Revised Focus

I've pretty much recovered from my sickness, to the point where I feel that I can again commence exercising. In the week that I've taken off, I received my Insanity discs, along with additional One on One discs. The new discs have caused me to revise and sharpen my focus for Round 5.

My goals are to improve my cardio performance, strengthen my legs, strengthen my core, maintain or improve my upper body strength, and lose a little weight (5-7 lbs). Accordingly, I have reviewed the Round 5 schedule and made adjustments. I'm still using the P90X 13-week schedule as a framework. Cardio will be Days 2 and 6 (Insanity workouts); Resistance on Days 1, 3 and 5; Yoga on Day 4; Rest on Day 7. The Day 3 and 5 workouts will provide additional focus on the core, so, with some exceptions on Day 3, I won't be doing additional ab workouts. Each week has abs 3 times per week. I was careful on Day 2 not to do Insanity resistance training, to allow one day's rest between resistance days. There is some doubling up of resistance between Day 5 and Day 6, but there's a rest day on Day 7. Following is the schedule (click to enlarge):

I'm a little nervous about the schedule for several reasons: I've never done Insanity before, and I don't know how I'm going to react to it; and I'm still suffering from a post-cold cough. It's my hope that the cough will have sufficiently dissipated for Day 2's workout. As for never having done Insanity before, I understand that it's likely the toughest workout I've ever done. I'll adopt the P90X mantra: Do you best and forget the rest. I'll just do what I can. Improvements will come over time. Besides, I'm not proposing to do the standard Insanity 60-day workout. I'm merely inserting some of the Insanity Month 1 workouts into a thirteen week regimen, and will only do those workouts twice a week. If anything, I'm easing into things.

This approach may take a couple of rounds. As always, I'll monitor my progress and make adjustments on the fly. It's about staying committed and having fun.

Let the ride begin.

Recovering...

I've taken a few days off due to sickness, and now, I'm on the mend. I don't feel that I'm yet up to working out intensively, as it's still difficult for me to fully inhale without feeling a bit of phlegm in my lungs or coughing; however, I'm improving daily. I'll likely take the full week off to ensure a proper recovery, then get rewind the clock and start Round 5 again from scratch on Sunday.

Sick...again...

Lesson learned: listen to your body. I failed to do that yesterday, and am now paying the price. I awoke yesterday with a scratchy throat and proceeded to work out anyway. During the workout, I tweaked my neck. Last night I made sure to get ample rest and tried to boost my immune system to stave off a cold. This morning, my throat is somewhat less scratchy, but it's going to take a couple of days for this to clear. Also, my neck is still sore. I'm not going to compromise my health by exercising while I'm sick, nor risk a real injury to my neck. So, I'm going to take a few days off, recover fully, then restart this Round. I'm not happy about it, but I also realize that interruptions such as these are bound to happen. This is a fitness journey, not an absolute schedule. Today's reality is that recovery is warranted; tomorrow's will be different. Listen to your body.

Round 5: Day 3: Shoulders & Arms

Day 3, and I'm already not feeling well. This is due to a really poor sleep I had last night: tossing and turning all night, with nasal congestion thrown in on top. When I woke up this morning, I had congestion coupled with a scratchy throat. Do I listen to my body? No way. I gamely put on my shorts and T-shirt and head down for a brutal Shoulders & Arms workout. I was thinking about this workout for much of the day yesterday, and was really excited about attacking it with vigour and a huge amount of intensity. I was so disappointed to have woken up today feeling poorly, which more than likely meant that I would try to survive the workout, rather than crush it.

In spite of less-than-perfect health, I did approach the workout as intensely as I could. Although it's not always recommended to focus on numbers, I tend to do that during my workouts, as the only way I have to measure progress is to compare the current workout with the previous one. Numbers are my primary source of information for that comparison. I'm not making too many notes about how I felt; occasionally I make notes about form; typically it's just a weight and a repetition note. I'm very competitive with myself. I like to see progress. This means matching last workout's number at a minimum, and hopefully, improving on that number. To that end, I lifted weights in earnest. On one exercise, Deep Swimmer's Press, I felt a slight neck tweak during the repeat round. Nothing major, just some slight discomfort. I'm looking forward to yoga to straighten that out and soothe my muscles.

In general, the workout went rather well, in spite of my health. I managed to equal my numbers of Round 4 and, in some cases, make modest improvements. I don't know what's in store for me tomorrow, but today I'm taking precautions to boost my immune system and I'm planning on plenty of rest and sleep tonight in the hope that tomorrow, all will be back to normal. We'll see, and hope.

Round 5: Day 2: Interval X Plus

I'm a little disappointed in myself, because I ate somewhat poorly over the weekend. On both Saturday and Sunday nights, I had pasta, which resulted in a nasty, overstuffed feeling. I've really been trying to cut down on grain products, and this past weekend was a regression. I'm going to be more vigilant regarding food. Not ridiculous, because I recognize that you've got to make concessions every now and then, but overall, more vigilant.

While I've been toying (dreaming?) with the idea of working Insanity workouts into my fitness routine on cardio days, I ultimately decided to defer the purchase and alternate Interval X Plus with Plyometrics, so that during a typical 13 week Round, I'll do each workout 5 times. Today started with Interval X Plus. This means that for now, I'm shelving Cardio Intervals from the One on One series, and will severely curtail the use of Super Cardio during this Round. My objective is to intensify the cardio portion of my regimen.

I've never been able to say that I've mastered this workout. For some time, I've been able to go through the first round of exercises without taking a break, then through the second round, also without taking a break. The issue is the break between the rounds. I've always taken a slightly extended break between rounds, due to an elevated heart rate. My body is telling me to stop and allow my heart rate to drop a little. I'd like to take just the 60 second break and get back to the workout, but to date, my mind has said "no". This is a situation I'd like to change over the next few weeks. I'd like to break through the mental barrier, and force my body to take the short rest, followed by the return trip. When I'm successful doing that for a number of workouts, then perhaps I'll be better prepared to get into Insanity.

My nemesis is Carlito 3-way Pushups. They're not particularly difficult to do technically, but I find that doing them for a minute is exerting. The problem has been that one minute's rest following this exercise has not been sufficient for me, considering I have to repeat this exercise immediately following the break. I plan to work hard to beat that issue. I realize that cardio work isn't really my thing. I prefer resistance days to cardio days; however, change results when you do what you're NOT good at. So, I persist. It's just another obstacle in my path to climb over. With a good attitude, I'm sure I can master this workout. Eventually.

Round 5: Day 1: 30-15, 10 Minute Trainer Abs

30-15

This is fast becoming my favourite workout. I love the feeling of pounding my chest and arms until they can't take any more. I love the feeling of being in a chataranga position near the end of the workout, and willing myself to push back up into plank. This is the workout where you really find out what you're made of, when you push yourself to the brink, and sometimes over it, challenging yourself to continue, or even just to complete an exercise. This is the workout where you go to failure, take a short rest, then try to go again. It's basic and primal: pushing and pulling, until you can't push and pull.

If you're getting the idea that I'm a cheerleader for this workout, you would be correct. I actually enjoy this workout more than P90X's Chest & Back, because Chest & Back deviates from the pushups to do heavy pants and other exercises. With 30-15, there's no deviation, there's no modification, there's no mercy. What can you do? What are you made of?

10 Minute Trainer Abs

I haven't done this workout in over a year. I first purchased Tony Horton's 10 Minute Trainer as a way to start my fitness journey, back in late August, 2008. I did 10 Minute Trainer for about 3 months, then got into P90X, and since then, 10 Minute Trainer has sat on the shelf, collecting dust. Until this workout. I had forgotten how challenging this workout is. There are 20 moves, each 30 seconds in duration. Some of the moves are more difficult than others, but the challenge in this workout is pacing. The pace is unrelenting. Immediately upon completing a move, the next one commences. There's no time for recovery, no time to catch your breath, no time to stretch out you abdominal muscles, no time for anything. It just never stops. Well, after 10 minutes, it stops. This workout, while different from Ab Ripper X, is still a good workout to include in a fitness program. It still targets the right muscles, in a different way from ARX. In that respect, it fits perfectly into the concept of muscle confusion, and it's going to be a nice addition to this Round.

Round 4: Day 90: Yoga

It was delayed by a week, but Day 90 has finally arrived, marking the official end of Round 4. As always, the Round wraps up with an invigorating session of yoga, focussing on the importance of stretching to improve strength, balance, coordination, and mental fitness.

This Round, I feel that I gained more muscle tone, lost a bit of fat, leaned out a bit, and made moderate improvements in strength. There's still more work to be done.

In preparing the schedule for Round 5, I've decided to stick with a hybrid of P90X, P90X+ and One on One with Tony Horton. I really enjoyed the variety that these three programs have to offer and, with some exceptions, no single workout is repeated too frequently for my taste. Round 5 will see an increase in intensity in cardio workouts, with Interval X + substituting for Cardio Intervals, as I felt that Cardio Intervals wasn't giving me the cardio burn I was looking for. As Tony says, "Do what makes you uncomfortable". In other words, I want to place myself just slightly out of my comfort zone to ensure that I continue to challenge my body to grow and change. Muscle confusion is the principle, after all.

I'm going to include Mammoth UML as part of Recovery Weeks. I'd like to pick up another ab workout (or two) because I'm getting tired of ARX. I might use 10 Minute Trainer Abs every now and then as a change of pace. I recall that I used to find that workout challenging, and I'd like to get back to it to see whether it remains so.

Lastly, I just purchased a heart rate monitor, to give me a better idea of whether I'm in the zone during cardio workouts. It should give me more information, which hopefully will be helpful as I continue my fitness journey.

Looking forward to Round 5.

Namaste.