P90X 4 Weeks of Progress & Day 29 of Pain

I’ve managed to stick with P90X so far through 4 weeks.  Trust me, I’m as surprised as anyone reading this.  I haven’t been able to stick with a workout routine for longer than 3 weeks since I got out of college. Something about P90X makes it pretty easy to stick with, even if the workouts are FAR from easy.

I wasn’t really sure what to think of P90X in the beginning, and I didn’t want to spend more money than I had to, I had some weights around from when I worked out a lot, I was able to find a cheap pull-up bar, and a mat.  Then I cracked the book and realized I needed a a tape measure too?  Damn.  Well, shamefully, I skipped that part.  I don’t know if it was because I knew I wouldn’t like the measurements, thought I wouldn’t keep up with the routine or what, but I don’t have a pre-P90X to compare to.  That’s fine though.  Why?  The way my clothes fit.  Holy crap it’s great. My jeans are loose, so loose in fact that if I don’t have my belt cinched up to the last or next to last notch, they can actually fall down really low on my hips and are in danger or just sliding down completely.  My shirts that were kind of tight are definitely not so tight anymore, except around the arms where they are now tighter, which my girlfriend definitely doesn’t mind :).  Tonight, while doing the workout for Day 30 ( Plyometrics…oh how I loathe thee) Brooke came over and said “How much weight have you lost? You…wow.  You look like you’ve lost a lot.”  I told her I’ve lost about 9 or 10 lbs depending on the day and she said “You look like you’ve lost a lot more than that”.  That made me feel really good.

As of March 8th:

• Chest: 41.5
• Waist: 40.25
• Hips: 39.5
• R Thigh: 23.75
• L Thigh: 23.625
• R Arm: 16
• L Arm: 15.75
• Weight 196.5 ( Started at 206 loss of 9.5lbs )
• Body Fat: 28% ( from scale ) ( started at 34% loss of 6% )
• Body Fat: 23% ( calculated )

I’ve had to change up my workout times some, doing my workouts in the evening was drawing some girlfriend aggro ( for those non-gamers reading this, my girlfriend got annoyed that my evenings seemed consumed by my workouts: get home, walk dog, workout, make dinner, pass out exhausted ).  I’ve moved my workouts to early mornings.  I can ( usually ) get up around 5:15am, get changed, get my workout in, eat, shower, walk the dog and be at work by 8:15am.  Usually.  Yoga is an extra long workout that I have just not been able to get done in a morning yet.  I usually then make Thursday my off day and continue my workouts and make up for Yoga on Sunday.  This week I’m going to try to do Yoga in the morning again, just in case I’ve gotten just a little bit better to where I can do it, and I think the introduction of a bit more carbs will help my energy levels early in the morning.

Last night was Day 29 and my first introduction to the insane workout that is Chest, Shoulders & Triceps.  Wow.  There’s so few ways to describe how that routine left me a mere puddle on my living room floor.  I went straight into Ab Ripper X afterward, and in the beginning where you can prop yourself up with your arms while doing the ins & outs & the bicycle moves, my arms were shaking so badly from being so destroyed by Chest, Shoulders & Triceps.  By the end of that workout my triceps were pretty much refusing to participate in anything my body requested and getting up off the floor from Ab Ripper Ex proved to be more of a challenge than it should have been.  I quickly followed the workout with dinner AND a protein shake, and while I was a bit stiff today, I was no where near as sore as I could have or likely SHOULD have been.

Tomorrow morning is my first crack at Biceps & Back.  After the workout on Monday I’m wondering if I should really be doing this workout early in the morning, or if I’ll be so pummeled from it that trying to work after it will be an exercise in futility.  It would be difficult to program if I couldn’t lift my arms up above my desk.

Tags: Ouch, p90x, why does Tony love to hurt me?