P90x Day 27 - Yoga

Not a very good workout for me this morning. I started my Yoga workout and got about 15 minutes into it and just couldn't get it started. I had alot of guests in my house from out of town for my daughter's birthday and they were all out in the living room living it up and it was just distracting. I'm a little concerned that the last 2 yoga days I've really not had a very good workout.

I weighed in this morning. For the first phase i'm down 7.5 pounds and about .5% BF. It's not entirely what I wanted I'll admit, but I'm pleased with it. I really struggled early this morning with "all that work for only 7.5 pounds" but I'm not surprised. It's hard when you start doing well to not just set that bar higher for yourself than is reasonable. I think I'll be pretty pleased if I can keep that ratio up and lose 25 pounds or in 3 months. I'm acutally more disappointed by the .5% loss in BF, but that could be any number of reasons for that electronic measurer I have. I might weigh in again tomorrow just to see if the number changes any.

This next week I'm suppossed to add in some running a few nights a week. That'll be interesting to see how that goes and I'm sure the additional cardio will help. My conern is that my eating will either leave me energy deprived or I'm going to have to increase my intake to balance out the new calorie deficit.

Anyways, one Phase down. I'm looking forward to getting back into the weight training weeks and see what Tony has in store for me for the next month.

P90x Day 26 - Core Synergistics

What a busy day. I usually have time to get my post out of the way earlier, but today was just a blur.

Today was Core Synergistics. This is a strange workout, but it's alot of fun. It's really intense but it goes by pretty fast. I actually like this alot because it's a good breakup from what I'm normally doing and I can feel myself getting a good core workout. With the Ab-Ripper I know I "should" be getting a great workout but I'm often so tired from the first workout or I can't make it far enough into the Ab workout to feel like I'm getting a workout without immediately feeling like I'm in over my head. I'm not sure if that makes any sense.

I'm suppossed to weigh in on Sunday, but I'm considering weighing in tomorrow morning. My daughter's first birthday is tomorrow and I would rather be able to enjoy that and not be fretting over my next day weigh-in. I don't think I'm going to do so much tomorrow that I'm able shed any considerable amount of weight between Saturday and Sunday. And I also feel like I've done pretty good this week so I should be able to do it either day. Maybe I'll weigh in both days and take the lower number as my result.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do but that's what I'm leaning towards.

Tomorrow is Yoga. I've got a ton of stuff to get done tomorrow so getting my workout in is going to be tough. I'm going to make time for it, but it might bean having to wake up earlier than I want to for a Saturday. Either way I'm going to press play tomorrow. We'll figure it out.

P90X Day 25 - Stretch X

So this morning has turned into a bit of a free-for-all based on my assuming that blogs were the gospel. I had read in a blog about P90x that the stretch dvd was only 30 minutes long. It's not. It's an hour like the rest of them. So anyways, because of this I hadn't done the stretch before, I figured it's only 30 minutes, I'll take the rest over the stretch. But today I wasn't given the "rest or stretch" option on the calendar, there was only stretch.

Well because I thought it was only 30 minutes I decided to go ahead and just wake up later than usual and get a few minutes of extra sleep. So instead of waking up at 5:45 i got up around 7 and put in the DVD. Imagine my surprise to see it was a full hour. So I did the whole DVD, got in my breakfast and just called in and told them I'd be a few minutes late to work. I've been so ahead of the game for the last month that it's not an issue it's just annoying.

So I'm not sure if I'll be skipping the stretch on the "stretch or rest" days, it all depends on how I feel. I got a good stretch today, but my lower back is still sore today from all the core work this week. Sometimes the extra rest isn't a bad thing.

I really really wanted to weigh in this morning. I went to bed pretty hungry and work up feeling lean. I know I have 3 more days until weigh-in but I really felt that today would be a good day to get it in. Hopefully I'll feel this way on Sunday.

It's getting hard to avoid all the dietary temptations this week. I've found myself surrounded by free food all week and I've almost avoided all of it. Yesterday somebody gave me some Arby's curly fries they didn't want and I said I'd have one or two. Usually that's enough to get the taste in my mouth and my brain will quit screaming for them. Well before I knew it I'd eaten a handful of them and had to put them down and walk away from them. I didn't even realize I was eating them all which doesn't surprise me. I don't think I ever really noticed the food I was shoveling in when I'm in my "unhealthy zone".

Anyways, feeling good today. Core Synergistics tomorrow. That's such a strange exercise routine. But it was fun last time so I'm looking forward to pressing play on it tomorrow.

P90x Day 24 - Kenpo X

Kenpo today. Man I love this workout. It really is the most fun of all the DVDs. I found myself after the workout going "Finish him" and "Fatality" and humming the stupid Mortal Kombat theme. I'm such a dork.

I got a later start than usual today. I hit the snooze button for what seemed like forever and squeezed out almost 45 minutes extra sleep this morning. I didn't really enjoy being so far behind the schedule, but I felt alot better when I woke up. I guess that's just something you have to do every so often.

Energy is still high today. But usually after those "crash" days like Monday I'm riding high for a few days. I still haven't figured it out exactly but it isn't really bothering me. So far it hasn't been enough to lead me into binge eating so I'll just chalk it up to the yin-yang of exercising.

One day closer to Sunday. I'm getting very nervous about the weigh-in. If I get on the scale and don't see any results after a month of pretty strict eating and daily workouts I'll be bummed.

Anyways, it's stretching tomorrow. I wonder if I'll sleep in a bit tomorrow since this is a shorter workout. We'll see. I'm looking forward to pressing play on that though and getting a good stretch.

P90x Day 23 - Core Synergistics

The difference between yesterday and today is astounding. I woke up feeling good and got a workout in that I wasn't just coasting through. I'm not sure if it was food intake or sleep or what that sent yesterday into a tailspin. I'm glad that the only casualty was 1/2 a workout because how I felt yesterday would normally have led me into fast food or just eating for eating's sake.

So Core synergistics is alot of fun. I hadn't done this workout before so it was interesting to actually see what it was made of. It was really tough and my wrists were killing me from all the holding myself up that was involved, but it was still fun. I think this will be a workout that I definately am able to see the change when I do it. The workouts were designed in such a way that I'm sure it'll be a good metric. I really enjoyed banana rolls for some reason. Maybe it's just me being a dork.

Week is moving right along. Looking forward to this weekend.
Can't wait to press play tomorrow.

P90x Day 22 - Yoga

Somebody's got a case of the Mondays.

Today was hands down the worst day I've had on P90x. I started off on Yoga and after going through the motions for almost 30 minutes decided to call it quits. I was disappointed that I gave up, but I was getting absolutely nothing out of my workout. I kept thinking that if I just kept going I'd come around and get into it, but it didn't happen. I'm hoping this is the low point of my P90x journey.

Diet was good today but energy was very low. I was hungry all day and ran out of pre-packed healthy food at work and instead of getting something less healthy to fill the gap I just drank water and chewed gum and tried to suffer it out. I felt better after I got home and ate dinner but even now I'm still pretty worn out.

Tomorrow is the new "Core Synergistics" I'm excited about that. This weekend is both my daughter's first birthday and my Phase I ending weigh-in. I'm looking forward to both.

Looking forward to pressing play on the new workout tomorrow. Hoping I rebound better.

P90x Day 20 - Kenpo

I almost missed my self-imposed posting deadline today.

Woke up a little off schedule today and was up for a while before I did my Kenpo. It was sorta strange not doing the dvd the second I climbed out of bed but it worked out ok.

I really do enjoy the Kenpo workout so far more than any of the other dvds. I'm not sure what it is but it's alot of fun, still challenging, and I get a great workout in.

I can't believe tomorrow is 3 weeks. 7 days from tomorrow I'll be weighing in and seeing my progress for the first phase. I honestly cannot wait.

My diet on the weekends tends to be significantly different than my weekday diet. The weekday is repeatable and I eat lunch at work. But on the weekend I'm at home, my schedule is a bit different, the family is around so eating tends to be different than usual. We didn't eat out at all today which is sorta rare for a weekend, and I think we did pretty good eating around the house.

Anyways, enjoying a relaxing weekend. So far I haven't missed a workout or a blogging. Although today was cutting it close.

P90x Day 19 - Legs and Back

It's hard to believe that 3 weeks are almost complete. This morning was the first morning that I looked in the mirror and felt like I could see a difference. I'm pretty sure my upper stomach area what I call my "top ab" is flatter or smaller or what have you. I think that this is one of the last places you put on weight, so I have to believe that this is one of the first places I'd see improvement. Again, I don't get on the scale until next week so looks are all I have to go on.

Speaking of that I'm going to change things slightly. The "plan" calls for you to weigh in and take pictures on day 31. However the "phases" are in 4 week blocks. So it doesn't make much sense to me. I'm going to weigh in and take pictures next Sunday on the end of the 1st phase. I'll have more time to do this on Sunday and it makes more sense to me to do it on a day you're resting and your muscles aren't jacked up rather than do it after arm day or something to where the results look skewed. I think this makes more sense. It does mean that my last weigh-in will be 5 weeks long instead of the 4 from Phase 1 and Phase 2 because Phase 3 is 4 weeks and then a recovery week. I'm fine with this having to be this way.

Leg and Back workout today went well. My legs right now are really warm feeling which is always a good sign of a tough workout. I'm thinking that tomorrow I might have a sore lower back because that always seems to happen after I work my hamstrings. Kenpo should stretch me out. Today's workout seemed like I got alot more out of it than usual. This was my first leg and back workout with my resistance band and I didn't get my usual breathing time during the back part of the workout. I got alot of reps on the back workout and I'm really thinking that between losing weight and the new workout I'm getting with the bands that I stand a good shot at being able to complete a pull-up by the end of the cycle.

Ab-Ripper today wasn't the best effort I've put forth on it. I just have such a hard time on it. By the time I do In-Out,Bicycles,Crunchy Frog, and Wide Leg Sit-ups I really have nothing left. My abs are killing me and I feel like I'm using more back at that point than abs to get up and I'm worried about hurting myself. All this might be excuses I make because I'm super tired, who knows. All I know is that by the time Feifer Scissors comes along I've got nothing left.

Energy is way up today. Yesterday was pretty low energy wise but I fought through it.

Looking forward to Kenpo tomorrow. I love that workout for some reason. I can't wait to press play on it.

P90x Day 18 - Yoga

Yoga day. I'm thinking that I might be close to picking up the Yoga X dvd again. Maybe next week during "recovery". The YRG 60 minute workout I've been working with for the last two weeks is really tough but I'm able to actually keep up with almost all of it. It's really hard, but I'm able to do it.

My diet wasn't that great today. I didn't bring my lunch to work, but I did manage to eat better than I would have pre-90 and went to Subway. Dinner wasn't as good as it usually was either because we went out and met a friend of ours to celebrate his 1 year anniversary on the wagon.

Regardless of it all I feel I did pretty well considering. In hindsight I wish I had brought my lunch.

Week 3 is almost done. Getting close to update time. Looking forward to that.

Looking forward to pressing play on Legs tomorrow.

P90x Day 17 - Shoulders and Arms

I enjoy shoulders and arms day. It's probably because of all the workout days it's the one that I can keep up with the most. I think that's why I like Kenpo too.

I went up in weight on some lifts from last week and still feel like I was able to get 100% out of my workout. The only things I didn't do well are the dips and the lying tricep extentions. I don't really like dips because for some reason they always hurt my shoulder. No matter how close I stay to the chair when I'm dipping it never goes well because I can't go very low without shoulder pain.

Ab-Ripper X was rough today. I didn't get that far in it as usual, but tried to give it my best. My abs get so sore during it that I can't do alot of them after about 1/3 of the exercises. But that's probably to be expected going from almost no core strength.

Diet is going well. I have to go out and eat tomorrow night with a friend to celebrate his 1 year anniversary of sobriety. I'm hoping I can eat well. I picked a place I believe will make that place possible.

YOGA TOMORROW! It'll be crazy fun I'm sure. Looking forward to pressing play on that.

P90x Day 16 - Plyometrics

Wow. Not much else I could say even if I wanted to after this morning's workout. I was absolutely exhausted and drenched in sweat. I hadn't done Plyo since Week 1 because I was still in recovery on week 2. I actually believe that I forgot what exactly Plyo contained because yesterday I was actually looking forward to it this morning. About 20 minutes into the workout, I was no longer looking forward to the workout :)

I'm feeling a bit more energetic today, but I'm still a bit tired. I'm thinking that it's just a part of "low energy" because I'm still eating clean and eating less. I'm not "exhausted" but I can tell about 2-3 hours after I eat a definite slump in energy. Once I eat again I'm much better. I guess that's the point though. Small of often eating instead of big spaced out meals.

I'm very interested in the results day in a week and a half. It'll be really revealing as to what exactly how I'm doing. I feel like I'm making progress physically, and my clothes do feel better on me. It'll be interesting to see what the scale says.

I'm on my third week now without missing any workouts. I've completely changed over my schedule to waking up in the morning and I'm pretty pleased with myself about this. I know it's typically easier for the first 4-5 weeks. I know typically your energy level and "interest" tends to taper off after this period. I'm very interested in seeing if P90X's "muscle confusion" idea of swapping everything up every month helps this out. It'll be something to keep an eye on.

Shoulders and Arms tomorrow. Can't wait to press play on that. I really enjoy that workout.

P90x Day 15 - Chest and Back, Ab-Ripper X

Really tired so I'll have to make this update quick. I was actually headed to bed when I remembered that I didn't make my update for today.

Got a great workout in this morning. I can tell that I've gained some strength already in my chest as I was able to do more pushups today than either of the previous weeks.

I broke down this weekend and bought a high strength resistance band for my back workouts. I know I should keep trying to do pullups, but I can't do any on my own so this seemed better. I got in alot more reps today and I can already tell my back is really feeling the workout. I think short/medium term this will be a better workout for my back until I'm strong and light enough to do pull-ups.

Plus I now own all the pieces I need to take the show on the road so to speak.

Ab-Ripper is still impossible. Didn't do as well this time as the last, but there is always next time.

Exhausted. Going to bed.

Looking forward to pushing play on Plyo tomorrow. Did I just type that?

P90x Day 13 - Kenpo

KENPO IS FUN!

Man I honestly love this workout. It is a ton of fun. I'm covered in sweat by the end that's for sure, but I feel great. And the time really zips by while you're doing it, I hardly even notice it's been an hour.

Feeling great today. Looking forward to going out tonight with the wife and some friends and having alot of fun. I'm going to try to have fun without sucking down alot of alcohol and feeling like crap tomorrow. I'm going to try to keep my eyes on the prized even though I'm going to go out and have fun.

I can't believe the second week is already finished. Only one more time through this cycle and then it's the 4th week of new workouts which should be fun.

My biceps are pretty sore but not painful, and other than that I'm injury free and feel great. It's nice to finally be able to say that after about 2 weeks.

Rest/Stretch tomorrow. Maybe I'll stretch instead of rest this time around.

P90x Day 12 - Legs and Back

Legs today and it went well. I'm not disabled sore but I can definately tell that I got a good workout.

I'm starting to wonder if I should just go ahead and get some bands for back workouts. I can't do pull-ups at all and it seems like I might be able to get a better workout doing 120+ reps of the bands vs. 30 pull-ups that I have to do with 95% assistance. I don't know. I can feel it in my back that I got some work done, but I just don't know what is better. If you can't do any pull-ups are you better off doing bands?

I think today was my best Ab-Ripper so far. I made it through the In-Out, Bicycles, Wide V, and Froggies before I started running out of steam. I got a few reps after that but I was pretty much worthless and didn't finish the whole disc. I've never actually finished the disc yet, but I'm getting farther.

I can't believe two weeks are almost over. Not sure if I'll do plyo or Kenpo tomorrow. Kenpo is the scheduled workout. But I skipped Plyo on Tuesday so I'm not sure. Part of me worries I won't be able to do Plyo on Saturday and Tuesday, so I might be better off just going back to Kenpo.

I'm not sure if I am imagining it or not, but i think my jeans are a bit looser this week. Without getting on the scale I'm not sure how I'm progressing with the weightloss and all I have to go on is how my clothes fit. Maybe I want to see progress so much I'm starting to hallucinate looser clothes.

Looking forward to a good weekend and pressing play on some good weekend workouts.

P90x Day 11 - YOGA

Day 11 in the books. Yoga.

So Yoga is brutal. Those that have never tried it always think it's just easy and stretching. I know this because I was myself one of those people at one point. But Yoga is not this. It's brutal and uses your own body weight against you to remind you how out of shape you really are.

I swapped Yoga X out with the YRG 60 minute workout. It was crazy difficult and I was sweating loads before it was finished, but I was able to do almost everything in it. Unlike Yoga X where I just don't have the flexibility or the strength to get more than a fraction completed in that routine.

My Biceps are screaming today and I'm loving it. It's good to get a workout in and not be in agony. My lower back is still a little sore as it seems everything I do on any day of the workout involves my core and my lower back. I'm hoping that legs tomorrow doesn't do anything to my back that would gimp me up for the weekend. I'm hoping that I don't have to spend all this weekend laid up like last weekend.

Other than the above I'm feeling great today. I thought I could feel a difference in my pants fitting today, but with it not even being two weeks into it I thought I must be imagining it.

Looking forward to pressing play on Legs tomorrow.

P90x Day 10 - Shoulders and Arms

Wow, I almost didn't get today's blog in before my self imposed deadline. I'm only going to allow myself not to blog on days that I rest because I really have nothing to blog about then. An hour left in the day is just inside the deadline. Man that alarm is going to be early tomorrow morning.

Today was Shoulders and Arms. I felt like I got a much better workout today than last week. Last week I was so shredded from the Chest and Back day that I couldn't do much without pain. And after this disc last week I was in agony. But all those things are behind me now and while my arms are sore, it's the good "I got a great workout" soreness and not the "what have I done" from last week.

I will admit that I went up in weight on most exercises today, but over-reached on some workouts and had to humble myself back down to lower weights. But I really do like this disc. I'm looking forward to being able to do this workout with some heavy weights and really get those glamor muscles popping.

The only "injuries" I'm dealing with right now is that my lower back is really sore and the side where I blew out my disc a ways back is sore too. So I skipped Ab-Ripper today. I know that it's great for my core and that helps the back, but it's so tough to do right now that I just figured the added strain wouldn't help.

Diet has been pretty good so far. The only workouts I'm getting so far are the P90x discs. I'm not supplementing it with any additional cardio, so hopefully we'll see good results at the end of Phase 1. I'm eating alot more but still find myself hungry after a period of time which is good. I have to imagine that the furnace is burning more and I'm definately so far giving it a better chunk of fuel. I can't tell the difference yet visually, but I'm sure it's coming. I'm in such high spirits right now that I sorta doubt the mirror because I think my outlook is tinting my self-image. I know when I feel lousy I think I look lousy, so I imagine it's the same for good thoughts.

I'm looking forward to Yoga tomorrow morning. I'm going to try the 1 hour disc I have of YRG because I feel I can do that and still have it beat my butt for an hour. But I won't be standing on my head or twisting into painful positions. I think this will be a good workout. Once I can rock this, I'll bet I can just barely start to keep up with the Yoga-X dvd.

Looking forward to pressing play tomorrow. Even if it is going to seem way to early.

P90X - Day 9 Kenpo (Swapped For Plyo)

I woke up this morning and felt pretty good. My calf is feeling better than it has in 4 days and I tested it with a few jumps this morning before deciding to swap Plyo for Kenpo. It's a cardio workout either way but I didn't think that that jumping on it all day was in my best interest.

After I made the decision to switch workouts, I'm not sure why but I really began to fill my head with reasons to quit. I kept saying "you can't do plyo, go back to sleep" or "why switch, just take the rest day" and I really do not have any reason why this hit me all of the sudden, but it did. Regardless I sucked it up and got my workout in with a really good Kenpo workout.

I'm feeling really good about being 10% done with the P90x. I can feel that the "new" is beginning to wear off and for whatever reason I'm starting to have to work at getting up and getting my workouts in. Every day I get up and get it done I'm pumped at the end of it to have completed.

Looking forward to shreding my shoulders and arms tomorrow. Can't wait to push play.

P90x Day 8 - Chest and Back, Ab-Ripper X

It's week 2 for those of you keeping track at home.

1 week down, 12 to go
8 days down, 82 to go

Whichever way motivates you more go with it. I'm personally just thrilled to be back at the start of another week and have the first week of aches and pains behind me.

Today was chest and back which is really "push-up and pull-up" day. Seeing as I can't do a pull-up on my own power and my push-up number is much lower than I'd care to admit this is not an easy day.

I tried to give me my best effort and it's embarrassing to have to do the push-up day on my knees as a male, but that's where I am. I'm really thinking about getting a resistance band for pull-up day because I know I'd still end up with the burn and might actually get a "better" workout as far as moving me towards being able to pull myself up.

Speaking of moving in that direction, this weekend's diet went pretty well. We ate out a few times but I believe I made the best choice in each scenario and we probably ate out less this weekend than usual. I'm dying to weigh myself, but I'm going to resist and wait till the first phase is complete.


My right calf is feeling alot better today. Saturday and Sunday I could barely flex it at all. I sucks to have to walk around on your tiptoe all day because you can't extend your heel enough to put it on the ground. Not something I recommend.

My supplements have been good, and I'm really enjoy my morning protein shake. The only day I've skipped so far was Sunday because in the true fashion of "Rest" I didn't do anything.

Hopefully this week I'm done nursing injuries and all the other first week back misery pains and can make some progress.

Tomorrow's plyometrics will be played by ear. If I feel my calf isn't up for the jumping I might for this week only switch the workout with Yoga or Kenpo to give myself time to heal up.

I hate skipping anything and feel like I need to do the plan as planned. But I also realize that if I tear a muscle in my calf that I won't be doing anything, so I'm going to try and play it smart.

My buddy Jeremie is doing well with his 90 days. He's tweaking it some based on the fact that he's seriously training for his first half marathon in March and 10 mile runs don't gel well with Kenpo.

I'm going to start back running 3 days a week after Phase I is complete. I believe I'll have enough of a base at that point to be able to workout in the morning and run at night and not die a horrible death.

Week 2 has me stoked so far. I'm looking forward to pressing play tommorrow.

P90x Day 6 - Kenpo X

Wow, I finally feel good.

My arms aren't killing me anymore like the first 4 days, my back feels better today than it did yesterday, and other than my calves I feel really good.

My calves are KILLING me right now as a result of yesterday's leg exercise and today's Kenpo. I probably didn't focus enough yesterday on stretching them out because I woke up this morning and they were really tight.

The wife and I rocked some Kenpo this morning and I really enjoyed it. I didn't know how much I would like it but it was alot of fun. And I can tell that it really stretches you out and builds flexibility. I didn't get much of an arm workout if that's suppossed to be something you get in this, but my shoulders and upper back are feeling it today.

I really really wanted to weigh myself this morning and see how much if any progress I've made this first week but I'm not going to. I'm going to fight to stay off the scale until day 31 as planned. It's going to be tough though.

I'm really looking forward to the rest and stretch day tomorrow. I think I fell asleep before my wife last night which hasn't happened in ages. I don't even think I made it to 9pm.

Anyways, I'm hoping I can avoid injury today, but right now after Kenpo I feel pretty stretched out and full of energy and optimism.

I'm looking forward to pressing play on tomorrow's stretch DVD. Who knew I'd actually be looking foward to a P90x DVD :)

P90x Day 5 - Legs and back

This morning I felt a little better. The pain in my arms and when I tried to use my elbows was very minor.

Then I did Legs and Back this morning.

Now I hurt.

My legs are pretty torched after the workout today which I am nicknaming "Everybody Loves Lunges". My flexibility is still pretty poor and as a result my Hamstrings are really tight. As a result my lower back which is an extension of my hamstrings is really really really (repeat) sore. I can't even really stand up straight right now and I'm walking around in somewhat of a T-Rex posture. I've been taking some Advil and trying to stretch so we'll see how it goes. I don't feel like I injured my back in any way and while there is a bit more pain in the lower right where I blew out a disc in my back 2 years ago I don't think I did any damage to that.

I could tell my lower back was weak and sore from all the squats and lunges as I was finishing the workout. I skipped the Ab Ripper today just to make sure that I didn't injure myself. My core strength and flexibility just isn't where it needs to punish my core.

Tomorrow is supposed to be Kenpo. I'm going to do it unless I'm really hurting. If that's the case I'll flip rest/stretch and Kenpo.

I was joking around today with a friend saying that at the end of my 90 days I'll be just about at the point I should have been at before I started the program. Sadly I'm not sure that is too far from the truth.

Overall my energy is way up today. I was really dragging the last two days but today other than my lower back I've felt really good. Which always helps morale.

I'm really really looking forward to the stretching DVD.

I'll push play on something tomorrow.

P90x Day 4 - Yoga X

So unfortunately today's Yoga-X was somewhat of a flop. I think I'm in a bit of a dip energy wise and the previous 3 days of soreness and dieting caught up to me this morning.

My wife had to nudge me about 10 times to get me out of bed this morning. I just wanted to curl up and go to sleep for another few hours. I still got up and gave it a solid effort.

Which leads me to Yoga-X. Or as it should be labeled Gymnastics-X. I like Yoga, in fact before I started P90X I was doing Yoga off and on. But I do not like Yoga-X. I felt like I was about to injure myself on several of the exercises, and for those that I didn't feel that way, I either couldn't do them or my arms were still to sore from yesterdays arm workout to hold myself up.

I'm currently viewing Yoga-X as a "I would someday like to be this fit", but I think next week I might substitute Yoga-X for another hour of Yoga with my other program. I think that might be better for me short-term because I can keep up with YRG yoga for an hour somewhat, but Yoga-X I ended up watching too much of it to get a crazy workout.

It's hard to tell what I can and can't do this week because my arms still hurt so much.

I'm really mentally tired right now. I might call it an early night tonight and see if I feel better tomorrow.

I'm terrified of leg day tomorrow. I haven't done it yet, but if it's as hard as the arm days, I'm going to need a wheel chair Saturday morning for Kenpo.

Not the best day today overall, but I'll press play again tomorrow.

P90x Day 3 - Shoulders & Arms

I hurt.

I hurt everywhere.

I woke up this morning and felt like I had fallen down the stairs in my sleep. Every single muscle was sore and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep.

So what did I do? I got up. And I got busy.

Shoulders and Arms today wasn't that bad. I need to go up in weight on some of the exercises but I think for week one and breaking down the muscles to make room for new ones it was ok.

I can't tell if I did better on the Ab Ripper or not. I can do the first 4-5 exercises and then my abs hurt and I'm exhausted. I think if I can ever make it through the entire Ab Ripper it'll be a huge milestone. Right up there with my first set of 3 pull-ups. In that category of "stuff I never see myself being able to do".

I can't extend my elbows much past 90 degrees without being in agony. But it can only go up from here eventually.

My buddy Jeremie is starting P90x with me this round. He's "done" it before, and I only put it in quotes because he picked and chose what he wanted to do and substituted the cardio discs for running. So he did more like P60x or something. Anyways he decided to double up on the discs to catch up to where I am since he missed Monday. I haven't talked to him today, but from the looks of his facebook status I think he's thinking that was a less than ideal idea today.

The wife did P90x Yoga today instead of her normal Yoga. She said it was ridiculously challenging. So I've got that to look forward to.

Anyways, 3 down, 87 to go. Gonna press play again tomorrow.

P90x Day 2 - Plyometrics

Day 2:
Plyometrics is another word for "Death by Jumping".

This was really tough, but I was able to finish it. I didn't do everything like they did on the screen and I bailed early on a few exercises because my heart was about to jump out of my chest, but I finished.

It's strange this first time through because I have no idea what is coming up next so sometimes I feel like I'm saving up my strength just in case I need it. Maybe next time this comes up I'll be better at it. I guess that's the goal, be better than the day before.

I'm posting this early today and right now I can feel it in my legs and they are pretty tired. If I was posting this tonight it might read something like "oh god what did I do, I can't move my legs". Who would have thought you could jump in so many different ways.

Overall update is that I'm feel pretty good. My arms are wrecked from yesterday. I still can't straighten my arms completely from yesterday's workout. It was suppossed to be chest and back, but my arms are killing me.

I'm still in it. 2 days down, 88 to go. I'm not going to weigh myself until day 30 which is going to be a huge challenge for me. I'm dying to weigh in and find out how I'm doing, but I'm going to go balls to the wall for 30 days and then see. That way if the number isn't moving like I want I won't get discouraged and bail early.

I hope I "adjust" some to this workout routine. I can feel the agony of new workout soreness coming on and I really can't imagine being hobbled for 90 days.

I'll press play again tomorrow.

P90x Day 1 - Chest & Back + Ab Ripper

Day 1:

P90x. The rumors are all true.

I honestly didn't know what to think about starting P90x. I've read alot of blogs about it, watched the infomercial, and thought about starting it for several weeks. I need to make a change and it's alot of work to get into the gym for some reason. Since my daughter is a bit older now I'm trying to get home as a reasonable time after work and spend some quality time. Because of this I'm not really as eager to leave work after a full day and rush to the gym and get home right as she's about to fall asleep.

Anyways, all that and the fact that I'm not happy with either my level of fitness or my current body image so I'm picking up P90x.

Day 1. The rumors are all true. It's hard, it's intense, and most of all it's something you can finish.

This workout was brutal. It's actually deceptively simple. Pushups and pullups. Sounds easy right?

I was actually was surprisingly disappointed with my inability to do pushups. I've never considered myself "weak" but after a pretty simple fitness test and a workout I was acutally very disappointed in where I was physically. But I guess I'm not surprised.

I got into the pushups and got a set done without cheating. I got into the pullups and I had to use the chair to help but put 100% into that too. And that's about the time I felt like I was going to puke. It's funny because I had heard all the things online about how tough it was and for soem reason I just figured that was all B.S. But it's not. It's all true. I can attest that I was about to throw up less than half way through the exercises.

It was pretty demoralizing to find out where rock bottom was, but I did what I could. I did the rest of the pushups on my knees and gave it all I could. I did the pullups with the stool. I did the exercises with the weights I had. I got it done.

The AB Ripper was almost the same if not worse. I couldn't do most of the exercises let alone do them for 25 reps. But I did what I could.

Day 1 was brutal. But I'm still going to push play on Day 2.

P90x Fitness Plan - Day 1

Here are my fitness test results. I think I barely passed maybe I didn't. But I'm not about to let that deter me from doing P90x. It'll just be harder but the rewards will be that much more. I'm not in this for just 90 days, so my next phase will be even better when I do that fitness test.

Pull Ups: 1/2. That's right! Less than 1.
(min. 1)

Vertical Leap: 16"
(min. 3" )

Push Ups: 15
(min. 3)

Toe Touch: + 1"
(min. -6" )

Wall Squat: 0:55
(min. 1:00)

Bicep Curls: Don't have a 20lb DB yet. I'm guessing about 25.

In & Outs: 25
(min. 25)

Heart Rate Maximizer: 130 bpm, 118 bpm, 110 bpm, 108 bpm, 106 bpm
(2 min. jumping jacks beforehand)