Hoff's P90Xperience

2/21/09 - Rest Day (Sort of) Prior to Restart of Round 2 (X+ instead of X) - X Stretch & Cardio X

So I aborted the completion of the rest of Week 1 of Round 2 of P90X because of two things:

1. I didn't pace myself properly, started too heavy and overworked my muscle groups in the first 4 days.
2. My P90X+ discs showed up and I finally got the information I needed to see how the entire X+ program worked 

So yesterday I took a rest day because I felt horrible.  This morning I did X Stretch which helped to further unkink the sore spots and then later in the day did Cardio X which I've never done before.

Cardio X is a cute little workout that is part yoga, part kenpo and part plyo.  It was a nice, light cardio workout compared to Plyo.  I am preparing for my chiropractic appointment in the morning and then the first day of P90X+: Upper Plus and Abs/Core Plus.

 

2/20/09 - Round 2, Phase I, Week 1, Day 5 - X Stretch (Sub. for Legs & Back)

In between ending round 1 of P90X and just after starting round 2, all the P90X+ stuff showed up.

Per my post on the topic, I realized that I needed to basically stop P90X and then start P90X+ to do it properly.

I was already on day 4 of P90X when this occurred to me.

So I decided that rather than finish out this week of P90X (round 2) and then move to P90X+ (round 1,) I was going to turn the remainder of the week into the recovery week which I didn't have between rounds.

I found I really need this, despite the fact that I dislike these rest periods because my motivation sags. My body has taken a pounding of the last couple of weeks and everything has been a chore, so perhaps it's a good thing.

I don't know why, but everything just hurts.  A lot. 

Update: Duh! I figured out why I hurt much, much more than usual. I just realized that prior to the rest week (week 13,) the shoulders & ams/chest & back routines were not done after week 11.  So when I started the next round, that basically amounts to not working these muscle groups intensely for almost 3 weeks AND I upped all the weights on the routines. Idiot.  I didn't pace myself properly and start with the last recorded weight.

Last night I did X Stretch instead of Legs & Back which really, really helped. I've got a Chiropractic appointment on Monday which will help finish things up in terms of restorative help.

I'll do either X Stretch and some cardio tomorrow or perhaps Fountain of Youth Yoga.

/Hoff

2/19/09 - Round 2, Phase I, Week 1, Day 4 - BJJ, Ab Ripper X & Total Body Solutions (Sub. for Yoga X)

I was going to do Fountain of Youth Yoga today (I may still -- it's only 10pm ;) but I had almost 2 hours of BJJ today, did Ab Ripper X and cardio work with the jumprope while helping my buddy train for his MMA fight on the 28th and then did the Total Body Solutions Shoulder rehab routine.

My shoulders were killing me today and the TBS stuff really actually helped make them feel better -- the whole family came down and did the routine which was cool.

Check the next post -- a whole slew of BeachBody stuff showed up today.  w00t!

2/18/09 - Round 2, Phase I, Week 1, Day 3 - Shoulders & Arms

I like this routine and its focus on the 3 muscle groups.  It's a tad hard on my shoulders, but I think that I'm getting stronger there by working them smoothly and with control.

I think the Swimmer's Press and the static arm curls are probably my favorite.  I'm going to try the wall brace with the Congdon curls to ensure I'm really exercising correct form.  The switchback tricep extensions are always awkward due to the size of the SelecTech dumbbells, so I'd like better form there.

All in all a good workout: 750 calories, 25% from fat, AvgHR=122, MaxHR=160, Z1=42:19, Z2=26:14 Z3=4:19 (I took longer in between certain exercises to get my HR down)

In terms of diet, I've been cramming almost 3100 calories of good, clean food down my neck since I started this round and charting it all.

However, I have to admit, I ate like crap tonight when I went out; I had 10 of these little mini taco snacks (the size of a slightly larger quarter, all handmade with pork, beans, cilantro, jalapeno and a dab of sour cream,) two ginger beers and then a salad with steak and bleu cheese with a side of fries.

It's the first time I've eaten like a piggy in 3 months...I can tell my body is not quite happy with me.

I was out with friends at BeanSec (a security gathering we do monthly) and was starving...didn't make all the best choices ;(

Ah well, I guess I'll have to live with myself and work it off tomorrow.

/Hoff

2/17/09 - Round 2, Phase I, Week 1, Day 2 - Plyometrics

Short & sweet...I love plyometrics. I'm getting deeper in all the squat-type exercises and really trying to get elevated on all the jumps.  Sore back from BJJ made a couple of exercises on one side tough, but brought it.

Round 2 P90X: Plyo. Done: 801 cals/13% from fat, avrHR=145, MaxHR=168, Z1=8:06, z2=12:45, z3=37:37 Asskicker.

2/16/09 - Round 2, Phase I, Week 1, Day 1 - Chest & Back

Today I started my second round of P90X.

Once the rest of the Tony Horton 1-on-1's, P90X+ and Total Body Solutions DVDs get here this week, I'll figure out how to factor them into the routine rotation with my BJJ and kickboxing schedule.

I'm making sure that I get religious about tracking my food consumption on Livestrong.com / MyPlate because I realize that just by tracking today (as per my normal diet) I was WAY under consuming the last 1/2 of the P90X when I stopped recording.

Today was Chest & Back and I'm going to be honest, after the last week which is the rest week with no strength exercises combined with taking an additional 2 days off, I felt like I had never done this routine before.

While I bested all my previous weights and reps., I felt horribly gassed and strained.  I can't wait to get this first week over so my body gets back in stride.  I posted on twitter that the "...only thing that sucks more than Round 1/Day 1 is Round 2/Day 2 ;)

P90X Round 2/Day 1 Chest & Back : 684 cals/19% from fat. AvgHR=128/MaxHR=165, Z1=27:40/Z2=26:00/Z3=11:17

I'm going to cut over to the new FT80 unit tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have the cool zone graphs again.

/Hoff

Round Numero Dos Starts Tomorrow...

Well, I still need to do my review and rap up of Round 1 since I completed my first 90 days last week, but I'm starting my second round tomorrow.

I've decided I'll continue with P90X Classic, add in the P90X+ routines and also work in some of the Total Body Solutions routines -- those are really about recovery and prevention as I need to take care of my shoulders.

Because of my Jiu Jitsu, I'll likely make some subs given the extra cardio and I intend to continue to do the Fountain of Youth 1-on-1 Yoga and add additional stretching and X Stretch in.

Speaking of 1-on-1's, I'll rotate in some of those cardio routines that he does in substitution for Kenpo X and when I'm on the road, I'll definitely do the Road Warrior routine.

I read something quite interesting that I missed before in the Fitness Guide.  It said that after you complete a round, if you just want to maintain mass and not gain any, you can just do one of the supersets in the strength routines instead of both passes.

It mentions it keeps the routines down in the 30 minute range.

I have some additional mass I want to build in my triceps, forearms and chest, so I'll continue with the two supersets for the second round also.

I looked at the ChaLEAN Extreme, but I found it quite difficult to gauge the structure of the program. I found some of the workout sheets and determined with those and some YouTube videos that the program features 2 rest days per week.  Interesting. I think after the second round, I'll see how the reviews shape up.  I liked the variety of exercises and they appeared to be mostly weight/band focused.

SO, onward for those of you still in process and I'll start again with y'all tomorrow.

I may start doing some video stuff as part of my progress recordings.

/Hoff

2/12/09 - Phase III, Week 13, Day 6 - Yoga (Fountain Of Youth) - P90X COMPLETE!

I suppose I'll get to my big "lessons learned" post in a few days, but today was my last day of this round of P90X.  I'm still a little in shock that it's over. Tonight I did the TH 1-on-1 Fountain of Youth Yoga routine which I really, really enjoy.

To mark the occasion, my wife decided to join me for this last workout of the round and that was great.

I'll take my final weight/fat measurements and pictures tomorrow and start going through all my stats to work up my post summarizing this round, but I'm very happy with what I've achieved.

I'm definitely going to be mixing it up in the next round with P90X+, some more 1-on-1's as well as the Total Body Solutions "rehab" stuff for my shoulders and such.  I think I've got the pacing and cardio sorted...although I think there's a definite trade off that I'll talk about in the next post.

Overall, I'm thrilled to have found P90X and completed it and look forward to the next round which I will start after my rest day tomorrow ;)

Keep pushing play because I'm going to and will annoy you to death if you don't.

/Hoff

2/11/09 - Phase III, Week 13, Day 5 - Core Synergistics

I forgot to put my watch/HR monitor on, so I (gasp!) don't know my cal. burn, but I can tell you I worked my ass off. ;)

I really enjoy the simplicity and variety of CoreSyn and I was able to do the plank/chaturanga run (up and down) and the walking pushups were no problem today!  Awesome.

Wow, tomorrow is my LAST DAY of this round.  Crazy.

Keep pushing play kids!

/Hoff

2/10/09 - Phase III, Week 13, Day 4 - Stretch X and BJJ

Okay after my comprehension disaster of accidentally missing CoreSyn on day 2, I'm back on track with Stretch X today.  I also did 1.5 hours of BJJ so I'm about even as I also did an hour of BJJ on Monday, too.

Stretch X is really, really nice.  I need to do it on my rest days because it just makes me feel so much more relaxed and gets the kinks out...definitely going to ensure I do it more than just on rest weeks.

So, it's CoreSyn tomorrow and that will get me solid in finishing up my final week (lucky #13) for this first round.  For some reason I've lost a bunch of definition again...or perhaps it's because my water retention/percentage has increased quite a bit over the last 1.5 weeks, but I'm not happy with the look :(

I'll have to do something about that...

I'm going to jump into my second round pretty much straight away and will figure out how to work in the P90X+ routines when they arrive and I scan through them to determine what goes where.

I'm also going to get the total body solutions recovery/repair routines (for my shoulders, etc) and the remainder of the 1-on-1 routines, too.

I think I've finally got the hang of this P90X thing...

/Hoff