Plyometrics really gets my heart pumping. The first couple of weeks I really dreaded this P90X workout, now I’m getting a little more accustomed to the high impact jumping. I say a little more because I have a better pair of shoes, but my knees are still taking a beating. When I make it through this program, I may have to really modify the stress my knees are enduring jumping up and down. The crackand creak throughout the workout and they are sore for most of the day. I’m afraid that if I modify it too much, I’ll diminish the aeorobic benefits of the exercises. I wouldn’t be able keep my heart rate in the zone. What does Tony mean by “are you in the zone?” He’s referring to the heart rate zone. Here’s a graphic I borrowed frrom the Beachbody message board to help you figure out the right heart zone for P90X Plyometrics. I like to keep it in the 70-80% of my Maximum Heart Rate. The easiest way to calculate your maximum heart rate is with the following formula:
217 - (your age × 0.85) = MHR
What zone (%) does everyone else shoot for?
Ahh….P90X Plyometrics a workout like no other. If you’re not sweating at the end of an hour of jumping and squatting, there’s something wrong. While I was working out this morning I thought out all the workouts, Plyometrics is the one workout that the benefits you gain is in relation to how much you put into it. It’s so easy to not quite give it your best and lie to yourself and think, “oh yeah, great workout today”. I find myself dogging it every once in awhile and then turn it up a notch to make sure I’m really bringing it. The other thing I realized is that plyometrics is one of the workouts that I don’t set a goal for during the workout.  A large part of that is that there is no worksheet involved in this exercise set. Some of the exercises would be hard to quantify or measure, but others such as the Creek Jump would be easy to see if I made progress in the length I’m jumping. That’s something I’m going to have to work on for some of the future Plyo workouts.
I used the yoga mat for extra cushioning, but my old creaky knees still took a lot of abuse and they were sore all day.
Man-O-Manischewitz what a workout this morning. Yeah, I got myself downstairs at 5:00 AM and started the workout at about 5:45. Plyometrics today…it’s the X in P90X.
Not familiar with the term plyometrics? Here’s the definition from Wikipedia:
Plyometrics is a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purpose of improving performance in a specific sport. Plyometric movements, in which a muscle is loaded and then contracted in rapid sequence, use the strength, elasticity and innervation of muscle and as it was supposed to be surrounding tissues to jump higher, run faster, throw farther, or hit harder, depending on the desired training goal.
It’s high-impact and I felt the impact in my old guy’s knees. Actually I’ve always had problems with my knees popping, cracking, and if I don’t have my bike seat adjusted perfectly I’ll have pain after a long ride. That’s why I’m a biker not a runner. My right knee sounded like someone was eating celery throughout the workout so I didn’t jump up as high as Dominic the curly-haired guy in the back row. What’s up with that guy? Bah..teacher’s pet.
It was easier than the workout last night. Other than not get the altitude that the others were achieving, I was keeping up pretty well. I can see why some people get sick to their stomach (to put it mildly), there a few moves where you are spinning up in the air and then going right into a different exercise. If spinning amusement rides make you hurl, you’ve been warned. Proceed with caution and slow down how fast you spin.
There seemed to be a wide variety of exercises in this workout so it didn’t seem too boring.  At least not the first time through. Sure they all seem like variations of jumping and squatting, but it really gets your heart rate going. During day one’s P90X workout, I barely broke a sweat. I worked up quite a bit of perspiration during Plyometrics. Next time I’ll wear my heart rate monitor to see if I’m “in the zone”.
