Round 2, Day 5, Back & Biceps

My arms were so shot after this workout!! Both Sarah and I were really going big on the weights in this one. At one point I looked over and she had veins popping all over her arms. The pull-ups were a little rough and the numbers were not so big but I did add weight to those this time as well. We both still were a little sore in the back from Wed. Legs & Back routine. I have a hockey game tonight so I am not sure how or if we will get in the scheduled Yoga routine today. Oh yeah, we actually took the kids out for dessert last night at cold stone creamery and had some ice cream. This is the first time in a loooong time we have had ice cream, it tasted great and the kids had a blast so it was well worth it. It is nice to have reached a weight and fitness level where we feel like we can have some things like that sometimes without feeling guilty. I will say that it sat like a rock in my stomach and we had to wait until pretty late to workout because of it but oh well.

Round 2, Day 4, X Stretch & Ab ripper X

The title of this post is a bit of a lie because we did not do X Stretch since we did not have the time. I had a hockey game but we did get the Ab Ripper X routine in before I left for the game. This is the first time we have ever done the Ab Ripper X DVD without doing some other workout before it and I have to say it is much easier to keep up with them when you are not dog tired from an hour of working out.

Round 2, Day 3, Legs & Back

I have always thought this was a rather poorly put together routine compared to the rest of the ones in the program but as Tony says "it is what it is." We kicked it up a notch again on this one and I am more convinced than ever that I was dogging it during round 1 and am sort of wondering what kind of results I might have seen if I had pushed harder. Of course there is the case to be made that I am in much better shape now after the first round and that is why I am able to push it harder this time, whichever the case may be Sarah feels the same way and we are holding nothing back this time through. I wore a backpack with a 10 pound dumbbell in it during the pull-ups this time and still did at least as many as I did on the last workout of round 1. I also added weights to almost all the leg workouts, some I increased weight from the last time and some I added weight for the first time to exercises that Tony had suggested not to use weights for. As an example I used 5 pound dumbbells during sneaky lunges, I had to drop them for the last 30 seconds but still that is an increase and I am determined to be constantly increasing this time through. According to our schedule we are supposed to do X Stretch and Ab Ripper X tomorrow but I have a late hockey game so we might just do the Ab Ripper before I leave but we will see. Feeling stronger and really good about the prospects for progress during this round.

Round 2, Day 2, Cardio X & Ab Ripper X

This is a decent lower level cardio workout that should do well at keeping our cardio up to snuff without killing our efforts to gain muscle. I still think that once you hit the Plyo part it is at least as hard as the Plyo video just shorter. This was the first time we have done Ab Ripper X since finishing round 1 and let me tell you what a difference 2 weeks makes. I wouldn't say we dropped back to where we started but we for sure lost some ground. It felt good though to get back at it and I am excited to put on some muscle over the next 3 months. We are both pretty sore today which tells me we did something right yesterday. Diet is still going well although it feels funny to use the word diet. We really just eat differently now than we used to and that will probably never go back to the way it was before.

Fit Test Results

I keep forgetting to post my fit test results from after day 90 so here goes.

Resting Heart Rate:

Day 1: 54

Day 90: Forgot this one but will try to get it in the morning

Max Pull-Ups:

Day 1: 6.5

Day 90 13

Change: +6.5 (doubled it!)

Verticle Leap:

Day 1: 86" Standing, 103" Jumping, Difference 17"

Day 90: 86" Standing, 105" Jumping, Difference 19"

Change: +2"

Max Push-Ups:

Day 1: 26

Day 90: 36

Change: +11

Toe Touch:

Day 1: -2" (the negative means I couldn't reach my toes)

Day 90: +2.75"

Change: +4.75"

Wall Squat:

Day 1: 58 seconds

Day 90: 2 minutes 45 seconds

Change: 1 minute 47 seconds

Bicep Curls:

Day 1: 11 reps, 25 lbs.

Day 90: 20 reps, 25 lbs.

Change: +9 reps

Max In & Outs:

Day 1: 25

Day 90: 47

Change: +22

Round 2, Day 1, Chest, Shoulders, & Triceps

We started the workouts from the beachbody mass building variation of P90X today, see here. The gist of this thing is lighter on the cardio, no abs on weight training days, and low reps high weight constantly increasing intensity throughout the 12 weeks. I like the no abs on the weight training days because it frees you to work that much harder knowing there is not an extra 15 minute workout after you are done. I added weight to the push-ups for this workout by putting a 10 lbs. dumbbell in a backpack and placing it low. This worked out well and really kicked things up a notch. Both Sarah and I really pushed very hard in this workout and we talked after we were done about how we probably dogged it a little in round 1. I think I could have pushed more for increases all the time and got a little lazy about that. Not this time, we are going to ignore the rep recommendations in the plan spelled out in the beachbody newsletter and go with our own approach to hypertrophy, well not our own ideas but something different from their suggestion based on our own research. We are going to target a maximum of 10 reps on each exercise and work to always be gaining from one workout to the next. For example if I did 9 reps at 25 lbs when doing the scarecrow this time next time I will do 10 reps and then the next time I will increase the weight and do as many as I can, presumably something less than 10. The idea is to always be increasing and it is something we did not do well enough during our first round. We are going to follow the workout schedule beachbody recommends though and see how that goes although depending on the week we may do only 5 days instead of six if I have a hockey game or something.

Cardio X and a New Round of P90X, Sort Of

I popped in the Cardio X DVD on Friday night and it went pretty well. This is a mix of Yoga, Kenpo, and Plyometrics. It is mentioned as a substitute for Plyometrics for people that are not ready for that yet and it is good but I don't think I would really compare them. The Plyometrics section of this is every bit as hard as the Plyometrics DVD but it does not continue on for an hour. I was actually thinking while I was doing the Plyo section that it might be harder than the Plyo DVD because it seemed, at least to me, that there was less break time in this one and you just kept going. One thing that was very clear to me from doing this is that when I do have to perform Plyo again I am going to be hurting, amazing what 2 weeks can do to you. I will probably work this routine into the rotation going forward as well just for some variety.

I did no workouts over the weekend but I did play hockey Saturday night which got me sweating pretty good. Sarah and I will be starting up a new round of P90X today but following the plan set out in the beachbody newsletter for gaining mass, you can check it out here. We may modify this one a little as well by mixing up the cardio work and possibly dropping one of the cardio days at times to make it a 5 day a week schedule instead of 6 but we will see how it goes. I am looking forward to getting back down to work and Sarah is as well. We are absolutely noticing how easy it would be to get back into sitting on the couch watching TV and when that happens you just want to eat. I did weigh in again this morning and I was 150 so I am not adding weight but it is absolutely time to hit it hard again. I would like to add 5-10 pounds of muscle mass before doing another round of P90X classic again so it is time to bring it again.