Another day, another farewell to a friend. Today was the final day of Legs and Back (for now). I've been approaching the week's workouts with the desire to finish up with a bang. I wanted to crush the exercises, to prove to myself that I'm ready to leave P90X behind and move onto P90X Plus.
Last night I was really excited about Legs and Back. This morning, upon awakening, my enthusiasm was greatly muted. I had a lousy sleep and was really tired. It took me some time (about 30 minutes) to get up, to get moving, and to get my friggin' knees up. By the time the warmup was over, I was ready to go, and pounded on my nemsis, balance lunges, cranking them out just before Tony and the kids started. My mental approach has become tougher over this Round: don't wait for the exercise to start, just go and do it already. That gives more time for either more reps, or slightly more rest between exercises.
Previously, I have found myself gasping for breath several times during this workout. Today, I decided to focus more on my breathing, to assist in controlling the exercise and in maintaining form. That helped. My breaths are coming regularly, deeply and fully from lower in my diaphragm, which seems to conserve my overall energy level, versus shallow, rapid breathing from the upper chest. This approach works well for the types of exercises in Legs and Back, which, for the most part, are slow and methodical (unlike Plyometrics).
I had a great workout today, once I finally got the engine going. I had a good mindset and was able to focus nicely on the various parts of the body during each exercise: straight back leg on lunges, keeping the knee from drifting over the toe, getting really deep into the lunges. My left leg is slightly weaker than my right, but over time, that has improved. I've come a long way in Legs and Back. It's been a good trip.
Favourite move today: step-back lunges.
Toughest move today: single-leg wall squats (what else? I hate it...but...)
Tony line of the day: "Find your intensity level."
Ab Ripper X
How exciting: the last ARX, for a while. No nostalgia here, as I won't be missing this workout in the near future. To commemorate the last time, I did listen to the full introduction. It's always nice to hear Tony finish with "I hate it...but I love it."
The workout went well. Not the best ever, but not bad. I struggled a bit with the reverse bicycles. For some time now, I've had a bit of a coordination issue with this move. Occasionally, my heels will scrape the top of the mat. Solution: get your knees up! Problem solved. As always, still a good workout. I may resort to using this workout every now and then during my round of P90X Plus, depending on how the Plus Ab workout is, especially with its reliance on the pull-up bar. We'll see. I'll have to conduct a close review of the DVD in order to make my decision.
Favourite move today: mason twists. Finished up strong with the Mason Twist.
Toughest move today: reverse bicycles.
Tony line of the day: "BREATHE, people now." True, but not always obvious. Sometimes it's tempting to hold your breath to push through an exercise. Ultimately, that doesn't help. Controlled, deep breathing is the way to maintain your focus and improve your energy level.
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