Day 81 (Yoga) Getting better and better...

Completed Yoga on Sunday.  It is always a drag to see I'm going to be doing any workout for 90 minutes, but it goes by VERY fast once I start.  I'm continuing to improve.  I completed prayer twist on my first side without a wobble.  The second side wasn't so hot.  Warrior 3 on my first side completed without a wobble and I kept my back leg up through the subsequent moves.  I've found I can keep my balance better if I move my back leg one way or the other in half moon and twisting half moon.  I still use a modified Yoga block during those moves but I found I can twist my body more by focusing on pushing my chest out.  That pushes my high hand more around instead of collapsing in.  Not sure if that makes sense.

For the balance postures, I stayed in tree on both sides.  Royal Dancer seems to be getting harder for some reason...maybe because I am working harder at everything before it.  Leg extensions are getting easier.

Day 79 (Plyo), 80 (Back/Biceps)...Plyo is...fun?

Completed Plyo on Friday and Back/Biceps (+ Ab ripper) on Saturday.

I'm now having fun doing Plyo.  It isn't killing me anymore.  I mean, it is hard but not so hard that I feel like dying.  I no longer have to press the pause button.  Actually, I forgot to blog about Plyo last week.  And I think it started happening last week.  I've said it previously, but much of it is mental.  If you write out the names of the routines and see how it is broken up, you'll see that some exercises are really natural breaks.  And you can mentally prepare to get through the hard exercises knowing you are going to have those natural breaks.  I've learned that once I get through the first two blocks of four exercises (and really, it is about the reach squats followed by the jump switch pickups), the rest of the routine is downhill.  I no longer have any knee pain during the entire routine.

What can I say about Back/Biceps?  I'm now using 60 pounds for lawnmowers and a few more of the back exercises are seeing increased weights.  I'm not really being able to do more weight in the curls right now.  I'm also reaching a plateau with the pull ups.  For the strip set I'm doing 20 pounds twice and 15 pounds twice.  It is just too ridiculous to do 20-15-10-5.  Hopefully, I'll eventually be able to step that up to starting at 25.

Day 78 (Chest/Shoulders/Triceps)

Not too much to say about yesterday's workout.  I always think of this as the "weird push up day" as it has all sorts of different types of hard push ups.

Once again, I modified many of the "over the head" exercises by sitting down so I can focus on my arms instead of my back as I am lifting weights above my head.  That seemed to work out well.  I'm always nervous with the tricep exercises as I'm pushing my arms to the max and if they give out, the weights are going to come down on my head.  This might sound dumb, but I've known this to happen to other people.  Ouch.

I've been having a problem with the plyo (clap) push ups for a while.  If I am on my knees, I can do them almost forever.  If I'm not on my knees, I can't do one in the middle of the workout (I can do plenty off my knees if I'm wasted from the workout).  Somehow, I need to find a modification that is harder than being on my knees, but not as hard as being on my toes.  I'll never get stronger unless I can max out on them.

Anti-day 77 (non-Kenpo) So I'm human...

Kenpo didn't happen today.  I took the day off to go to the zoo with the family and one activity led to another and the day finally ran out of steam with the only time to do the workout being right before bed.

I would probably not miss a resistance workout.  But Kenpo...well, its easy.  It doesn't really build anything except a little coordination and balance.  It burns about 700 calories, but I'm not looking to lose weight and I don't imagine I'll lose much cardio capacity by missing a day.

Besides, I am starting to think of the P90X workouts as being integrated into an everyday fitness routine...not just 90 days that reach some arbitrary goal.  I'll be continuing this indefinitely, so I'm not going to beat myself up about missing one day.

So far I've missed one stretch routine in week 8 and now one cardio routine in week 11.  I actually probably would have made this up if I hadn't pushed Legs/Back off one day and ended up with no extra day to play with.

Day 76 (Legs/Back) Finally...feeling/seeing changes

Finished Legs/Back today.  I've had steady but slow improvement on this routine from day one.  Once my balance improved, I think things started to really kick into gear.  I think this is the result of extra strength being added from just being more successful at balancing.  Balance lunges, super skaters, toe iso rolls...all can now be done with no help from hanging on to a chair.  And I think the improvement builds more improvement...the more I can balance, the more small muscles get exercises, the better I can balance, etc.  It has just taken a very long time to start to arrive here.  The only real problem is the deadlift squat (squatting on one leg and coming back up).  I did MUCH better at that one today, but once I start to wobble and get out of rhythm, I can't seem to get it back.

When I talk about feeling changes, I'm talking about pull ups and all the calf exercises.  Regarding the pullups...for the past 11 weeks, I've simply struggled just to pull myself up.  To be honest, I've never really felt this as a back exercise...it has always seemed all arms.  Well today I started to feel something different.  I guess my arms are now strong enough that there isn't so much of a struggle getting halfway up.  But during the last part of the motion, I can now feel the focus in my back...I can really push that part of my body and slowly bring myself up.  I'm not sure if it makes sense the way I'm talking about it.  Let me try to make it more clear...first I'm pulling up with my arms and then I can now feel my back take over and bring me the rest of the way up.  It now feels like I am using all the muscles I am supposed to.  And I'm seeing results.  Although I can do at least 8 of about any type of pull up right off the bat, I could never before do that many after being in the middle of a workout.  I am now approaching that.  And I owe it all to the chair.  By maxing out with the chair and then continuing for a total of 12-15 reps with the chair, I've really allowed myself to build up strength.  Before when I wasn't using the chair and maxing out at 3-4 reps, I was going nowhere.

Regarding feeling it in the calf muscles...all the stuff geared toward the calf would really only make the arches of my feet sore.  I never felt anything in the calf.  Now that has started to change.  I'm not sure if I am doing anything different, but today I was really able to focus on how my calf felt during the exercises.

OK, I'm going to be honest here...when it comes to the muscle, I don't know what the plural of calf is...calfs or calves. 

OK, now onto seeing changes.  I haven't mentioned this before because I didn't want to feel like I was searching for results.  But I can now see definite improvement in my abs.  There is no doubt.  And it isn't from weight loss because I am at the same weight I was when I started.  There is definite definition.  Not sure if it will show up on camera or not, but I can clearly see it.

Day 73,74 (Shoulders/Arms, Yoga) Sitting down...

So I’ve had my first experience losing an entire post after I wrote it…and then losing it again after I wrote it the second time.  Let’s see what happens this time…

Finished Shoulders/Arms on Saturday and Yoga on Sunday.  I was actually supposed to do Legs/Back yesterday (Monday) but you know what…I just didn’t feel like it.  So I used Monday for the day of rest with Legs/Back today (Tuesday) and Kenpo on Wednesday.  Then I’ll start the final week of resistance on Thursday.  Can you tell I’m getting a little burnt out.  Or maybe my luck has run out.  I’ve gotten through almost eleven weeks without any real crisis that has prevented a workout.  I’ve worked out through illness and vacation.  But other than that, the past eleven weeks have been pretty laid back.  Now life it getting busy again and I can see working out will have to be more flexible.  That will all be taken into account once I complete the 90 days and figure out exactly how I’m going to proceed.

Shoulders/Arms went pretty well.  As I mentioned before, I sat down during the exercises (like presses) where weight is above my head.  That took some strain off my back and allowed me to focus on proper form where it counts.  I’ve also learned to keep my body more stable in the exercises where I stand.  Before, I’d look down and see my knees and feet all over the place like an idiot.  Now I’m trying to concentrate on having a very stable foundation.  One thing is that I’ve somewhat peaked out on weight over the past few weeks.  Maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise.  I am setting my goal at 8-10 reps, but I don’t think I’m really gaining bulk or strength because I’m not eating more and gaining weight.  We’ll see what happens.

Yoga also went well…pretty comparable to last time.  Was able to do Warrior 3 (although wobbling) on the second side…the first side had some stumbles.  The same thing happened with prayer twist in a lunge…first side had tumbles but second side was good.  Still can’t look up in that prayer twist lunge, but I’m happy I can hold it.  Tree was stable.  Royal Dancer had some stumbles.  Standing Leg Extension had some stumbles.  I can do Crane twice for about 10 seconds.  I stop after that because of knee strain.  Everything else went well.  Still trying to get lower in the second round of side twists.

Day 71 (Chest/Back) Peaking out?

Ah, Chest and Back...where it all began.  This was the first workout of the whole program and it always makes be remember the first morning.  When I started, I was scared...SCARED.  Chest and Back is basically a ton of push ups and pull ups with three exercises that require weights.  I started with five pounds...FIVE!  That is how scared I was (I had never done free weights before).  Now those exercises are taking 40-50 pounds each and I would up it if I had the weights (which I'll have to get eventually).

Also when I started, all I had was a pull up bar that went in a doorway.  That was a disaster for someone of my height...very uncomfortable.  Add to that, I wasn't using a chair or any assist and I was killing myself to get 2-3 reps.  That went on for several weeks before I swallowed my pride and started using a chair in order to get at least 12 reps.  Now, I can at least start out with 8 reps without a chair (although I go way downhill further on into the workout).

The thing is that I'm starting to plateau.  I've reached somewhat of a max rep count that hasn't increased for several weeks.  It stands at about 20-25 push ups (depending on where I am in the workout) and around 12 pull ups (with and without the chair added).  It isn't for lack of effort...I am pushing myself until my arms literally won't work anymore.  Since the third week or so, I've been using push up bars and I've been playing around with forgetting about getting high reps and focusing on just going lower.  I'll admit that I haven't been going as low as I could.  Part of it has to do with the speed that is suggested.  They go so freaking fast on the DVD that it is hard to get low enough. 

However, most of this doesn't matter for this first 90 days.  Because of the P90X schedule, this is the last time I'll be doing this workout.  I won't see it again until the next round.

That's right...I've said it.  The next round of P90X.  But to be honest, there isn't anything really special about that.  I worked out before P90X and I knew I'd continue working out afterward.  I like the way the program is set up and it simply seems like a workout now...nothing magical or too hard.  Three days of resistance plus two days of cardio and a day of Yoga.  It seems like a reasonable schedule that should be effective.  I won't be looking for dramatic change...just simply to keep in really good shape and continuing to improve upon the routines and exercises.