P90X Review Chest & Back (Day 57 - Phase 3)

Day 57 of my P90X journey, rounding the bend and heading for the home stretch. I can’t believe this fun and games will be finished in about a month. I’m looking at other people’s blogs to see what most people have done after they finish the 90 days to get an idea to build on the progress I’ve made so far. Right now I’m thinking of just doing P90X again with more modifications.

I took the day off today since the kids had spring break. That allowed me to sleep in a little bit and start my day at a leisurely pace. Chest and Back - wow, I’ve missed that big ol’ serving of German Potato Soup. I love the fact that you record your results during the P90X workouts. I was surprised at how much better I was doing on all the exercises in this video today. What a difference 56 days make. I love doing push-ups now.

I hit the P90X Ab Ripper X portion when the kids were eating breakfast so they were entertained watching their father grimace in pain and fall in a sweaty heap after Mason Twists. Good times!

P90X Review Chest & Back (Day 22 - Phase 1)

I guess I was too rested on Tuesday since I overslept instead of getting up at the crack of dawn for P90X Chest and Back.  That was a first for me, I haven’t slept through the alarm and missed a workout yet.  Over course that meant I had to come home after work and complete the workout.

On the way home I stopped by Sears and bought a new pair of New Balance running shoes for my workouts.  The shoes I have been using, I am ashamed to admit, were about six or seven years old.  I’m sure you’re imagining some really ratty looking shoes.  They really look pretty good.  I rarely wore them outside so they look new.  However, most of the articles I have been reading about how to cure shin splints suggest replacing your gym shoes.  I found a pair with great heel padding so I’m ready to bring it with my new kicks.

I hate working with spectators around and my wife found great amusement in watching me do Dive Bomber Push-Ups.  She really exercised great self control and didn’t critique my form at all during the work-out.  She did show me that some of the Ab Ripper X exercises that I said were really hard, didn’t seem so hard for her.  She’s been doing the Hip Hop Abs workout while I’m at work and the kids at school and she’s getting great results.

Speaking of results, Tuesdays are weigh-in nights.  My wife and son are fans of the show Biggest Loser and they get a kick out of seeing dad stepping on the scale to check his progress.  I often have a hard time seeing the scale’s display because they want to see the numbers first.  A cheer went out when we saw that I had dropped 3.5 lbs since last week.  That has been the largest one week weight loss since I started P90X.  It was a great way to end the day.  Really got me motivated to keep pushing play!

P90X Review Chest & Back / Ab Ripper X (Day 15 - Phase 1)

This is where I had to workout this morning. Good thing it wasn’t Plyometrics today.

Did my P90X Chest & Back/Ab Ripper X in a new environment this morning.  We had to travel out of town last night for a funeral this morning.  I rolled out of bed at 5:00 AM, grabbed all my gear, and snuck out of the room so I wouldn’t wake up the rest of the family.

First of all, props to you folks who travel and keep up with the P90X.  It has to be tough to keep with the nutritional plan and find a space to workout.

I typically use dumbbells and a chin-up bar for Chest and Back, today I relied on an exercise band that my wife had purchased in the past and my push-up stands.  We brought the portable DVD player for the kids so I used that to watch Tony and the gang go through the workout.

I didn’t have any type of doorway attachment for the exercise band, so I looped it through a piece of cardio equipment that was in the hotel’s tiny fitness room.  After going through the workout with the bands instead of weights,  I am so glad I’m doing this workout with dumbbells.  The bands just didn’t seem to provide the same tension on my muscles through the entire range of motion like the free weights provide.  The other thing I didn’t like about the bands is that the tension was different everytime I did the exercises that I needed to step on the band to shorten the distance of the band.  With a dumbbell the resistance is always the same.

I tried to eat clean while I was away from home and ate all the healthy snacks that I packed.  Glad I did,  the hotel had plenty of junk for breakfast and had zero fresh fruit.  I packed a couple of apples,  some almonds, a couple of protein bars, and some water to drink.  At lunch I had some chicken and a bunch of raw veggies.

After we made it back home, my wife reminded me that it was weigh-in night tonight.  I was a little reluctant to step on the scale since I was sick last week and felt like I was doing a mediocre job in my workouts.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had dropped two pounds since weigh-in last week.

P90X Review Chest & Back / Ab Ripper X (Day 8 - Phase 1)

I rested on day 7 (Monday), but was back at it on Tuesday morning.  On Monday, I felt like I was coming down with a cold, so I took some cold medicine and went to bed early hoping I could whip it over night.  No luck, I was sick.  I was dogging it all through the P90X workout.  I tried the tip that Chris had left in the comment section of this blog and it seemed to help get more out of the pull-ups.

When I started P90X, I purchased a set of push-up stands to enhance my P90X workout.  They arrived at the end of last week so I was looking forward to try doing push-ups with them.  They worked out great, I’m glad I made the purchase.  I’m not using them to extend the range of motion so much as to just take some of the pressure off my wrist.

I felt worse at the end of the work-out then when I started, but I was glad I completed the workout.  Making excuses to not work out is how I went from physically fit to out of shape over the years.

I made a protein shake for myself with the intention of drinking this on the way to work, but my stomach was so upset, I didn’t drink it until noon or so.

I couldn’t get my car started, so my wife had to take me to work.  This just added to the stress of the day… and week.

P90X Review Day 1 - Phase 1

“Ready boys and girls? OK,  here we go…5,4…3,2″

If you’ve been doing P90X more than a week, you’ll know this is Tony Horton leading a P90X extreme fitness routine.  If you’ve been doing P90X for awhile you probably hear Tony’s voice in your sleep.

Well I had plans on doing my first routine in the early AM, but I overslept and didn’t have time.  I had a busy day at the office and I’m working on two design projects with a pretty tight deadline.  The stress of that and the repetitive movement of my arm scooting the computer mouse around made my shoulder felt like someone was sticking a hot poker in my shoulder.  I was determined to start P90X no matter what, so I took some pain reliever at dinner and waited for my turn with the TV and the DVD player.  With a wife and kids and all the things that come with that, it was later and later.

Finally everyone cleared out and I was ready to “Bring It”.  It’s been awhile since I’ve had a regular workout schedule so I’ve spent the month of January doing some of the routine I used to do when I was in better shape. Free weights and cardio on the stationary bike. I thought I was ready, boy was I was wrong.

The first time through the exercises, I tried to pace myself and not push myself too hard.  Even with the flyes, military presses, and bench presses I had been doing prior to P90X, I was struggling on some of the moves.  I’ve got a long way to go on the pull-ups. It was almost discouraging on how few pull-ups I could do.  I’m focusing on quality this week to get the moves done right.  Throughout Tony does sprinkle in a little encouragement and at the end he gives you a little pep talk.  Telling you it’s OK if you don’t keep up with the students on the screen.  Do your best and forget the rest!

I found the diamond push-ups particularly difficult.  It seemed like the wider my hands are, the easier it is to perform the maximum reps.  I also do push-up with my hands closed in a fist instead of an open hand.  This technique is easier on my rest and duplicates the position your hands would be if you were using push-up stands without the extended range of motion.

On to Ab Ripper X.  I had been doing crunches preparing for P90X and these Ab Ripper X was hitting muscles I wasn’t working on the assorted core exercises I’ve been doing since the beginning of January.  Crunchy frog was the exerise that proved the most challenging on this DVD.  I did my best and forgot the rest.

Overall, the workouts were as challenging as I thought they would be.  It would have been nice if they showed a camera angle from the top down on some of the ab exercises so I could check my form.

I’m going to attempt to get up early tomorrow and get the P90X workout in before the day wears me down.

Day one down, 89 more to go.  Decide…commit…succeed!