Well Sunday was supposed to be Kenpo X, but with thought of another day with shin splints after doing this P90X workout, I decided to substitute another form of exercise for today. I bike a lot in the summer, in fact I often bike my 14 mile commute on the nice days. When I was getting ready to take on P90X, I would often spend an hour on the stationary bike and the next day free weights, alternating between the two. I’d keep my MHR in the 70-80% zone for a great aerobic workout. I’ve been missing that ride, and I just don’t have time in the day to do both, so the bike won on Sunday.
Kenpo X will have to wait for another day.
Started off the day with Kenpo X. I mentioned in my last post about the Kenpo X P90X workout that I ended up with shin splints. This week I started the shin splints coming on more than half way through the workout. I stopped doing the jumping jacks and X jacks thinking maybe that’s what is causing it, but I still had pain through the rest of the workout. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, but if I can’t fix the problem, I’m going to put in an hour on the stationary bike with my heart rate at 80-85% MHR, instead of Kenpo X.
I think I’ll try the workout barefoot next week. Practicing martial arts with shoes on seems foreign to me. I feel like I have suction cups on the bottom of my feet when I rotate on the ball of my foot for the kicks. That may be increasing the torsion on my front lower leg causing tibial torsion.
I have been a casual student of the martial arts since I was a teen, so I was looking forward to the Kenpo X P90X routine. The purpose of this video is more cardio than strength training. Your heart rate is slightly elevated with a series of punches, kicks, and blocks. In between the karate drills, are short “cardio breaks” consisting of jumping jacks, x-jacks or X jumps, and jump rope - that’s when the heart really starts pumping. It was during those times that my heart rate really climbed past my zone. During the karate drills my heart rate was right in the zone, but it didn’t get there until the video was about at the halfway point.
Most of the moves were familiar to me, but the combinations were not. I was a little behind on some of the drills, especially the Star Block where you do a series of different blocks in quick succession. I guess my focus was as it was when I was in karate class where our form had to be perfect. Tony’s form on some of the blocks is poor, but I’ll have to get past that distraction.
It was a good interval workout with the cardio breaks thrown in there. I’m not sure what I did wrong, but I ended up with shin splints. Glad tomorrow is a rest day.
One week down, only 12 more weeks to go! P90X…Bring It!
Tony mentions it briefly, but the guy named Wesley in the back, was the consultant for the Kenpo X video. You can see them brainstorming the moves to include for P90X Kenpo-X in this Youtube video. It’s encouraging to see Tony was struggling with the punch combinations right out of the box.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCkynLlw3GU
