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.

Background...

Switched the blog over to blogger.com...seems to work better.

So tonight I'll post a brief background and then put in more about my baseline Wednesday.

I'm 40 now.  I was always super skinny through my early 20's.  I was 6'3" and I believe I had a 28 inch waist...all skin and bones...and I think I weighed in about 140 or something close.  At about 27 my metabolism changed.  In about 6 months or less, I gained about 35 pounds.  That would normally be a good thing, but every pound of it was all around my waist.  I looked like ET...super skinny but with a gut.  Kind of gross.

Once I got to my early 30's, I got into weights and was able to get into a better proportion.  I have never been bulky at all, but at least I looked like a muscular ET...still with the gut.  I leveled out at about 165 pounds and a 34 inch waist.

Last year, I did an experiment.  I decided to try to get back the early 20's waist and try to keep the muscle.  I still did weights, but I did a crash diet (~1700 calories a day) and a lot of cardio.  In 3 months, I went from 167 to 147 pounds (WAY too much) and went from 34 inches to 30.5.  I still didn't lose all the gut and love handles, and I looked completely emaciated.  I knew it was crazy to be that skinny and that this wasn't the way to go.

Within a few months, I was back to the pre-crash diet weight and shape.  To maintain general health, I do weights on a machine four times a week and 30 minutes on an elliptical (with resistance) around five times a week.  I'm probably in great shape for someone my age, but that gut still bums me out.

Enter P90X.  I've heard about it for quite a while.  I've known some people who have done it (some successfully and some not).  I'm not really into fads and I'm not obsessed with working out.  But I'd like to take another shot at getting my body where I'd like it.  P90X looks like a good regiment...very organized and well rounded for the entire body.  Plus there is a lot of knowledge and support out there. 

So there is a little background.  Perhaps someday, someone with the same history will see this and benefit from it.  I'll probably post some of my concerns about doing this tomorrow.  And Wednesday I'll post some baseline stuff.  Then it starts Thursday morning.

Starting out...

I'm not going to lie...it seems incredibly self indudgent and self important to blog. It is kind of like writing a personal diary and and publishing it thinking that everyone else is dying to know what you do every day.
I'm starting this blog for three reasons:

1. I'm starting the P90X workout program and I'd like to be able to look back and see what I went through and how far I've come.
2. It creates some accountability. Making a big change in your life is hard. It is easy to quit, especially if no one else knows you are trying. If I'm putting updates on a public forum, it creates at least a little bit of an embarrassing consequence if I just pack it in after 7 days.
3. It might help someone who is going through the same experience. Before I purchased the program, I was encouraged by seeing someone else's blog...someone who was at about the same fitness level as me before they started. It was nice to see how far they came and what they went through.

So there it is. I am currently planning on starting the program this Thursday. Before then, I'll blog a little bit about my current fitness level...kind of a baseline before I start.