Day 57 (Chest/Back) Now into the final phase...

Finished Chest/Back and then Ab Ripper later.  Because of the P90X schedule, I haven't done this workout in 5 weeks although I've done a lot of other chest and back exercises.  I didn't expect this workout to be so hard.  I'm not sure if it is truly the 5 weeks or the fact that I'm using push up bars now.  I was struggling.  I couldn't do the same number of reps (as far as push ups) when I last did this routine.  I also felt a lot of effort in my forearms.  I also performed pull ups with a chair after I max'd out without the chair (which was pretty quickly...after 8 pull ups in the first round).  I was able to increase my weight significantly for the heavy pants, lawn mowers and back flys.

Overall, I feel pretty good about the workout.  I pushed myself until my muscles wouldn't work anymore and I was very tight...I could barely lift my arm to wash the back of my neck in the shower afterward.

Ab Ripper also was somewhat of a challenge but not too bad.

Day 55 (Yoga) I need a recovery from recovery

Finished Yoga yesterday.  I was sore...SORE...from doing Core.  I think the past week of sitting in a car for 12 hours followed by Kenpo, followed by mowing grass, followed by Core has had an effect.

Yoga seemed a little harder.  Getting in the bottom of the Chaturanga was more difficult...probably from all the Core push-up stuff.  Still, I was able to achieve my normal goal...get all the way through right angle twist grab without tumbling.  For some reason, I couldn't keep my balance in the prayer twists this time.  And as usual, I couldn't hold Warrior 3.  However, I was able to keep my back leg up all the way through the Warrior 3/Half Moon/Twisting Half Moon routine (except for one brief tumble).  That may have been the first time I've ever done that.  My knee was on FIRE.  I still can't seem to get half moon...it is very awkward to hold...although twisting half moon is easier.

Strangely enough, I was better on the balance moves (tree, royal dancer, standing leg extensions).  Not sure why.  By the way, I'm still starting off standing on the right leg instead of the left as they do on the DVD.  The purpose for this is that your left leg is fried from just finishing the Warrior 3 routine on it.  I can do crane for several seconds, but I'm not pushing it as it is putting a lot of strain on my wrists.  I'll go in and out of it a few times during the minute, but not too many times or as long as they do.

Everything else went well.  I tried to go much lower in the second round of leg twists during Yoga Belly.  Throughout the Chaturangas, I tried to go much lower.

Just realized that I just finished 8 weeks and only missed the X-stretch during recovery week.  Thursday starts the next round of resistance which goes 4 full weeks.  I am actually looking forward to it.

Day 54 (Core) and replacing Kenpo with Core

Finished Core yesterday.  I worked harder on Core than I ever have before, partly because I am getting used to it.  Core is only done four times during the entire P90X schedule and I think you have to do a workout at least 2-3 times before you really know it enough to be able to push yourself.

During the Core workout, Horton tells you to focus on your core while during exercises.  But yesterday is probably the first time I have done that.  Before, I was just focusing on being able to do an exercise or just making it through the hour.

I was actually able to complete all exercises in the workout for the entire allotted time except for the Plank/Chaturunga Iso's at the end.  By focusing on my core muscles, I think I took the focus on how much I wanted to die during the hour so I was able to complete more.

Throughout P90X, one of the things that really motivates me is not being able to do something.  If there is an exercise that I can't even modify to complete, it really pushes me to work harder.  I at least want to be able to do the modified (easier) move.  But with only 6X during the 90 days, there isn't enough time to work on the Core workout in order to be able to improve.

I've brought this up before...swapping out Kenpo with Core.  I think about what I'm missing by not doing the Core more and what I'd be missing by taking the Kenpo out.  The cardio part of Kenpo is easily replaced by Core...they both burn about the same number of calories (700-800).  Without Kenpo, the only significant thing I lose is the coordination and balance of the kicking routines...nothing else in the program covers that.  But without Core, I lose a huge amount of core muscle exercises that I think are really beneficial.

The main hurdle of replacing Kenpo with Core is figuring out how to get enough recovery time.  Core is very arm/chest heavy...specifically with plank/push-up exercises.  It really needs to be separated from the other chest work.  Since Kenpo is on day 6 and most chest stuff is on day 1, there is only 48 hours recovery.  So I've decided to move Yoga to day 6 from day 4 and put Core at day 4.

We'll see how it goes.  This essentially means that the Abs lose a day of rest because Ab X is on days 1, 3 and 5 and also get subjected to Yoga Belly on day 6 and Core on day 4.

Day 51 (Core), 53 (Kenpo) and my first missed workout.

Finished Core my last full day of vacation (Friday).  I didn't necessarily dog it, but I have to admit that I wasn't in the frame of mind to really put my all into it.  I got through all the exercises but I fell apart during the Plank/Chaturunga runs and iso's.  The Sphinx push ups were harder than I remembered too.

Saturday/Sunday was supposed to be Kenpo/Stretch.  I knew I was going to be driving 12 hours on Saturday, so I switched Kenpo to Sunday and essentially just skipped Stretch.  The Stretch workout is only done once during each recovery week for a total of 3 times during the 90 days.  It is also optional as the 7th workout every week.  Practically all the stretches in the workout are already covered in the warm-up/cool-downs of the other workouts so I don't feel like I really missed anything.  However, just to be good I plan on putting Stretch during my next off day so I can officially say I haven't missed anything.

Did Kenpo yesterday as planned.  Nothing really new here.  Kenpo is the easiest of all the workouts for me.  I've continued to toy with replacing it with Core every week.  I see from internet searches that others have done the same thing.  The problem with that is there would only be 48 hours of recovery from all the upper body stuff before I'd have to do another round of upper body with either Chest/Back or Chest/Shoulders/Arms.  It is really hard to tweak the P90X schedule without running into issues with recovery.

Day 50 (Yoga)

Finished Yoga this morning.  Not much to report.  These blog updates are likely to get more and more boring as less and less new happens.

Today's Yoga was very similar to Sunday's.  I got through right angle pose and grab without stumbling.  Prayer twist was better.  Couldn't hold Warrior 3, but did marginally better at the whole standing splits/half moon/twisting half moon.  Although I couldn't always hold the pose (with half moon being the hardest), I tried to keep the back leg up throughout the whole routine.  I stumbled here and there, but I am getting much better. 

I did notice that I've never been getting as low as what they do during the Chaturangas.  I'll work on that.

I also noticed last Sunday that I haven't been getting low enough on the side twists during Yoga belly.  Working on that too.

Day 48 (Kenpo) 7 weeks complete!

Finished Kenpo and week 7 today.  Not much to report.  Once again, proud to get a workout done while I'm on vacation.  Not too long into the workout, I was overwhelmed with the desire to quit.  Being on vacation isn't very conducive to pushing yourself in P90X workouts.  But I kept on and I'm really glad I did.  I haven't missed a workout yet and I'd like to keep the streak going.  Tomorrow is a day of rest, but I'm probably going to do X-stretch as I'm planning on missing it on Saturday when I face another 12 hour drive back to Indiana.  Thursday will be Yoga and Friday is Core.

Day 47 (Legs/Back) Dogging it...

Felt really tired and not into it this morning.  Also, it was difficult to perform some of the exercises in a different environment.  For instance, the walls at this condo are covered in some type of glossy paint that makes it difficult to hold traction on wall squats.  Plus, the temp pull up bar sucks...the ceilings are only 7 ft so if I stand, the pull up bar is at about eye level.  Then I had to switch between working out on a rug which slid on the floor or working out on the floor and sliding in my own sweat.  I couldn't focus, I couldn't keep balance on a lot of things I had been improving on...etc., etc.

I thought back about my posts on this workout and I've always bitched about it.  It is just a rough one for me unless everything around me is going perfectly.

At least I got through it.  I think I accomplished something at least and I know that I will do this again every resistance week.