P90X: Day 19: Legs and Back

I'm back on track, having had a couple of evenings with long hours of sleep. Legs and Back went really well, moving at a brick, sweat-inducing pace, resulting in extreme leg shake upon completion. The most difficult moves are those executed on one leg, such as Balance Lunges (thankfully being the first move of the day), Super Skaters, Single-Leg Squats; in short, anything where you have to balance on one leg while keeping the other leg suspended while engaging in a squatting or full range of motion move. This requires both balance and concentration. I find that if I position my hands in a certain way, it aids with balance. My left leg is still weaker than my right, but I'm starting to see some improvements. I also took the opportunity to increase my weights today. Things are getting better, as I look past tomorrow's workout to Recovery Week.

P90X: Day 18: Yoga

There's nothing like 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep to recharge the batteries. I woke up this morning completely refreshed and re-energized, and ready for yoga. It was a great stretch and the time passed really quickly, as I turned off my mind and concentrated on stretching, posture, balance and breathing. My calves and ankles have been a bit tight lately, so the Warrior poses were most welcome.

I think I'm back on track and will try to increase my number of hours sleeping. Perhaps the program is more draining than I thought. I'll be looking more closely at both rest and nutrition.

P90X: Day17: Shoulders and Arms

I had a setback today. I was so tired when I woke up that I couldn't work out. I was also wiped at work, and after dragging myself home and eating supper, I went to sleep at 8:30. I wasn't sick, just completely without energy. I think I should review my nutrition and my sleep cycle.

P90 X: Day 16: Plyometrics

I forgot to mention yesterday that I'm 15 days into the program. That 1/6 of the round under my belt. There is a lot of work still to be done, so I'm glad that there's so much time left. I've been taking it a bit easy these past two weeks and, comparing my worksheets now to what I achieved in the program a few years ago, I still have some way to go before I start to match earlier results, never mind exceed them.

With that in mind, I leapt into Plyo this morning. I made a conscious effort to pay attention to form, and tried to stay lower in my squats during the squat moves, and leap higher and farther during the other moves. It's the Olympic spirit: higher, faster, stronger. And, it resulted in a kick-ass workout.

P90X: Day 15: Chest and Back

Looking forward in the program, this is the last week of these workouts before Recovery Week. The first two weeks have served as a sort of warmup, to re-acclimatize my body to the rhythms of the program and to prevent shocking my body and possible injury by trying to do too much, too soon. This week, that changes.

Today, I tried to increase my repetitions and increase my weight. The increase in weight tired me out, so I had to pause the DVD a couple of times to recover sufficiently to carry on with the next exercise. I wasn't too happy with that approach, but I've learned that it's important to listen to your body and do what is necessary to put yourself in a position to succeed. This should be an interesting week.

P90X: Day 13: Kenpo/Cardio Plus

Today was the first time this round that I struggled with motivation. I was up early enough, but didn't really feel like getting started. After reading a few columns from the newspaper, I finally got off my duff, stuffed the DVD into the player and started it up. The workout was good -- tough, because of Legs and Back yesterday, but ultimately, challenging and satisfying.

That happens every now and then: you don't feel like exercising. That's one of the reasons that I work out first thing in the morning. My mind's not quite turned on, so I don't have to worry about my mind getting in my way. Perhaps it's matter over mind. It's been a good two weeks. Now, I'm settling into this round and looking ahead to Week 3.