I started my workout later in the day on Saturday. I started the workout with a sore back too, since earlier that day I helped my wife unload a TV she received from her parents after they upgraded to a flat screen. It wasn’t a huge TV, but the weight on those things always seem to be off center. I strained my back a couple of years ago when I took a week off of work and installed a brick paver patio. Not sure if it was the excavating with a shovel and a wheel barrow, or hauling the crushed rock from the driveway to the backyard, but I now have a back this a little more susceptible to backaches - that and a really nice patio.
Anyhow, what a day to have a back ache than the day I work on developing my back muscles. Since most of the exercises work on the upper back, it didn’t slow me down until I finished Legs and Back and went to Ab Ripper X. I eased through it and my back didn’t feel any worse than when I had started.
In fact, the benefit that I’ll be gaining from P90X is a stonger back and core muscles which will reduce any soreness in my back. The following day my back felt fine so I was ready to bring it one more day and then X-Rest.
I don’t know if it was because I stayed up too late the night before, or it was the fact that I was going to go into work on my day off, but I was zapped of strength throughout this P90X workout. The leg portion went well, the pull-ups were a struggle. When I got Ab Ripper X, it was like the first day I’ve ever done the workout. I can’t wait until I get caught up at work and relieve this stress. Can’t be good for the cortisol level in my body right now. One of the effects of high levels of cortisol is increased abdominal fat, so the sooner I get the stress level down the better.
Went to work and designed marketing materials including Adobe Acrobat interactive forms with fields that performed calculations. Struggled with some of the Javascript code totake care of some divide by zero errors I was getting in some of the fields. This is the first time I’ve ever created these fill in forms with Adobe Acrobat so it was a learning experience. The results were some good sales tools our company can use to show the ROI of our products.
I left work at about 3:00 and stopped by Walmart to see what they had for fitness equipment. It was really cold on Saturday and I had to park quite a way from the doors, so I jogged to the store. Before P90X, I would have been a little winded, after almost three weeks of P90X I reached the door with very little effort. It was great to feel the benefits of my hard work every day.
I’ve mentioned in some of my past posts on the arms and shoulders P90X workouts that I could really use another pair of dumbbells. Some of the exercises called for heavier weights, but I didn’t want to stop the DVD to swap the plates on my dumbbells so I’ve been using weight that hasn’t been heavy enough. I didn’t want to buy the fixed weight kind since I already have a bunch of steel plates, so I’ve been shopping around for dumbbell handles. They had a great deal on some dumbbell handles. They were only $7.70 a piece. They have heavy rubber padding on the handles and the collars moved smoothly on the handles so the machining was high quality. After a stressful day it was nice to reward myself with something that will benefit my health in the long run. These were not shown on the Walmart website and I couldn’t even find them on the manufacturer’s website, so I’m glad I stopped in to look around.
I can’t wait for Shoulders and Arms next Thursday…I’m going to be bringing it!
My Saturday started with legs and back and ended with Plyometrics since I was sick on day two of my P90X week. Combining these two really kicked my butt. No…it really feels like someone kicked my in the rear - I’m really sore today. I feel it less in my quads than I did the first week, so my muscles must be getting used to exercising at such a high level of intensity. As a matter of act the soreness I felt the entire week during my first week wasn’t there this week.
I do feel the burn in those wall squats though.  As Tony says, “I hate it…but I love it.” I can keep up with the Legs and Back, but man that Ab Ripper X still whips me. I feel like I’m making progress and I know the end results are going to be worth the effort so I..just…bring…IT!
I started the workout a little later since it was a Saturday so by the end of the workout, the whole family was in the room distracting me. I love working out at 0530 during the weekdays since everyone else is sound asleep and I can put all my focus into my P90X workout.
This P90X workout hits the back using variations of pull-ups and the legs with variations of squats. I’m sure I’m oversimplifying things here, but that’s what this video seemed like to me. As a biker, I was ready to bring it on the leg portions. Super Skaters was a bit of a challenge since the movement was unfamiliar to me. Tony warns that it will be awkward at first, but improve over time. My right knee was popping and creaking for some of the exercises, but I kept up my pace with the rest of the class. I did better with the single leg wall squats than with the double leg wall squats. Really felt the burn in those wall squats, something tells me I’ll be feeling it tomorrow.
I’m feeling frustrated with the pull-ups. Well I should say I’m feeling frustrated that I can’t do the pull-ups without the chair. I know a lot of people start with the chair, but I feel like I’m assisting myself too much with my leg resting on the chair. I’m thinking of buying the resistance bands so that I can work the muscles of the upper back without having to lift my own body weight off the floor. Anybody else have that problem or frustration?
Ab Ripper X follows the Legs and Back routines. I did a little better on the Crunchy Frogs with better form and better extension.
Wow, one more day and I’ll have completed my first week with the P90X fitness system.
