Round 2 Again

Well, I thought I could keep up my workout schedule while having a baby. Guess what? It didn't work. I was doing great and then the lack of sleep started catching up to me. I missed one workout, then two, then three, then four. Eventually, I was starting over every Monday with Chest and Back and it was the only workout I was doing except maybe an occasional Plyo. Last week was the first time I completed a week's worth of training, so I'm calling it week 1 of the new Round 2. Hopefully, this week will be as productive.

I'm still not getting any sleep. As a matter of fact, I took second shift last night on baby watch. We tried to outsmart the baby by going to bed at 9 because she often sleeps great from 8pm to 1am. Well, last night, she woke up at 9 and didn't go to sleep again until 7AM. I slept from 9 to 3 and then Steph slept from 3 to 7. Babies suck.

Today, I'm back to Chest and Back and, despite the fact that I just want to go back to bed, I'm going to try to get my workout done right before or right after lunchtime.

Day 17 - Shoulders and Arms

I had a long work day again yesterday and I didn't finish up until about midnight. That was far too late to do strength training, so I just went to bed.Today, I seem to be having a similar time, but I was able to do my workout in fits and starts throughout the work process. It took me two hours to do the routine, but I got it done. I don't have anything going on tonight, so maybe I can make up Yoga this evening. Historically, that has not panned out, but I did miss doing it last week, so maybe I will get up the gumption to drop 90 minutes of my evening on it.

Day 16 - Plyometrics

The third round of plyometrics for this iteration of P90X was not too bad, but still not awesome. I did it first thing in the morning on an empty stomach again, figuring that would maximize my calorie burn. The workout is supposed to burn 700-900 calories, so if I have zero carbs in my stsem when I start, that should be a total fat burn. You have to weigh that sort of thing against how intense you can make your workout on a carb deficit, but I still seem to be hitting it pretty hard. I do suck down a recovery shake (not a P90X brand) immediately after the workout.

A friend of mine had some whey protein that he got sick of and he gave it to me. I've been using it for post workout and it is delicious. He had been using it for a year and suddenly got sick of it immediately after buying a 5lb canister. I had generally been using EAS Chocolate Pure Whey protein in my shakes and it was getting the job done, but this stuff is just plain good. It's Dymatize Berry Blast and I am a convert for now. I'm curious to find out if they make more flavors. My shakes consist of 8oz skim milk, 1 scoop of berry blast, 1 tsp (5g-ish) of creatine, and 1 tsp of table sugar. I know, I know. I should use some other form of sugar for my insulin spike, but I'm not going to research the ideal sugar and go buy something freaky. I have table sugar and it works. It's not the most efficient, but it's fine for me. Some people say the fructose portion of the disaccharide slows down the insulin spike but others say it doesn't. I'm lazily siding with the people who make my life easier in this regard.

Day 15 - Chest and Back

11:00pm and I just finished Chest and Back. Tomb Raider Anniversary was on sale used at Blockbuster for $5 for XBOX 360. Damnit. 6 hours. :)

Day 13 - Kenpo X

I opted to do Kenpo X this morning and do my regular Chest and Back workout this afternoon. I feel slightly better getting that workout in and not having another skip for last week. I still wish I had gotten the Yoga done.

Day 14 - Rest X

I was right. The trip was even longer than I thought. We got back home to NC very late. I spent the whole day doing all the stuff I planned on doing and then the entire afternoon at some sort of festival in Waynesboro. It was hot and humid and we walked eleventy miles around River Ridge Park (or something like that.) We got home really late and went right to bed. We all slept until about eleven and then we unloaded the furniture, rearranged our own furniture, and integrated the new stuff into our stuff. Taxing. I was going to make up Yoga or Kenpo today, but that just didn't happen, so it became a rest day.

Day 12 - Legs and Back

rouI did my legs and back workout in the morning knowing that I would be driving to Virginia this afternoon. If I had missed the workout this morning, it would have been a guaranteed skip because I won't get in until about 10pm. I'm not optimistic about Kenpo X tomorrow. I'll be staying at someone else's house and then getting up to do some DMV stuff and then load furniture onto a truck. After that festival of fun, I'll be driving back home. I may get to do Kenpo after I get home, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Day 11 - Yoga

Today I feel guilty about last night's indiscretion. Burke Street Pizza followed by Edy's ice cream does not build a strong, lithe body. I punished myself this morning by doing an unscheduled Cardio X. My workout today is Yoga, which actually burns quite a few calories, so I should be down by a lot after that combo, but I'll probably do something else tonight just to help me remember not to be a dumbass again.

Day 10 - Shoulders and Arms

This routine went by without much trouble. I made sure the weights were challenging for each exercise at 8 reps. There were a couple of them that I misjudged a little, but I just did 12 or 15 reps in those cases and I'll know to increase next time. On a bad note, mistakes were made later in the evening. Steph got me some ice cream. I ate more than I should have.

Day 9 - Plyometrics

Plyometrics again already? Wow. Today's plyo was really good. I'm getting a little mad about the fact that the puzzle mats I'm using won't stay together and the whole assemblage always rotates to the right and back while I'm exercising. I have to move the mat back to position after almost every set. It's still better than nothing, but I need to look at other options. Or glue and carpet tape. Not sure if that would help.

Day 8 - Chest and Back

Chest and Back was good today. It's amazing how straining an hour of push-ups and pull-ups can be. I'm still surprised by how my strength is improving on both exercises, although I wish my close grip pull-ups would get a little better. I get the lowest number on that exercise and I don't know if it's because it's the last one or because it's just that much harder. I also got an ab roller and a balance ball today, so I may be ready to start my ab routine.

Day 6 - Kenpo (Day7?)

I just finished up my Kenpo. I woke up late again - apparently I still needed some sleep catch-up, and filled myself with egg whites and toast and milk. After about an hour or two, I came down to "the gym" and did my Kenpo X workout. It was nice. It had been weeks since I had done Kenpo and I enjoyed it a lot. I got a copy of Tae Bo aerobic workout that I may throw in sometime during the next 90 days, but I'll stick to the Kenpo for awhile because it's fun and I know it really well now.

I didn't double up yesterday, so I'm gonna try to day. If I don't, all I really lose is the X Stretch, but I've only ever done it twice and I'd like to get into the habit of doing it weekly. I may try to talk my wife into doing it with me. She's due in 3 weeks, but she should be able to do mild hatha-style stretching.

Update: I didn't do my X Stretch.

Day 5 - Legs and Back

I slept until noon, which was awesome because I caught up on the sleep deprivation from on-call. I got up at a leisurely pace and puttered around the house for awhile. Eventually, I made my way to my gym (read...basement) and popped out the Legs and Back workout. I am continually amazed at how my pull-ups are getting easier and easier. It is nothing for me to do 60 - 80 pull-ups in a session. WTF? And the guys in the video are doing twice that. I imagine I will be eventually. At some point, I may be wearing a weighted belt while I do my pull-ups. I'm down with that.

It's possible I will do Kenpo tonight and get back on track so I can do X Stretch tomorrow, but we'll see...

Day 4 - Yoga

I missed a workout. !@#$%#@$%@#. I didn't want to, but I never had a chance to do it. I was so glad to give the pager up this morning at 8AM. This was easily the worst week I've had since I worked in the firewall group. I hope it doesn't happen again anytime soon. 14 hours of overtime is plenty, thank you. Anyway, since I already had 54 hours at 8AM today, I didn't have to work at all, so I logged off and did Yoga. It felt great. This was my best day of Yoga yet. The only thing I still have trouble with is the sequence after Warrior 3 and the standing splits. Other than that, it's cake. It's hard, but I can actually do it now.

I also tried my hand at Aikido tonight and I really enjoyed it. It was kind of a chaotic class because I was shown a sampling of a lot of stuff to catch my interest and it was just me, a friend who knew no Aikido either, and myself. It piqued my interest, so it may become part of my workout. I can also pay a flat $100 a month to take Judo, Aikido, Tai Chi, and Kundalini Yoga. Included in that price, my kids can take the kids' Judo class. That's tempting as hell.

Day 3 - Shoulders & Arms

I almost missed my workout today because of on-call. I swore I wouldn't miss a day this round, but on-call can really take you down a notch. I actually got paged at 7AM and I was supporting calls until well after midnight. I somehow managed to get my shoulders and arms workout in at 11:30pm while I was doing some stuff at work. I was connected via VPN and the stuff I was doing involved making a change and waiting a half hour to see if it worked. I had to do this 3 or 4 times, so it wasn't that hard to get the time. The difficulty was doing strength training at midnight when you've been up since 7AM and didn't sleep well before that. Anyway, I got it done. No ab workout again, but figure I'll work that in when I get my equipment for my alternate ab workout.

Day 2 - Plyometrics

I had my doubts today as to whether or not I would get time to do my workout. I wasn't super concerned, but I was starting to get a little nervous when I hadn't done it by 5:00. Plyo is a killer, so it's not something you can just whip out at 9 or 10 at night. I've done that before and it is not advised. I did finally get around to it at about 6:10 tonight and it was tough, but not so horrible as my failed launch last week. I got through it with only a few pauses. I once again got thrown during the first airborne Heisman sequence when he yells "Stop!" I also mentally noted that I wanted to look up Tony Horton's father because he alludes to a baseball career there and this was the first time I actually remembered to look it up. I got nothing other than the fact that there was a Tony Horton that played for the Red Sox and was born in 1944. Is Tony a Jr? Who knows...

I recalculated my end date for this round and I'm freaked out at how different life will be at the end of this. When I am finished, I will have one more child and the two I have will be in school. (Sept. 20th is my end date.) It just seems impossible that it will be that long a journey.

Day 1 again - A newer, fresher hope

So I failed miserably last week. I should have known when I started off day 2 on day 1 and missed day 3 and had to do it on day 4, etc. It was a rough week for scheduling. When you make a mistake like this in fitness, it is all to easy to look at your failure and give up. You can project this failure onto your future plans and decide it will never work. However, it is also deceptively easy to not let it affect you at all. A lot of people take the former route because it frees up their time and means they don't have to work anymore. I used to do that, but I don't anymore. What does last week mean to me? Well, I think of it this way. I only got 3 workouts in. Most people get zero. I got three. I ate healthy all week. I lost 2 pounds. I'm starting again today. How upset do you think I am? Not at all. I weighed myself this morning, took my requisite Day1 photos again, and did my Chest and Back workout. It was tough getting back into it, especially the pull-ups, but I set a goal number for each exercise and hit it, taking mid-set rests if I needed to. After my workout, I went to the pool.

It was a good day, even though I was on-call.

Day 3 - Shoulders and Arms

Yesterday ended up being one of those days where I had no time for a workout. I could have prioritized it higher and gotten it done, but I was fine with how it played out. It was my staff meeting day, so working out at lunch was out. I've also been working 4x10 this week so I can recoup my vacation day that I took on Monday, so I worked straight through until 5pm. After work, we ate dinner and then went to the pool. I had promised Gabriel that we would have a family movie night, so after we closed the pool out at 8pm, we came home and started Paul Blart - Mall Cop at 8:30. It was a cute movie and we had fun sitting in the living room eating popcorn and laughing together. After the movie, it was time to bring the hammer down and try to get the boys to sleep. Colby (4) went down without much of a fight, but Gabriel didn't give in until 11:30, which left me zero minutes to myself before bed.

This morning I got up grudgingly and was very tired. Since my workout has shifted by a day, that means Sunday is no longer a rest day unless I fit a double in, which is possible, but we'll see. I usually don't double up on Yoga day because it takes up so much time, but I can double up on Kenpo, theoretically. As bad as plyo killed me on my first week back, I may avoid the double this week, though.

Day 1and 2 - A New Hope

So I slacked off on Round 1 and didn't document my last 2+ weeks of workouts. I also stopped at about 77 days because I went on vacation with the family in a small house with no room to do P90x. I considered going to a gym to do it, but I just didn't want to use up my vacation time doing this and I stayed pretty active and ate well, for the most part. I did have ice cream a couple of times, but I also spent a lot of time playing in the ocean and the pool, so I think I still came out ahead.

I could have come back and done week 4 and 5 of phase 3, but I decided I would start all over with a new round. Monday turned out to be a wash (of course) because I didn't get to sleep Sunday night until about 4:30 AM, so I took another day off of work and slept in. I woke up at 11:30 AM and then read for the rest of the day. It was pretty nice, but of course that means I start off the workout with a double because I want my workouts to go from Monday to Saturday. Fine with me.

Up early and a shot of N.O. Xplode. The jar is almost empty now and I doubt I'll buy another. It's an interesting concoction and definitely ramps up my awareness, but I don't know that I actually get any energy boost. I think I just feel anxious and that seems like energy. Anyway, this was the hardest plyo I have had yet, so it certainly didn't help today. After plyo, I had a protein shake and then went to subway for a massive shot of protein in the form of the Philly steak. I hadn't really eaten at all for the day, so I figured I was fine.

9:24PM and I'm about to start Chest and Back. I calculated my dates and this round of P90x, if I stick with the schedule, will end on 9/27.

Day 66/67 - Back & Biceps, Yoga X, etc

I did Cardio X yesterday, but the rain and work kinda nixed my Back and Biceps workout. Having an outdoor pull-up bar makes it hard to get in pull-ups during a mighty thunderstorm. Of course, when I did my rescheduled routine today, it unloaded on me while I was doing corn cobs. I got soaked, so after that, I just did my pull-ups in the rain. I also did another Cardio X this morning because I just like doing it and it burns a decent amount of calories if you "bring it." I usually double-time the four way punches and the three way kicks at the very least, so by the time I'm done, I am raining on my exercise mat.

Today, Crash, my calico cat, decided to join me for superman reps:

Day 62/63/64/65 Update

I wasn't big on blogging my progress this weekend and I'm not that enthused now. I did my Kenpo Saturday and also went to the pool. That night, I had some free time, so I threw in a Cardio X. Monday, I did Cardio X and Chest/Shoulders/Triceps. It was a good workout and I can tell these chest routines are making a difference for me. I did bench presses for a long time and they never seemed to do much for me, which always made me assume I was doing them wrong (I still think that may be the case, but I don't know what I was doing wrong) but you can't use anything but pecs on the inifinite variety of push-ups in these workouts. I'm liking them a lot.

This morning I did Plyometrics before work and I did Cardio X after work. I also went to the pool until closing time and did a lot of swimming with kids. I'm pretty tired right now, so I think I got some good work in. Tomorrow is a one-workout day, but I'll probably throw in kenpo or cardio x anyway. Maybe I'll try Kenpo X Cardio from the P90X Plus videos.

Day 61 - Cardio X, Back and Legs

Did my Cardio X this morning and it was good. I spent most of the day doing yard work and then spent 2 hours at the pool in the evening. I really don't feel like doing Back and Legs and I'm not going to. We'll see if I couple it with Kenpo tomorrow.

Day 60 - Cardio X, Yoga X

Good stuff. My Yoga was all broken up because I was on a call while I did it, but it was good. and effective.

Day 59 - Shoulders and Arms, Cardio X

I didn't feel like blogging the day I did this and I honestly don't remember it. I know I liked Cardio X because I almost always like it. The Shoulders and Arms workout is a good one. I know I upped most of the weights this week.

Day 58 - Plyometrics and Chest & Back

I had trouble sleeping because yesterday's decision to not work out was bothering me. I got up early this morning and fought with my work VPN for almost an hour to get logged in. My plan was to do plyo while my Monday morning call was going and I got everything set just in time. I put my phone headset on and joined the call, then started the plyo workout. It went very well, for the most part. I had to take a couple of unscheduled breaks to answer questions, but that's the price you pay for multi-tasking. I don't regret it. The before and after quad stretch pictures should prove that it didn't lower the intensity.

Chest and Back was harder than I remembered. All the pushing and pulling. Good lord. What's that all about? I got the energy smashed out of me pretty early on, but I persevered and made it to the end. Not my favorite workout by a long shot, but it does the trick. I took some mid-set breaks to increase my maximum reps on a lot of the pull-ups. I can tell I'm still getting better at them despite the long break of phase 2 and "rest week." I'm also hoping to hit the pool before I have to work tonight, even if it's just for a little while, so I really need to concentrate on getting some good, quality food in my belly and lots of it so I don't collapse.



I went to the pool for about 90 minutes and swam in the deep end diving for rockets about 60 of those minutes. I put all of my food into livestrong and it turns out - even after eating supper - I'm at -208 calories for the day. I was going to work out some more tonight, but dang!

Day 57 - Cardio X (slack)

I slept until 1:00 pm to celebrate the holiday and decided I wasn't going to work out at all. I knew better. I knew it was going to eat at my soul all day if I didn't do something. I had a good day, even though it was supposed to thunderstorm all day. The sun came out in the late afternoon and we were able to get to the pool for about 45 minutes before hell unleashed. I thought to myself "45 minutes of swimming in ice cold water is probably enough." Then we came home and laid around watching DIY until about 7pm. At that point, Steph started watching Jon and Kate plus 8 and I started to get bored and antsy. At 7:30, I decided to go down to my office/gym and work out, so I fired up Cardio X and cranked it out. I thought I was going to go ahead and do my scheduled Chest & Back, but I came up to put the kids to bed and they were wild with not-going-to-sleepness, so it ended up 10:00pm and I didn't have time for it. And it ate at my soul.

Day 56 - X Stretch (and I snuck in Kenpo X)

I got up early this morning and couldn't sleep anymore, so I raged on some Kenpo X. It also helped my sciatica. I got nice and hot and burned off all that pizza I had last night, but when I went upstairs, Steph said she wanted to go to Dairi-O for lunch. Now I love Dairi-O, but it's a love/hate kinda thing. They have deadly-delicious chili cheese dogs. They have maliciously good french fries. They have a sinister selection of ice creams. It is not something I can do lightly, in any sense of the word. We went. I got 2 chili/cheese dogs and fries. We skipped the ice cream this time. Now I want to do more cardio instead of my X Stretch.

I spent the next few hours cleaning the kitchen and my basement so I could feel like I had control of something and now I'm ready to tackle my next workout.

Day 55 - Yoga X (not)

I somehow aggravated my sciatic nerve during yesterday's Core Synergistics. I was going to try Yoga to get a good stretch in, but I ended up going to the pool instead. It opened today. My leg is feeling much better, probably from the icy arctic waters. I'm definitely going to do X Stretch tomorrow. Maybe even Kenpo X.

Day 53/54 - X Stretch/Core Synergistics

I had a very full day yesterday and I felt like I hadn't slept in weeks. I didn't have a chance to do X Stretch in the morning, at lunch time, or after work. I had hoped to do it after the kids went to bed, but I ended up falling asleep, fully clothed, with the lights on. X that.

This morning, I had a full lineup at work, so I couldn't do anything early, but I did manage to crank out Core Synergistics at 2:00-ish. Luckily, I was able to clock out for the week at 1:00 today. On a sour note, I tweaked my right-lower-back in the third exercise (Leaning Crescent Lunges) and that made the whole flippin' thing hard as hell. I was able to do everything except the Lunge-Kickback-Curl-Press, the Dreya Rolls, and the Table Dip Leg Raise (bonus round). I was surprised to find that the Lunge and Reach didn't hurt prohibitively. It still hurt, but it was a hurt I could deal with, unlike the screeching pain the Dreya Rolls caused. I still got a good workout, though, and my heart rate was really high. I don't think I've fully recovered from being exhausted yet because I got a lot more wiped after each rep than I did just a few days ago, but I hope the next few days will fix that wagon.

I hope to get X Stretch in sometime today, but I won't be terribly upset if I don't.

Day 51/52 - KenpoX/Core Synergistics

I missed my workout yesterday because of the hellishly long drive from the beach back to North Carolina, so I'm combining two days of workouts here, which is not that big of a deal. I have KenpoX today officially, which is a cardio routine, and I missed Core Synergistics yesterday, which is a strength workout. So basically, I'm doing a day much like last week. This is supposed to be a "rest" week, but I don't think this is overdoing it.

I dosed up with NO Xplode and knocked out KenpoX early this morning before work. When I was done, I didn't get the normal drop of sweat on the bridge of my nose. I had a veritable waterfall of sweat pouring off of my face and onto the mat on the floor. It was quite nice. I sped up some of the stuff, like the Jab/Cross/Hook/Uppercut because I think they go painfully slow when they start up. I also tried to make sure my intensity was up the whole time, with heaving breaths on each punch, kick, and block. I know I was working hard today and it felt pretty damned good. After that, it was shower and, after awhile, in to work for staff lunch. I'll be doing Core Synergistics later in the day.

Day 50 - YogaX

No Rest/Stretch because of the beach trip throwing me off a day. I did my Yoga today in an empty beach house. All of the rooms are small and they ALL have ceiling fans in them, so it presents a few challenges for someone my height, but I managed. I also went to the indoor pool, hot tub, and dry sauna this afternoon, so I had a full afternoon of treating my body right.

Day 48 - Golf

We played two rounds of par 3 at a 9-hole course today. I burned close to the same amount of calories as I would have with Kenpo X, so I may not do my Kenpo today. I have the choice. We'll see.

Day 47 - Legs and Back

I worked out in the beach house again whilemy friends went over to the nearby resort for some gym and pool time. I used my resistance tubes for pull-ups and I had my IronMasters here for the weighted leg exercises. I knocked out the routine and then joined my friends at the pool for about 90 minutes, which I would equate with 1 hour of Cardio X.

Day 46 - Yoga X

I rocked ou Yoga one day at the beach house. The bedroom was a little cramped, but I managed. I was soaked by the time I finished, but I made it a lot further into the routine before I got angry and bitter, so I count that as a huge success. I'm starting to look forward to Yoga in a sick sort of way because I can tell it's improving my flexibility. While I was doing my Yoga, my cohorts were out walking on the beach, so I kind of missed out on that.

Day 45 - Back and Biceps, Ab Ripper X

I worked a hellacious amount of hours in the first three days of the week and by this morning, I was wiped. Wednesday, I didn't get a chance to do my workout because I was so tired and today, I woke up late, so I didn't do my CardioX. I worked about half the day and then took off for the beach.

I got to the beach at around 4:30 or 5:00 and unpacked, set up my work computer (I'm still on-call) and unpacked my clothes. My friends were coming later, so I went ahead and jumped into my workout. I brought my Ironmasters and my resistance bands, so it was full steam ahead. All of the pull-up exercises were done on the resistance bands and I made sure to do an isometric squeeze at the peak of each rep. I got tired out quickly, so that must've worked. The dumbell stuff was standard curling, so nothing new there. I got Ab Riper X in before the fellas showed up and that wa my p90x for the day. I guess that Cardio session will just get lost to time. Yoga tomorrow. Ick.

Day 44 - Plyometrics

I slept in a little today, but I still got up and dosed myself with NO Xplode as soon as I got out of bed. It was a bit of a rough start, but once I got going, things flowed. I forgot to bring down shorts and a tank top, so I ended up doing the workout in pajamas and yesterday's shirt. It got pretty hot as evidenced by some of the shots I took. Ew.

Day 43 - CardioX; Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps; Ab Ripper X

My Cardio X was standard this morning. Empty stomach, NO Xplode. Rock it.

Chest Shoulders and Triceps - I got going at about 3:00 today after I clocked out of work and finished up around 4:00, just as I got paged on something stupid, so that was good timing. It did stop me from going right into Ab Ripper X, but it doesn't take much to dissuade me from that. The sad thing about that workout is that it should be called Hip Flexor X. Only a few of the exercises really hit the abs hard. I've thought about doing a substitute routine here that targets abs. We'll see. I'll hit Ab Ripper a little while later tonight. Here's some fun pics I took during the workout. This is me dying of Arm Circle Fatigue Syndrome:









This is me doing Y-Press with 35lbs on the Ironmasters:








Update: Ab Ripper X is stupid.

Day 42 - Yoga X

I didn't get around to it. I feel a little guilty about it, but not much.

Day 41 - Kenpo X

Once again, I have to say this is my favorite workout. Although it is some of the worst stretching for me (prayer squats hurt), I love the workout itself. I felt a little sluggish on my back kicks, but the rest of the workout was fantastic. No pictures because I didn't feel like setting up the camera.

Day 40 - Cardio X, Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X

Cardio X is always good. It gets a little Yoga in without destroying my self-confidence and then jumps right into Kenpo moves, which I love. I did the empty-stomach-NO Xplode thing again and it worked out great. That plyometrics day had me kinda wigged out, but it seems to have been a fluke. I also went on-call at 8AM today, so that could throw a monkey wrench into the works, if not a whole monkey. The first workout went without a hitch, which could be a considered a good thing or the calm before the storm. Only time will tell, I guess.

Legs and Back - It was good. It was bad. My pull-ups are definitely doing better. I got at least 10 pull-ups on each of the exercises. I still got dizzy during sneaky lunges. I don't know what it is about lunges, but some of them just hork up my breathing and it's like I'm doing super cardio. My heart rate rises really high and I run out of gas. Kinda creepy.

Ab Ripper X - I have to sit on a bridge line for work tonight from 6:30pm until about 12:30 AM, so I'm saving this little nugget for the call. I'll need some activity to break up the sitting.

Day 39 - Not Yoga X

I decided I liked last week's switch, so I am going to semi-permanently move Yoga to Sunday. I did nothing today and it was awesome, especially after destroying my biceps last night.

Day 38 - CardioX, Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X

Today was so much better and I don't know why. I tried to go to sleep early last night and my precious children decided they were going to fight their bedtime. I lay down at 8:30pm and fell asleep within 5 minutes, but I got woken up a few minutes later by giggling, laughing, loud thumps of little feet jumping out of bed, etc. I think I went into their room about 7 times before I finally gave up and went back downstairs. At that point, I was so mad, I decided to watch a few episodes of Penn & Teller's Bullshit to make me laugh. It worked, and an hour later. I ended up going to bed at about 11:30 and woke up a few times during the night. I didn't get enough sleep, but I was pretty pumped for CardioX today. Go figure.

I also found a program that can control my Canon Digital Rebel XT from the computer. It has some cool functions - one of which is the time lapse feature. I set it up and set the timer to snap a shot every twenty seconds while I worked out. It functioned great, but I didn't get a lot of great pics. Most of them snapped while I was transitioning, so it looks like I'm just standing there. Also, I didn't have a long enough USB to miniUSB cable, so the desk is in all of the shots. Here's some samples:

















Back and Biceps - This time it was a little different. I used my new dumbbells and it was a whole new workout. Doing curls with the bands was interesting and different and it really made the minor stabilizer muscles sore, but overall, I think it lacked the resistance to really stimulate the major muscles. The dumbbells did the trick. I wiped out my biceps tonight and it felt damned good in a bad way or damned bad in a good way. It was positive overall, so word it however you like. I only got through part of the Ab Ripper X routine because my wife called halfway through and asked me to meet her and the kids for dinner. I'll finish it up after Yoga tomorrow.

Day 37 - Plyometrics

For some reason, plyo was really hard today. I did the usual 2 scoops of NO Xplode and waited the requisite 30 minutes. I felt the NO Xplode kick in and started. I knew within the first 15 minutes that I was going to have a hard time. I made it through, but I modified the squat reach jumps, I did jumprope during the second round of hot foot. I didn't double-time anything. I was still soaked and I got a little light headed three or four times during the workout. I also paused on a few occasions other than the water breaks.

I didn't sleep well last night and I know I didn't get even close to 7 hours of sleep, so I'm wondering if that did it. I still got a really good workout, but I need to make sure I watch my sleep before plyo days. I guess it could also be that I was low on calories yesterday, too. I'm not really sure. I'm glad it's over. I may do Kenpo tonight, though, after I've had some carbs. :)

Day 36 - CardioX, Chest Shoulders Triceps, Ab RipperX

CardioX - First thing, empty stomach, NO Xplode. I still like this combination. The Astanga Sun Salutations still tick me off at the beginning of CardioX, but at least it's not 45 minutes of them like in YogaX. When we get to Kenpo, I'm really happy. It's a little more difficult to transition into the Right Hook, Uppercut, Side Kick so quickly, so balance is an issue at first, but I get into the rhythm fairly quickly. I got pretty winded today right before the squat runs, too, so I needed a slight pause there. I always laugh when he says "Ricky(?) is getting weird on me." Also when he says the girl has the skin of a five-year-old. WTF? LOL!

CST - I used my new Ironmasters today and it was a different workout. Whew! I kinda missed using weights for my workouts and I swear I've lost some bulk since switching to p90x. I'm glad I can finally Bring It! again. My shoulders are sore and I can feel a stirring in my triceps. The only thing that's not so sore is the chest. I'm wondering if my arm endurance is hurting my chest exercises. I was lifting 100lb dumbbells for 6 reps doing BRE and I doubt I could do that now. The pushups are very taxing, but they hurt my arms more than my chest, so I may need to look into doing some flat presses and incline presses to supplement. We'll see.

Ab Ripper X - What to say, old friend? It's getting better a lot faster than the Yoga is, so that's cool, but the 20 minutes of Ab Ripper X is pure pain, whereas Yoga is in fits and starts, so it's more tolerable. I don't know which one is more deserving of my black moods.

Anywho...the Ironmasters rock. I can't wait to get quicker at changing them, though. I've also considered getting a set of those little aerobics dumbbells so I don't have to bother changing for 5lb and 10lb weights. Time will tell.

Day 35 - YogaX Switcheroo

I did my Yoga today and "enjoyed" it immensely. Every move hurts. The balance poses are so difficult for me that I tumble a lot around the Warrior 3 section. My leg burns before he's halfway done with that stuff. I am getting more flexible. That is for sure. I thought it would go more quickly, but it is just coming in small increments. I notice that I can go slightly lower each time I run through this mystical masochism. The only thing I can do with no problem is the happy baby and the Om. Anyway, I'm glad it's over and I'm glad I did it. Now to enjoy my overcast, sporadically rainy Sunday. I'll try to add a picture of the Ironmasters later.

Day 34 - Kenpo X and THE ARRIVAL

I did my Kenpo this morning and had a blast as usual. I still don't like the stretching on this video, but the cardio kicks ass, almost literally. If I could get some choice people in my basement to act as targets, I would love this workout even more.

My ironmasters came in today. The UPS guy dropped them on my patio and bolted. I think he was mad that they were so heavy. I slapped 'em on my dolly and carted them around the house to the basement. It took awhile to put the baser together and pull everything out of the plastic, but I got it done. I can't wait to use them.

Day 33 - Cardio X, Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X

Don't feel much like blogging today. I had good workouts and rocked it like a hurricane. My dumbbells should be here tomorrow. Excitement grows.

Day 32 - Switcheroo

It was my final exam night and I worked late, so I didn't have time for Yoga. I'm going to do it sunday instead and use today as my rest day. Nuttin' else to say.

Day 31 - Cardio X, Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X

Cardio in the morning does a body good. I've gotten into this routine of putting 2 scoops of NO Xplode in an empty cup before I go to bed and putting it on my dresser before a cardio day. In the morning, I get up, put water in it, stir it up, and then brush my teeth and get dressed. By the time I get that done, the drink is ready and I hammer it down before I grab my oldest and take him down to the kitchen - he likes to get ready downstairs instead of in his room. Cardio X was fun this morning, although I had to pause right before squat runs because my heart rate was so high. I remember looking at the screen at one point and seeing 13:46 and thinking, "That can't be right." It went by so quickly it freaked me out.

It was late by the time I got around to doing my Back & Biceps workout. We had a family evening at Fuddruckers (ostrich burger!) and Costco, which got us home just in time to do the bedtime routine with the kids, and even that was late. So I didn't change into workout clothes until 9:00pm or a little later. I didn't want to do the workout at all, which is normal when I'm faced with a potentially grueling workout late at night, so there was some waffling that killed another 15 to 20 minutes while I scanned Facebook.

Finally, I got started. This workout was indeed difficult. There were lots of pull-ups and lots of different kinds of curls. I really missed having dumbbells on this one and I'm glad my set will be getting here this weekend. As far as the pull-ups went, I did less than my last Chest & Back Day per rep, but I think I did more pull-ups overall. The standouts for me in this video were definitely towel pull-ups and corn cob pull-ups. Ouch!

Ab Ripper X was tough as usual, but my performance last night was better than the last time I did it, so I am seeing steady improvement there.

Day 30 - Jesus! I mean Jeepers...

It's amazing how much Plyometrics makes me love Kenpo X. Really. Don't get me wrong. I like plyometrics a lot because I know it is kicking my ass handily and burning serious calories, but I don't enjoy it like I enjoy Kenpo X. I seldom smile while I'm doing leapfrog squats or hot foot. When Tony says "Bring It", my middle finger automagically pops up in defiance. I did this again first thing in the morning, empty stomach except for 2 scoops of NO Xplode. I kinda like that trend, so I'm going to stick with it.

Doing cardio first thing on an empty stomach is something I got from Hugo Rivera and the BRE plan and I know it works. I used to drive to the gym in the morning and do 30 minutes of elliptical, which is still, hands-down, the best cardio I know of. You can burn SO many calories in 30 minutes it's insane. However, when you tack 20 minutes of drive time on to each side and add a few more for walking into the gym, walking out of the gym, refilling bottles, going to the bathroom, etc, you're looking at 90 - 120 minutes for that 30 minute shot. That's why I stopped. One of my options, of course, is to get an elliptical for home, but the only ones worth a damn are the commercial grade ones that start at $2000. And those are the ones that lack features. They're just good, solid machines. for a feature-rich, solid commercial elliptical, you might be able to get a used one for $2500. So, that is a pipe dream or a long term goal. Not sure which.

Not much else to say except here's a run-down of the plyo vid with my notes from today:

1st fifth (x2)

• jump squats
• run squats
• airborne heisman
• circle kicks? - kicked the chair twice on round one. doh!
  

Water Break

2nd fifth (x2)

• squat reach jump
• run stance squat switch pick-ups
• double airborne heismans
• circle run - used a magic slider upside down
  

Water Break

3rd fifth (x2)

• jump knee tucks - dominic is a freak
• mary katherine lunges - arms up
  
• leap frog squats (burning @ 10s mark)
• twist combo pt 1 - skis
• twist combo pt2 - turnarounds - burning
  

Water Break - jesus. i mean jeepers...

4th fifth (x2)

• rock star hops - Baba O'Reilly
  
• gap jumps
• squat jacks - motherfucker
• military march

Water Break

5th fifth (x2)

• run squat 180 jump switches
• lateral leapfrog squats - 2nd round = c'mon frog boy!
• monster truck tires
• hot foot - hot damn!

Water Break

"Bonus" Sports x1 - (if you're feeling 'sprite' [sic])

• Baseball - throw and catch
• Basketball - catch and shoot (jumpshot)
• Football - Football Hero

Cool Down

Day 29 - Cardio X; Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps; Ab Ripper X

I got up at 7AM and dosed myself with NO Xplod this morning, waited the requisite 30 minutes, and started Cardio X for the first time. As you can imagine (since I'm talking to myself, this is a given) I was so pleased to find that he starts off with a bunch of sun salutations from Yoga X. Gnargh! That out of the way, the rest of the workout was quite pleasant. There wasn't much new, but I liked the mix of different things in this video. The Kenpo portion, of course, was my favorite. It was a little odd to ramp right up to the more complex combination moves, but I am so used to them by now, it only took a second to adjust. The plyo portion was the most intense and I had to pause once to fill my one of my 2 24oz bottles for the second time. The only new thing that I can remember from this video is the wacky jacks, which were odd, but the second round got my heart jackhammering. It was supposed to work the obliques, but I didn't feel it. It was nothing like the Lunge and Reach, that's for sure, but it was good cardio.

I was threatened with a 4-hour chair-sitting marathon from 1pm to 5pm today, so I quickly snuck my CST workout in at 11:30AM. This was the first time I had done this video as well, so it was a day of new things for me. Another first, I broke my newest resistance band on the Front To Back Triceps Extensions. I had gotten this thing because it was longer than the set I purchased earlier and it was the heaviest of the "Biggest Loser" bands they had a Target. I was about mid-set when I heard a snap and the band pulled through the handle. It ripped the metal grommet right out of the handle fabric. I suppose I misspoke when I said I broke the band, not only because it's a tube, but also because the tube didn't break. It looks like the handle is just a piece of shit if it can't handle the force the tube is able to put on it.

Stand-outs from this video were the Slow-Motion 3-in-1 Push-ups, pike presses (WOW!), and Two-Twitch Speed Push-ups. There were even more push-ups in this vid, but those were the ones I had obscene notations beside in Xtreme Fit Tracker. The Pike Presses were amazingly hard and I only got 8 out before I was in danger of head-planting when my arms gave out. The one-arm push-ups were mainly a matter of me not balancing well. I had to go to my knees to keep from falling over. Hopefully, this will improve. They weren't particularly easy on my knees either.

After my resistance tube handle broke, I was kind of screwed for the Fly-Row-Presses becuase I only had upper-body bands, no dumbbells, and no way to fake this. What I ended up doing is breaking it out and doing 12 flyes, 12 upright rows, and 12 military presses. For the Dumbbell Cross-Body Blows, I ended up MacGuyvering two card table chairs together for a bench and sliding the bands under the seats. It was crazy stupid and the chairs kept lifting up and pinching my back skin between them. Needless to say, I look forward to my Ironmasters. I'll have a stability ball for a bench because I am a masochist and I'm going to kill my abs before Ab Ripper X.

Speaking of sucking, how delighted I was to find that I was going to do all of those Sun Salutations from Cardio X and get to do Ab Ripper X in the same day. Looking back, it wasn't that bad, but I was not happy earlier in the day.

Day 28 - X Stretch

I didn't feel like resting today, so I did X Stretch. I also like the video a lot, despite a very few painful moves that are getting better. I know it's Sunday and it's supposed to be the day of rest, but X Stretch is an option for today as well. I'm tempted to do some cardio later as well. I'm an atheist so the day of rest doesn't mean anything to me anyway. I also worked on the treehouse for the kids a little more and got another wall up. Too bad it's not a simple square or I would only have one left. Since I have to build the main structure around two trees, that adds six more walls to the project. Small walls, granted, but they still hace to be designed and built. It's such a beautiful day that I'll just leave it at that and go enjoy the rest of it.

Oh yeah. I ordered the Ironmasters. They say allow two weeks for delivery. I am sad.

Day 27 - Yoga X

This was the first time I made it all the way through Yoga X. I think it's partly because it was a weekend and I had no schedule to keep and partly because I just decided I was going to. There were some parts in the video where I was unable to do a balance pose or I couldn't transition correctly because I fell, but I made it through and I felt better for it. When I got to corpse pose at the end, I was reminded of a Yoga class I took at my gym awhile back where I almost fell asleep in corpse pose at the end of the class. This wasn't as relaxing as that class was because a lot of the Yoga hurt tonight, but it was still nice. I liked the happy baby pose near the end. That felt good.

I started this workout at 9:30PM after doing yard work and framing a wall for a treehouse, so I was already beat when I started, but I figured that wouldn't be too bad for Yoga and I was mostly right. I probably could have done better starting fresh in the morning, but you work with what you've got.

On a very positive note, I was looking at my upcoming paycheck and I will have enough for my Ironmasters. Since I'm impatient, I'm going to charge them tomorrow and then pay the charge off on payday. That will give the dumbbells extra time to get here. Woohoo!

Day 26 - Core SadoMasochistics

Like an old friend that hits you every time you see him, I greeted Core Synergistics this morning with some trepidation and 2 shots of NOXplode. I was literally vibrating by the time I started the DVD this morning on an empty stomach. It didn't take long at all to get soaked and my heart rate was up in the warm-up thanks to the jumping jacks. I know this post is long, but since no one reads it but me, I don't feel too bad. :) Hey, look! I'm talking to myself!

We started off with the Stack Foot/Stagger Hands Push-Ups, which were very awkward for me last time, but this time I rocked them out like a superstar. Maybe not that great, but I had no problems. I didn't do as many reps as Drea, but she's an acrobat, so I don't feel too bad. By the way, Drea looks awful in this video. I'm not the fashion police, but that fuscia top with her pale skin? Ugh. She usually looks damn good.

Banana rolls followed up to kill my core right off the bat. These things are extremely hard and you feel every second of it. I'm always glad when it's over, but I know that superman/banana is waiting in the shadows. This part annoys me a little bit because Tony keeps telling me to keep my core "taunt" and I don't know how to do that. WTF? Taunt? Seriously?

Leaning Crescent Lunges is a nice break - sort of. I got a little dizzy on these, but lunges do that to me no matter what kind I'm doing. I'm still not using any weight on these because I don't think I could finish the reps if I did. When I was bodybuilding, I was doing single-leg straight lunges with 80-90lb dumbbells in each hand, but, for some reason, these are harder with my hands empty.

Squat run is just weird. I don't have any dumbbells at the moment, so I just "run" as fast as I can like Pam "Blam". Heart rate goes way up here. I want a heart rate monitor. Maybe someday. After or before the dumbbells? Who knows?

Sphinx push-ups. These start out really easy and quickly tire out the forearms. I always think I'm going to match their reps and end up petering out at 12. Tough stuff, but I can feel myself getting stronger here.

Bow to boat is kind of fun, but it's hard to do the boat after those banana rolls have killed my abs. I know this will get easier. The bow is not that bad, but I keep doing this routine barefoot and it feels like I'm ripping the skin off of my ankles when I pull with my legs. I need to fix that.

Low lateral skaters - not much to say here except my limited flexibility keeps me from doing much of a leg raise here. I get it up more than a toe-tap, but not nearly as high as Tony is going.

Lunge and Reach - I have never gotten a burn in my obliques like this. These things tear me up by the time I get done with round two. I don't have dumbbells, so I use a C# textbook from my class. I don't know how heavy it is, but it does the job for sure. Ouch!

Prison Cell push-ups. I have a note in xtreme fit tracker on this line that says simply "Fuck You." These things are so easy for the first three, but then your strength gets sapped and it is incredible hard to get past number six. These things work well.

Side hip raise and Squat Xpress are kind of easy. I still get something out of them, but they aren't as hard to do as the rest of this video. Maybe when I add weights to the Squat Xpress it will get more challenging.

Plank to Chataranga. These are basically lumberjacks, but you are supposed to switch to low lumberjacks in the Chataranga position after ten seconds and repeat. I couldn't do the Chataranga running because of my flexibiliy issues, so I just stayed in plank.

Walking push-ups. My heart rate was already jacked and my shoulders were tired from holding plank on the last exercise, so this essentially makes me cry. The walking pushups would be hard if they were the first exercise you did fresh out of warmup. Following Plank to Chat. with these is just sadistic. I did the whole 60 seconds, dripping copious amounts of sweat onto my yoga mat the whole time.

Superman Banana. I think about these while I'm still warming up and not in a good way. They are never as bad as I remember, but they are still hard. The speed of the changes is the lifesaver here, but it gets harder and harder to roll without pushing off.

The worst exercise on the video, IMHO is the Lunge-Kickback-Curl-Press. I am doing these with zero weights - once again because I have no dumbbells - and they still kick my ass like a lunchroom bully. I get dizzy (because they are lunges) and I have to pause a lot. They do twenty and I do about fourteen.

Towel hopping is a madman's game. This jacks up the heartrate. I nailed my towel at one point and sent it flying into the shadows, so I had to do 40 seconds with a virtual towel that only I could see.

I thank Tony for the Reach High & Under Push-ups here to get my heart rate back to human levels. These things are hard to do, but mainly from a balance perspective here. Muscle freak Adam on the video even falls on this one.

Steam engine gets my heart back up. It is amazing to watch Pam do these things. Her head doesn't come down at all and her knees still nearly touch her elbows.

Dreya roll - I had a really hard time with these the first time. I would roll down, extend my legs, roll back...and not be able to stand up. I kind of got the hang of it on the last one earlier this week. Today, I missed the first one, but made it on all of them after that. I have to keep my abs contracted while I roll down and let the weight of my extended legs throw me forward. It's odd, but I've got it down now, hopefully. I do not do an X or a twirl at the top. drea can keep that to herself. Carnie.

The bonus round is not too bad if you take out Plank to Chataranga, which I happily do. One day, I may attempt it. The halfback is something I enjoy, so I do that and then I do the Table Dip Leg Raise to the best of my ability. As my flexibility improves, this will probably look and feel better.

Day 25 - X Stretch

My first response, how lovely. This is basically Yoga X without all of the Warrior pose stuff. The DVD is 30 minutes less than Yoga X and contains many of the same exercises. I liked this one a lot better and I think it may help me get stronger so I can do more of the Yoga X video. I think in the future, I may use this DVD when I don't have time to drop 92 minutes on Yoga X. I felt refreshed and loose after I got to the end of this one. Thanks, Tony.

Day 24 - Kenpo X

Yay! My favorite workout. I have considered doing this workout instead of CardioX on my doubles, but I haven't tried CardioX yet, so I'm reserving judgement. I swear this video makes me feel fantastic when I'm done. I had the requisite bead of sweat down the bridge of my nose at cool down in time with Tony's narration again. I don't know why, but that makes me feel good. I guess I like being predictable and/or suggestable. Maybe I like consistency. I don't know.

Day 23 - Core Synergistics

Wow. I'm at a loss for words here. Holy crap. Remember when I said I was happy about Ab Ripper X being absent this week. It's funny how a new enemy makes the old enemy seem like a childhood friend. I am looking forward to doing Ab Ripper X next week.

This workout left me drenched and shaking like one of those breathless damsels on the cover of a romance novel. I even had a decent amount of rest in this video because all of the moves were new to me, so I had to watch them once before I tried them. As much as I cried and whimpered and paused the video, I really did enjoy it. Everything was unexpected and everything was working my whole body all the time.

Some of the moves, like banana rolls and "Reach High and Under Push-Ups", were awkward and I fell over a lot. Other moves, like Superman/Banana, Walking Push-Ups left me panting on the floor at the end. Still others, like Steam Engine and Towel Hopping had my heart rate skyrocketing. This was crazy good stuff. I wasn't able to match their reps/durations on all of the exercises, but I did on a lot of them.

Tomorrow I will finally be doing the elusive X Stretch, so that will be a nice change of pace, although I'm tempted to sneak in a Cardio X or something as well. Anyway, I look forward to gaining more core strength and improving on this video. Unfortunately, I'll be doing it again day after tomorrow and I don't think improvement will come that soon.

Day 22 - Yoga X

Since I had a rest day on Thursday, I skipped the Sunday rest day and moved right on to Yoga X. I made it a lot further this time and did the exercises much better this time. I swear I'm getting more flexible, but I still look pathetic doing those moves.

Day 20 - Kenpo X

I woke up early on a Sunday morning and blasted this out with 2 scoops of N.O. Xplode in my system. What else can I say but this is my favorite workout. Maybe I'm a closet Tae-Bo fan. I think I tried Tae-Bo years ago with Steph, but I can't remember why we stopped doing it. This ends my first strength training phase. The coming week is all cardio and stretch. That should be quite interesting. I'm probably going to feel very strange doing no strength training. Since I've been bodybuilding, I've never had a workout week with only cardio. The rest week for BRE had you do 2 full body workouts - one on Monday and one on Thursday.

The only thing I'm afraid of for this week is that damned Yoga X workout, which shows up twice! Argh! The thing that excites me about this week is no Ab Ripper X. Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou.

Day 19 - Legs & Back, (Ab Ripper X ?)

Yowza. I worke up at 11:30 AM today, which was glorious, but shot my whole morning. I ran downstairs and filled a cup with 2 shots of N.O. Xplode and 2 cups of water, drank it, then showered. After that, I jumped right into Legs and Back. I don't know that I'vv ever do that again. Food seems to be a much better option for this workout. I was dizzy by the 35:00 mark on the DVD and I still had a long way to go. I had to take more breaksa than normal, but I made it through all of the exercises. On a positive note, my pull-up numbers were bigger all the way around, so I am getting much better in that area.

On a negative note, I was falling over on my stretches, I had to use the bathroom at the end of the initial warm-up, the balance lunges and the sneaky lunges were almost impossible today, and I felt like I was dying throughout the workout. I don't have time for the Ab Ripper X right now because I have to take the eldest child to a birthday party. I hope to do abs and Kenpo later in the day, but I also want to work on the treehouse. Today was supposed to be my rest day, but Thursday was shot and yesterday, I did yard work all day, which is a workout itself. Hoping to catch up today so my schedule stays on-track.

Update: I didn't make it back to do Abs. As a matter of fact, I didn't make it back to do anything. I left the house at 2:00pm and got back at 12:15AM, so not much opportunity for exercise at that point.

Unwanted Rest Day

Once again, the combination of work and class left me with zero time for a workout. I'll be doing legs and back tomorrow and probably Kenpo later in the day to stay on track. If not, I'll just skip the Rest Day again on Saturday.

Day 18 - Yoga X

Yoga is hard. It's also the longest f#$%ing DVD in the set at 92 minutes. I don't have that kind of time to drop in the morning, so I have yet to do the whole DVD. I did 30 minutes this morning before work and I hope to pick it up and do some more this evening. Today is my one day of the week where I have to drive in to the office, so I actually have to shower and get dressed before 11:00 AM. I know, it's hard. It just makes a morning workout harder and when that workout is abysmally long - that much harder.

Anyway, I can use the break because I am about as flexible as dry spaghetti. Almost every move is a challenge for me. I've never touched my toes or the floor with my legs straight before in as many years as I've been self-aware. I'm not sure it will ever happen, but this program is increasing my flexibility little by little. In the cheesy words of Tony (referring to Ass Ripper X) "I hate it...but I love it." Only I don't love it. I just like it. But I hate it.

Day 17 - Shoulders and Arms, Ab Ripper X

I like this workout a lot even though it strains the sternal head of my pectoral muscles. Sometimes the movements cause a deep burn right beside my sternum on the right side, especially the dips. As with many of the workouts, the arm circles in the warm-up are death. I hate them. I wonder if I will ever get used to them. I don't remember them being so hard when I did them in grade school.

Highlights in this video are Tony's comment about letting your head do the work when doing the neck stretches. He claims his head is 600 lbs and "there's not a damn thing in it." I always laugh because I forget it's coming. The other funny bit is the tip of the day for this workout, which is "Don't Smash Your Face". His point is not to strain yourself to failure on lying triceps extensions because if your triceps fail, the path of least resistance for the dumbbell is back toward your face.



The bands on this workout, if you can get them set up right for your exercises, are murder. The resistance just doesn't let up, so each rep is a strain at the top. When I was curling at the gym with dumbbells, I always enjoyed the rest at the top of the curl where the weight sits on your hand, which sits on top of your arm over the elbow. There's also a rest when you drop the weight to the bottom of the motion because at that point, it's just hanging there. If your bands are set up right, there is resistance at the top, bottom, and middle and your biceps get tired fast. Good stuff.

I still want my ironmasters, though. Some day, I will have the disposable cash to get them, but I don't know when. My wife is due with another bundle of joy in late July, so I need to get crackin', I suppose.

Day 16 - Plyometrics

This workout is getting easier and easier for me. By easier, I don't mean no effort, I mean being able to do all of the exercises and do them as long as Tony & crew do them, not losing my balance on balance moves, etc. I decided last night I would get up and do Plyometrics first thing before eating. I almost made my goal and I met the spirit of it. I got up 20 minutes late and went downstairs to my home office, logged in to work and checked my email, etc. I made a dose of N.O. Xplode, let it rest for a few minutes so the expanders would expand, then chugged it while doing work stuff. I started my workout 30 mintes later, as recommended on the N.O. Xplode instructions.

The first 15 or so minutes was good and I was pretty pumped. I had a little trouble with swing kicks, as always, when he changes the tempo. I lose my balance a little when I try to speed up the first couple of reps. The next "problem" I had was with Circle Runs. On the first round, I used a rolled up sock and at some point early on, I kicked it and it flew across the room, so I had to run circles around an imaginary point. The second round, I used an old CDRom on the floor and that worked out a lot better.

I did Mary Catherines with my hands up for the first time and didn't really have an issue with them, so that was cool, but the Leap Frog Squats were harder for me today. I may have been squatting lower than usual, which would be a good thing. The Jump Knee Tucks were murder, but they seem to go quickly, so I don't worry too much about them.

One of my favorite parts of P90X is during after the Twist Combos or Jump Squats, I think. Tony finishes up and says "Jesus!...I mean Jeepers." You can tell this workout is kicking his ass, too, so that makes me feel good. :)

The third section is actually my favorite because it combines some hard high-impact stuff with some less-intense low-impact stuff. The Rock Star Hop is pretty cool and I love that the band pays an homage to Baba O'Riley in this bit. Gap Jumps are a snoozer no matter how intense I make them, but I can tell they're hitting my calves, which contributes to my utter horror of Hot Feet when those com around.

I did the bonus round again and it really isn't that bad. The only thing that gets my heart going is the Catch and Shoot, but the Football sequence (I can't remember the name) is a nice "rest" afterwards. Good workout.

Day 15 - Chest and Back, Ab Ripper X

Easter Sunday and supper was baking upstairs. I could smell the roasting chicken as my shoulders screamed in agony over the arm circles I was doing to warm up for Chest and Back. Wow. Those arm circles in the warm-up are possibly the worst part of the whole routine. Maybe I exaggerate. Today's workout was nice. I did my push-ups - all the while wishing I had some push-up bars or those perfect push-up thingies, but I exceeded my numbers from last week. I did my pull-ups and came out about even with last time on those. I don't expect those numbers to go up a lot quickly. Halfway through the workout, Tony looks at the viewing audience after taunting his crew and says "Good job...so far." I threw a little FU in there while I was doing my ballistic stretches.

One of my favorite parts of this workout is how Tony praises one of the team for not letting his ego take over. The one thing I've seen from Tony over and over is how his ego dictates what weight he uses and how many reps he does. It's fantastic to see this hypocrisy on tape. It's like he has no idea he's doing it. I don't think any worse of him for it, but I do think it's funny as hell.

I finished up Chest and Back right as the chicken came out of the oven, so I didn't get to Ass Ripper X and I didn't get to make one of my post-workout shakes. I had just bought new creatine, too. :( Oh well. I'm sure I'll start out the morning tomorrow with some N.O. Xplode and Plyometrics. Can't wait. :(

Update: I came back at 9:30PM and did my Ab Ripper X. I feel better now.

Day 13 - Kenpo X

I love the Kenpo X workout. It's different from anything I've been doing in the past, although I did try Tae-Bo a long time ago and there's a lot of similarity to that. The workout is fun and fast and really seems to do the trick. It's not as heavy and body-destroying as plyometrics, but you can still tell it's working. One of the things I find amusing about this one is that as the cool-down is coming to a close, Tony rolls up from a hamstring stretch and says "a bead of sweat comes down my nose." What's funny and kinda cool is that as he says it, a bead of sweat drops down my forehead and rolls down the bridge of my nose. Since I was a day behind because of work and class, I will be missing the X Stretch video tomorrow. One day....

Day 12 - Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X

I did it again and it hurt again. Those balance lunges and wall squats are probably the worst ones for me. I still laugh every time Tony introduces the group and his description of Eric is "owns a boat. can't beat that." Lolol. Then he calls Sophia's teeth chicklets. Nice. Drea, he seems to always say is gorgeous, which I can get behind as well. Anyway, the workout was good. I did a lot more unassisted pull-ups today, managing about 102, which is just crazy. It rained during my workout, so I had to throw a tarp on the deck so the rain wouldn't fall through on my beneath-the-deck pull-up bar. It worked like a champ. As soon as I finished pull-ups, the rain stopped and the sun came out. My karma is teh siht.

This was the first time I was NOT taken by surprise by Ab Ripper X. My new goal for this hella workout is to do all of the reps, si I end up pausing the video a lot. I can usually do 15 of anything before I collapse like a ragdoll on this workout, so I do 15, pause, gasp, and do 5-10 more until I'm finished. I once again miscounted the Roll-Up-V-Up combos, so I ended up doing 50. Not that it will be detrimental. :) One more workout down. I wasn't able to do this one yesterday because I worked from 7AM-5PM and then went to class from 6PM-10PM. No way I'm gonna start a leg workout at 10:30. I tried my best to get the workout in before lunch today, but work had other plans, so now my goal is to do Kenpo X tonight to stay on-track.

Still loving this workout.

Day 11 - Yoga X

I did Yoga again today. Once again, it was difficult, but felt really good after I was done. I still don't quite get how the triangle pose works when you grab your left arm under your left leg and your right arm under your right leg from behind your back. My bones don't seem capable of being in the right place to allow this to happen. I'm getting more flexible, but my bones seem to be fairly static in that regard. Time will tell, I suppose, if I'll one day be able to do this move.

On a positive note, the tech support at Workoutsoft fixed my Xtreme Fit Tracker database so I never had to do any manual editing. Thanks!

Day 10 - Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X

I wasn't able to do my workout during the day today because of stuff going on at work. Then, when I signed out, I played with the kids until bed time. We had fun, so I don't feel bad about that at all. I putzed around the rest of the evening and finally dragged myself to the basement to do Shoulders & Arms at about 9:30pm. I refined some of the band exercises and I wore a long-sleeved shirt to keep the clips on those shitty bands from scratching up my arms. Good workout. For Ab RipperX, I paused frequently and made sure I hit all 25 reps on everything.

Day 9 - Plyometrics

I have completely screwed up Xtreme Fit Tracker now and it is scheduling YogaX for the next three days. I'm not sure how to fix it without manually editing the schedule every day, so I'm going to send in a call to the help desk at workoutsoft. Anyway, on to the main event. Today's workout was Plyometrics again. I'm getting much better at it, but I'm still not 100%. I did the "Hot Foot" this time, although not for the entire duration. Much better than last time, though, where I just did the jumprope thing. Eric shamed me again by doing everything except the right-legged hot foot. Damn tony for putting a guy with a prosthetic leg in the hardest video and props to Eric, who regularly kicks my ass. Dom, of course, was jumping higher than my basement ceiling can even accomodate.

My heart rate was soaring the whole time and I had to pause two or three times to catch my breath. There were a couple of times I thought my heart was just going to burst through my chest like in the Aliens movies, but it stayed put and I survived. The only thing I love about plyo is that there is no Ab Ripper X after it.

Day 8 - Chest & Back & Ab Ripper X

Originally, this was supposed to be a rest day or a Stretch X day, but I guess Xtreme Fit Tracker decided I had already had enough rest days, so this was scheduled instead. This second run of Chest and Back was much like the first. It was hard. there were a lot of push-ups and a lot of pull-ups. I used bands for the row-like exercises again, hooking them under my desk and looping them multiple times. I hit the same numbers this time as I did the first time except for Wide Fly Push-ups, which I upped by a measly one, and Heavy Pants, which I upped by 3. The Back Flys, I upped by a lot but that was mostly because I finally figured out a good way to do them with the bands I have, which are short, upper-body bands.

I'd like to ditch the bands and only use them for traveling, but at the moment, it's all I have. I've been saving up for some Ironmasters, but I stopped by Play It Again Sports the other day and saw a good deal on a set of PowerBlock Classic 45's. The problem with the classic series is that it can only be upgraded to a maximum of 60 lbs. The set was $131, which is a great price, but it's a quarter of the price of the others, so should I go ahead and get them and then spend more later or just save for the others?

Day 6 - Kenpo X

I finally got a chance to do my Day 6 today. My wife was out of town all week and I was watching the boys. I went ahead and tried this before she came home and that was interesting with a 4-year-old trying to "exercise" with me. There was a lot of kicking and my youngest kept walking into my blind spots and playing with his light saber. I was terrified I was going to execute a back kick and mule kick him through the louvered door behind me. As funny as that sounds in the abstract, it would be worrisome in real life.

The routine was nice. I liked the fact that he did a lot of high throttle kenpo and threw in some jumping jacks and flying x's to break it up. Overall, I liked it. The hardest part for me was the fricking warm-up stretching. That was some grueling stuff. I'm hopeful that this will one day improve my flexibility.

Day 5 - Legs & Back (+ Ab Ripper X?)

Wow. I didn't eat nearly enough today. I know better than to do what I did today, but I got sidetracked and neglected my nutrition. I didn't actually eat anything until about 3:30-4:00PM and before that, I had only had two protein shakes - one at 12:30PM and one at 2:30PM. My total caloric intake today was 949 calories, of which, less than 30% was carbs. Add the that the fact that I did take both of my doses of Lipo6 and I started on NoXplod pre-workout today and hour before I did my workout. So, what did I expect?

At the very least, I expected this workout to kick my ass. At the most, I expected to throw up. I think I ended up somewhere in-between. I had done this workout previously as a substitution during BRE and, although I wasn't used to mixing pull-ups with leg exercises, I did pretty well. This time, though, I was getting dizzy at various points and had to pause the video a few times. I knew I was stupid, so I didn't want to exacerbate the problem I'd created for myself. In the end, the 55 minute workout took me 90 minutes, which I regarded as pretty good, considering I probably burned off 600 of the 949 calories I'd consumed today, leaving me with a net of 349.

I had to stop before Ab Ripper X and I'm still considering whether or not I'm going to do it before I go to bed. We'll see. What I do know is that I will be eating one more time.

Day 4 - Yoga X

I've done Yoga once before and I liked it...kinda. I never went back because it was embarrassing to be the one male in the room, the one inflexible person in the room, the one person that can't focus on the exercises in a room full of super-flexible women, etc. Today, I did 92 minutes of Yoga X and it was everything I expected. It was long. It was difficult for someone as flexible as peanut brittle. It was hard to hold the poses for as long as Tony and his assorted cast of freaks. However, all that said, I felt great when I was done. I think over the long haul, this workout may make me - the guy who has never touched his toes with his legs straight - flexible.

Day 3 ( for real) - Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X

I like this workout because it's very similar to the bodybuilding workout I normally do for arms and shoulders. In the BRE I usually did upright rows, curls, triceps extensions, etc. This workout is very similar. I'm not as fond of the resistance tubes and I can't approach the dumbbell weight I was doing with the bands I have, but it feels pretty effective anyway. When I get my ironmasters I will ditch the tubes and only use them for travel. The tubes are different, though, in that the resistance never lets up. With a dumbbell, you can get a slight rest at the top of your curl because you're using gravity and the weight sits on top of your arm at the top of your motion. With the tubes, you're fighting the elasticity of the tube and doesn't ever let up until you reach the bottom of the motion. It can tire your muscle out a little faster.

I had another day of on-call and work, but I did manage to find an hour to do the workout. It was right about the time the kids got home from school and they were trying to do the exercises with me. It didn't last very long. I felt pretty good after the workout, then threw together a condimentless chicken on wheat bread sandwich with a bowl of raw broccoli florets and ate them in the van on the way to my C# class. Time is the enemy, but sometimes you can beat it.

P.S. - Of course, Ab RipperX was ridiculous again. I did much better this time, but it's just varying levels of pathetic.

One more thing

I want some of these.

Day 3 - It's not what you think

So I've stated my reasons for switching to P90X from my old gym rat routine and I thought I had a pretty solid logic behind it. My goal was to miss zero workouts. I bought resistance bands for travel and I have all of the P90X videos converted to MP4 and copied to my phone and my Zune. What could go wrong?

Leave it to my job to find a way to screw me out of my workout again. I generally start work at 7AM and clock out at 3PM. I eat lunch at my desk. That leaves me plenty of time to workout and then play with the kids in the afternoon before they have to go to bed. Yesterday, which was to be my Day3, I also had a scheduled install of some code that was to go until roughly 7pm or 8pm. I was cool with that because I'm hourly and overtime means extra cash. Work went as expected and and the evening deploy went without a hitch. I logged off and started getting my stuff together for the next round of P90X. Five minutes later, I got my first page. I forgot to mention I'm on call this week.

The first call lasted 4 hours, which took me to midnight. I was still considering doing the workout at that point even though I was sure I wouldn't be able to "bring it" that late at night after not eating for hours. Then I got paged again. And again. The next two pages kept me working until 5:30 AM. I was pissed and tired and I just went to bed. I thought I had it all figured out and I was shown handily, early on, that I didn't. Hell, I didn't even have time to post this blog until today.

Day 2 - Plyometrics

My blog is now caught up with my workout, so no more triple or double posts. Although I'm only on day 2 of P90X, this isn't the first time I've delved into PlyometricsX. I tried out this DVD when I was having trouble getting to the gym for my cardio workouts when I was doing BRE, but my cardio workouts were normally 30 minutes in the morning before food, so I've only ever done half of the DVD until tonight.

Tonight, I decided to "bring it" as Tony says, but not the way he intended. I had originally planned to do the workout at 3:00 after I clocked out of work, but I ended up staying on until about 4:00. Then I decided to venture up out of my cave ( my office in the basement) to talk to some humans, or near approximations, for a bit before diving into this workout. The kids, of course, wanted me to play with them, so I rode Gabriel's wave board for a bit. Then Colby wanted me to help him through a tough part of Lego Star Wars II, which I found incredibly difficult to say no to. Long story slightly shorter, I ended up playing with the kids until time to put them to bed - actually, a bit past that because Colby peed on himself because he didn't want to stop playing XBOX360 (the pride I felt) so he had to take a bath. It was 8:10 when that happened. So... I ended up starting my workout at about 10:00 pm after farting around online for an hour. I knew this was a bad idea, but I had made my bed and it was time to lie in it.

This first run through the full hour of PlyometricsX wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was bad, but I managed to get all the way through it. I didn't "bring it" every time Tony decided to double-time it, but I made it through all of the exercises with much panting and cursing. By the time we got to the bonus exercises, a little 5-minute run at the end before the cool down and stretch phase, I decided I didn't need the kind of bonuses he was handing out. Here's my impression of the workout:

It was very intense and I know I burned a ton of calories. My heart rate was high throughout the entire workout and I was sweating hard. The hardest things for me to do were the crossover kicks, because I kept losing my balance; the airborne Heisman, because I kept losing my balance; and the things where you jump up and bring your knees to your hand. I forgot the name of them. Those were just bastards. I also couldn't do the hot feet by the time we got there. Calves were destroyed from earlier workouts, so I just did the jumprope motion.

It makes you feel like crap when you see the guy with the prosthetic leg doing everything with no real issues and you're wondering if you can make it through the next exercise without collapsing.

On a positive note, my neck has been sore for a few days and this really loosened the muscles up.

Day 1 - Chest and Back, Ab RipperX

I've been working out for years, doing pull-ups and dumbbell bench presses for most of it. I expected this workout to be kind of easy. There were a lot of pull-ups, many of them wide-grip, which are hard as shit. I recently put a pull-up bar under my deck, so I was able to easily go from doing push-ups in my basement room to pull-ups right outside the door, but I admit I had to resort to the chair help toward the end. Good stuff. Here's a pic of my pull-up bar:

Ab RipperX was ridiculous. I felt like I had never worked my abs before. I've been doing crunches and knee-ups for a long time, but this routine made me look like a noob. I will have to work hard at it to be able to perform competently at some undetermined time. Ouch!