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.