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.

P90X+: Round 3: Day 69: Kenpo/Cardio Plus

Well, I've become the form-master. What was so difficult over the past 9 weeks has suddenly become second nature. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

It was such a joy to do this workout today. All of the moves just seemed to flow effortlessly (well, not exactly effortlessly, as evidenced by the enormous volume of sweat expelled from my body) and smoothly. I've frequently become fouled up by switching from my right side to my left, or vice versa, but not today. Finally, for the first time, everything just seemed to click. Magic.

I also noticed that the workout seemed easier than it has previously. That's not to say that I was dogging it. On the contrary, I was really focussed, engaged the cage, and worked hard. I just think that my overall level of fitness has improved. There's more to this Plus workout that I had previously credited. Good job, Tony.

The toughest moves for me are still the timing moves, like claw-lunge-kick, where a skip step has to be introduced into the sequence so that body parts don't hopelessly flail about. Also, gladiator still requires a thought process for me, to ensure that the correct leg kicks up and the correct hand drives the sword into the unfortunate victim. Today, that all worked.

My wife walked into the room during spinning swords. Typically, this comes at a time when I'm sweating pretty hard and beads of sweat are flung from my arms and fingertips as I spin back, swording and hammering. Today was no exception, and I think I noticed a look of both horror and disgust register on her face. Fitness does come at a price.

End of week 10. Next week will be a bit of a challenge, as I know in advance that I'll have to double up workouts some days. Perhaps that's a good thing, as I'll be able to empathize with my online compatriots who are doing doubles.

P90X+: Round 3: Day 68: Upper Plus

I'm skipping a day in the blog. I did yoga yesterday, but wasn't able to get to the computer to blather on about my warm, fuzzy feelings for the workout. I'm mentioning this just to put on the record that while I skipped a day of blogging, I didn't skip the actual workout.

We accidentally slept in today, arising 1/2h later than usual. For some reason, the alarm clock didn't sound. My wife questioned the integrity of my internal clock (which, frankly, I had wondered about as well) but, sometimes, I guess, your body just requires additional rest. We've both been a bit worn out, having attended some evening curriculum sessions at the kids' schools the past two nights. Neither of us likes to go out during weeknights; we're quite content to spend the evening at home together, relaxing after a long day's work.

As a result of the additional sleep, I had to jump all over the workout, and the extra intensity was reflected in an increase in quantity today. I guess I'm capable of more than I thought. The more I do this workout (and I do it a lot), the more I seem to enjoy it. My least favourite moves are probably pumper curls and the shoulder everything. These exercises always challenge me, especially the shoulder everything. I can feel my right shoulder popping (like a breakfast cereal, as Tony says), likely due to overstressing my arm playing baseball as a youngster, even though I'm using only 10lb dumbbells.

My favourite moves are still the pushups. I've increased the combat pushups to 14 recently, and could probably crank out one or two more, as I take a pause or two during the 90 seconds. I'll have to eliminate that pause and replace it with a pushup. I'm so bagged by the end of the workout that I can't even raise my PowerStands in the air in celebration with Tony and the kids. Just getting up off the floor is celebration enough for me.

P90X+: Round 3: Day 66: Total Body Plus

I got plenty of sleep last night, and awoke refreshed and energized. I've been noticing that there's a difference in my energy level since I've increased my water intake. Starting this workout was no problem, and it moved along nicely to the end. I paused briefly before the spiderman jumps (which I now regret), but was able to complete the workout. One exercise I don't particularly care for are the Plyo pushups done right at the end, nor do I care for the way they are introduced; however, it's a minor quibble.

I really focussed on form during the warm-up sequences this morning, paying particular attention to my left hip flexor, which can get a bit stiff from time to time. It doesn't cause me any pain, but I notice that there is a slight restriction of movement in it compared to the right side. I'm taking care to ensure that the left side gets stretched out and is really warmed up, especially during workouts like today's, which involve the total body. Also, I want to make sure that the left side is as flexible as possible, to stave off any long-term effects of not using that body part.

I enjoy this workout, especially 3 and 3s and 1 and 1s, along with the 10 sets of 3 different types of pushups done early in the programme (whose name currently escapes me). I find these exercises in particular to be quite challenging, and I've been noticing some modest improvements in my numbers as this round continues.

Overall, I've been enjoying P90X+; however, I am getting a little bored with all of the scheduled Upper Plus routines and I don't feel that my legs have had the attention that they probably need. I'm thinking of creating a hybrid workout routine for the next round, incorporating P90X, P90X+ and One on One. To do that, I'll actually have to purchase the One on One discs. It's almost decision-making time.

P90X+: Round 3: Day 65: Plyometrics

A sidebar to Friday's post: I've managed to keep up the water consumption, and I've noticed a drop in weight. I presume the two are related, because that was the only change I've made recently to my diet. I'm cautiously optimistic, and will keep it up.

I had a horrible sleep last night, probably only about 5h in duration. Cranky would be a good word to describe how I felt when I rose from the dead this morning. Tired and cranky. Tired, lethargic and cranky. Unamused, tired, lethargic and cranky. You get the idea. It probably didn't help that I ate poorly last night. Not enough self-discipline, and I was paying the price.

So, I was in no mood to tolerate levity during Plyometrics this morning. It's a miracle that I even bothered to do the workout at all. Imagine my mood when I slid the disk into the tray and the DVD player didn't recognize the disk. I'll elucidate: I was...displeased. A quick cleaning of the disk brought it back to the land of the useful, and I was able to commence the workout. Still displeased, but at least my body was moving.

I managed to scrape by during the workout (never pausing the disk) and worked up a terrific sweat. There are still some nuances I'm picking up during the workout, such as how low Tony gets during leapfrog squats (relative to the other participants), and the angle of the legs on squat jacks. I had never noticed how bent my legs are when in the open position, until I compared myself to (Perfect) Pam. Wow. She's really getting deep into those jacks. Also, I was careful to ensure that my knees were tracking out over my toes, which meant that my feet had to be in a more open position than when doing conventional jacks, where the feet face straight ahead at all times. It's all good.

When I completed the workout, I had forgotten about my lack of sleep (although I'm thinking about it now) and was feeling great. It never ceases to amaze me how good it feels just to get my body moving, my heart pumping, the blood flowing, and the sweat dripping, even if the workout itself is just so-so. There are definitely benefits to just pressing play.