Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps

This was one of those nights where I just had to struggle through and get the workout done because it needs to be done. Most of the time I enjoy the workouts but not this time. We still did it and that is a big part of keeping with a workout program, doing it when you really don't feel like it. Once you skip one day it becomes much easier to skip another so don't do it if you can at all avoid it. If you are sick or something sure but beyond that at least do something.

For those that don't get the P90X newsletter there was a good article in there today about how to control your portions, have a look here. It is mostly common sense stuff but still good advice and nice to keep it fresh in your mind. I think that is the nice thing about the P90X program, all common sense no magic just eat right and work hard.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Legs and Back and more hockey

We did legs and Back on Saturday and did a ton of pull-ups. Sarah is increasing pretty well with them too. The Ab Ripper is going ell too and I have actually been doing some of the moves like in and outs with my hands up in the air which is something I have not been able to do before. I had a hockey game Sunday and my legs are trashed today.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Day off

My knee was sore again yesterday and last time I did yoga when it was sore it got worse so we took yesterday off and will do Yoga today.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Back and Biceps

This is another workout we had not done in a really long time so we took some time dialing in the right weights to use. This is a good workout, had forgotten how much I like this one. Some of those exotic pull-ups are just ridiculous though. This workout goes by really fast too even though it seems to have more exercises than most of the others. Man that strip set of curls at the end really get s you, amazing how heavy 15 pounds can feel by the end of a bicep workout.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Work the whole core

According to a recent blog post in the NY Times by Gretchen Reynolds the latest research indicates that to stabilize the spine you should be working all the core muscles not just the deep abdominal muscle. You can read the blog here. Based on my experience this has certainly helped me and the P90X program had a lot to do with that. The overall P90X program, not just Ab Ripper X, works your entire core and you can feel the posture improve with almost every workout. I have turned the corner with my long standing back issues (maybe I should blog a bit about my experience with back problems) and I attribute a lot of that to strengthening my core, from the upper legs to just below the chest.

Plyo and a leg cramp

We did Plyo this morning, again it comes on a day when I have hockey. How is it that it always works out that way. I got some sort of minor pain in my left quad which caused me to skip a few exercises but it seems to feel fine right now. Not sure what that was all about, will see what happens tonight at hockey.

Monday, August 23, 2010

Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps

After somewhat of a week off last week while Sarah was out of town we were back at it again this morning. I did play a bunch of hockey last week but no P90X workouts. It has been a long time since we did this workout so today was a bunch of trying to figure out the proper weight to use so next week should go a bit easier. This workout seems to have a lot of dead time between exercises and I suspect we can shorten this thing up a good bit by skipping some of that dead time once we know what weights to use.

Notice there is no day number on this post, you won't see them any more. We talked a bit about this and are just going to be doing the workouts without regard for the 90 day program, still will be generally following it but not too much pressure. Can't wait to do Plyo tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Day 23

More hockey last night, no workout. Back at it tonight with Yoga.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Day 22

Another hockey game last night so no workout yesterday or this morning. One more game tonight and then probably will get Yoga in tomorrow night.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Day 21

I had a hockey game yesterday and after that one I was asked to sub in a second so I played 2 games yesterday and did not get home until near midnight. Needless to say I did not get up to work out this morning. I have another game tonight so looks like there will not be a workout today either. I am getting plenty of work with the hockey though so not too worried about it.

I have been sticking to my nutrition as I should even with Sarah gone which is good. She planned out some stuff for me before leaving which was helpful because I would have ended up just eating garbage otherwise probably. I just need to remember to make my lunch at night so it is ready to go in the morning.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Day 20

Did Plyo on my own last night. I think this is the first time I have worked out on my own since Sarah was sick once during round 1 and it is a little weird. I think I prefer having Sarah here to work out with, we will see how this recovery week goes with her out of town. I had a good workout and it felt good but it was just odd. I have hockey today tomorrow and Tuesday and am currently trying to figure out how I am going to fit the workouts in, will let you know when I figure it out.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Days 18 & 19

We did Yoga last night and that might have been the best I have ever done on that workout. I nailed all the moves in the first 45 minute vinyasa sequence except for about 5-10 seconds when I dropped on the last warrior 3 sequence. I did get back up in and finish though and man was I pretty stoked about the whole thing. I don't think I did that well on that even at the end of round 1. I continued to do well after that and even did much better on the yoga belly portion which I usually have issues with. I do think it also has something to do with doing the workouts at night since I always feel like I do somewhat better at night. I suspect the issue is one of not having eaten before doing it in the morning so you have more energy when you do it in the evening but that is just my guess. I do prefer how I feel after I am done though when I do it in the morning, it just gives me more energy for the rest of the day.

This morning we did Legs & Back and Ab Ripper and we increased most everything again but Ab Ripper was pretty tough. First of all the kids were up and they were joining in which always gets to me. I know they are just trying to get involved but I like to keep count of my moves and listen to the prompts, we may be the only people in the world that are doing a second round and have not turned off Tony on the DVD. Secondly I think doing the Yoga Belly portion last night and then core work again this morning made a difference as well. Finally, I think that Ab Ripper is always a struggle after doing Legs because it is really a core workout not just abs and that means your upper legs get involved as well which is a problem when you just finished an hour of Legs.

Sarah and the kids are going out of town for a while and I will be doing most of the recovery week on my own. Tomorrow will be the Plyo I did not do on Tuesday and then recovery week. I have 4 hockey games in 3 days next week though so I may need to make some adjustments, we will see.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Attitude

I don't often link to other blogs not because I don't read other blogs but simply because it has to be something real interesting for me to want to. With that said I read this blog this morning that I found to be very interesting and true on a lot of levels. I feel that I am trying to head more in this direction with this current round of P90X and it has been pretty obvious, at least to me, that it is different. I do not stress about the schedule getting screwed up or missing something or having someone come over for dinner which means we eat somewhat off plan. It is not that I don't want to follow the plan it is just that I want to live life as well. Now this approach is much easier this time around because I am not really trying to drop weight at this point and more just trying to be in good shape and stay that way which makes things a little easier. I realize this is a little different than what the blogger was saying but you get the point.

Day 17

We did Shoulders and Arms last night and it felt good. We both increased on pretty much everything. I like that workout a lot, it goes by fast and has a lot of varied exercises in it. We did modify a couple moves in this workout just because I did not like the ones in there but that is one of the things I like about this program, it is easy to customize it to your needs. Ab Ripper was brutal as always but we are doing good and getting strong. Looking forward to Yoga tonight!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Day 16

I played hockey last night so did not do Plyo but Sarah did the workout while I was out. I will do Plyo on Saturday after Sarah and the kids leave for their trip, they are going to visit some relatives.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Day 15

We had a friend over for dinner last night so we did the Chest & Back workout pretty late last night but it felt good. We both increased on a lot of the exercises again this week and Ab Ripper is going incredibly well. I had felt last week like my chest really did not get a good enough workout because my chest was not sore. I pushed to the point where I was collapsing on the last one each time but I don't really feel any soreness today either. Not sure what more I could do though, we will see if it is sore tomorrow. One thing that is obvious is the pull-ups are a really fast way to increase the width of your back and give you that V shape which makes a huge difference in how you look very quickly. Given the time we finished and the fact that I have a game tonight we did not do Plyo this morning and will push everything back a day this week.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Days 12-14

We did the Legs & Back workout Friday night and it went well. I increased a good bit on most of the moves, especially the pull-ups which is a good sign. I actually doubled up on some of the numbers from last week, maybe I was dogging it last week though. Saturday my legs were shot and I had a hockey game scheduled for Sunday so we skipped the Kenpo workout, still have not done this workout yet during this round but still getting plenty of cardio with the hockey. We instead took the kids camping Saturday night and did some walking in the woods, good time and it felt good to rest a bit. I did not get home from hockey last night until late so we will do today's workout tonight.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Day 12 postponed

I did not get home from hockey until late last night so we are putting off the Legs & Back routine until tonight. More to come...

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Day 11 Plyo

I perhaps did not think through he switch of Plyo to today very well when we decided on Tuesday to do Yoga. I forgot I have a hockey game tonight at 9pm and then we have Legs & Back tomorrow morning. Oh well, we got up a little later this morning and did Plyo and I felt pretty good. My legs feel ragged right now but I felt much better during the workout than I did last week. I did have a bit of a sore right knee that caused me to skip the hot foots on the right side but other than that fine and feeling good. Still amazed at how fast you can get back in shape when it doesn't mean losing 30 pounds. Should be fun by the time Legs & Back roll around tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Days 9 & 10

So we switched things up a bit and diid Yoga X on Tuesday instead of Plyo. We did this because the kids spent Monday night at Grandma's house and this workout is so much better without a 2 year old whining and climbing on you during it. It is hard to avoid that though given the workout is 1.5 hours and she usually is up by 6:30 or so. We have been setting the alarm for 5 but we don't actually get down ther and start until more like 5:15. The workout went well, much better rhan last weeks Yoga fiasco. We both felt good on most everything and my foot, which had been bothering me if you recall, made it through with little trouble. We had received a replacement DVD for Yoga and so we used that to make sure it worked and it was fine. This is the 3rd DVD we have had that has had problems and we have had to replace. Beachbody has been great and replaced them all no problem but I went ahead and added the lifetime replacement plan for $15 and based on my experience would recomend it for everyone.

Today we did the Shoulders and Arms routine and what a good workout. These are just fun muscles to work, shoulders triceps and biceps. We increased on most everything and it felt really good doing Ab Ripper, which we are performing great on now. The body is absolutely coming back into top shape very quickly and that is good to see. I bought some weightlifting gloves because the new pull-up bar is textured and it was killing my hands and I wore them for todays worklout and loved them. They are Golds-Gym brand and I picked them up at WalMart for $9, see here. They have lots of padding and were very comfortable, I would highly recomend them if you need gloves. Still remains to be seen how they hold up but for $9 I think they will be fine.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Days 5-8

Did not really have time to post anything over the weekend but we were still working. We did Legs and Back on Saturday and it was good. I am pretty sure that is my least favorite workout of the program but you need to work your legs somehow and there are only so many leg exercises you can do, especially without equipment. My right foot/ankle was still a little sore and I iced it a bit but it did not stop me from doing anything. I was able to do all the exercises this time, the Super Skaters did not bother my knee at all. I think the knee is completely healed now but I will keep a close eye on it.

Sunday we did not do the Kenpo workout because I had 2 hockey games and we thought we needed a sleep in day anyway. I got plenty of cardio work during the 2 games anyway so not worried about that.

This morning we did the Chest and Back routine and pretty well increased on most everything and the Abs workout felt real good. As we thought we are quickly getting back into the shape we were in before stopping.

The nutrition has been going well and I think we are getting pretty used to it again. The biggest change for me is probably the no beer part since I had been drinking beer during our time off but no more. Looking forward to seeing how the Plyo workout goes tomorrow after another week of getting in shape. That is a very tough workout and in my opinion a pretty good barometer of how your fitness is going.