out the challenge. I wish you good luck. Thank you so much for commenting.

  5. I just wish I could do half what you do! You are amazing. After 3 days of 30 minutes home routine, I slumped today. Truly, consistency is the key. And you my dear, are such an inspiration! xx

    1. It’s ok… I too slump once in a while. I blame hormones… I blame hormones for everything… Even eating pizza 😋
      I am sure you will be on your track and be as awesome as ever 😀

  6. Loved the view- why is it called Wineglass?
    You are amazing with your workouts Woman- stop putting yourself down !! I cant even manage 1/10 th of this and dont think will do so in this lifetime atleast!
    Way to go with your fitness goals and I look forward to seeing more your amazing posts

    1. I am gonna post a picture soon. You will know why 😀
      Hehehe thank you so much for your encouraging words… Hopefully I will be able to reach these goals 😀

  7. My first workout of the year was saying “No” to the 7th bottle of beer at the new years party!

    I haven’t set workout goals for myself, but I do want to lose a considerable amount of weight this year. While I’m focusing more on eating clean and healthy, I do some basic workouts at home.

    Now that I think of it, maybe I should set those goals and workout towards them 😀

    1. Hahaha 7 th bottle! 😅 that sounds fun.
      Love that you are concentrating on clean eating. It plays such an important role in maintaining weight loss goals. I wish you good luck. Stay strong and fabulous 😀

  8. ha ha ha you dont want to know mine 🙂 we were on a Pub crawl so yes we were walking and walking but to each pub on the street 🙂 🙂 🙂 …

    but salute you .. I need to get back to a routine , I have goals yes a LOT of them but will i get there Now that is a big big Question…

    Bikram’s

    1. Hahaha that sounds so much fun. Better than what I did… Cleaning and scrubbing the house 😅
      So good to see you here on my blog. Thank you. Wish you a very happy new year.

  9. I salute you Raj! Your flexibility and core strength are amazing. I’m not a fan of cardio but I’ll do a bit of it. I love my weights and my first work out for the year was focussed on lower body and chest. I do like your goals and I find goals like these are so much better than losing weight goals. I recently was able to do 22 toe push ups and was so excited as I’ve never crossed the 20 mark. They are frigging hard though!

    1. Thank you so much Sanch. I hate cardio too. My lungs hate them for sure. 22! Wow. If I could even do 10 without crying, it would be an achievement. Yes, rather than fix on weight loss goals I want to be strong 😊👊 good luck on your goals too.

  10. Your fitness goals are WAYYYY ahead of mine 😀 Before I turn 40 in April, I want to be able to walk without feeling breathless after an hour. I want to be able to swim at least 10 laps a day (provided my pool starts working before that) and I want to be able to start and stick to strength training. Let’s see how it goes.

    And you PLEASE continue to do all this and remain awesome, okay? 🙂

    1. So glad to know you are continuing your swimming. Mine just went downhill. Good luck on your strength training. You are going to be a kickass 40 year old 😀😀

  11. My first workout of the year was a brisk walk/run. Since I’ve mostly been sick with a bad cough and cold, I haven’t been working out much in this week. Am waiting to get completely fit. I do agree that we need a balanced regimen. For me that is a combination of cardio (walk/run) and strength training (muscle work). I do falter in maintaining the balance but overall I seem to be doing okay. I don’t do much Yoga which I miss. Somehow, can’t squeeze time for it. Would love to though.

    1. Ohh no… hope you feel better soon. I love your plan, plus your healthy food recipes are such an inspiration 😀 you are going strong on both the front – exercise and diet.

  12. Ahh …to be honest with you, Rajlakshmi, I have no workout goals. I know I blame it on the lack of time but I guess even if there were 48 hours in a day, I would not workout because I am so lazy. But you keep rocking, girl and keep inspiring people to do the same!

    1. Hehehe I don’t believe that you are lazy. You got a little munchkin to keep you on toes 😊 thank you so much… I love having you here on my space 😊

Leave a Reply