P90X+: Round 3: Day 76: Kenpo/Cardio Plus

Where has all the time gone? It seems like I just started this program, and now I'm on the verge of completing week 11.

I didn't sleep well last night. I tossed and turned, and woke up several times over the course of the evening. It was one of those nights where you feel like you barely got any sleep. Waking up, however, wasn't really a problem. I just jumped out of bed, suited up and pressed play.

It took me awhile to start working up a sweat, even though I felt that I was concentrating on each move and working hard. It was near the end of the second round (repeating the first round sequences) that I started to glow a bit and felt my heart rate rise. I don't wear a heart rate monitor during workouts (I don't actually own a heart rate monitor) so I've been using my judgment and listening to my body when it comes to elevating my heart rate. I just try to go all out whenever possible.

Again, like last week, I was not stumped by form and was able to focus on engaging the cage, breathing, rhythm and timing. I have come to really enjoy this workout. It took quite a bit of time, but I'm now a fan. I was thinking about the old P90X Kenpo X workout the other day, and have decided that I don't miss it, and would never trade it for Kenpo Cardio Plus. If there's ever a Kenpo workout scheduled, this will be the one I reach for.

This ends week 11. It was a bit condensed, due to the missing workout on Sunday, which had to be made up later in the week. Next week, will be similar, where Monday will be the missing day. Again, I'll likely make it up later in the week with Yoga as the double day.

P90X+: Round 3: Day 75: Upper Plus

I managed to endure doubles yesterday, practicing Yoga upon my return home from the office. I was really looking forward to Yoga, because I felt like I needed a good stretch. I had scheduled a massage last week, but the masseuse cancelled my appointment, so I've been feeling that I need a good body workover. Yoga would have to do.

I've never done Yoga at any time other than first thing in the morning. What surprised me was how flexible my body is later in the day, compared to when I wake up. I suppose now, in retrospect, that should be obvious, as upon awakening, your body has been still (more or less) for 8 hours. The obvious, however, frequently escapes me. What a pleasant surprise. Even though I was much more flexible, I was shocked at how much I sweated. There were pools of sweat all over my mat, making it quite difficult to hold my poses. I've never sweated so much during yoga, ever. I wonder if it has something to do with all of the water I've been drinking throughout the day. The workout was fantastic.

This morning, I was caught up in the schedule, and proceeded to Upper Plus. I keep looking at the workout sheet, counting down the number of times I have to do this workout until Round 3 is complete. It's not that I don't enjoy the workout (I do), it's just that it's repeated so often during the program. P90X+ would really benefit by adding another workout, or, alternatively, I should have substituted Legs & Back for Upper Plus. In my drone-like manner, I have just blindly, unquestioningly followed the program, when I should have been more of an independent thinker and made an adjustment early on. If I repeat this program, I will make that modification.

I don't know whether it's the water, or having done doubles yesterday, but I was really energetic today and obliterated a few numbers, specifically in lean back curls and 1-legged bridge dips. My body has definitely benefitted from this program (legs notwithstanding) and I'm feeling stronger and fitter than ever right now. I'm looking forward to completing this round and starting another.

P90X+: Round 3: Day 73: Total Body Plus

OK, I've finally reached doubles day (as opposed to Doubleday, the man mythically connected to the creation of baseball). I started off with Total Body Plus this morning, and will stretch out this afternoon with some peaceful, yet intense, yoga. That seems like a civilized way to do doubles, and a nice end to what has turned out to be a fairly hectic day.

Total Body Plus has a long warm-up sequence (in excess of 9 minutes), parts of which I don't particularly care for. Part of the problem is that I work out in a fairly confined space in my basement, with a low ceiling. This prevents me from straightening my arm out over my head, which means that I don't derive the benefit of some of the warmup moves: sun salutations, walking lunges and cyclone, for example. If I could change locations for this workout, I'd be happy. Also, I don't like the speed of the sun salutations. I like to perform these in a slow, fluid way, without shoes on, and I'm not getting that from this warmup. I suppose a solution could be to do my own warmup and then jump into the workout. But, I basically turn off my mind when exercising and just do whatever Tony tells me, so I'm not about to tax my brain and start being a mentally competent, self-sufficient sentient being now. Too late.

In week 11, I still find this workout to be challenging, and enjoyable. Now, I'm enjoying the fairly rapid flow of the exercise sequences, and have managed to quickly scribble down my results while reaching for the next piece of equipment and preparing for the next move. It's rapid-fire for sure, but my heart rate doesn't really get any chance to precipitously drop, which is a recipe to keep the sweat flowing.

My favourite moves come near the end of the workout, when my body is really becoming fatigued: 3 & 3, 1 & 1, and spiderman jumps. Due to the low ceiling height, there's no jumping for me, so I modify the move by doing a maximum number of spiderman push-ups using the powerstands, making sure that my elbow is nearly touching my knee on each pushup. At that point, I'm squeezing out about 22 pushups in 1 minute, which, for an old guy like me, is pretty satisfying.

Soon, time to calm everything down with Yoga. Namaste.

P90X+: Round 3: Day 72: Interval X Plus

I'm still a day off-schedule, and I'll either make up my time by doing doubles today (that means doing Total Body later), or tomorrow, which I'm tending to favour, as it would require doing Yoga later in the day.

I picked up a set of One on One with Tony Horton yesterday, and, upon previewing some of the discs, got pretty excited about incorporating them into my workout routine. I've been pondering recently what to do once Round 3 is complete, and for awhile was considering Insanity; however, when I heard through web posts that Insanity didn't really do much for the upper body, I decided not to pursue that route, but go 1 on 1 instead. I feel that I've worked too hard developing my upper body, only to lose that by going Insane for 60 days. Perhaps in the future, I'll include Insanity as a substitute for some discs on cardio days. Still, even doing that seems like a pretty steep financial investment.

The 1 on 1 discs that I've previewed so far look fantastic, and I can hardly wait to try them. There are still about 4 or 5 discs to look at, but what I've seen so far looks really challenging. I've been enjoying the Fountain of Youth yoga workout for some time now, and it looks to me that the other workouts are as thoughtfully designed as that one. Also, the online reviews have been generally really positive.

Today's workout was Intervals X Plus. I didn't feel great during the workout, but managed to squeeze it out, taking an extended pause following the first round sequences. This workout is still tough for me, and I have yet to complete it without pausing the DVD. I'm a bit disappointed in myself for that, as the workout is only scheduled 5 times during this round and, although I've shown some improvement, I never had that euphoric moment (like I did in Plyometrics) when I do the entire workout without pausing. The lack of that personal victory is hard to take. I'll certainly include this workout in the next round, where I'll hopefully overcome that obstacle and press through to the end without a pause.

Other than that, the workout went really well. The most difficult move is Carlito Pushups (the source of the pause, as they are executed back-to-back). My heart rate is really elevated during that move. Everything else is manageable. Some moves I'm limited by my lack of flexibility: keeping up to speed on super skaters, charleston kicks, and side lunge/side kick is difficult. My body doesn't want to seem to move that quickly. On the other hand, I'm still breathing hard and getting a good sweat out of those moves. It's "Do your best and forget the rest" at work.

The struggles that I'm still encountering with Interval X Plus lead me to believe that I'm making a good decision by foregoing Insanity now in favour of 1 on 1. I think pursuing that course will still be challenging and, if the workout schedule is properly designed, prevent the plateau phenomenon from occurring.

P90X+: Round 3: Day 71: Upper Plus

I missed yesterday's workout, so I'm going to try to compress the 6 day schedule into 5 days by doing doubles one day. That will likely be Wednesday, when I'll do Total Body Plus in the morning, followed by Yoga in the afternoon. That should square the schedule.

I didn't eat particularly well over the weekend. Actually, I ate well, I think I just exceeded the portion sizes on a regular basis. As a result, I didn't feel too well on Sunday evening. This morning, to my surprise, my weight had held steady. Nevertheless, I'm going to try to be more vigilant about the volume of food I'm consuming. I'm finding that if I feel hungry, a glass of water usually makes the hunger feeling go away. Sometimes, hunger is confused for thirst. It's a pretty good strategy to start off with a glass of water, and then see what message the body is sending.

Today's workout went pretty well. Some of my numbers dipped from last Thursday (only by one or so); others were slightly elevated. I'm starting to get a little bored by this workout, since I do it so often. On the other hand, I'm also starting to get excited about completing this Round. You can't have one without the other, it seems.

I'm now consistently running through the workout without pausing the DVD. Whatever my feelings are before the next exercise, they don't count, as I just suck it up and jump right into the work at hand. I believe that the pace of the workout is designed to keep the heart rate elevated and to prevent the body from recovering too much between exercises. After 10 weeks, I'm finally starting to catch on. Completing this workout is very satisfying, as a result.