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.