Back and Biceps

This was a new workout this week. I really didn't find it particularly difficult. That means two things, I need to try harder or adjust the weight loads. It is the later issue that I need to fix. One of the major problems with the bands is that it is often difficult for me to figure out right away how difficult something will be fore me to do. I certainly can adjust the weights but I don't like to change things up in the middle of the routine too much  ans stay on pass with the DVD program. Also I think I am hitting the wall of doing the pull-ups with the bands. I need to either move back which kinda scares me since it puts a lot of strain on the door. So it might be time to mount the pull up bar supports which means I need to get an electric drill and screw driver. I am going to have to figure this out. I got a cramp yesterday doing the ab workout. I had to stop. I actually couldn't get off the floor for a bit. I would be worried about this but I think I was dehydrated. It was late in the day and I guess my body was not ready for this kind workout. So need to water up more before. I certainly hydrate well during and after the workout.

Chest , Shoulders, Triceps

The was a really tough workout compared to the previous Chest workout. The main differences in the version are that now instead of worrying about the pull-up sequences, I have to worry about all of the push-up sequences. All my rolly-polly hanging underneath me makes these guys tough. Well that is not exactly true, but I will say the beginning of the workout starts with a killer sequence of slow push ups. From there on, I was extremely sore and every proceeding exercise was even more painful. I was very sore the first week of p90x so I am not surprised by me being sore with new exercises. I was just hoping that I was a little farther a long in terms of my overall fitness. I am going to still try and throw in some doubles into the mix when I get my sleep in order. I haven't been getting the best nights sleep recently and it is certainly making my workouts a little more difficult.

I have been feeling that I am very much in a little bit of a plateau. I know that I am gaining muscle but my weight loss is stalled. The want me to eat so many calories in the p90x program and I don't think i am eating over them. It just seems like a lot of calories if I want to lose some weight. So I am going to read the forums and see what people say. I know phase two and three are where people notice even more of a change in there body.

Gearing Up for Phase 2

The weekend was okay. I worked out only of the two days. I tweeked my hip. I know exactly which excersice it was and glady it is not in the work for 3 weeks. So even though it really ruined my plans, I am not hurting today so thats an imporvement of me laying in bed in pain. Today is the beginning of the phase so I am putting the last few weeks out of my head. I will hopefully write a nice post tonight after I workout or tomorrow morning depending on my schedule. Also coming later this week is an update on the program. In other sad news my date cancelled on me. So maybe wishing for things to workout in my blog doesn't work? I will have to keep testing this theory.

Feeling Better

So this has hardly been an extreme week of working out. I can't say the last two days even felt great. I am sore, coughing, my throat aches, and I like to complain (a lot). Nevertheless, I really am feeling so much better by comparison. So some bad workouts and some eating that is very undiet I am still very happy about today or tomorrow since its saturday now. I am ready from some very good yoga. I am going to try to be very smooth and make it a strong yoga workout. I now see how phase two will be for me. I am going to be very into it. I just am ready to commit myself a lot more. I understand that this all seems very jumbled and such but that is really not the case. I am just going to have to spell it out more.

Ready for some badass workouts

Ready to commit myself more

Feeling a lot better after being sick for awhile

There you go. Its all spelled out and it works in my mind. I also need to deposit a check so maybe if I write it here it will happen tomorrow too...or atleast monday when the new phase starts. Yea while I am at it maybe my date will go well tomorrow? Come on Blogger do your magic!

Sick Day 2

So I dedcided not to formally workout yesterday. I think that helped. I am certainly not feeling top notch by any standards but I am not feeling as sickly as I was. So the game plan will be this tonight I will attempt to do Kenpo tonight and then follow the schedule as recomended and on my normal rest day I will do Core Syngerstics again skipping the X - Stretch for now and maybe do that on a double day the next week. My busy weekend schedule will make fitting everything interesting. But I am actually fairly excited about doing that. Tomororw, I will have to wake up early and workout and saturday I wll either have to wake up early or maybe take the stuff with me to workout. I am maybe going on a little roadtrip not sure yet but it would only be a day. I would then complete the week on sunday night. It a grand plan and a compromise of sorts yet one can not always plan ahead perfectly. Even in the event not everything works out I will stil hit my goals of working out 22 times in 28 days as well as this is my "recovery week" so I am not worried. All I can say phase 2 better watch out because here come Randy.

Sick Day 1

My recovery week has not gone very well. I have had a cold and it has escalated into sickness. I am not very sick but my throat was hurting enough and I sore along with shortness of breath. So you know just an annoying chest cold. So I started my workout and I just was having too much trouble with it continue. I did about half of it and I was as tired as the dreaded plyometrics.

I need to get better but I also want to keep working out. I need a gameplan. So my plan is too attempt to do the workout again and just move my rest day to yesterday. If I am unable to do things well today (which based on how I felt this morning may happen) I will just count my half day as a workout and take today off and do an extra workout on one the days I am feeling better. Either way I will get in 5.5 of my 6 workouts at a minimum but I can not workout with this cough and throat pain at the level of this morning and yesterday. I am open to suggestions from my peanut gallery.  The thing that did make me feel better were some awesome brownies from TM they are fantabulous.

Recovery Week: Day 1

Yoga was interesting yesterday. I could really feel how tight my body was and how as the yoga went I started to loosen up. Atleast through the beginning part and most of the vinyasa sequence. After that I was just sore. All the plank positions and some of the harder strength positions did not agree with me. That is not to say I wasn't extreme and didn't do my best just that I am glad I don't have to lift with my legs and back for a few days. Some of the balance postures did go well as did the yoga belly excersices. I think I was able to hold a fairly good shoulder stand for a little more than a minute. I know which poses I want to work on next time later in the week. Most of them are in the balance posture sequence and some in the yoga belly. I find this dvd to really seem long at times. Maybe that means I am not clearing my mind very well or something but often I think its that some of it seems rushed in the sequencing and then the hold seem very long. This is in contrast to some of the classes I have been to where things all seem to be in a much more steady rythym. I understand the differences  between a workout dvd and a true yoga class but either way its an observation.

Sunday Sunday Funday

I did the Kenpo workout today and my ankle was okay and my hip is hurting a lot less. I was very poorly coordinated today. I was flat on my feet and had difficulty with my hips and feet It wasn't a physical problem I just was a little bit off today. Lets just throw this off to "Lazy Sunday" syndrome. But I got a good sweat and a good workout. You can not be perfect working out every day but it does give me some insight into how i am feeling and how it relates to muscle confusion.

I am going to take this next week "off". So it is going to be different workouts this week. So I have yoga tomorrow. What the week is supposed to do is give my muscles some time to relax and heal a little bit while still getting in some quality workouts. My legs are really the only thing that needs the rest I think. My arms and chest are feeling very good. actually a lot better than I figured they would. I have to do yoga and Kenpo twice this week so I am hoping they go a little better than the last two sessions.

For dinner I went light. Considering the NYC sin that I digested this weekend my body can certainly use a light fare. I know the old saying body is a temple yada yada. But in many of the aspects of my life I am trying to eat healthier when appropriate. In areas where we can make simple changes. I want to change for the better but I enjoy going out and such. I do think in the last "phase" I might give up the bottle. So off to the recovery week and here is a picture of my sweet food.

 Dark Chocolate Dreams Peanut Butter (thanks "Nicole") on wheat toast and some fresh watermelon.

Little things

It would be a disservice to first not mention my workout went well. It wasn't the most interesting workout. Legs and Back is tough with interesting moves like the skater and such. It hurt and I am very sore today. It just wasn't  note worthy. I have however decided that I am going to do the phase as scheduled with my "rest" week next week so I will have some new workouts to talk about. Also on a scheduling note I am going to switch my rest day till today and do my Kenpo tomorrow. That should not be a big deal but worth mentioning. My ankle is really sore from dancing last night at a concert so yea....I need a day off. I understand that is kind of silly but it was a 90's cover band so it was worth it.

But it was the kickball game and some other things that I want to talk about. First my kickball kicks are getting wicked strong. I don't think that's from working out. But I am feeling more coordinated. Not that I was falling over myself or anything like that but it certainly is a noticeable change. 

I weighed myself around the same time and I had a fantastic number on both the weight and the fat %. I am not going to give you the numbers yet because it isn't time for that. But my weight loss has not been great and I know part of it is the putting on of muscle. So I take all those numbers right now with a grain of salt. 

At kickball one of the ladies on my team me that I look thinner and a little more toned. Now I haven't seen her for about 4 weeks so the timeline makes sense to me. About the time I have been working out. So that really made me happen. I kind of get in the habit about asking people if they notice. Because I want to see results and besides pants fitting better I don't see the change as much. So all of the little things really made me happy. Small changes in my life that are for the better. I also went 4/5 with two home runs so that was pretty bad ass. 

Cool Yoga

I ended up not going to hot yoga again. My yoga body couldn't go again. I could have gone alone but instead I decided on just taking a nice long luxurious after work nap and then doing yoga late. It went better than last time. It is a very long dvd almost 90 mins. So doing Tony's yoga that long is very tough. My balance was really off during the session. I don't know what was wrong with my legs. I just couldn't keep my self still or even upright in many of the positions. I know that balance is tough with my "husky" frame but yesterday I just was worse than normal. My flexibility is getting a lot better. I don't want to jinx myself so when I have some fantastic moment that is worth mentioning i will but not before. I also bought some yoga blocks. I didn't find that they were really appropriate to use on that many positions but when i did use them they were a big help. I took a picture of my sweet yoga setup do not be jealous.

Yoga tonight

I am going to go to the Hot Vinyasa yoga tonight. It is different then the P90x yoga but still very tough. I need to start drinking water now so as to not faint or cramp up during the session. I do not do well with heat. It should be a good workout and I will give you all a catchup on it after or the next day. Also my heart rate monitor is working but....my watch is out of batteries and of course it is not user replaceable. Almost genius if you ask me. Nevertheless, I will work that out at some point.

Don't Smash your Face in

That was one of Tony's sweet words of wisdom about doing tricep extensions and he was right, I didn't smash my face in and I am better for it. I decided to increase the resistance of the workout and move up to the next set of bands. That made many of the exercises better. The longer movement such as the rows were the most effected by the change. I think I need to tinker with the size of the loop in my bands but overall it was a success. But what I really want to talk about is the ab ripper.

Tony stresses that it is not ab ripper 100 or 200 it is 330. I think he is implying it is much harder than a standard ab workout. If you have been following my blog you know the workout is very tough for my tummy. I stuck with doing less reps and hoping to make it through the workout. Today was the first day I was able to get through the workout at the reduced repetitions. It was about half the number tony wants but I will get there. I realize of course by the time I get to doing all the repetitions there will be more modifications I will do to make things harder....but one step at a time. For dinner I had a sweet sandwich and some light yogurt it was very good. I snapped a sweet picture of it so I could share with the world.  I am trying to eat a little better while keeping the diet to the best of my ability. I know I am not exactly losing weight but I am looking a little leaner. I have read online that often the weight takes time to come off as you building muscle.

BMR and daves comment

In reference to dave's comment:

Under most calculations I have seen for BMR my calorie expenditure per hour (if i was lying in bed doing nothing is around 90 calories or 2164 a day. Wearing my heart rate monitor around all day will not really give me my BMR but would give me my factored BMR which is 112.5 an hour which takes the fact that I do walk around and have a desk job. I could still walk around all day just out of curiousity to see what it gives me. Either way that figures by doing the workout I burn an extra 700+ calories during that hour. You can play with the calculators here it is kind of fun. Also some very good info on BMR and RMR.

 http://www.caloriesperhour.com/index_burn.php

http://www.caloriesperhour.com/tutorial_BMR.php

A pain update

My hip/back are feeling a lot better. I am still sore to touch but it is way more felxible and I think by tomorrow it should be better for the yoga. One thing that p90x makes it hard to do is pinpoint what caused me pain. I think my hip is sore from all the kicks and Kenpo but then again it might not be. All I know is that a day after plyometrics I am feeling very good. I am very tired physically but that has more to do with me not sleeping well last night. I am going to workout after work today. Shoulders and Arms shouldn't be too bad and  hopefully my ab ripper goes better today. I will keep you all posted.

LIke a Cat or Spiderman

I have started to not listen to silly airy music that comes with the DVD. They were kind enough to separate the audio tracks which allows me to play only his cues and silly jokes. So with that I put on some techno and dance music will I pranced around the room. Tony cues me to jump like a cat not Frankenstein. All of his silly jokes like that I can almost time perfectly with the DVD. So I am fairly excited for new dvds next week or next phase.

It was a good workout. Considering how my hip and back are still sore I think I did an excellent almost Xtreme job. Additionally, I resurrected my heart rate monitor with a new watch battery. So now I have proof of my hard work. Not that I really had any doubts about the work that I was doing. I needed to drink the entire liter of water throughout the workout (only during the assigned breaks). I even did the bonus exercises today which roommate quips that Bonus and Workout do not belong together. I still skipped the Hotfoot since I don't want to jump on my bad knee. I might consider just adding a one leg squat during that. So I am going to attempt to give you a little numerical info about each workout but that means I will need to remember to where my fancy heart rate monitor each workout.

Plyometrics:
Average Heart Rate: 162BPM
Max Heart Rate: 185BPM
Calories: 885 Kcal, 40% from fat (my weight was not calibrated so this is not entirely accurate)

Midday thoughts

So I took a break from collaterals and recoveries to write a tiny little post. I did some searching on the Beachbody forums (they produce the p90x and other related products) and I read some of the entries related to the Ab Ripper X and Yoga X workouts. A lot of people on the message boards have simmilar problems that I with my tummy making certain poses or movements difficult as well as not being able to complete the workout with the reps Tony might ask of you. I will not say that I can relate to some of these people who are even more out of shape than me (some people on the boards are 300+). But they generally have simmilar problems and solutions. I had previously mentioned scaling down the Ab reps and concentrating on good form and using slightly modified positions. That seems to be the general theme that most people go with including those that have finished the entire program various times. I couldn't tell you if I lost anymore weight since my scale out of batteries but little things like my ability to do pushups and the plyometrics are noticable. So I think I need to concentrate on those suggestions as well as continue to talk to my support systems (TM etc...). As of Monday I am 50% I will add one week to the first phase but I still need to do more research on that.

Chest and Back

The whole getting up early routine is not my "strength". But I manged to get up plenty early this morning to workout, clean the tub, stop my AC from rattaling and even found my headphones. That being said all the inspiration that I might have received from a certain person we will call her "Nicole" didn't prevent my body from disagreeing with the workout. I suffered big time from cramps this morning while doing the last sets of push-ups in the routine. My decline and diamond pushups (which are hard anyway) didn't go so well and I had to use some modifications to keep going. The cramp is basically from my lats through to my obliques on left side. I have added  pictures for reference.

 So besides that massive incovienece the rest of the workout was good. I can kinda do a decent amount of good looking pushups now. Using the bands for pullups makes it hard to compare but I will try to goto the gym and maybe test that out at somepoint. I need to mount the brackets I just havent figured out the best door frame to do that on or find a drill i can use to accomplish that task. But after the the initial workout I had to do abs as I do every monday, wednseday and friday. So I started that secondary workout with th e hopes my cramp wouldn't hurt me too much after a good stretch and I was veyr wrong. I would say it was a failure. So I skimped on abs one day. Not happy about it but clealry not devestated. I can't decide if this was a cramp from dehydration or just from sore muscles from the kenpo workout. My guess is the later. So I think next sunday depending on how I feel I will need to do some more agressive stretching make sure my body is ready for the coming week.

Kenpo Week 2

Okay, however embarrassing and entertaining this workout is for me while my roommates watch me, it really is hard and enjoyable. I was not nearly as clumsy this time. I still had sit out a rep or two while i figured out how do some of the punching and kicking combos. In a lefty boxing stance I feel very comfortable maybe more so. I don't think I am going to be the next great white southpaw boxer but it is an interesting observation. I have trouble with the left jab combos. I am a klutz so its tough. Now that I am not watching as much I am really feeling the pain of the workout. My arms and back are killing me. I also had kickball today. WE LOST...But I had a really nice long kick. Maybe its all those kicks with tony or maybe my soccer skillz (notice the z) either way I had fun. This coming week I plan on focusing on two things quality repetitions and doing less modified work. The modified work really is in reference to the ab ripper workout. I am also going to try and go to yoga rather than doing the yoga workout on the DVD.

week 2 Legs and Back

So kickball was canceled.  That sucks...we keep missing out games. But I got in my workout tonight. I decided against getting a drink mostly because of the rain.

Onto the sweet workout. It went well. I am getting used to doing it. Tony's joke are a little old but I just ignore his odd sense of humor. My knee wasn't exactly hurting but felt awkward so I attempted to be careful on that knee. I lowered some of the reps for that guy. Overall it was good. Once again ab ripper was really tough. I hope by the time I hit mondkneeay my core calms down a little and isn't so sore. It is so sore it really hurts to do the workout but I am extreme so I do it anyway. Kempo is tomorrow i haven't mentioned it previously because I was so goofy doing it. It was embarrassing. So I will keep you posted. I am still thinking about adding a week in phase one. But I have yet to decide completely. The first week was so bad I might be worth it.

Yoga Last Night

Yoga was not bad. It is long and tough but not really on the same level as some of the other workouts in terms of intensity. I say that because there are certian poses I just am not flexible enough to do. So no matter how hard I try I am in a less intense overall position. Things are getting easier since I started doing yoga months ago. My downward facing dog is becoming a very strong active pose. So as long as I keep imporving hopefull i will be able to do some of the more complex stuff. I was able to do the shoulder stand. I will maybe try and get someone to snap a picture of that next week. I was quite surprised I was able to hold that for as long as I did. I did my best and forgot the rest.

I will say I am in a pickle of sorts scheduling. My plan was to wake up this monring and do the legs and back workout. But I forgot to set my alarm early enough. So I would normaly do it after work but I have kickball today. So I guess I will push everything down a day and not take sunday off. I just don't like not having a day off. Because my legs are fairly strong today is not exactly the hardest workout for me. But I will figure it all out at somepoint. If it rains today and I hope it doesnt I will do the workout. Wehave already missed the last 2 kickball games due to thunder and heavy rain. Which of course means no after kickball fun and that as all my readers know is the best part of kickball.

Week 2: Shoulders and Arms

I am up in arms about how much I enjoyed this workout. Rather than working yesterday I was looking up tips at using the bands as well as using my time to figure a better way to tackle the AB RIPPER!!!! I would say it all went really well. I am feeling it in my triceps right now. It is a killer. Some of the excersices I think I will need to move up to the slightly larger band. I really like the static curls the most. Holding the other arm against the tension of the band makes for a particually good feel and then blasting out the 4 with the non static arm just feels great.

As for the my archnemisis the Abs. I just did what I read online. I did them slower and kept a smaller number of reps in my head. I will start to increase those reps as I feel better about the whole thing. Today is Yoga-X, I am going to goto yoga at a local hotspot I think instead. But I have yet to make a final choice on that activity.

Plyometrics 2

Well It was going so much better this time. But then about 5 mins past the warm up chaos broke out. I had to goto the fedex store then the UPS store and it really put a hold on my workout. So when I finally got back like an hour later I warmed up again and started where I was in the DVD. However, I really felt heavy and it was a difficult workout. It was going so well! I feel like my legs let me down. But I enjoyed the workout even if it was really difficult. I am debating whether I am going to replace my yoga x on Thursday with hot yoga. I will make the choice a little bit closer to then. Sore and out.

Shoulders and Chest Week 2

I went a lot better this time around. I really tried to not go into pushups on my knees and besides the diamond pushups I did very well I think. I am getting used to using the bands to replicate the pull up motion.But either way it certainly is a good workout. I love the way the tension feels on the way up.

I am not particually sore today. I am feeling it certainly. But not like the first week where I could barely lift my arms above my head to get something from a cabinet. I am enjoying the main workouts so far. Now the ab-ripper x that I did after was terrible. My core was hurting so much maybe from the other day and my arms were tired from the workout I could barely do any of it. I am prob going to do some ab work after the work out today to make up for my not so great attempt. I hope that starts to get better in a little bit of time.

Back and Legs

Back and Legs has been my favorite workout so far. The first adjustment I have started doing is using the bands for many of the pull up bar activities.  I find it easier for me at this point also I love the burn of holding against the tension of the bands. I think i am going to keep up with that for awhile in order to keep the workouts going at a smooth pace and build up strength for a bit. It is a very well constructed workout and I look forward to doing it again. The ab ripper afterwards was tough my legs were burning pretty hard which made a lot of the exercise tough. I am trying to concentrate on form and hope the number of repetitions will increase with time.

Yoga Yoga

Mr. Horton's yoga is quite tough. He uses extra plank pauses within the vinyasa. Which I am not a fan of becasue I think it ruins the flow sequence. I understand why he does it. But I have  done a fair amount of yoga and it seemed unnatural. I had some trouble with the frog and a few other poses due to both my knee and my tummy being big. Well mostly I am just strong enough for some of those later ones. I am going to do Legs and Back tonight or this after noon and I guess I am fairly excited about that. So hopefully the ab ripper doesnt completely destroy me again. But we will see about that guy.