p90x - pull up update

I wasn't planning on posting an update tonight, but then during the workout something exciting happened. Tonight was back and biceps, and involved doing a lot of pulls ups and curls. Well, one of the pull ups that we had to do was the corn cob pulls ups. In the past, I haven't been able to do them without the help of a chair. Well tonight, I was able to do 4...and with pretty good form. For those that don't know what these are, they are regular pull ups. When you're at the top, you move your body side to side, and then front to back...then you go down. I was really excited that I am now able to do these with somewhat of ease. Still nothing close to the 10 or so that they are doing in the film, but hey...whatever. haha.

So anyway, just wanted to mention that. Only a few more days left in this week.

We're actually considering doing Insanity next.

http://www.extremefitnessresults.com/insanity-workout.html

GASP!

p90x update - week 12

I swear we didn't quit! I just have been really slacking on writing updates.

So, we started our final week today. (There is a rest week next week). We're had to start a day later, because we were busy on Monday night. So tonight we did Chest & shoulders again. I know that there has been a vast improvement since we first started. However, I feel like the weight I can do has gone down. It's been a while since we did these, especially the shoulders. That seems to be my weak point.

I am struggling with the weights days now. I'm ready to swap those out for maybe a cardio day or something. I'm thinking of building my own program that we can do 5 days a week (having weekends off). I'm thinking one week of full cardio work. And then the next week alternating days of weights and cardio. And then alternating those weeks with each other. But I don't know yet.

I guess I don't really have much of an update. We're winding down on the program. I suppose there is technically 2 weeks left, the normal week and the rest week. I'm glad that we were able to stick it out through the entire program with very little modification to the workouts. We changed a few of the days around yoga, but that was pretty much it.

So stay tuned for the final results. I'm kinda excited to see the difference in all the other numbers outside of my weight. :)

p90x update

I haven't been posting as much lately. We haven't quit. :) Actually, every time we talk about changing one of the disks or something, we end up not actually doing it and sticking with the program.

So, we're on week 10 now. This last weekend, we were busy on Saturday so we skipped it. But we did the cardio x workout on Sunday to make up for it. This week has been tough, as my knees have really been bothering me and for some reason I feel like I'm not doing as much. For example, my weight amount has been the same, however my reps have gone down. And I today, I did less pull ups than I have before. I don't know, maybe it's just this week. But something feels off. I power through it though and finish it up.

We're a little over 2 months away from our Vegas trip. I've decided to try to change my diet a bit and try to work on trimming down my core area. So we'll see how that all goes. :)

No major update. We're still at it and haven't gave up or anything.

p90x - Started week 9, day 60 pics.

I haven't updated in a while. I think my previous workout post I was talking about us swapping out kenpo. Well, we kept it in the rotation. When it comes down to it, this program was built this way for a reason. I feel like we could probably do plyo everyday if we wanted to, but that's not the way they design the program. So. We're going to stick with this way, at least through the entire first pass. We'll still probably continue to swap out the first yoga disk during the rest week for cardio, but the rest will stay.

Now, We've started week 9 (Phase 3). This is basically going to be a repeat of the entire program. Week 9 and 11 is basically week 1 (Phase 1). Week 10 and 12 will be week 5 Phase 2). I for sure can see the difference in the amount and quality in my pull ups and push ups. That kind of put a smile on my face because it just shows that this is really working.

Tonight was plyo, and like always it did not disappoint. I love this workout and always look forward to it. I do feel like I have gotten better at the jumping parts and stuff like that, however when I stop and look back...I'm still not even close to what they are doing in the videos. This will forever be a workout that we will always have room for improvement.

Onto the pictures. Today was day 60. I'll post my progress from 0/30/60 just to kind of see the progress. Hopefully it will be noticeable. :) (BTW - don't mind the sweat on day 60 pics. we took them after the plyo workout).

Front standing view, non-flex

Day 0


Day 30


Day 60



Front Standing View - Arms flexed

Day 0


Day 30


Day 60




Side Profile View

Day 0


Day 30


Day 60




Back view - Flexed

Day 0


Day 30


Day 60

MacBook Pro

Today I purchased a MacBook Pro. Now, I don't normally go out and buy myself crazy extravagant things. And when it comes to computers, I've always been one to build my own. You can get far better value out of a PC if you build your own. The problem with that now is that the PCs are so big. The last one I built I did so with the intention of gaming. And I did do gaming on it. But now-a-days, not so much. So here I have this giant tower of a PC that run amazingly well. (I installed Vista on this when it first came out and didn't have a single issue with it).

For the last few years, I've been doing C# programming. Nothing crazy, just learning and creating a few programs of my own. I am hoping that I can use that to really get into a career that I like...programming. However, there isn't anything I have to show for it. Save for a few little programs that I've done on my own, but big deal. Those aren't selling or anything. I need something to show for my experience. This is where the Mac is going to come into play.

I've been transitioning from C# over to Objective C. Objective C is the language that is used to develop iPhone/Ipod/Ipad apps. You can see where I am going with this. :) I really started thinking about what is really going to help my career advance. I know I want to be in development, but what can I do to really help achieve that? Since I don't have the formal job experience, I need to have something to show for.

I've found very quickly that Objective C is not that much different than .NET C#. In fact, the fundamentals and theories behind all programming is the same. It's really just learning the different syntaxes and stuff like that. So I've been reading books and getting familiar with the language. I've come to the point now where I need to do it. I've been holding out on purchasing one of these for a while, until I felt I really needed to in order to take that next step. The step has been taken.

So now, I am diving head first into Apple app development. I can't really use any Windows platform tools to do this, for obvious reasons. Is this a pricy thing to do just to start creating apps? Absolutely. But, there was more behind this decision than just creating apps. As I said, I was looking for ways to further my career. I was pretty much down to two options. 1) Go back to school or 2) just jump right in. After weighing the cost/risk for each of them, this route overall seemed better.

There will take a lot of determination and focus on my part to make this happen, but having the support of my wife makes it feel so much easier. I love her so much for supporting me with this.

Keep an eye out. I'm going to be spending the first few weeks just really getting familiar with the layout of the computer and xCode, but i'll be having some apps out soon. I'll need some people to give me feedback. :)

Oh, the specs. I got the 17" 2.2 ghz model. No upgrades yet. I'll be doing that soon. Better HD. More ram. But otherwise, the base 17".