Round 4: Day 27: Yoga

I was looking forward to Yoga today to deal with the week's aches and pains. Actually, I was surprised how many aches and pains I had this week, especially near the end of the week. This is supposed to be Recovery Week, after all. Perhaps it's a sign that I've been working hard during Phase 1 of this Round; perhaps I'm just aging; perhaps it's just been a bit of an off-week. Who knows. What I do know is that Yoga was the perfect tonic to deal with my minor pain issues. I really took my time, focussed, and pressed deep into my poses today. Things felt pretty good from the first vinyasa. That's usually a telltale sign. If the first vinyasa is really uncomfortable, or hard to hold, it usually means a long, tough workout. If I feel strong (with a minimal amount of popping and cracking), then the workout usually flows smoothly and well. Today, the latter ensued.

I'm still concentrating on form; I guess I always will. I've been making minor adjustments since my live yoga class last week, and have been feeling some additional stretch in my legs, hips and groin during the Crescent and Warrior poses. I've been finding that clasping my hands and pointing my index fingers skyward during Crescent and Warrior 1 helps to work out the kinks in my shoulders. Also, concentrating on the upward arm and hand position during Right Angle pose really works out the strains in my shoulders.

I'm still really enjoying yoga and wouldn't consider missing this workout. It's definitely an essential part of my program. Namaste.

End of Recovery Week and end of Phase 1. Looking forward to pounding the weights again as Phase 2 commences.

Round 4: Day 26: Medicine Ball Core Cardio

Today was the first time for this workout. I don't have any medicine balls, but did investigate purchasing one or two. They're expensive: about $29 for a 4 lb ball and $36 for a 6 lb ball. Due to cost, I decided to forego purchasing the balls. A few weeks ago, I dropped into a local sports store and found dumbbells covered with some kind of soft coating. They were much less expensive than the medicine balls and I was going to purchase one or two (at a cost of about $4.50), but couldn't find the appropriate weights. Recently, my next-door neighbour left a milk carton full of steel plate weights at the curbside for trash pick-up. I dipped in and picked out a couple of 5 and 3 lb weights. Instant medicine balls.

The steel plates aren't the ideal shape for this workout (the coated dumbbells would have been fine; medicine ball ideal) but they are certainly an acceptable substitute. The workout starts with a fairly brief warmup; actually, a bit too brief for my liking. I should remember to do some extra lunges and warrior 1 poses to open up my hips and stretch out my legs a bit more. Also, I could benefit from some shoulder stretches, side stretches and shoulder rolls. A modified combination of upper and lower body stretching would suffice.

The workout consists of 4 moves done in rapid successions without pause, then repeated, followed by a brief break. Then, another 4 moves, repeat, and break. There are (I believe) 4 sets of these moves. Tony accidentally missed repeating one of the moves, and repeated the first set 3 times. I'm not really sure what was going on with that, as he is usually rather organized about a workout sequence and keeps a list of moves in front of him. Perhaps he was just a bit tired, or had an off-day.

Most of the exercises involve using a weight; one exercise has you jumping over a medicine ball, Heisman-style. I used the 5 lb weight for all exercises. I could probably increase that to 10 lbs on most of the exercises. After a while, the weight feels a bit heavy, even though it's light. It's the result of keeping it up in the air or swinging it around for so long. The workout didn't feel particularly strenuous in that it didn't have me huffing and puffing, or bending over reaching for my knees, but I did work up a really good sweat and felt limber and good afterwards.

I was surprised that the workout was over quickly and I didn't feel gassed. This is one of the few times that I felt that the workout wasn't challenging enough. For a moment, I contemplated starting the disc from the beginning and doing the entire workout twice; alternatively, I think that an increase in weight will help to adjust the intensity of the workout.

This workout might still have a place in this modified program, but I'll either have to do it twice, increase the weight, or do the workout in combination with another workout. As it stands, it's not really sufficient on its own, even in a Recovery Week.

Round 4: Day 25: X Stretch

I woke up this morning with a slight ache in the middle of my back. I can't think of what might caused it, as this week has been Recovery Week, and there's no strenuous lifting involved in the workouts. Perhaps it was just that I slept in a strange position. At any rate, I felt that X Stretch would work out the kinks and leave me feeling vigorous and refreshed.

I'm not really a huge fan of this workout. It's long, slow paced, and not challenging. I suppose it does exactly what it's designed to do: focus on each individual part of the body and stretch it out. It's hard to make that particularly interesting. One thing I really don't care for is the music accompanying this workout. It's largely organ music (which I actually like, just not the tunes or the way they are rendered here), or perhaps it's specifically the organ music to which I take exception; at other times, it's music from the Yoga X workout copied and pasted over a stretching exercise. Sometimes, I'm reminded of the music played when I was a kid skating outdoors at the rink on a weekend in the mid-1960s. The gist is that the music is not inspirational or relaxing or even particularly appropriate for the activity being undertaken. Someone on the P90X Facebook site once mentioned that the music seems lifted from a porn film. Nicely put.

The stretches are fine. I'm not really a fan of Shoulder Stand; I felt a slight tweak in my back when rolling out of it. I don't have any problem with this move during Yoga, but during X Stretch, I find it difficult, likely because my body isn't sufficiently stretched in the right directions prior to undertaking the move. I'll be more conscious of that in the future.

Overally, a decent workout. I did feel pretty mellow when showering after the workout; however, as I write this, my back is still sore in the same spot as when I woke up. Hopefully, a good night's rest will take care of that.

Round 4: Day 24: Super Cardio

This workout is starting to catch on with me. The warm-up is great, approximately 11 minutes long, which is just what my body needed this morning. I wasn't particularly in the mood for a cardio workout today, and it's nice to see that Tony occasionally feels similarly, as he notes on this disc. Later, I realize that he's done a 3 hour Sunday workout, which is why he's a bit bagged. All of a sudden, I no longer felt so smug.

The workout, consisting of three rounds of three moves each, is 2/3 of an intense workout. The first two rounds eventually got to me. If the third round consisted of anything other than Kenpo, I'm sure that we'd be making a call to 911. I'm happy that the Kenpo round comes last; on the other hand, because I find it so easy, it's a disappointing way to finish what would otherwise be a butt-kicking workout. So, it's a love-hate relationship. I'm happy for the break, but I wish I could work harder. I know, I could turn off the dvd at the end of the second round and insert my own destroy-your-body moves, then catch up with Tony for the cool-down. But that would require motivation, which is scarce at 6:15AM. And, this is Recovery Week. I still ended up with jelly legs and tingly butt, which is a sure sign that I've been a busy boy. So far, I still think this workout has a place in this program, so I'm sticking with it.

Round 4: Day 23: Core Synergistics

Why is it that Recovery Week is so tough? Because workouts like Core Synergistics are included. I'm always slightly self-delusional about how easy Recovery Week is going to be because the week starts out with Yoga (which wasn't so easy yesterday), but immediately becomes more challenging the following two days with core and cardio work. I'll chalk it up to muscle confusion. The muscles used for resistance training get a break, but others are employed in the meantime. I'll trust the program and assume that the rest is necessary for the repair of micro-tears in muscle tissue related to resistance training, but there's no mercy for other muscle groups. So far, it seems to have worked, so I won't complain. I'd like to, but I won't.

Core Synergistics is still difficult. I worked through the entire workout today without needing to pause the tape, but there were times when I felt that a pause would have been beneficial. This workout moves at a fairly rapid pace, and the design of the order of the moves is rather unrelenting. My usual rant about having Plank to Chataranga Run followed immediately by Walking Push-ups still holds here. During Walking Push-ups, I kept reminding myself that you can do anything for 30 seconds. Unfortunately, the exercise lasts 60 seconds so, I had to convince myself twice. This combination of moves is still the most difficult I've encountered in any disc of P90X, P90X+ or One on One. I did manage to soldier through it, completing all of the Chataranga Runs, a move which I find particularly tough.

As usual, I skipped the Dreya Rolls, as I'm always a bit nervous that the move will injure my neck and I don't feel that's worth the trouble, so I fast-forward to the final three moves. Overall, still a great and challenging workout.

Round 4: Day 22: Yoga

Yesterday was beautiful: sunny and 14°. I figured that it would be the last time I'd get an opportunity to play some tennis this year, so I cajoled my son into dusting off our equipment and we headed over to the local public court to hit it around. I employed some of the P90X stretching techniques prior to starting our match, but my left hip flexor felt a little stiff. I believed that after some gentle warm-up, my leg and hip would come around, but they never really did. I played stiffly for about 45 minutes before retiring. What a let-down. I was so enthusiastic heading into the match, but my Plyometrics training didn't come through for me. Of course, my son was particularly jubilant, having beaten the old man into submission. Me? Well, it was one of those tail between the legs days; one of those days where I just didn't have it. Hopefully those days will be few and far between.

This morning, I was up bright and early (no extra points in my house for that) to commence Day 1 of Recovery Week. I slipped in the yoga disc (Fountain of Youth), and still felt sore and energy-depleted from yesterday. Perhaps my diet is a bit off, or perhaps I wasn't sufficiently hydrated. I felt like I was fighting with my body and with the workout the whole time. There was definite stiffness still in my left hip. This eased somewhat over the course of the workout, but I can still feel it now, as I write. I'm sure that this will pass over the next few days. I guess it's a good thing this is Recovery Week.