p90x - day 9 & 10

I forgot to write about Plyometrics last night. Holy crap, that is a killer. I do feel like I worked harder this week than last, so that's good. But man, that is one intense workout. I tried to concentrate on doing better squats and lunges, two things that have been my downfall in the past. It's an awesome feeling though when we finish it, which makes it totally worth it.

Tonight was shoulders and arms again. Remember the 20# weights I got last weekend? It was time to use them. And oh my goodness I was ambitious. I tried to stick with the 20# weights for as much as I could. I had to go back to 10# for some of the shoulder lifts. But otherwise I really tried to stick with the 20#. I was failing somewhere around 10 reps, so I feel like I improved. Last week I was able to be in the 15 range for a lot of them without really feeling pressed.

I am hoping that the 20# will at least last me another couple of weeks, but I have a feeling that it will quickly become too little for some of these workouts. That's when I'll have to decide to move up again. Time to keep checking yard sales and clearance stores. (Like where I found my 20# weight for $20).

It was a good workout night tonight. Tomorrow is yoga, so I'm hoping that it will be nice to do some stretching a bit, but it definitely won't be a resting night.

p90x - Start of week 2

We started week 2 last night. Pullups and pushups again. I moved up to 20# for the shoulder exercises. Comparing my numbers from last week, there are a few that I did less, and a few that I did more.

AB ripper was crazy again. I definitely feel sore.

I don't really have a lot to say about it this time. We'll just keep on going. :)

p90x - Day 5 and 6 (and 7)

I totally forgot to write about this weekend.

So Friday night was another weights day. Legs and Back, and then ab ripper. A LOT of squats. holy crap. My knees are still pretty weak, so I had to modify the workouts a lot. This is really going to be my hardest part to improve on. I have to break the idea in my head that I can't do that exercise because of my knees. So that will be my challenge through this.

Saturday was Kenpo. That was fun, and quite the workout. I enjoyed that. It's basically kickboxing. I am not very good with some of the kicks, so that will be my improvement area for that workout.

Sunday was rest day. But I went out and got a set of 20# weights. I found one on clearance for $20, but had to buy another one at full price. That puts our weight sets at 5#, 10#, and 20#. Monday starts the whole thing over again, so we'll see if there is any improvement.

p90x Day 4 - Yoga!

I have always thought that yoga was a waste of time and only done by hippies.

Oooooohhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

So, today's workout was yoga. I'm not totally sold on it yet, however I was often surprised at just how hard some of these poses are. There were some times where I was sweating more than I was during the Plyometrics day. And then other times where I felt bored. The whole workout was about 90 minutes which when it started seemed like WAY too long for a bunch of stretches. But it actually went relatively quick.

There is a lot of balance involved in yoga that I didn't realize was needed. There were some poses that I just couldn't maintain. Either I just lost my balance, or because I couldn't hold the pose for that long. Some of the stretches really felt good though. The thing with this is that I can't quite see where the improvement will be. With the other exercises, I can see where I can improve the weights or do more reps. But with yoga...what do I do? Stretch straighter? Stretch longer?

There was a couple poses though that are quite impressive that they were able to hold that long. Like the crane. You've probably seen it. You put your hand on the ground and tuck your knees at your elbows, and then lift your feet off the ground. That one takes a lot more strength I think. And the bridge. I can actually do it without any problems, but I can't hold it for that long because my wrists fail after about 10 seconds. These guys were holding it for like 30 or 40 seconds. Crazy.

Anyway, That's yoga. It's tough to not stop the video at the boring parts. Luckily as soon as it starts getting boring, they throw in a new part that takes more energy. Overall, it was a good calming workout.

p90x Day 3

Day 3! Tonight was shoulders and arms, and ab ripper. I used 10# weights for the whole thing. 10# was a perfect amount for the shoulder and triceps exercises. But it wasn't enough for the bicep workouts. I will probably go buy some 15# for the next time it comes around. Eventually I'll probably need to just buy a whole set, but a little at a time. I struggled most with the shoulder stuff. Flys, etc. That takes some work. Triceps I did okay. Biceps I breezed through so i tried to modify them a bit. I would try to go a little slower and flex at the end. Or I did more if I could.

Ab ripper is a crazy workout. I couldn't do all 25 reps for any of the workouts. Some of them are just hard, others were easy but i just ran out of gas. There are a few the require you to raise your legs, and I don't know if I am just doing it wrong or if I just have a weak back, but my lower back was on fire during these ones. I think I just need to strengthen that area, so hopefully it'll get better.

That's all for tonight.

p90x day 2

Today was day 2. Plyometrics. All I can say is oh my gosh. Lets start with results from yesterday. My upper back is a bit sore from some of the workouts. If I move certain ways, then I can feel different parts of my body that are sore. That said, I've been in FAR worse pain before when it comes to working out. This pain is manageable, which really only tells me that I can press harder.

So as I said today was Ploymetrics. The p90x plyometrics is basically an hour of squats and jumps and stuff...and then occasionally the guy comes out of the TV and kicks you in the balls. This one was definitely tough. We made it through, but half way I was already getting that 'I'm gonna vomit soon' feeling, but I was able to push through it. I definitely had to modify most of the workouts. I still have caution about knee problems that I've had in the past, so I didn't want to press too hard too early.

But I can for sure see where the improvement is available in these workouts. It is going to be very easy to be able to increase the intensity. Even something as simple as raising your arms over your head during some of workouts makes it tougher. So I'm excited to be able to do that. As I said, it was mostly squats tonight, and I modified them to some extent. There were some that involved some jumping, and I modified those by stepping into the squats instead of jumping. I'm hoping that eventually I'll be able to do those the way they were intended.

Again though, it feels so good to be working out again.

P90x Day 1

My wife and I decided to finally start p90x this week. I decided tonight to write about our progress.

So here are my beginning stats. Weight is 180. Body fat percentage (taken from the scale that supposedly can calculate it) is 21.5%. Chest is 40". Waist is 38". Hips are 38.5". Right and left Thigh each 23.25". Right arm (measured at bicep, flexed) 13.75". Left arm (measured same as right) 13.5".

So the first day is Chest & back, and then ab-ripper. Chest and back is basically an hour of push-ups and pull ups. There was a few "rowing" type moves that involved the weights as well, mostly used for the back. Ab ripper...ugh. That is an intense workout, and it's only 15 minutes long. They said there are ~340 individual moves that work your abs in that 15 minutes.

All in all, it's a great workout. I'm excited to be working out again, and I am really hoping that this will give us some great results. From what I've heard, it really will. Even without doing the diet. We decided to not really follow the diet plan. We're both not really going for weight loss, more for toning up. That's not to say I'm going to just eat ice cream every night. We're already eating relatively healthy, so there won't be too much in the change of diet.

I'll try to update this each day with the workout results.