Day 9 – World’s Biggest Headache

P90X - Chews on your fitness and spits you out
P90X - Chews on your fitness and spits you out

I don’t want this to turn into a blog about how much pain I am in or what hurts day to day but I think it is valuable to know that this is not a walk in the park. I know my motivation for reading P90X blogs is to find out how that person managed the process, if they skipped workouts and of course, to hear them complain about how they are in so much pain it hurts to blink. It does however seem unavoidable. Today was Plyometrics part 2 so of course I am going to complain. Satan, or Tony as he likes to call himself, says Plyo is the mother of all workouts. Well, I agree in part, it’s a mother alright. All day today I have had a massive headache, and for some reason my stomach has been really upset. Maybe it was the bar food I ate on Saturday catching up with me but for me to have a headache is actually quite unusual. Needless to say I have been in  a foul mood and my prediction up until the end of the work day was that I would likely skip the workout. On the way home I decided that no matter how bad I felt, I would at least try to get through and see what happened. What’s the worst that could happen? I would do a sub par workout and fell like garbage? Even that is better than not doing anything, right? Like I always say, Something beats nothing every time!

I got home, had a quick bite to eat and decided to try and sleep off my headache. I woke at about 630 and was amazed to find I felt much better. So, water in hand I decided to go to the basement and get the work done. After all, I know it is only an hour and you can do anything for an hour can’t you? It is week 2 and I am trying hard not to dwell on the fact that I feel like a rottweilers chew toy. I am hoping that tomorrow after a good night’s sleep I will feel better and ready to continue. I am having a hard time believing that I will make it through the week but one day at a time I’ll do my best.

The warmup for Plyo is a good workout in itself. Once you start getting into the different elements the time really starts to fly. Each section is divided into 4 exercises which you repeat twice making it varied and challenging and not at all boring. It also gives you the opportunity to try harder the second time around, so if you only managed to get to 20 seconds of one move or if it was maybe too difficult the first time, you have a second shot at it not only to improve your form but also to fill out that last few seconds. Those last few seconds are where the money is!

I mentioned I think that my hip flexors are completely screwed. I can do a few minutes of movements but the fatigue comes so quickly and the weakness is so debilitating that it is making some of the work a real challenge. There is a movement called swing kicks where you have to lift your feet over the back of a chair and back almost like a crescent kick. At first I was easily able to do the 30 seconds, but now I am really struggling with the height of my kicks. I think it is because so much of the P90X program relies on strong hip flexors, from the Ab Ripper to the Kenpo and the Plyo there is just so much strain placed on them. I also have to agree that strong hip flexors are a staple of a strong core and are very much overlooked by most training programs and even most personal trainers. Kids at gym with strong hip flexors are able to perform at a significantly higher level than those who don’t and we see it all the time.

The workout was tough, I was struggling throughout and even though my headache was gone I felt like a giant bag of crap. I am managing to do the full time on most of the exercises and although that sounds like a real underachiever you have to understand the difficulty level involved. Some of the jump turns I find hard because they hurt my back, I have a difficult time switching from a full lunge one direction to a full lunge the other way in a single jump. I do have to say though when you get to the end of the workout to the sport bonus section is it fun since you know there are only a few minutes left and you can have a bit of fun with it. Faking shooting basketballs may sound a little idiotic but when you have just spent the last 45 minutes setting your quads on fire ANYTHING is a welcome break. I made it through, although I am not sure how much pain I am in for tomorrow. I just hope this stomach ache goes away and I can settle back into my diet regime again. I think that is why I am so tired, my body isn’t getting what it needs to develop the kind of energy level I require.

Plyometrics. I hate it, but I love it.

2 thoughts on “Day 9 – World’s Biggest Headache”

  1. My wife and I are in great shape. Former Bodybuilders. The issue is I have some hip and Thigh pain like you…probably from Heavy 400 lb squats in my younger days.
    The real issue is my wife. she is a Gorgeous 50 year old with the body of a 25 year old. 5’4″ 125Lbs, 12% Body Fat, Summer Weight 114 lbs 9% Body Fat.
    Thin is she stopped doing Insanity’s Ply because of Headaches. We started for about a Year with Ten Minute Trainer for 30 mins and then would hit the weights. Now we decided to do the P90X Classic program. I only did one set of each of the rotations on Ply for my first time. She did the full Tape and then drank the R&R ( we usually use Dark Matter). She felt like total crap for two days and has been fighting a Migraine and stomach ache. I just dont know if she should give up the plyo. thing is she can run 5 miles at 7-8min/mile. Can Squat 200lbs, Hack Squat and Leg press 600lbs, but this Plyo is killing her….Any suggestions???

  2. It sounds to me like she has some neck or high shoulder / trap issues that are aggravated with the impact of plyo. When you manipulate the sides of her neck is it like steel cable or flexible like a tightrope? I know that if you tend to carry your stress and your knots in your traps and neck that it is often the case that headaches will follow any high impact movement. The good news is that plyo is not the be all and end all of cardio. Maybe she can try something MMA based like Tapout XT where she can get the cardio from both leg and arm work not just from plyo. The other issue may also be the recovery drink, maybe try again and use coconut water for recovery instead of a suger based drink? It’s hard to say because there are lots of possible issues but I would take a look at the degree of tightness in the traps maybe take a lacrosse ball to the neck and traps and find some knotty crunchiness in there that you can fix.

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