Ouch. I have a pain in the rear. And it's all Tony's fault. OK, perhaps not all Tony's fault. I suppose I had something to do with it.
Today was my first day of Plyo Legs, the first instalment of One on One with Tony Horton (series 1, disc 1). It consists of 20 exercises targeting, you guessed it, the legs. Well, not every part of the legs. It seems to me that calves have been left out of the equation, although they get some exercise due to being in motion. They're not specifically targeted like calf raises in P90X.
The workout commences with Tony completing a 5-minute jump rope warmup. He then enters his home gym (beautifully exposed with generous amounts of glazing to the California hills) which is neatly arranged and well-equipped (hey, it's Tony, and he is a personal trainer and fitness guru) with a full-length mirror covering the entire wall surface opposite the windows. I'd personally kill for a workout studio like that. Well, maybe not kill, but seriously maim.
The warmup stretches were insufficient for my aging body, so I paused the disc for a few more minutes while I did split-leg hamstring stretches (you know them, and you love them!) and quad stretches. I also did a little running in place just to get my body warm overall and to raise my heart rate a little bit. Tony doesn't wear a heart monitor for this workout, and it's not specifically a cardio workout, but your heart rate definitely becomes elevated at times. It's important to make sure that your body is generally warmed up before getting into this routine.
The workout lasts approximately 1 hour. Tony takes breaks between the various exercises. At first, I thought that the breaks weren't really warranted, but after some time, I was really glad to have them. This workout was pretty intense. There were some familiar moves from P90X and P90X+, with a few new moves thrown in (just for fun) and some modifications of moves I've seen before. Groucho Walk became a monster, requiring you to lift your legs up high in the air, like giant tires, before resuming a low squat pose. Leapfrog squats had you lifting a weight to your chest as you leapt forwards (or backwards) and touching that weight to the ground. This was a glute killer. Wacky Jacks are straightforward, but 100 on each side?!! Also, a more intense version of the Debbi Sievers 80-20 Speed Squat. All the weight on one leg (eliminate the 20, except for a toe touch) and leap vertically as high as possible. This was the 2nd last move. Tony is evil.
I found myself breathing really hard at several points throughout the workout. This is not only a great leg workout, but it's also a reasonable cardio workout. It's definitely a keeper.
Ab Ripper X
You know how Tony advises that you shouldn't do ARX every day? He's right. You shouldn't. I did ARX upon returning home from the office and again, was faced with timing issues, so I had to really crank it out. It was a little harder than yesterday, because my abs would have liked to have had the extra day's rest, but one must push on with the program. No breaks for me this round.
There was a breakthrough, however. Yesterday, I managed to raise my arms in the air for the first and part of the second exercises. Today, I had my hands up for the first three exercises, right to the end of reverse bicycles. My form towards the end of the reverse bicycles suffered a little bit, and I definitely felt it in my thighs and hip flexors, but managed to breathe through the pain and suffering. Now, I've got a new benchmark for this workout.
The balance of the workout was slightly more difficult to complete, due to the added intensity during the first three moves and the fact that I was doing the workout two days in a row. The last 10 Mason Twists were still hard, and I was leaning back a little more than I ought to have done. I'm still waiting for that aspect of the workout to improve. Still, two weeks into the new Round, I'm pleased with my abdominal progress to date and am excited about further improvements.
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