Workout Review 1/1/11 – 1/7/11 (Power 90)
A new year and time to get ready for this summers sailing season. Since I have gotten out of the habit of regular workouts and really over indulged this holiday season I put on almost 10 lbs. Time to get back into shape! This time my wife Kathy will be joining me with home workouts. It’s always more fun working out with a partner.
We decided to start things slow and work back up to where we were by doing an accelerated Power 90 program fist.
Saturday (1/1/11) Sweat 1-2 We start off with the basic cardio routine of sweat 1-2 followed by ab ripper 100. Everything goes fine for our fist day.
Sunday (1/2/11) Sculpt 1-2 Kathy is really feeling her abs today! Since being away from working out for a bit and still putting up with tennis elbow I am taking things slow and reduced the weight from our last P90X workouts.
Monday (1/3/11) Sweat 1-2 Ouch, we’re both sore. I guess I’m in worse shape than I thought. Made it through the cardio and ab ripper.
Tuesday (1/4/11) Sweat 1-2 Wow, I’m still really feeling it in my arms so don’t want to push things. We do another round of Sweat 1-2 but skip the ab ripper today.
Wednesday (1/5/11) Sweat 1-2 Still sore and not wanting to push things we do Sweat again, this time with ab ripper 100.
Thursday (1/6/11) Sculpt 1-2 Feeling fine this morning so back to weights. Sculpt circuit completed with no issues.
Friday (1/7/11) Day off. Feeling much better with just the normal soreness from a good workout!
Workout Routines for 1-25-10 to 1-31-10
Monday (1/25/10) Chest and Back – I didn’t listen to Tony when he said to pace yourself for the first set and tried to do more then last weeks best set. Halfway through the second set I was spent. My elbow was really getting sore as well, not a good thing.
Tuesday (1/26/10) Day off – Well, seems I’ve been pushing a little too hard. I didn’t get any sleep last night as every time I moved the pain in my elbow would wake me up. Looks like I’m going to have to lay off the weights for a bit and stick to cardio. I can try some of the Insanity or RevAbs workouts while I rest my arm. When I get back to the P90X program I’m going to go for less weight and more reps, I’m not sure how to do that with push-ups and pull-ups though. Typing with a wrist brace on isn’t the most comfortable thing to do….
Wednesday (1/27/10) Cardio X – I thought I’d give this workout a try as I wanted to take it easy on my arms for a few days and I hadn’t done this one yet. It was easy compared to the other workouts in P90X and was more like a Master Series one. It was only 45 minutes with elements of Yoga, Kenpo, Plyo and Core. I was easily able to do the whole thing which was nice, it showed me just how far I’d come. Sometimes it isn’t that obvious when your struggling to do some of the P90X stuff you forgot how you struggled with the original Power 90 workouts in the beginning that are now a cakewalk. A nice moral booster.
Thursday (1/28/10) Cardio X – Yup, Cardio X twice in a row. My wife didn’t go to the gym after work so we did this one together. It’s always more fun to work out with someone else! I still wanted to do something without weights and thought this one would give her a little taste of what the other workouts have. She has done Plyo with me before, but not Kenpo yet. She has also does Yoga classes at the gym but I think she’s in for a surprise when she does Yoga X with me. Maybe I’ll suggest it over the weekend.
Friday (1/29/10) RevAbs Abcentrics™ and How to Capoeira – Just to try something different I did the introductory disk to RevAbs in which Brett teaches the basic moves (and how to pronounce them) along with a little history of this form a martial arts. He then puts them all together into a short routine.
Saturday (1/30/10) Yoga X - My wife joined me for another workout today. It’s always more fun to work out with someone else. Except when they make you laugh when your already on the edge of falling over doing Yoga X… She has done a few Yoga classes at a local gym but always says she doesn’t see how they are much of a workout. Anyway, I made it through another one, still trying a few of the harder positions before hanging out in child pose. Even though I didn’t think I stressed my elbow much I had to ice it down when I was done, it seems to be getting worse. I hate to stop working out entirely but might not have much of a choice. I really don’t want to go through another surgery for this.
Sunday (1/31/10) Rest Day – Kathy did comment that her upper arms were a little sore after yesterdays Yoga session even though she didn’t think she was working that hard at the time. Just shows how some of the workouts can sneak up on you.
Good Morning America Reviews P90X
Becky Worley did a short review of P90X in a segment that looks at infomercial fitness products. Some of the comments were right on the money like “hardcore”, “really, really intense” and “great exercise science”. She does however misstate the length of the workouts and says they are all 90 minutes per day. The shortest workout I believe is Cardio X at 45 minutes and the longest is Yoga at 90 with the rest somewhere around an hour.
She also mentions that the program takes a certain amount of commitment. That is right in line with the Beachbody motto, “Decide, Commit, Succeed”. Once you Decide you want to live a healthier lifestyle and get in the best shape of your life you Commit to a workout program and a healthier diet you can’t help but Succeed with the support of others doing the same. The support comes in the form of your Coach (like me) and the other members of the Beachbody community through the user forums and workout buddies in the online supergym. The support system is an often overlooked but vital part of the success equation. There are usually lots of people around you telling you how hard it looks, how your getting too thin, not eating well, all because they can’t commit to changing their lifestyle and don’t want to get left behind. It helps to have people to talk to who have gone through the same transformation you are undertaking and understands what it takes to help you along.
Sorry to get a little sidetracked, the video segment and write up can be found at the ABC News website.
Workout Routines for 1-16-10 to 1-24-10
I have been slacking off on the P90X workouts as well as the blog posts lately but with spring fast approaching I need to get back to it before sailing (and beach) season hits.
I’ve completed one round of Power 90 and one round of Power 90 Master Series and am on my second week of P90X (but I started the first week about a month ago).
Saturday (1/16/10) Chest and Back – After a little break it was harder getting through the entire routine with the same weights and reps I had been up to, got about 3/4 of the way through before hitting a wall. Hope next week I can push through and be back on track.
Sunday (1/17/10) Plyometrics (Plyo X) – I had recorded the new P90X infomercial and sat down to watch it with my wife who blew off the gym today. A little more than half way through she said “Let’s go work out”. The workout room has the baseboard radiators closed off so it’s usually cold with the sub 30 degree (F) New England temps and she thought it was freezing and too cold to work out. Once the warm-up was done I asked if I should open the window as it felt pretty hot and we were starting to sweat… She made it about half way through before getting nauseous and calling it a night. I wasn’t far behind her.
Monday (1/18/10) Shoulders and Arms – I made it a little more than half way through (to the first round of Two-Angle Shoulder Flyes) when my elbow started to hurt. I’ve had surgery for persistent Lateral Epicondylitis, or tennis elbow and still get pain when I push it. I don’t want to go through another surgery and months of recovery so I tend to be more cautions now.
Tuesday (1/19/10) Yoga X – This goes way beyond the Power 90 yoga that was mixed in with the workout routines! This is the first time I’ve made it through the whole hour and a half yoga workout. More or less. I didn’t do the Crane or Wheel pose and had some trouble with some of the others but definitely saw an improvement.
Wednesday (1/20/10) Well, what was supposed to be Legs and Back day turned into a day off. What started out as a mild headache in the morning turned into a full on migraine by the end of the work day. Took a Treximet (sumatriptan and naproxen sodium) when I got home and was asleep by 6:00pm.
Thursday (1/21/10) Legs and Back – My legs were still a little sore from doing Yoga X two days ago but nothing too bad. I didn’t finish the whole thing but made it further than last time. I track everything with an OpenOffice.org spreadsheet (I’m a big fan of open source software) and made it up to the Sneaky Lunges.
Friday (1/22/10) Kenpo X – Glutes are really sore from the previous few days. Pushed through it anyway and finished Kenpo X without a problem. This is one of the easier workouts for me.
Saturday (1/23/10) Day off – Well if you consider a day off to be tearing a dishwasher apart, re-assembling, re-installing to find it still doesn’t work, remove, disassemble, trouble shoot (found the broken magnet in the motor time) search for (discontinued) parts on line……..
Sunday (1/24/10) Day off – Target shooting (airgun field target) in 35 degree weather.
Schools Embrace P90X to Help Teach Fitness
In an article posted on the WCCO web site, a CBS affiliate in Minneapolis, Dennis Doudo talks about local schools fight against child obesity and the use of programs like P90X to get kids to exercise.
“The issue is already front and center at schools like Wayzata, where computers track fitness, and a new approach to physical education includes yoga, dance, ultimate Frisbee and even P90X — the training system you might have seen on TV.
“They’re encouraged by the newest technology,” said Wayzata Health and Physical Education teacher Kris Jones, “and some of those kinds of things that push them in another way. And P90X, in terms of the ab workout routine, is something that’s really caught on and grabbed their attention, so they’re willing to do it.”
The entire article can be found here.
