more life miscellany
Aug. 19th, 2017 03:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glass_icarus♣ I downloaded the Daily Yoga app yesterday in yet another bid to get into the habit of daily stretching, and I did actually do some yoga this morning. Also I noticed there's a whole section on yoga poses during menstruation! This seems particularly promising, as my previous attempts at home exercise have been derailed by aches and cramps before. We'll see how this goes!
♣ I started on this sweater a few days ago, which looks nice in theory but is very, very boring to execute. Super tempted to break up the hdc monotony with rows of other stitches, except for the part where I'm not sure it'll actually look good, so I probably won't. If I manage to finish it before winter here is over I will be amazed.
♣ And finally, a few notes on Atomic Blonde, before I forget everything I had to say about it! I had no strong opinions or expectations going in beyond LADY SPY HOORAY!, which it delivers, in a Jane Bond sort of way. The plot twists were a bit hard to follow, not sure if that was the execution or my being fluff-brained while watching. The violence occasionally made me flinch (I really dislike gore) but it was pretty satisfying to watch Charlize Theron take on all comers. Her relationship with the female spy was kind of adorable starting out, but its ending quite annoyed me. I saw a clip of Charlize Theron talking about LGBTQ portrayals wrt this movie and was like okay, the existence of the relationship pleases me but the TRAGIC LESBIANS trope (SO UNNECESSARY!) really pissed me off. I don't think this is the "normalization" we should be aiming for! Also why is the espionage business portrayed as so overwhelmingly male?? Surely this can't be accurate? (Not even gonna touch the lily-whiteness of it; some of the Bond movies did better there.)
♣ I started on this sweater a few days ago, which looks nice in theory but is very, very boring to execute. Super tempted to break up the hdc monotony with rows of other stitches, except for the part where I'm not sure it'll actually look good, so I probably won't. If I manage to finish it before winter here is over I will be amazed.
♣ And finally, a few notes on Atomic Blonde, before I forget everything I had to say about it! I had no strong opinions or expectations going in beyond LADY SPY HOORAY!, which it delivers, in a Jane Bond sort of way. The plot twists were a bit hard to follow, not sure if that was the execution or my being fluff-brained while watching. The violence occasionally made me flinch (I really dislike gore) but it was pretty satisfying to watch Charlize Theron take on all comers. Her relationship with the female spy was kind of adorable starting out, but its ending quite annoyed me. I saw a clip of Charlize Theron talking about LGBTQ portrayals wrt this movie and was like okay, the existence of the relationship pleases me but the TRAGIC LESBIANS trope (SO UNNECESSARY!) really pissed me off. I don't think this is the "normalization" we should be aiming for! Also why is the espionage business portrayed as so overwhelmingly male?? Surely this can't be accurate? (Not even gonna touch the lily-whiteness of it; some of the Bond movies did better there.)
no subject
Date: 2017-08-20 08:03 am (UTC)YMMV (as is always true with body stuff), but there are particular yoga poses which I've found actively helpful with menstrual cramps. Can babble about this if it'd be useful.
Plus slow yoga can just give you a nice option for a low-energy thing you can do when you're not feeling up for anything strenuous, for menstrual or other reasons.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-20 02:48 pm (UTC)All YMMV
Date: 2017-08-22 09:27 am (UTC)http://www.yogabasics.com/asana/cobra/ (links are grabbed from whatever Google will provide me with as illustrations)
Try to put the focus on getting a stretch of the front of your body rather than the back-bend aspect, if that makes any sense.
I think it just gives the muscles something else to think about rather than all locking up in death-cramp sympathy round your uterus. If you can convince them to unlock a bit (because they don't actually need to be contracting just because your uterus is): less pain.
If you counter-balance it with a forward bend like child's pose, that's good anyway but can also help with lower back ache (as can cat-cow).
Twists can also be good:
https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/half-lord-of-the-fishes-pose
Also, hip openers and quadriceps stretches -- I tend to get a lot of referred pain there, so that can help with the deep draggy aches. They tend to work well if you hold them for longer periods, so can work well with a very slowed-down, meditative approach:
Lots and lots of poses fall into this category, so these are just a few examples:
https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/bound-angle-pose
https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/wide-angle-seated-forward-bend
https://organicallywealthy.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/what-is-yin-yoga-and-why-practice-it/ (saddle pose)
Video class -- I haven't done this in a while, remember the teaching style as being a bit twee and it may have more about "moving your prana down" than works for you, but the sequence is really good:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x16lbu9
no subject
Date: 2017-08-22 02:27 am (UTC)Do tell. My latest period has lasted more than two weeks (FML!!!), and I know you're not supposed to do certain poses when you have it, so I'd be intrigued to know a) what poses I can do and b) what might help with cramps.
no subject
Date: 2017-08-25 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-08-22 05:42 am (UTC)Ouch; when you can say that with a straight face, you know the bar is really, really low!
no subject
Date: 2017-08-25 03:15 pm (UTC)