Day 4 (Yoga)...Intense! Could use better organization.

I was fearing today from what others had told me.  I wasn't even sure what Yoga was.

Going in, all I really knew was that I would be working on it for 90 minutes.  That scares the hell out of you when you are 20 minutes in and sweating your ass off.  What sucks is that there wasn't a clear description of how that 90 minutes was going to be broken up.  For anyone out there who will try this, let me explain.

• You start with a very short warm up with some basic stances and movement.
• You then have about 40 minutes of "Moving Asanas."  These remind me of katas.  They are precise movements that end up into poses.  Many are very repetitive.  They seem to help build strength, flexibility and balance.  You will be sweating.  Some are complicated and you won't get them if you are watching the DVD for the first time.  I was actually getting frustrated because I couldn't always figure out exactly what they were doing.  I had to go back and watch the DVD while taking notes tonight (kind of what I did with the ab ripper DVD yesterday.  You really can't be watching the DVD and trying to figure it out on the fly if you are going to get anything from it.  I tried that at first and got very frustrated and almost quit.  But I got through it and at least got the idea of what was going on (although I'm sure I missed a lot of repetitions and sides).  It was during this that I thought, "oh no...I'm going to have to do THIS for 90 minutes????  Thankfully that wasn't the case.
• About 45 minutes into the DVD (45 minutes left) you do balanced postures for 10 minutes.  These are the crazy Yoga poses that you might have seen before.  I don't think I could do any of them.  It was then that I had to admit to myself that I simply won't be able to do some of this stuff for quite a while.  At least I tried each one and when I'd fall, I'd get right back and try to get back into the pose until they were done.  These take major coordination, strength and balance.
• At about 55 minutes in (35 minutes left), you do floor work which is essentially stretching and some held poses.  Challenging stuff but some of it is a bit of a nice break.
• At about 73 minutes in (17 minutes left), you do "Yoga Belly" which reminds me of Ab Ripper but slowed WAY down.  This goes on for about 7 minutes.
• At about 80 minutes in (10 minutes left), you do stretches.
• At 85 minutes in (5 minutes left), you do some poses that don't seem to do anything.  I think they are just ritual.  I'll probably skip these next time.  I mean "corpse pose?"  "Fetal pose?"  Really?  I don't think my 90 day picture will be different if I don't do these.

Some things I learned:

1. Don't wear shoes or socks.  I started with both and realized everything works better in your bare feet (which is also what they use in the DVD).
2. There are no real breaks.  You have to pause the DVD if you need one.  I never did really other than to towel off some sweat.
3. Almost all the routines start with one foot/side and repeat with the other foot/side.  However, it is very hard the first time to understand where one routine starts and ends.  There is a timer at the bottom with titles which has actually been very useful with the other workouts.  However, it doesn't seem to be correct in this workout most of the time.  Most of the time, there will be a number of seconds up there that doesn't correspond with anything.  I would recommend actually watching the DVD once before you work out and taking notes to the movements.  It will soon seem clear how things are proceeding.  My notes are at the bottom of this blog.
4. Don't get discouraged.  Do as much as you can with the idea that you will get better as time goes on.  This stuff is hard.  If you can't do a pose, just keep trying even if you keep falling.  Just keep getting back up and try to get into it again.  Don't give up.
5. Yoga blocks are bullshit.  You don't need one.  They are supposed to be used in poses if you can't touch the ground...you just hold on to the block.  You can use almost anything instead of a real yoga block.  I used the box my free weights came in.
6. Yoga mats are bullshit (mostly).  I am doing everything on carpet.  I'll admit that sometimes my back foot slips a little.  But I think that is only because I'm on a pool of sweat.  It would be worse if I were on a mat.  I would NOT want to do this on a hard floor.
7. It will take a WHILE to get the breathing down.  Right now, I'm going to focus on getting through the routine correctly and having the right form.  I'll try to get the breathing correct here and there, but I'm lucky if I can get through the routine correctly.

Here are my notes on the Moving Asanas:

You will see a TON routines begin and/or end with this:

1. Runners Pose
2. Plank
3. Vinyasa
4. Upward Dog
5. Plank (perhaps followed by a push up)
6. Downward Dog
7. Swing heel up (routines always start with right first, then repeated with left)
8. Bring knee up into Runners Pose (with right knee used first, then repeated with left)

Nail that down because you will be doing it over and over.

OK, so I just realized that I have 7 pages of written notes for the Moving Asanas.  It is getting late so I'll type them up tomorrow (for you and for me).

Later!

Day 3.5...getting used to Ab Ripper

The Ab ripper routine is a 15 minute disc tacked on to 3 of the 6 workouts you initially do.  Tonight is my second night doing it.

The routine has 11 different moves with 25 repetitions each.  It moves very quickly...VERY quickly and has no breaks.

Since it moves so quick, I've found myself trying to figure out the proper move/form as they are starting and then never really being able to focus because I'm too busy watching the TV.  And many of these these seem really hard, at least for me.  Without the focus and being able to really push myself, I'm not able to keep form or complete even close to 25 reps without a break.  And if I take a break, they are running on to the next exercise before I get done.  Then I'm even more behind on the next move trying to figure out form...etc.

So that's two Ab workouts done and I don't think I've gotten much out of either.  Kind of discouraging.

In order to get around this, after I was done I skipped through the DVD and copied down little stick figures and notes for each move.  I can now look over this and get used to exactly what they are doing and not have to watch the TV.  Hopefully, I'll be able to focus more on what I'm doing and get more out of the workout.  We'll see if this works the next time this comes up which is Monday.

By the way, here are the moves (writing this to help me remember):

1. In and outs.  You sit on your rear, balance with your hands at your sides to the floor and bring your knees back and forth toward and away from your chest without letting your feet hit the ground.
2. Bicycles.  Same form as #1 but you hold your legs out and pedal your feet forward 25 times and then revers 25 times.
3. Crunchy frogs.  same form as #1 but instead of balancing with your hands, you hold them out to your sides and then hug your knees as they come in to your chest.
4. Cross leg/wide leg sit ups.  Lay on your back with your legs spread.  Sit up and then touch one of your toes 25 times for each toe.  That is the wide leg form.  If you cross your legs, it is harder.
5. Fifer scissors.  Lay on your back.  Both legs straight...one hovering just above the ground and one pointed straight up.  Hold and switch every few seconds without letting either touch the ground.  25 switches.
6. Hip rock and raise.  Lay on your back, arms to your sides with your knees apart but your feet together (making a diamond).  Lift your feet up essentially bringing your knees up toward your chest and then push your feet to the ceiling.  Then pull your knees back down and return to beginning position.
7. Pulse ups (heels to heaven).  Similar to #6, but start with both legs straight and pointed to the ceiling.  Then push your heels up up to the ceiling, lifting your lower back off the floor and return.
8. V-up/roll ups.  lay on your back, arms to your sides, legs extended.  Do a normal sit up but when the small of your back hits the ground on your return, lift your legs (still extended) and try to touch your toes again.  Then lower back into starting position.
9. Oblique V-ups.  Lay on your side, bottom arm to your side along the floor and top arm bent with elbow out and hand to your neck.  Keep your legs straight and feet slightly off the floor.  Then try to touch your elbow to the side of your leg by bending your body into a V toward the ceiling.
10. Leg climbs.  Lay on your back with one leg straight up to the ceiling and one leg bent with foot on the ground for support.  Use your hands to climb the extended leg and touch your toe and then return.
11. Mason twists (40 reps on this one).  Sit on your rear with your knees bent.  Clasp your hands together.  Lift your feet slightly off the ground and move your hands over your body, touching the ground to the left and right of where you are sitting.

Do you see how you might not master the moves immediately?

Day 3 (Shoulders and Arms)...too easy?

Day three was shoulders and arms (will do Ab stuff later tonight).

The workout is broken up into five sections.  Each section has three exercises, each repeated once.  The disc is about an hour.  Almost all the exercises involved weights.  There were a lot of curls, rows, flys, etc.

I previewed the workout yesterday and decided I needed an additional dumbbell bar so I didn't have to keep on changing weights.  I took my three best guesses at what weights I'd need and set up three sets.  Even so, I still had to change weights for several exercises.  I typically used 20 lbs for almost every exercise with a few that needed 15 lbs and one that needed only 10 lbs.  I'm laughing at myself because I had originally setup 20, 25 and 30.  Well, no way that was going to happen!  Anyhow, if you are trying this, I would recommend getting three dumbbell bars and enough weights to have a 5-10 lb set, a 10-15 lb set and a 15-20 lb set if you are just starting off.  You can compare your abilities with mine by looking at my basline blog post at: http://kellyp90x.blogspot.com/2012/03/baselineday-one-is-tomorrow.html

You are supposed to max yourself out at 8-10 reps if you are looking to build strength and 12+ reps if you are going for tone/endourance.  I picked 8-10 for my goals.

Just like the past two routines, I approached this workout as just getting to understand what to do.  I did push myself, but once I know exactly what the exercises are, I know I'll be able to push more.

After I got done, I didn't feel exhausted.  I actually felt pretty energized and ready to do something else.  I took a look at the doubles program and I realize it is just added cardio workouts for some days after week 4.  I may actually do that if I can find the time in the evening.  I feel like I need something more.  I must be in better shape than I thought.

One thing I am noticing is that watching the TV is actually distracting.  Instead of focusing on the exercises, I tend to watch the TV too much...even when I know what I am doing.  As I get more familiar with the workouts, I'm going to try not to do this.

By the way, I am feeling day 1 pretty well now.  Sides of chest are pretty sore...not too bad though.  I think I'm starting to feel day 2 also...legs ache a little.

I'm adding copies of the workout sheets now (see below).  Day 4 is 90 minutes of Yoga tomorrow.  I've heard that is hard but I'm looking forward to it.  Day 5 covers the legs...a little scared of the knee...but I'm really looking to get back into cardio on Day 6 which is Kenpo.

Thanks for reading and I hope this is helpful to someone.

Day 2 (Plyometrics)...knees survived

Finished day 2 this morning...Plyometrics which is essentially jumping, running and squatting.  By the way, I started to feel effects from the workout yesterday...soreness in the shoulders/back and under my arms.

As I mentioned before, I was worried about my right knee.  When I do a squat, I feel some pain as I approach 45 degrees either going up or down.  It is just pain in that small area/range of motion of the squat...not really below or above it.  The same pain is in the same range when I do leg presses or leg extensions.

Just like yesterday, I approached today's workout with caution.  I didn't know what the hell I was getting into, so I didn't want to blow out my knee in the first 5 minutes.  Throughout the workout, I went a little slower and didn't squat as low or jump as high.  That turned out to be a good decision as my knee survived.  But even if I didn't have knee problems, it is honestly too much to expect to think you can do this kind of workout right away unless you are some type of professional athlete.  It is just way too intense at first.

I wore a heart monitor today.  Yesterday I used a method to determine my max heart rate which ended up being 204.  I set up my HM to record the 70-80% range.  I should have picked 80-90% because I was always above the target range.  Every time I looked at the watch, I was around 174 bpm.  After the whole workout, the HM said I burned 990 calories.  Holy cow.  And that is with me modifying the workout to make it easier!

I saw right away in the warmup that my knee would have problems.  One of the warmups was some type of lunge and it was putting too much stress on my knee.  So I decided right then to take it a little easy.

Another thing that helped the knee was where I was working out.  I do my workout upstairs in a loft, just a few feet from sleeping children and sleeping wife.  During the workout Tony tells you to always land soft "like a cat."  Well, I'm forced to land soft as landing hard would shake the whole house and wake everyone up.  And those soft landings, although demanding, were easy on the knees.

The workout was pretty exhausting but I felt really good about it.  I know as I work on it more, I'll approach the actual moves they are doing.  I think this will actually strengthen the muscles around my knee and possibly make the pain decrease.  There was only one move I didn't do.  It was where you jumped up and quickly pulled your heels into the back of your thigh and then landed again.  After just a few of those, my knee say "NO!" and I listened to it.  I actually had to take a break for a moment to determine if I could continue.

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Day 1...easier than I thought...sort of

Completed day 1 of P90X this morning.

Just some basic background...P90X is a series of 12 DVDs which each contain a specific workout.  There are three different schedules that you can pick that tell you which discs to use and on what days (see http://www.p90xworkoutschedule.org/ ).  I picked "classic" because I don't have time for "doubles" and I don't need to lose weight as in "leans."  I also printed up worksheets from http://www.beachbody.com/images/beachbody/en_us/pdf/worksheets/P90X.pdf where you write down the reps and weight you used as you go along.  When you watch the DVDs, you are essentially working out with Tony Horton and three other workout models (male and female).

Day 1 for "classic" is an hour of "Chest and back" followed by 15 minutes of "ab ripper x."  C&B workout consists of alternating different kinds of pullups and pushups along with some flys.  This workout requires a pullup bar, a chair and some dumbbells.  There are tons of breaks.  And it seemed like I had at least a few seconds between every exercise.  You don't do a full hour of exercises either.  In addition to the breaks, you have a pretty lengthy warmup and cooldown.  The hour goes by very fast.

The first thing you learn is that you will go through the exercises two times.  The first time you are told to pace yourself.  Since I have never done this before and I have heard all sorts of horror stories, I took the first half very light...too light as I found out.  I was only doing 5 reps of some of the pullups and 10 reps of some of the pushups.  I wasn't really pushing myself that hard because I was afraid of what was coming up.  Once I got to the second half and realized it wasn't going to be that bad, I increased the reps to as much as I could do.  Still, I'm kind of bummed that I took the whole workout too lightly and didn't get as much out of it as I would have liked.  It has been a couple hours and I'm not feeling any soreness at all.

The other side of this coin is that I think I'm in much better shape that I previously thought.  All the cardio and weights I've been doing must have prepared me for this.  I think this would be a whole different post if I hadn't already been doing lat pulldowns and curls.

Anyhow, I've learned to push the first half of this routine much harder.  I think this will be the story for the first week of all the workouts.  I don't know how bad it is going to be, so I'll probably be taking it easy at first.

OK, now onto the ab ripper.  I popped that DVD in and it was completely different.  They got right into it and there were no breaks and hardly any time between exercises.  I also found myself struggling to understand exactly what they were doing and what the form was.  By the time I got it right, they were halfway through some of the exercises.  However, this one goes 3x/week so I'm sure I'll figure it out quickly.  But man, those were HARD.  I could not keep up with them at all.  I had to take many breaks in the middle of sets.  I'm sure I'll get better but this one kicked my butt.  The 15 minutes went by very quickly.

A few things I learned

1. I need more weights.  I wasn't sure what I was going to be doing with these dumbbells, so I got a simple set with 2.5 and 5 lb weights.  I have to unscrew the ends to change the weight.  I won't have time for that during the workouts so I'm going to have to get more.  Plus, I'm going to need much heavier weights for many of the exercises.  I wasn't aware of the weightlifting component of the workouts.
2. The Ab routine should probably be saved for the evening.  It is hard to shift gears and still focus on form and what needs to be done right after I get done with the first workout.  Besides, the Ab routine is only 15 minutes...it should be that hard to fit in the evening.
3. Before I started, I think I read somewhere that one of the models in the DVD would do a low impact version of the exercises.  Not exactly.  You see a lower impact version of SOME of them, but very few.  Most of the time, everyone is doing the same thing (with the exception of one person using bands).

Tomorrow is Plyometrics.  This is where my concern with my knees comes in.  We'll see how it goes.

Baseline...day one is tomorrow

First, I want to thank Stephanie Osborne for all of her information and help.  Her site is http://www.facebook.com/#!/osbornefitness .   Go "like" it now.  I ordered the P90X through her and she has made herself available for all sorts of questions about the program.

For future records, here is where I am now...

Weight: 166 lbs
Resting Heart Rate: 65 bpm
Waist: 33 3/4
Chest: 39 1/4
Hips: 38
Right thigh at midpoint: 19
Left thigh at midpoint: 19 1/2
Right bicep at peak: 13 1/2
Left bicep at peak: 13

I'll probably update this info on a weekly basis.

Previous Routine

• 4-5x/week 30 mins on Sole Elliptical at 10 of 20 resistance
• I break a sweat after 8-10 minutes.  Haven't checked HR in a while, but I remember it getting into the target zone (75-80% max) after 10 minutes. 

2x/week weights routine 1 (3 sets of each except crunches and situps)

• On machine - triceps pulldown, 12 reps, 72 lb (5 plates)
• On machine - bench press, 8 reps, 135 lb (10 plates)
• On machine - front raise, 12 reps, 46 lb (3 plates)
• On bench - leg extensions, 12 reps, 90 lbs
• Side crunches (both sides) 60 reps.  These consist of laying on my back with my knees together twisted to the left or right and against the floor, holding that position and crunching straight up.
• Front sit-ups, 60 reps.  These consist of laying on my back and bringing my knees all the way up to my forehead.

2x/week weights routine 2

• On machine - preacher curls, 12 reps, 80 lbs (6 plates)
• On machine - lat pulldowns, 8 reps, 154 lbs (12 plates)
• On bench - leg curls, 12 reps, 90 lbs
• On machine - leg press, 12 reps, 305 lbs (12 plates)
• Same crunches and situps as previous routine.

Overall shape/activity:
I'm actually in pretty good shape.  I don't take elevators where I work, so I'm going up and down stairs quite a bit...probably 10-15 flights (up and down) a day through the week.  I don't have a problem with that either with cardio or with my knees.  Other than that, I have no other physical activities.  Other than a little pain in my right knee (and really only during squat-like movements), I don't have any physical problems.

Eating:
I'm probably taking in almost 3000 calories a day.  I eat a 200 calorie protein bar for breakfast everyday.  From my memory of when I was tracking things, I probably eat around 1200 calories for lunch and 1200 calories for dinner.  My weakness is Coca Cola.  Part of those meals include one.  I probably have 1-2 a day on top of that.  I've been able on and off to break the habit, but I always fall back on it.  Unfortunately, it results in probably 25% of my caloric intake.  I have very poor discipline when it comes to staying away from any snacks...I have to keep them out of my house.  Even so, an Oreo Blizzard or chocolate shake always seems to be calling my name (add on 700 calories on those days). 

When it comes to eating, I've met three kinds of people.  There are well adjusted people who don't have any eating problems, there are stress-starvers and then stress-eaters.  I'm a stress-eater.  When I get stressed, I immediately get hungry.  As I diminish stress in my life and learn better ways to deal with it, I'm hoping that phenomenon will go away.

Life:
I've got an awesome and supportive wife (Melanie) who has in many ways enabled me to take this challenge.  We have two incredible kids...Reggie who is almost 4 and Morgan who is 1 1/2.  I really enjoy being with my family and I spend most of my time with them.  I've scheduled all this workout stuff so that it doesn't interfere with the time that I spend with them.

First workout is in the morning.  I'll post how it went!

Fears and concerns...

So as I approach starting this insanity Thursday morning, I thought I'd list some of my fears about it...

1. Bad knees.  I've had problems before with my knees.  Right now, the left is 100% but I've got a little pain in my right as I approach 45 degrees in a squat (coming up or going down).  This is a little worrisome as I approach some of the exercises that will make me do that.  Not sure how well that is going to go.  I think that will be on Friday.
2. Time.  The workouts look like they are about an hour with 15 min abdominal exercises added on.  The Yoga day is 90 minutes.  And you work out 6 days a week.  I'm starting so that Yoga is on a Saturday.  The only time I can really do this is in the morning.  If I run out of time, I may be able to push the ab stuff to the evening.  But I'm not going to fool myself.  Life will make me miss days here and there...there is no avoiding it.  You can't just skip a day, so it may push me off schedule here and there. 
3. Stopping my current workout.  I've went through lulls of not working out before.  And then it completely sucked getting back on the elliptical or doing weights.  Since I won't have time for both P90X and my current routine, I'll have to dump what I've been doing.  Although I know I'll improve in many other areas, I wonder what I'll lose by not being on the elliptical or doing weights.
4. What to do after P90X.  This seems foggy in everything I've read.  I'm not a huge workout guy.  Once I'm done with this, I know I'll want to keep whatever results I get, but I'm not going to want to work out 75 minutes a day for 6 days a week.  I wonder what the next step will be to maintain things.
5. Quitting.  This is why I'm not going to post any pictures for a while.  If I quit, it won't be because it was too hard.  It will be because I'm lazy.  I've seen that pattern before.  Hopefully I won't repeat it.  But if I do, I'm not going to have a bunch of flabby pictures of me on the internet.  I'll probably start putting up pics after 30 days or so.

Anyhow, that kind of sums up my fears and concerns.  I got the DVDs today.  The scary thing was when I went to the website and printed up the worksheets that show the exercises for each day.  Holy cow.  Day one is 24 exercises which consist mainly of different pushups and pullups.  Wow.  This should be interesting.

I'll post all of my baseline stuff tomorrow.  Thanks for reading.