Round 5: Day 68: Just Arms

My arms have been a little sore lately, specifically, my right bicep, so I was a little tentative about starting this workout this morning. My concerns vanished with the first exercise, plain and simple bicep curls. There's no warmup prior to jumping right into the first exercise. That's always a bit of a surprise to me, because Tony is usually consistent in advising the viewer to warm up the parts of the body which will be used during the workout. I guess he feels that either no warmup, or a minimal warmup are sufficient when exercising the arms. I don't really subscribe to that theory, so I do some arm stretching prior to starting the workout.

This is a nice, compact, no-nonsense workout, which follows a bicep-forearm-tricep pattern of exercises, the first 9 of which repeat as a circuit, followed by 5 bonus exercises. I like the circuit exercises because there is an opportunity to make adjustments in either weights or repetitions (or both) if the first time through isn't as intense or satisfying as you'd like it to be. For that reason, I keep a workout sheet for this workout (and for all the resistance workouts in the One on One series) because, as in P90X, information is the key to success.

Although this workout is approximately 47 minutes in length, I tend to take additional breaks between exercises when necessary. I used to feel that pausing the workout for some additional recovery time was tantamount to failure; now, I no longer feel that way (except, perhaps, for cardio routines). I want to be able to push myself hard during each exercise and if I feel my arms burning out, it doesn't make sense for me to take on an exercise where I'll only be able to do 6 reps just because I'm not ready to start. I'd rather wait an extra 30 seconds and do 10 reps with good form, so that I derive a greater benefit. I want to work hard, and I also want to be smart about how I go about doing it.

I'm starting to see some nice gains now. My body seems more firm and toned, and I'm seeing greater definition in my shoulders, arms and abs. It is, after all, the middle of Phase 3, so I should be Bringing It. It will be interesting to see how Insanity goes tomorrow, since I've started riding my bicycle to the office. I'm not sure whether there will be a setback or an improvement. Time will tell.