P90X Day 4 – Yoga

Yooooga! Oh man, anyone I know who’s done this workout before just dreads it! It’s very slow and calm and HARD! Man, holding those positions and balancing on one leg really burns your butt! But I did it!

Well… I’ll confess. I did it quickly. Tonight is the BCS Championship game so I played the first 45 minutes on 1.5 speed. So sue me! I did all of the moves, just a bit faster than normally. I did the last half at normal speed and I’m quite relaxed as a result.

I do think yoga is an important part of this program. For one thing it keeps you flexible. If you’re flexible, you’re less likely to get hurt. It felt pretty good to stretch out those muscles I’ve been hitting already this week.

But man, more abs? I’m barely over my last 1.5 ab workouts and then have to sneak another one into Yoga X? And to think I don’t have to do it again and till… oh… TOMORROW MORNING!

P90X – Day 3 – Arms and Shoulders

Well I’m not any worse for the wear since yesterday’s hammy scare. Today is one of my favorite workouts when I’m healthy. This being the first week of this cycle, I’ve taken it a bit gentler on the above-the-shoulder workouts. The physical therapist actually said no more workouts higher than the shoulder, ever, but that’s ridiculous!

From taking it easy and the extended break, my weight is just over what I started at on my first circuit last year. That’s ok. I’m not expecting any big numbers here, and my form is better than ever. I’ve realized that the good form on the exercise is much better than forcing up more weight.

Taking some prescription ibuprofen and throwing on the heating pack on that shoulder after the workout as a precautionary measure.

Tomorrow it’s going to hurt to move anything.

P90X – Day 2 – Plyometrics

First day of plyo this year! I was a pretty excited about getting that started because it’s such a great work out. A couple of times I did it in the fall, I I had started off the routine and felt like a pulled a hamstring on the first move and had to stop. Well I made sure to do all of the stretching first this time. …. and proceeded to do the same thing during the WARMUP! How old am I, anyway?

So I was a pissed. Threw a few things. Hobbled around the apartment cursing for a while, stopped the DVD and then sulked. I decided I was going to try it again, but after a good bit of stretching. Which meant I needed to eat dinner and then try after that.

I did that, ate, then sat on the floor stretching most of the night. It was about 9:30 when I gave it another shot. Veeerrry gingerly. The first few moves didn’t feel promising but I kept it up because there was no extreme pain. As the routine went on, it got a lot better, though I’m sure it will be extra sore tomorrow.

I get to go to bed nice and late tonight because there’s no way in hell I’m falling asleep right after getting my heart rate up that high.

P90X Day 1 – Let the pain begin

Here I sit trying to type this blog after just completing my first P90X workout of 2010 and drinking my WAR Recovery Drink. My hands are shaking and my abs twitch when I stand up. Boy and I going to hurt tomorrow and the next day! I’m going to really need that recovery drink and a couple of ibuprofen to be able to recovery by the time Wednesday rolls around and I have to do another strength workout.

Today was Chest and Back. I was a bit tired going in to this workout due to some excessive last minute drinking yesterday before I it was time to get back in the groove.  Overall I felt good to start. I pulled out a worksheet from last fall to get an idea of where my numbers were at that time so I can more accurately set a goal for each set.

I was NOT able to achieve many of those numbers. Taking a month or more off from strength training can really cause you to lose ground! What I lacked most was the energy for round 2. Toward the end of the first round, I began to really run down. I expected this, however. Without a healthy diet from the day before to fuel my workout, I just ran out of juice. I “bonked”, “was running on fumes”, “hit a wall”, whatever you want to call it.

I didn’t stop though, even when I got to the second set of close grip overhand pull-ups and had to use a chair to even get to #2! I pushed out 5 more with assistance from one foot on the chair. Assisted pull-ups is better than no pull-ups.

The stability of my shoulder was still a concern the entire workout. I focused on my form and made sure that I didn’t go too deep on the push-up stands. I made sure not to bang my shoulders when coming down from a pull-up, though I did feel it slip in the socket once. I’ll take some preventive ibuprofen tonight before bed.

Now… the ab workout? That’s where I’ve really slacked in the past. I’m back to where I was on day one of 2009 in that regard. All of the work I had done to get past the burn in the hip flexor so I could really work out the abs is gone. What’s going to hurt me most are those hip flexors from doing those bicycles. I was only about to do about half the ab workout.  I’m sure I could have done more, but I know how much I’m going to hurt already, and it’s on the schedule to do again in two days.  I’m going to have to ease back in to that part.

All in all, I’m happy with the workout. I dread the pain tomorrow, but I also like to feel it so I know I’m making progress.

Until next time…

P90X, Twenty Ten Style

At the start of 2009, I started doing the P90X workouts with a few co-workers. It wasn’t anything I had planned, I was just expecting to start working out more (just like everyone else in the world!). I was introduced to the P90X program just a couple of weeks before I started it. I had never seen that ads on TV or even heard of it. I figured, what the hell, it’s good to have a plan.

I successfully completed a full 90 day cycle with great success! I could see major improvements in my body by the end of the 90 days. In the past, I had a lost a great deal of weight, but never added any muscle to speak of. After this program, I could finally consider myself muscular. I wasn’t bulging with muscle, but I noticed things like the way my forearms look when picking up something and the “V” above my knees when flexing my thighs.  Score!

I didn’t precisely follow the diet, so I couldn’t claim the results as seen on TV with the rippling abs and veiny forhead. I still had my beer when I went out on weekends, I took a week off to go to Cabo, but I did my best to stay within the parameters of the program otherwise.

After a short break I attempted to start a hybrid routine including weights at the gym. Well it seems that wasn’t such a great idea. At lest it wasn’t properly implemented.

After my first day in the gym and being amazed at the size of dumbells I was grabbing for my workouts, I was unable to raise my arm past my shoulder. I had injured my rotator cuff. I got some shots and did some physical therapy but it has nagged me often since then. I’ve started a couple of P90X routines over the past year but have pulled out early due to fears of aggravating that injury again.

I’m about to start all over again. Jan 4, 2010 begins a whole new cycle of P90X. I’ve done a lot of rotator cuff exercises to hopefully avoid injury. I’ve got friends at work doing it at the same time, so that should help with motivation. I’ve started this site to track my progress and share information as I go.

This year I plan to finish what I started.