P90X - Day19 - Improving!

Today was a good day!  I skipped Yoga and went to legs and back instead.  (I'm gonna do yoga tomorrow.)  I felt great during the workout though.  I felt like I improved a little bit on almost every exercise.  

I'm starting to wonder if I'm actually going to finish the whole program though.  Now that the weather is getting nicer I might just start running instead.  I wouldn't mind doing both at the same time, but I don't think I have time for that.  Maybe I'll alternate days or something.  That would be good in a cross-training perspective.  It might cut down on some of the over-use injuries.  

Next week is the recovery week.  My goal is to recover :)

P90X - Day 18 - Pre-workout workout

We recently received a new-to-us washer and dryer that are newer than what we're currently using.  They've been sitting in the garage for a couple weeks now while I procrastinated hauling them down to the basement and hauling the older ones up to the garage.  Today was the day.  I felt ambitious so I got out the two-wheeled dolly and went to work.  After a couple hours of shuffling around large appliances it was time for my real workout.

I did arms and shoulders today.  It was a good workout.  I'm starting to get the correct resistance and reps figured out for each of the lifts.  I bumped up the resistance tonight because the past two weeks my reps were too high.  My shoulders will thank me later.

Oh yeah, and I just figured out that this is really P91X.  7 days a week times 13 weeks equals 91, correct?  WTF?

P90X - Day 14 - Feelin' Good

Second day of Kenpo today.  I am feeling good!  I don't know if it's the Kenpo, or the workouts leading up to today, but I seem to have a lot of energy on Kenpo days.  I think after the 90 days of this is done I'll continue to do some fighting style workouts.  I've read a little about Krav Maga Tai Chi Karate Muay Tai, etc, etc.  I haven't picked one to pursue yet, but I think I'm going to look into it a little more.  I studied Karate when I was younger, but haven't touched it in years.

Goals:  I haven't been able to come up with a goal for this workout.  Maybe i'll look into some other fighting techniques and come up with my own workout in phase two.  I also thought about buying a heavy bag to use with this workout  I think I would get a better workout if I had something to hit.

P90X - Day 13 - Wow.

This must just be one of those workouts that really gets to me.  Today was the second time doing legs and back.  Last week I hit a wall halfway through and this week I started running out of gas again.  I did make it all the way through the workout today and only paused the video once.  I felt pretty good about that.  I wasn't able to do all of the wall sits that I was supposed to though.  Man, those things kill me.  Also, I remember being much better at pull-ups that I'm showing through this P90X video.  I guess it's been a while since I did many pull-ups.

The feeling that I get from this workout is different from the others.  Most of the others give me muscle soreness and wear me out.  This one makes me feel like I just have no energy left.

It's late and I just finished this workout.  I'm drinking my protein and water, but I feel like I should eat something too.  I already brushed my teeth and I'm feeling too lazy to go get something though.  Ugh.  Hopefully I'm not more tired tomorrow because I didn't eat anything after this workout.

Goals:  Next week I want to do at least as many pull-ups as today, and get through at least 3/4 of the single-leg wall sits without standing up.

P90X - Day 12 - Yoga for - ev - er

My wife joined me for yoga today.  It's always fun to have someone to work out with.  That part was great today.  It makes the workout more enjoyable when you can talk to someone instead of focusing on the pain that you're putting yourself through.

The part of the workout that I didn't enjoy today was that this yoga workout goes on forever.  I think it's an hour and a half long. Ugh!  I think I could handle an hour and a half, but there is a bunch of stuff mixed in, that just doesn't seem like it's doing a whole lot for me.  I just had an idea.  I think I might take the video and edit out all of the stuff that I don't think is worth while.  I could condense it down to one hour.  I would get my workout done faster and only do the exercises that I feel like are helping me out.  I love this idea!  (I literally came up with this as I was typing.)

Goal for next week:  Edit out all the crap that I don't want to do in the yoga video.

P90X - Day 11 - (not) Feeling the crunch

I was supposed to to arms and shoulders as well as Ab Ripper X today.  I also needed to do some homework and put in a full day of work as well.  I decided that I didn't have time to to Ab Ripper.  I really am going to start doing Ab Ripper in the mornings on the days that it is part of my workout.  That should make me feel like my workout isn't taking up as much time as it really is.

Day 11 I upped the weight / resistance from what I used last week.  That in itself made me feel good.  For some of the exercises today it's kind of a pain in the arse to use the bands as opposed to free weights.  I wish I had the money to throw at some nice adjustable weights like these SelectTech weights.  They've been on my wish list for a long time, but I keep deciding that frivolous things like food and car payments are more important.  ;)

P90X - Day 10 - non rest day

Since I move my rest day to Wednesday today was "rest".  I didn't really feel like it was a rest day.  I had class today so I was busy from 6AM till 9PM.  Ugh.  In the past few days I haven't followed my diet perfectly.  Most notable was the pizza night.  In general I feel like I am eating healthier though.

P90X - Day 9 - Dig deep

I did plyo again today.  I'm getting used to pushing myself harder again.  I feel like I can fight through the pain better and better.   Last week I didn't squat as low or complete the entire set of each exercise.  Today I felt like I was able to maintain my form much better.  I'm enjoying this feeling now, because I'm guessing that I will crash at some point and wish I felt like this.

P90X - Day 8 - Here we go again

Day 8 was the start of week 2, the second week of a 4 week first phase.  Three of those weeks are the same and then the forth week is a recovery week.

Chest and back.
Day 8 went pretty well.  I used the chair more for pull-ups, but was able to do more reps because of that.  I think it was a good decision.  I'll continue to use the chair until I can get the same amount of reps without it.  The push-ups always make me feel like I had a good workout.  We do standard, wide and close push-ups which makes my whole chest sore.  Its a great feeling!

I'm still eating whey protein every day after my workouts and mixing it with water and gatorade endurance powder.

P90X - Day 7 - Thems fightin' words

Day seven was Kenpo, a fighting style workout.  It was great.  I felt awesome after my rest day.  I convinced my wife to join me as well.  She liked the "Kung pow" too.  ;)  I was skeptical that this would be much more than a cardio workout, but by the end I could tell that it was helping with some strength training as well.  I definitely didn't feel sore the next day though.  Maybe if I used a heavy bag I would have felt the burn a little more.

This week I start up night classes again.  I'll switch my day off to Wednesday instead.

P90X - Day6 - REST!

I cheated a little.  According to the P90X calendar day 6 was supposed to be Kenpo (an aerobic, fighting-style workout), but instead I took a the rest day that was slated for day 7.  I did this for a couple reasons.  Reason 1:  Day 5 didn't go so well for me.  I was running out of juice and thought a rest day would help.
Reason 2:  I had a friend call me up and ask if I wanted to go out and shoot a couple games of pool with him.  If day 5 hadn't been an under-par performance then reason 2 wouldn't have stopped me from working out on day 6, but the between the two reasons it seemed like the stars were aligning.
If still pretty excited about Kenpo though.  I've never done it before, but it should be a good change of pace.

P90X - Day 5 - Hit the wall

Today was rough.  I felt like I just didn't have the energy to finish the workouts.  The first workout targeted legs and back muscles.  There were a ton of pull-ups (wide, shoulder-width, and close grip) and many different leg exercises.  The workouts really got a good burn going in my legs.

Today's workout could have been good, but about 1/3 or 1/2 of the way through I really hit a wall.  I completely ran out of energy.  I got light-headed and had to stop for a little break.  A lot of things ran through my head.  Maybe I jumped in to this too fast.  Maybe I need to eat more.  Maybe I should workout in the mornings.  I sucked it up and finished... for good or bad.

This was also the second day that I had to do the ab ripper workout.  They really cruise right through the ab exercises.  I hardly had time to finish one exercise before they were starting a new one, ugh!  It was especially hard since I was already on empty from the first workout.  It's only 15 minutes though, so I fought through it.

I weighed myself for the first time since I started this program.  It's only been 5 days and I've already lost 3 pounds.  I need to watch that closely, because my goal isn't to lose weight.  That could definitely have something to do with my energy levels.  Right now I'm 5'10" 154lbs.  I'd like to stay right around there from now on, so I'm going to start eating more.  My racing weight is a little under 150, but I'm sure I'll naturally drop down to that when I'm done with P90 and start running more.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's Kenpo workout... same bat time; same bat station.

P90X - Day 4 - Yoga rest day?

Day four was yoga.  Finally a day to relax a little and recover.  I know my wife used to do yoga a lot so I asked if she wanted to join me.  She agreed to do half of it since she wanted to get some other things done tonight.  I called her a weenie and then we started.  Last week I told her that P90X was 7 days a week of workouts.  I hadn't looked at the schedule closely there is actually a yoga day and a rest/stretch day.  During the beginning of yoga I looked over and told her that I was wrong about not having rest days.  I said "There is actually a yoga day and a rest or stretch day."  She replied with "So you're counting yoga as a rest day?"  I kind of shrugged and forgot about it.

As it turns out yoga isn't a rest day.  Holy crap some of that stuff is brutal!  It's not all stretching.  A lot of it was balancing and holding poses that made muscles burn that I didn't know I had.  The middle third was probably the hardest with some "warrior" poses and some interesting balancing poses.  The last third was a little easier, but it definitely had some difficult poses as well.  The last third had the most ab workout.  ugh. I couldn't hold those poses as long as I was supposed to.  Again, I guess that gives me something to work for.

I took another dose of whey protein mixed with some Gatorade tonight.  I feel like my muscles have been recovering faster since I upped my protein intake.  I'm pretty excited about that.  When recovery is slow workouts are harder and you have to take more days off.  I honestly thought that I would have to take every third day off during the first couple weeks of this program but so far I've been able to go hard every day.  (knock on wood)

Looking forward to tomorrow:  Legs & Back and Abs!

P90X - Day 3 - How much protein is too much?

Day three was great!  I'm still feeling pretty sore from the last two days, but today went great.  I felt stiff and it was hard to move at first, but a few minutes in I loosened up and got into it.  We were working on arms and shoulders today.  There were a lot of flys, curls, and tricep extensions; many variations though, of course.  I made it through the entire shoulder and arm workout.  According to the schedule I was supposed to do the ab workout after that.  I decided not to do the ab workout today since my hip flexors are still really stiff and sore.  I think it's on the schedule again in two days and I plan to go ahead with it then.

Today I finally received the supplements that I ordered online.  I order Clif Builder's protein bars, Accelerade recovery drink and a 5lbs tub of whey protein.  What I found out when it was delivered in that a 5lbs tub of  powder whey protein looks a LOT smaller in the picture online.  LOL!  I couldn't believe it when I unpacked it.  I think I over-did it.  Oh, well it should last me through the whole program :)

P90X - Day 2 - Jump around

Day two is done.  I had plyometrics today.  It really got my heart going and had me out of breath, but overall I felt good during the workout today.  I almost skipped today's workout since my hip flexors hurt so bad today.  I'm glad that I decided to go for it.  We'll see how I feel about the decision tomorrow though. 

Again, I ate before the workout.  I didn't eat much though.  I got home late today and my son was a handful for my wife today so I helped her out by making dinner.  Take pizza from freezer, insert into oven.  I know, I know I really shouldn't be eating pizza during this whole thing, but I only ate a couple pieces.  I then gave my son a bottle and put him to bed.  That gave me some digestion time.  I had my wife take the "before" pictures too.  I gotta make sure this whole thing was worth it, right?  ;)

The plyo went much better than the chest and back.  That being said, I still took much longer breaks than Tony and his crew.  Even then guy with one leg took shorter breaks!  Oh well; it gives me something to work up to.

P90X - Day 1 - The reason for torturing myself

A little background:
My wife and I are both fans of pretty much all endurance sports.  In 2009 we completed Ironman Wisconsin.  Since then I have slacked off on my training, so I decided that I need a new goal.  The best  goal that I could come up with is to run the 2012 Boston Marathon.  This is a goal that is on my bucket list, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to cross it off.

Living in the freezing cold climate of Wisconsin during the winter makes it hard to motivate myself to get outside.  As a way to kick off my Boston training without having to freeze my nose off I decided to try out P90X.  As a former collegiate athlete, I feel like a tool even saying that I'm considering a workout program on DVD and advertised on infomercials.  Therefore, I will not be revealing my real name.   jk ;)

I've been planning the start of this program for a few weeks now.  There's a lot that goes into Tony Horton's program. They have a whole diet to follow that includes energy bars, protein supplements, and a lot of healthy eating.  Also required are some workout accessories.  I had to scrounge up a pull-up bar, resistance bands, a chair, and a yoga mat.  They also recommend push-up stands, but I opted to hold off on those.  (Maybe I'll make some from PVC pipe if I decide I need them.)

The plan was to start the program tomorrow when all of the supplements and energy bars will be delivered.  (I got 'em online).  Instead, when I woke up early this morning I thought it would be a good idea to just jump right in.  This decision wasn't made until after I chowed down a quite large energy bar that I got from a friend.  This wasn't the greatest decision that I've ever made.  The workout started out great.  The problem came about halfway through when I thought the energy bar that I had eaten earlier might come back up.  Ugh.  It was a struggle to keep it down as I finished.

Like I was saying, the first half of the workout went well.  I was able to complete all of my reps.  Then Tony started over doing all of the exercises over again.  I thought I might die.  He does worn everyone in he beginning of the video, but I obviously didn't scale back my reps far enough.  I took a bunch of breaks, but I was able to make it through the entire workout.  Next up was the ab ripper x.  That was only 15 minutes though.  I couldn't do all the reps that Tony did, but I made it through that too.  As I'm writing this, I'm pretty sore and will most definitely be sore tomorrow as well.  I'll let you know how I feel on day two.  Yikes!