P90X Status

It's day 45 of my second full P90X program, and I'm still going strong.  In my last blog post, I mentioned that Wendy and I were doing P90X Lean together.  Well, she decided after a few weeks into the program that it wasn't for her, so I've been continuing the same program by myself since.  I considered going back to the P90X Classic program, which I did the first time, but decided to continue this one....just for something new.  Basically, you do one less Ab Ripper workout per week, and for the first two three-week blocks, you substitute Core Synergistics for Chest & Back or Back & Biceps.  Lastly, you do Cardio X instead of Plyometrics.  It's easier than what I did before, but that's ok.  I'm still working hard, and over half of the workouts are the same, so it's not that much easier! :)

The weight isn't coming off as fast as it did last time, but the eating hasn't been as "intense" as before either.  I've been eating very good, just not 100% of the time.  I've lost about 7 pounds in the first 6+ weeks, so that progress...even if it slow.  Can't complain, right?

Dan

Day 81: Back and Biceps with Ab Ripper X

Back on track tonight...because there's no late baseball!  :)  Did the final Back and Biceps workout tonight, and it went pretty good.  I'm up 10-15 lbs in almost every exercise in the workout, and the new band is really giving me some extra resistance I didn't get with the old one.

I don't think I told you about the band...I was working out to one of the back exercises a little more than a week ago and my band broke!  Luckily it broke right by the handle and not in the middle.  Gave me a little scare for a split-second there, but nobody was hurt!  So, I got a new band at the new Dick's Sporting Goods that opened up in St. Joseph about a month ago.  It's one that has the handles that can be placed on any band.  I'm using the green band, which I think is 80 or 90lb of resistance.

As for Ab Ripper, I barely made 349/349 again.  During the pulse-ups, my last two "reps" were done after Tony and the gang were done.  Not exactly what I wanted, but I did do 25 reps!

OK, on to Yoga tomorrow.  Again, a good day for it because we have no games or practice tomorrow.  Saturday (Legs and Back with Ab Ripper) and Sunday (Kenpo & X Stretch) we have a tournament in Auburn.  I'm hoping to get the workouts done in the morning so I don't have to worry about them.  Doing that last Saturday made such a big difference!

Dan

Day 80: No Workout

Well, work and baseball games dominated the day today.  I didn't get home until 10:30pm and hadn't eater supper yet.  Therefore, I'm pushing the scheduled workouts back a day and plan on doing Kenpo and X Stretch on Sunday...one in the morning and one in the evening.

Speaking of baseball, we beat Doniphan County tonight 4-0 to up our record to 4-0 on the young season.  Our Seniors also won 2-1 and are 2-1 on the season (isn't that weird???).

So, Back and Biceps with Ab Ripper X tomorrow (no baseball...should be good!)

Dan

Day 79: Plyometrics

Great Plyometrics workout tonight!  The heart rate was really good (between 80 and 90% of max) and I continued to do some more double-time exercises (Mary Katherine, Knee Tucks, Rock Star).  Unfortunately, this was the last time I do Plyometrics for this round of P90X.  Really?  Why couldn't it have been my last Yoga?  :)

Eating has been OK, but still doing some snacking.  It's got it's foot in the door and it's been a bear getting it back out.  I'm sure I won't match the monthly weight loss average I obtained in the first 60 days of the program, but I'm still going to lose 40+ pounds, so how can I be upset about that?  :)

Back and biceps (for the last time) tomorrow!  We also have baseball games at 6 and 8, so it's going to be a late workout!

Dan

Day 66: Back and Biceps with Ab Ripper X

I love this workout!  Like Tony says, we are working out the "glamour muscles" during this workout.  And I've noticed that I've moved up in weight in many of the exercises and am very close to the 8-10 rep zone I want to be in.  For the last exercise, you do 4 sets of 8 bicep curl reps with 4 different weights.  Because I'm limited in selection, I did 30/20/20/20.  If I had a 25lb weight, that would help with this (and other) exercises where 30 is too much but 20 is too light.

For a couple of reasons, I was unable to do the Ab Ripper workout last night.  I'm thinking I will now do the two remaining workouts for this week on Friday (regularly scheduled) and Sunday morning.

Also yesterday, we had supper at the Mexican restaurant and I had my regular chicken taco salad.  Afterwards, I had a craving for ice cream, so I had a cyclone from Frosty Queen.  Heath bar with some hot fudge.  It was very good!  My excuse was that I'd done so good eating so far, I deserved a little reward.  I'm not too worried about this as I really have been doing very well with my nutrition for the last 2+ months.  However, I also want to be cautious that I don't start slipping on the other facets of my eating. As long as this was just a true isolated "reward", then it's fine.

Yoga today.

Dan

Day 65: Plyometrics

Another Tuesday...another round of Plyometrics.  As I was yesterday, I felt a little fatigued before I started the workout.  However, I had no problem completing the exercises.  In fact, I did better than usual on the rock star jumps and the jump knee tucks.  As usual, the exercise that left my legs the most fatigued before the exercise was complete was the squat switch pickups and the 180 jump switches.  These are basically the same move, with the latter going 180 degrees and the former just switching which leg is in front in the run stance.  I did them all, but boy were the legs crying before it was all over.

Wendy made turkey burgers on the grill tonight for supper, and they were great!  I had one of those (and some of Avery's too!), some salad and some reduced fat baked beans.  We'll have to have those again soon!  I love burgers!  Last night and tonight we ate on the patio table on our deck.  The weather has been so nice that it was a pretty easy decision.

Break from baseball practice tomorrow, but now my sister has busted the screen on her laptop, so I'm going to have to work on getting that replaced.  Some "day off", huh?  :)

Back and Biceps tomorrow!

Dan

Day 45: Back and Biceps with Ab Ripper X

Wow...busy day yesterday.  Following work we had an intra-squad baseball scrimmage from 6 to about 8:15. After cleanup, I was home around 8:45.  Then, I was able to eat my supper (chicken breast and a dill pickle).  Then, at about 9:30 I did my workouts...ending a little before 11.  I finally went to sleep around midnight.  Best of all (yep, that's sarcasm) we have early practice today so I got up at 4am so I could get to work early and leave early enough to get to practice.  Whew!  Luckily, we only have these 6-8 scrimmages once a week!

The workout went well last night.  I moved up from 20-30lb on some of the exercises and again got closer to the 8-10 rep level I'm shooting for.  The only exercise that I need more weight for is lawnmowers.  30lb isn't quite enough.

Ab Ripper was a struggle during some exercises as usual.  I did get 292 reps, which is 3 off of my max for the program so far.  I certainly feel the ab muscles working more than they seemed to when I started the program.

Yoga time!

Dan

Day 38: Back and Biceps with Ab Ripper X

Great day!  Work was crazy busy, as I was in meetings pretty much all day.  In fact, I ate my lunch during a software demo I was attending.  This may seem normal to some of you, but to me it's a rarity.  Made the day go by faster anyway.

Not much to report on the workout, other than the new 15lb weights and the 30lb weights I made helped out nicely this time.  I now almost have everything I need to get to the 8-10 rep range I want to be in for this workout.

Set a new rep high in Ab Ripper X of 295 and I felt my ab muscles work harder tonight than I ever have.  Isn't it weird that on Monday I felt sluggish and had trouble with some of the moves, but yet tonight (2 days later) they seemed much easier.  It can't be the time, because I did them at pretty much the same time in the evening.  And I also eat pretty much the same foods everyday.  Oh well, no matter, I'm getting the work done...that's the important thing.

Yoga tomorrow in the hotel room.

Day 37: Plyometics

Not too much to post today...it was a pretty typical day for me.  Plyometrics seems to be getting a little easier each time I do it.  Tonight, I was able to do both of the high impact jumps (rockers and knee touches) for the entire duration...even a few double-time knee touch jumps!  There were just a few seconds during the entire workout where I took an "unofficial" break.

All in all, I'm feeling great about my progress in the exercises, on the scale, and in the mirror!  For the longest time, I've wanted to do something about it, and I just never was able to get motivated enough to do it.  Thank goodness I saw those P90X infomercials...and also for the "wardrobe malfunction" at work.  Without them, I'd be the same old Dan, and not New and Improved Dan!  :)

A first is coming on Thursday...my first P90X workout away from home.  Wendy and I have an Autism Conference to attend in Lincoln on Thursday and Friday (our middle child, Megan, has been diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum).  So, I'll be doing Yoga in the hotel room!

First things first, though.  Back and Biceps tomorrow.

Dan

Day 31: Back and Biceps with Ab Ripper X

Another great workout!  I'm really impressed with the quality of these videos.  Before I started, I was concerned that they would be above my level.  However, in every workout they show you a wide range of methods to complete the exercise from expert to novice.  They also show you how you can do many of the workouts with resistance bands if you don't have a pull up bar or weights.  And the leader, Tony Horton, is entertaining to watch.  During this last workout, he asked one of the other people if they had tickets...they said "to what"...to which he replied "the gun show".  Love it.

As for the workout, I'm still using bands in place of using a pull up bar.  I may be able to do one pull up now, but haven't tried since I did the fit test prior to starting the program.  One of the pull up exercises in this workout is called corn cob.  When you get to the top, you pull your head to the left and then back to the right before going back down.  Kinda looks like the bar is a cob of corn that you are eating.  This gives you an extra workout on your arms that I hadn't experienced with just the regular pull up exercises I had done before.

I also noticed that I need 15 pound weights.  I had many exercises where 20 pounds was a bit too much but my 10 lb weights was too little.  I also need 15's for my new Monday workout, so I'm going to need to get some this weekend.

I gained my 5 Ab Ripper X reps back, so I'm back to my high of 285.  Bicycles and Mason Twist are really coming along.  Still struggle with Crunchy Frog, Fifer Scissors, Hip Rock & Raise and Pulse Up.

Also, I'm going to try and spice up this blog a bit by having someone take a few pictures or videos while I'm working out.  Then I can add them to the blog post to give it a little more flash.

Yoga time!

Dan