Hoff's P90Xperience

Measuring Body Fat: A Tale of the Pincers & the Scale...

Preston on his blog made an interesting observation today in which he relates a startling difference between his expensive fat measuring scale and ye olde fatty pincers (calipers):

152.8 lbs
20% Body fat (Bowflex bodyfat scale)
14.7% Body fat (calipers)

Whipped out the calipers today and did the ol'fashioned body fat measurement - came out to 14.7, I like the number better but now it's got me wondering what the real number is.  Calipers are supposed to be pretty accurate, so why is the scale so higher? hmm

Um, a 5.3% body fat delta is sort of large!  Bowflex advertises that the scale Preston has is "...accurate to within 0.1%"  Well, either they are and the calipers are wrong/Preston's using them wrong, or...

These scales measure fat/water/bone/muscle content by passing a low current electric voltage through your body and deliver percentages of overall measurements by knowing your height and weight.  I read that these things (and this scale in particular) are reasonably accurate.  5% is outside of the margin of error.  Yikes.

This is the scale I have...

Time to get a set of calipers and check out the (potential) difference.

Thanks, Preston!

/Hoff

12/9/08 - Phase I, Week 4, Day 5 - Core Synergistics

Core Synergistics is still making me its bitch...it doesn't help I have a strained calf/knee from BJJ and a messed up wrist, but those damned walking pushups and high-low pushups are killing me.  Got through it OK, but it's my second major workout of the day and I'm running low on blood juice.

The kickback tricep press to curl to shoulder press to reverse curl lunges are freaking awesome, but I swear that set goes on for hours.  The superman/bannanas ain't no picnic either and the f'ing plank to chaturanga runs...holy mother of ...

I can't wait until some of the @P90Xtwits get to this stage.  I'm going to get death threats and this is the freaking rest week ;)

Diet was whacked today.  Overcooked the eggs in the "chicken scramble" this morning and I was asleep and used the powdered parmesan cheese...considering the 8 (yes eight) egg whites have little fat, the chicken breast also low on fat, it was mostly inedible.  I ate about 1/2 of it, had some apple juice and hoped (sans coffee) that I had another chocolate Builder's bar I could find.

Lunch was the Phase I, level II chicken salad which I f'd up with too much dijon mustard which bored a hole in my brain and then I ran to BJJ for 1.5 hours of joint locking fun...back to a couple of ConCalls, cooked dinner (island tenderloin, wild rice, broccoli/asparagus and apple sauce) for the family and hit the workout...I'll eat later.

Not enough food today.

Yoga X tomorrow.

12/8/08 - Phase I, Week 4, Day 4 - Stretch X

So I foo'd yesterday and thought that today was Core Synergistics so imagine my surprise when I setup for this morning and found that I had Stretch X, instead.

Ahhhhhhhh.

What a welcome treat.  Given the fact that I train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu BJJ 4-5 times a week, I don't do the Stretch X on the off days, so this was the first time for this routine.  It's sort of a blend between some of the basic stretching exercises in the other routines and Yoga X.

I stack my rest day from P90X and BJJ back to back to let my body recover properly.  With BJJ especially I had to cut down from 5 days a week due to the toll it can take.  It's bad enough that I have another black eye tonight ;)

It was a nice, relaxed pace that was a welcome contrast to core in this 'rest' week.  Still managed to burn 356 calories ;)

Ate to the nutrition plan today across all three meals.  MAN that is a TON of food.  I really like the variety and recipes and although I don't eat fish/seafood, I can substitute poultry (lean turkey) for most of those ingredients in one form or another.

Looking forward to Core tomorrow.  I'm liking the earlier workouts for the cardio routines and the later workouts for the resistance training; probably due to glycogen levels.

/Hoff

Great Mixing Bottle/Cup - Blender Bottle

I buy many of my supplements at the Vitamin Shoppe near the office in NH when I have to go in (as it's tax free) and had been searching for a good self-contained mixing bottle/cup that I could use to quickly and cleanly mix my protein shakes, recovery drink, fast twitch solution, etc.

You can get these at Target, GNC, etc...

I found this one there and it works fantastically, doesn't smell like plastic, is simple to clean and does a great job mixing due to the little whisk ball that is included in the kit:

Highly recommended.  www.blenderbottle.com

Do you have a favorite?

12/7/08 - Phase I, Week 4, Day 3 - Kempo X

I know this isn't really close to "real" kempo, but it's a really fun workout.  The more balance I get from a strengthened core, the more fun and intense I can make this routine.  The side and mule (back) kicks are still a little awkward and the star blocks has me looking like I'm doing the Macarena, but I enjoy it.

I suppose this means I'd probably like the Muay Thai class at the academy because while I absolutely love BJJ with every ounce of passion I have, I'd like to mix it up a little with punches, kicks and elbows...maybe I'll sign up for a MT class one night this week just for giggles...besides, getting punched in the face every one in awhile is probably sobering ;)

So today's Kempo routine brought a bunch more intensity and another 780 calories gone -- plus I hit another 3500 calorie deficit over 5 days and it showed this morning with another pound of fat loss and more muscle gain.

I can't wait to try and kick some core synergistic ass tomorrow -- those crawling pushups are going to be mine!  We do these in BJJ cardio but as wheel barrows (with a partner holding your ankles) and they really bother my wrists...wonder if I can wrap 'em?

Holding pretty well to the structured meal plan in the nutrition guide; these are some really good recipes!  With the kids and such it's difficult to get the breakfast/lunch timing down sometimes, so I'm relying on bars/shakes to fill that gap if I go too long and/or going to miss a full meal.  So far, so good.

Going for the Honey/Chile Chicken with Quinoa tonight.  Even the kids are psyched.  Go figure.
/Hoff

Calculating Calories Burned

One of the @P90Xtwits asked about tracking/calculating calories burned.  You can use estimates such as those on Livestrong.com or you can use any number of new high-tech gadgets to help you.

I use a device I find extremely convenient, the MioSelect Drive.

The Drive is really convenient because it doesn't require a chest strap and is always on me.  It knows my age, height, weight, and resting HR.  As I transition to/from exercises in my routines or exercises, I engage the sampling manually (reading my HR, not pulse) and it calculates calories burned.

I've worn both my Polaris chest strap unit and my Mio at the same time and found them relatively equal in accuracy...you can have really fun debates with people about the empirical/technical differences between the approaches, but it's hard to put a price on convenience.

Another nice thing is that the Mio tracks calories burned from a 3500 cal. deficit scale because 3500 calories burned in deficit = 1 pound of fat burned.  Nice to know. ;)

The Mio's are around $80 on Amazon.

/Hoff

Tracking Your Nutrition and Workouts/Caloric Intake On-Line...

I get asked quite often how I track what I eat and how my workouts factor into my caloric guidelines.

I use The Daily Plate from livestrong.com.  The cool part is that it has an accompanying iPhone app which makes mobile tracking easy.

The food database is extensive and the ability to create meals, one-click your often-consumed foods, track caloric intake grosses versus actuals/nets when factoring in exercise is great.

You can keep your food diary private or share it.  I plan to share mine with the #P90XTwits shortly.

I highly recommend it.

/Hoff

12/6/08 - Phase I, Week 4, Day 2 - Core Synergistics

Well, that was an adventure!  This is the first spin through this routine and it worked me.  I stumbled a little on the walking pushups (bad wrists) but it was a really great workout -- 852 calories worth!  The bonus round is always a nice touch when you're pleading for a break ;)

I like the variety of this workout with my favorite being the banana/superman combos as well as the lunge/kickback/curl/press-ups.

This routine is supposed to work large groups of core muscles and I'd say it does a great job.  If I had to pick a single routine for an all-body workout, it would be a toss-up between this and plyometrics, though plyo just nukes my legs.

If you haven't got to C.S. yet, I guarantee you're going to love it.

I really do look forward to that recovery drink...it tastes really good and hits the spot.

I made the "beef" stir-fry from the Phase I, Level 2 nutrition guide for dinner, substituting lean ground turkey instead of the sirloin and buckwheat soba noodles since I'm allergic to gluten.

Missed lunch, but had a Muscle Milk Chocolate instead.

/Hoff

12/5/08 - Phase I, Week 4, Day 1 - Yoga X

This is the first "rest week" in the program.  Today was Yoga X.  I'm getting a lot more balanced and coordinated as it relates to the moving and balance poses, but my flexibility is hindering me in some of the more technical/advanced moves.

All in all, I'm keeping pace with the crew and the nerve damage in legs which affects some of the balance poses isn't as much of a problem as I thought it would be given the fact that my core is getting much stronger.  I burned 755 calories doing this routine today.  Wow.

Tomorrow is the first time I'll get to do Core Synergistics, which looks really interesting from a combination perspective.

I need to get more rest and I'm working on adhering more to the nutrition guide's meal guide rather than the portion control.  Honestly, given my charting over the last month on the daily plate, I'm netting out, on average, 500-600 calories under the recommended caloric intake without feeling bonked at all and that's with 4 sessions of BJJ a week on top of P90X. 

I want to work my fat intake down and reduce some of the carbs since I'm still in the Fat Shredder stage, hence my desire to get more strict with the nutrition guide.

I need to get a thicker yoga mat, some yoga blocks, find an equivalent recovery drink to the P90X version (which is great but just costs too much) and investigate the Optimal Nutrition Whey Protein I've been hearing about.

Can't wait for tomorrow's core synergistics.

What Equipment Do You Need For the P90X?

The great part about the P90X program is that you really don't need much in the way of equipment.

You'll need the following:

1. A pull-up bar.  Beachbody sells one that you can buy when you purchase the program.  It's nice, but you have to have traditional door frames/mouldings for it to mount.  I have it but I also purchased a full-blown pullup station with power assist because when I started I had real trouble with the pull-ups and form.  See below in the "optional" section.
2. Dumbbells or bands. If you don't have space/money for dumbbells or the ability to mount a pullup bar, you use the bands in substitution AND they take the place of dumbbells, also.  You can purchase bands from Beachbody or (see below) from other sources. The dumbbells can be the traditional individual weighted units or (see below) what I got -- the Bowflex Selecttech modular units which take up MUCH less space.
3. A Chair or stool.  You'll need this for some of the plyo moves, some general balance and the seated exercises/inverted pushups, etc.
4. A towel
   
   
5. A Pen
   
   
6. A water bottle
   
   
7. A DVD Player
   

I'll save the motivational "you need commitment!" line item...

Optional:

1. Pullup station with assist to get max. reps with good form.  I started with the power assist and now I'm weaning off it since I'm strong enough to do at least 10-15 of each type of pullup now.  I got this one from Sports Authority.  it's a dip/ab/pullup power tower that works nicely.  You might also consider the Perfect Pullup since it allows for inverted rows, doesn't need moulding to hang and allows for a greater  range of motion/exercises.
2. Selecttech dummbells. These are great.  I got the 552 which allows you to dial up to 52 pounds in a single, consolidated stack.  Saves SO much space.  They are a little more bulky so some of the exercises require some extra strict form, but I love these things.  Got my Nautilus-branded ones at Costco for $349.
3. Modular Bands. My buddy George turned me on to these.  These bands (although they have TO's name on them) look great.  The mounting options are very nice, the modularity of being able to "stack" weight is a bonus.  You can take these with you when you travel, so you don't have to miss a workout.
4. Pushup bars.  For those of you with weak wrists or a desire for greater range of motion, pushup bars are great.  I went a little different route and use the Perfect Pushup which adds additional fun to the pushup routines, helps my wrists (which are sore from BJJ) and helps isolate the chest workout more.  I believe BB sells more standard units or you can also use dumbbells for the same purpose.
5. Supplements and recovery drinks.  I take a bunch of supplements already, so I'm not going to recommend any because I'm not a physician.  I know what works for me.  I will, however, tell you that the P90X recovery drink (or one like it) is very good for post-workouts and I regularly consume Muscle Milk chocolate shakes and Fast Twitch drinks prior to working out.  More on these later.

Hope these were helpful.

/Hoff