Round 5: Day 1: 30-15

It's a little difficult getting back into working out after having taken 10 days off. My body felt weak, not only from having been sick, but also from not having moved too much during my time off. Also, I found it more difficult to establish a P90X attitude. I now understand how people give up on the P90X program after a short period of time. It's easy to quit; it's hard to continue.

I was of the opinion that I would just do what I could, and I would listen to my body. I even felt that if I was incapable of doing 30 pushups and 15 pullups, I would decrease my numerical objectives, just to complete the workout. There didn't seem to be a point in burning out over the first few exercises, only to abandon the remainder of the workout. It's a similar attitude to lifting lighter weights but doing more repetitions. Just keep at it.

Surprisingly, I felt quite capable during the first few rounds of the workout. My body felt strong and, although I did still have a remnant of a cough, it wasn't significant enough to prevent me from working out. As the workout moved along, I naturally felt my strength draining away, which is completely normal for this workout, but I managed to push through (no pun intended) and finished with numbers which matched my previous efforts. The final exercise, where I did two pushups on the PowerStands, then two in chataranga position, was a killer. My form was questionable, and my butt likely was piking into the air. Not pretty, no doubt, but I was pleased to see that I was able to conjure up some willpower, grit my teeth and force out some final repetitions. Those last few reps were on fumes alone. My arms were completely burnt out.

It's going to take a week or so to regain my strength and build up some lung power, but I'm looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. It's a great feeling to be active again, and I'm looking forward to seeing some good results this round.