P90X: Round 2: Day 76: Kenpo X

I must have done a great job yesterday on Legs and Back, because today, my legs and specifically, my glutes were killing me today. The warm-up went better than expected, and twisting my torso over each leg went well, with a good range of motion and very little stiffness. The stiffness started later in the day, following the workout, when I rode my bike to the office. After a few hours at the office, I could barely get up to walk around without feeling extreme stiffness in my glutes. I'll have to do the glute stretch from Yoga to see whether I can improve the situation.

My focus drifted in and out during Kenpo today. I was still a little miffed about the office internet situation, and kept thinking about how I was going to deal with it, which took my mind a bit off the exercises. That's not to say that I didn't get a solid workout in. I still sweated plenty by the end of it. My kicks have been improving, which is a bit of a surprise because hamstring tightness doesn't permit me to achieve the leg height I'd like to see. Slowly, by paying attention to form, I've been increasing my height a bit. I think it helps to make the move more mechanical, than fluid. That's what the people in the video seem to be doing, at least. They seem to be doing very deliberate actions, even when their arms are resting by their sides. Anyway, considering I've never done any form of martial art before, and am essentially self-taught from watching videos, I think I've come pretty far, and am not complaining.

Favourite move today: punching sequences.

Toughest move today: side kicks.

Tony line of the day: "No Krispy Kremes in the house!"

End of Week 11. Next: time to really Bring It with Week 12.

P90X: Round 2: Day 75: Legs & Back / Ab Ripper X

Legs & Back

It's been 2 weeks since I did this workout, having missed it last week (hence, the repetition of Week 11) and I had some trepidation when approaching the workout. Following the dreaded balance lunges, the rest of the workout went well, and my brief episode of nerves was really for naught. It feels like missing a workout or two is akin to being completely out of shape. I have to start getting used to the idea that I'm actually in pretty good shape right now, and playing hookey every now and then won't kill me. It's the P90X mentality: once you start to Bring It, you want to keep it up.

Overall, the workout gave me a really good sweat, and by the time I was doing the Debbie Sievers 80-20 speed squats, my legs were starting to complain.

Favourite move today: wall squats. Felt strong.

Toughest move today: balance lunges. After I finish each leg, I groan and really have to shake out the kinks.

Tony line of the day: "It's kind of ballistic, kind of static...it's stablatic! I'm makin' stuff up!"

Ab Ripper X

I've been having some difficulty with my internet connection for the past couple of days, which is driving me crazy, so I have a lot of pent-up energy just waiting to be expelled. What a great time for ARX. I blasted through this workout with so much energy and enthusiasm, I thought I could do it twice. This was probably the best ARX workout ever. And I even managed to relax a bit once it was over and I had a chance to calm down.

Favourite move today: oblique V-ups.

Toughest move today: VF-rollups.

Tony line of the day: "I hate it...but I love it." (have I used that before? I'm not going to bother reviewing past posts to check. I think I'm running out of Tony-isms on this workout)

P90X: Round 2: Day 74: Yoga

A change of pace today: I decided to try out One on One with Tony Horton: Fountain of Youth. This is a 45 minute yoga workout featuring Tony in his home gym. It incorporates many of the moves found in Yoga X: downward / upward dogs, knee to forehead, right-angle pose, chair pose. There are some new moves thrown in, mainly stretches while in downward dog or plank position, some stretches where you introduce your nose to your knees, stepping on your hands. There are different stomach exercises: a variation on Fifer Scissors, and knee to elbow touches in bicycles whilst on your back. Also, there are 3 extremely slow motion push-ups tossed in, just for fun. Finally, some straight leg hamstring stretches, with some pretty excruciating variations. Nice.

The workout is not as intense as Yoga X, but I did work up a decent sweat. I didn't feel quite as relaxed at the end, as I do following Yoga X. Also, no shavasanah, no ohms. I actually miss those. Of course, there's nothing preventing me from doing those on my own, come to think of it. On the plus side, the workout is over really quickly; on the negative side, its not really as solid a yoga workout as Yoga X. Pros and cons.

Overall, I felt like I was cheating a bit on the program. Next time, I'll do the full Yoga X.

Favourite move today: bicycles. I was surprised that this was much easier for me to do than it looked. I thought it would really be a killer.

Toughest move today: head to elbow, head to opposite elbow. Wow. What a stretch. And core work!

Tony line of the day: "I'm 50 years old! Half a century! Helllooooo!" He's just as diverting as ever. Love it.

P90X: Round 2: Day 73: Shoulders and Arms / Ab Ripper X

Shoulders and Arms

Reset day 73, Shoulders and Arms. I felt really relaxed today, because I only used my worksheet as a reference, as I had already completed it last week. It's much less stressful when you don't fill out the worksheet (I know, how do you know how you did if you don't write it down?). There's a little extra time between exercises to prepare for the next exercise, and overall, I find the flow of the workout is smoother.

But without the pressure to improve numerically, there's the opportunity to really focus on form, and that's what happened today. I'd have to say that this was a really satisfying workout. I'll learn from this experience to relax a bit more and stop dogmatically focussing on numbers.

This brings me back to where I was interrupted last week in the workout schedule. Starting this afternoon with ARX, I'll be logging my information on the worksheets again, and completing Week 11.

Ab Ripper X

I got down to ARX immediately upon returning home from work. All's well, I'm happy to say. I really focussed on tightening my abs during leg climbs. Also, extra intensity on VF rollups. I thought that perhaps my form had been sagging on that exercise, hence the extra attention to it. Turns out that my form had been pretty good all along. It never hurts, however, to double check yourself every now and then. Familiarity with the program can lead to errors. It's always a good idea to glance over at the TV occasionally to make sure that everything is where it should be. I certainly don't want to court an injury.

Favourite move today: leg climbs.

Toughest move today: backward bicycles.

Tony line of the day: "Heh, heh, heh. They're working hard...I know you are!"

P90X: Round 2: Day 72: Plyometrics

Today was the re-start of Plyo in Week 11. Again, I approached the workout somewhat gingerly, because I wasn't sure how intensely I would be able to Bring It. After the warmup and the first couple of exercises, I felt like my old self and really attacked the workout. Great sweat today. Now, I feel like I'm gaining back my momentum and am looking forward to the rest of the week.

My shoulders and chest are pretty sore from yesterday's workout. The extra range of motion on the push-up bars made a difference, and I'm feeling it today (in a good way). I haven't felt this sore after Chest and Back in recent memory. I almost feel that I should be doing a third round of P90X just to see how things go using the new equipment. I'm sure that eventually, I will.

P90X: Round 2: Day 71: Chest & Back / Ab Ripper X

I'm back. I've decided to stop hitting my own personal pause button and restart Week 11. Yesterday I somewhat gingerly approached Chest & Back and ARX. I decided to use the newly purchased PowerStands for all applicable push-ups. Wow. What a difference. The elevation of the stands allow you to lower your body about 150mm deeper than when your hands are just on the floor. My numbers dropped in almost every category. I started strong, and finished up a whimpering pile of blubber. Just when I thought I was catching up to the kids...WRONG! Clearly, there's more work to be done.