Friday, July 30, 2010

Day 4, Yoga X (Bonk)

What a crappy workout today was. It started out bad and just got worse as the workout went on. I could not hit the upward dogs without feeling like I was going to fall over and I had to drop out of a bunch of moves for various reasons. Although I tried to get back into them but was often not very successful. At one point I started getting a pain on the top of my right foot which meant I could not do the warrior sequences with my right foot back because it was too painful. It also didn't help that the kids woke up early today, that always gets to me when they are up. Amazingly the only part of this workout where I actually felt good was the Yoga Belly sequence (Abs workout). Oh well, need to just forget this one and move on. This is a good lesson for those of you starting on the program, don't get discouraged too much by a bad day because they will happen over the course of 90 days. Just keep working and make sure you are getting enough rest and staying hydrated because that can lead to a bad workout too.

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Day 3

Played hockey last night and man my legs are shredded today after Plyo and then that yesterday. We then woke up this morning and did the Shoulders & Arms workout. Increased weight on most everything as did Sarah and it is amazing how fast you can get back into shape when you are not that far removed from it. After just a week of this I can already notice the difference when I look in the mirror. It should be fun to see how this round does over the course of 90 days. As was the case all through round one we struggled more today on Ab Ripper than we did on Day 1. It is clear that the recovery day is a key part of this program and the performance through the week on Ab Ripper is, I think, a good indication of this.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Day 2 with a bonus

We did the day 1 workout, Chest & Back, last night and finished up around 9:45 pm. We pushed it at a quick pace and finished the workout in something like 10-15 minutes faster than if you sit there and listen to Tony blathering on and on. Don't get me wrong, I like Tony but we were planning on getting up this morning to do Plyo so we wanted to finish and get to bed. We made some good gains over last weeks dry run and we were especially surprised at how much easier we were able to do the Ab Ripper workout. It is amazing how quickly your body can adapt to being worked hard. I don't think we are going to be nearly as sore this week as we were last week thank goodness, I could barely function last week.

We got up at about 5:45 am this morning and did the Plyo workout for day 2 and man is this one tough, I love it. I had forgotten how I sit there throughout saying how I hate the current sequence the most and then we get to the next one and I hate it even more. I think it is more to do with the fact that it just seems to go on and on and on and never ends. I love this workout, what a sweat it works up.

So what is the bonus? I have another hockey game tonight so it is a rough week again and we are a day behind because we did not start the workouts until Tuesday rather than Monday. Sunday/Monday will be even more fun since we have Kenpo in the morning then I have a hockey game at 12:45 and another at 6:40 then we have to get up Monday morning and do Chest & Back again. This brings up a question I get from people from time to time about "how do you fit the workouts into your schedule" and this is an example, be flexible and do them when you can. Sometimes this will mean doing one at night and then another in the morning, try to keep that to a minimum, or doing a workout very late at night because you don't get home until late. You need to just make the time to do it and stick with it. That being said don't be afraid to change the schedule up a bit if needed or skip a day and then continue as long as you are not making a habit of it.

I also weighed myself this morning just to get an idea of where I am starting at. This morning I was153.6 with a 14.7% body fat number. I know these scales are not as accurate with the body fat number as calipers but I think this number is a reasonable estimation and if nothing else I can compare numbers over time from the same source to make sure I am trending in the right direction. We also discovered last night when we went to open our new whey protein that we had somehow managed to buy strawberry rather than our usual double rich chocolate. This flavor turns out to be nasty, so much so that Sarah is going to try to exchange it today because it is basically undrinkable. The problem is it has that fake sugar in it that just tastes horrible (we use this brand).

I forgot to mention that over the weekend our Yoga DVD had some errors in it so I contacted beachbody and they are sending a replacement. I have said before and I will say again, spend the extra $14 for the lifetime replacement plan since this is the 3rd DVD that has gone bad on me since I got the program. If you did not get it when you bought the system but are still within the fist year they will let you add it.


Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Day 1, sort of...

We took a trip to NC this weekend to see some family and so I did not post anything. We got up Friday morning and did the Legs & Back routine before we left. The workout went well but I did find the exercise that I can't do because my knee hurts too bad when I try it. The Super Skaters were just too much for that leg. It was strange too because nothing else in the routine gave me a problem but I knew as soon as I did the first one of these I had to stop. It felt like my knee was just going to give out on me right from the start. I just skipped this exercise on that leg and will try again this week.

We took it a little easy on the nutrition this weekend but not too bad and I did do the Yoga workout with my sister-in-law on Sunday. She has been doing Yoga for a few years and it was nice to get some feedback from her on this workout. Having never done any yoga other than this workout I was never really sure how this yoga routine would compare to say a class at the local gym. She was impressed with it and familiar with most of the moves. She says the level of difficulty is in line with some of the more advanced classes she has taken, good to know.

That brings us to today, day 1. I had a late hockey game last night and apparently there was some miscommunication between my wife and I as to when we would workout today so we did not get up and do the workout this morning. We will do it tonight but I am not sure how the rest of the week will work out because I have a game Wed. as well. Maybe do Plyo tomorrow morning after the workout tonight. We will need to go right to bed after the workout though. Looks like another long week of workouts but it feels good and I am already seeing some changes in m mid section after just last week. We are still getting used to the nutrition plan again but it is going pretty well.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Yoga put me on my ass.

We got up to do yoga this morning and it was immediately apparent that all the vinyasa's (Plank to Chataranga to Upward Dog to Plank to Downward Dog) were going to be a killer with our triceps being as sore as they are. We made it through all of them but the chataranga's were sketchy for sure. In general I thought we did better than I was expecting given the amount of time we have gone without doing this workout. That said, we are for certain not nearly as flexible today as we were at the end of round one but again I think that will quickly change.

It felt great to get through these exercises and it certainly loosened up all the tight muscles from the past few days. I may have jumped up and gone to shower a bit to fast though because after showering I became somewhat lightheaded and a little nauseous and had to lay down for a few minutes. After a bit I was up and eating and feeling better. I think that between the start of the workout this week as well as the hockey stacked up earlier in the week and the fact that I am doing the phase 1 nutrition plan which is light on carbs things just caught up with me a bit. I am fine now, once I ate I felt much better, but I will have to keep an eye on that and make sure I am eating enough and getting enough sleep.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Man am I sore

Shoulders and Arms today and my triceps were still sore from the Chest and Back workout, don't really understand why they don't include triceps in that name since with all those push ups they get shredded. We did look back at our weights and reps from round one for this workout since we needed to get an idea of what weight to use to start out with. It went a little slow given we have not done this one in a while but overall a good workout. This workout was not too much trouble other than the fact that we were sore. Doing Ab Ripper was pretty tough given how sore we both are in the core but I felt pretty good and was able to do more reps of most of the exercises. I am pretty confident we will get back up to speed within the first 2 weeks.

We are trying to get used to the P90X nutrition plan again and that is a little tricky but I think we have it down now. The main thing is to make sure we are eating enough with daily intense workouts and also make sure we are taking our vitamins so we don't get run down and sick.

Below is the picture of our new workout room. The Power Tower is under the Suspension trainer since we did not need it for the workout that day but when we do workouts requiring it we move it to where you see the chair on the right.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Plyo!!!

There is nothing like a good old fashioned ass kicking to get the day going. Perhaps this Sunday night hockey, Monday morning Chest & Back, Monday night hockey, and Tuesday morning Plyo was not such a good idea. We rolled out of bed at 5:15 again this morning and man were my legs sore. When the alarm went off I moved my legs and they hurt. I was thinking how nice it would be to just go back to sleep. I told Sarah after the workout that she could have easily talked me in to skipping this one but we got up and did it and I am glad we did.

This workout is just hard right from the start and it never really gets any easier but I do love it and the results it gives are undeniable. The first thing I noticed was my gut was sore when we did swing kicks. I was thinking we did not get a great core workout with Ab Ripper yesterday because we were not finishing the exercises but man my core is sore today and it was obvious when doing swing kicks. Things just got more brutal as the workout went on and my heart rate monitor was beeping all the way through because I was having a tough time staying down in my training zone. I thought I was going to need to get my little bucket there for a while but we made it through. I was concerned about my knee before this one given how high impact it is but the only time it ever bothered me was for a short piece of the hot foot and during the gap jumps. I modified a little and it was OK. I also had to modify a few exercises towards the end of the workout or I might have needed my bucket for real.

This was the workout we were thinking we might be tight on space in the new workout area for with all the jumping around but it turned out to be fine. I think it actually is better than the old house was at the end after we rearranged our furniture for showing the house. I did take a picture of the new workout room this morning but I don't have it with me now so I will try to post it tomorrow. I am looking forward to not having a game tonight but I am sure my legs are going to be shot tomorrow. My back and chest are pretty sore today after yesterdays workout but it feels good to be back at it.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Back at it, finally!

We hauled our squishy asses out of bed at 5:15 this morning to get a workout in for the first time in a long time and it feels good to be doing something again. To be clear we are not exactly starting a new round today since we are going out of town this weekend but at least we are working out. The plan is to use this week to get back into the swing of things and figure out how to use our new workout space at the new house and then start a round next week when we get back. The space worked well for us with what appears to be enough room for both of us to workout. We have a TV and DVD player mounted on the wall in the corner with mirrors mounted on both walls adjacent to the TV. We have the same weight equipment we used at the old house but because of the construction materials used in the house, engineered wood I-beams, I was unwilling to mount the pull up bars I made for the old house to the ceiling. To get around this we bought a couple of pieces of equipment. We have a Stamina 1700 which we picked up on ebay for $50 and a Fitness Gear 360 we picked up on sale and with a gift card we won so it cost us $100. The Power Tower fits under the Fitness Gear piece for storage so we have more floor space for Plyo and other such workouts but for today, Chest & Back, we obviously needed to use them both. The equipment worked out well with the exception that my pull-up bar on the Fitness Gear piece is textured and I need to get a pair of weightlifting gloves. There are a few improvements to the room we may make but all in all it was a good space. I will try to post a picture of the new room soon.

As far as the workout goes it was not nearly as bad as I think I was expecting. I did have a hockey game last night with a bunch of kids half my age and I have another with them again tonight so that makes things a little more difficult. I intentionally did not go back and look at the numbers I was getting, reps and weight, when we stopped because I did not want to discourage myself but I am sure my numbers today were much lower. Neither of us were able to knock out very many pull-ups, that is one ass kicking exercise, but we did push through and do as many as we could. I was sweating like crazy by the end of the workout and then remembered we still had 16 minutes of Ab ripper X to go. Holy Crap!! This is where the real slide showed itself. At first everything seemed reasonable as we struggled through the In & Outs, Bicycles, and Crunchy Frogs and then we came to the Crossed Leg Wide Leg Sit Up. Neither of us could get our asses up off the floor very well but we did struggle through and get some of these done, not sure how many as I was struggling enough to not even count. The rest of this workout went pretty much the same but we did get through and I suspect we will quickly get back into the shape we were in before. One nice thing is the knee did not bother me at all during the workout although this one does not use it much. I was thinking some of the warm up stuff might be a problem, like running in place, but no pain.

I am just now thinking about how crazy Plyo is going to be tomorrow, that time off is probably really going to show in that workout. Oh well, Bring It!!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Getting Close

The gym in our new house is coming together. We have all the equipment assembled and the TV and DVD player are now mounted on the wall. One wall is now mirrored and the other will be done tonight. Now all I need to do is make sure my knee is OK. It is still a little sore when I run, seems fine playing hockey though strangely. I do not want to jump in too early with Plyo and set myself back again. I will keep you posted but looking like we will be starting another round very soon.