Round 4 Day 1 – You Forget

Confusion - it's confusing

As much as they tout P90X as “muscle confusion” you do get into a rut of working the same muscle groups. It’g great that the rut isn’t too long or too deep but doing Chest and Back again yesterday for the first time in a long time reminded me of two things. First, the value of change. If you don’t change things regularly you will inevitably fall into a pattern by which both physically and psychologically you will become entranced and then lulled to sleep. The fact that you are sore AGAIN the first time you do a workout you haven’t done in a while speaks volumes to that. Second, the value of entertainment in fulfilling the time commitment. I have come across a few people who have claimed that they have saved a few minutes here and there by skipping bits and pieces of the workout or by (myself included) substituting weights or heavy resistance for some of the exercises. My advice would be if you want to substitute, take a day to do that but when you are faced with a P90X workout or and Insanity workout, submit to the process and do the whole thing. Saving 10 minutes off the workout isn’t doing you any favours in fact it will hurt you in the long run. 10 minutes a day on a program that requires a 6 day a week commitment (watch out here comes the math) is A FULL HOUR that you have skipped. Now I understand you are thinking that it’s only the warmup or only the cooldown but believe me if you aren’t present you aren’t’ getting the benefit but if you are there, you will get more of a boost to your overall fitness and attitude than you will ever realize. Each day that you skip part of the workout you devalue the process and thereby devalue yourself. My daughter is 4 months old now and time is at a premium however even I can’t truly make the excuse that 10 minutes is going to make a huge difference in her life but I can guarantee because I have been there, it will make a huge difference in mine. If you want to incorporate other stuff, do it prudently and make a day for it or allot a specific time for it, it will help you get the most out of your 90 day commitment and your daily workout sanctuary.

So Day 1 was fine, although I struggled with the rotation and the reduced body part count but  it was fun. The next morning I was sore but not too badly. It was a comforting reminder that I had once again found more muscle in need of work.

P90X / Insanity / CrossFit / Weights – Round 4 Tentative Schedule

I am going to try to work in some Crossfit type WOD workouts in with my Beachbody stuff. Not only that, I have incorporated Gym days as well as P90X days to give me the best of both worlds. Since I have a bench for chest and shoulders I may as well get it used, not only that, it will help me to maintain my strength as well as the flexibility and bodyweight work from the DVDs. I find that having done this for a while that I miss the heavy weights of bench and shoulder press. I miss the massive pump that I get from doing free weights and since I have the ability to work it in, I am going to schedule it as part of Round 4. Having said that, here is the tentative schedule for the next 90 days. You will notice that I have opted to do a 4 on 1 off rotation. I find that doing these workouts is extremely hard on the body and you really do need to schedule more than one day a week off if you are mixing up the workouts together. I find that if I don’t I will get to around 8 or 10 days and suddenly be unable to do the workout and end up taking 2 days off or more. That is not productive in any way so I will try to get the rest I need while still maintaining the work rate. I hace also scheduled a “rest week” to give me a break from the monotony. This is subject to change, obviously, but for now, I think this looks like a fun way to get me to Christmas.

ROUND 4 – P90X / Insanity / WOD /Freeweight  Mix

(Modified after day 28 – Too Much Chest In Phase 2)

1P90X Chest & Back, Ab Ripper
2Plyometric Cardio Circuit
3P90X Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
4WOD with Pullups
5OFF
6GYM Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
8GYM Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
9WOD with Pullups
10OFF
11P90X Chest & Back, Ab Ripper
12Pure Cardio
13P90X Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
14WOD with Pullups
15OFF
16GYM Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
17Plyometric Cardio Circuit
18GYM Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
19WOD with Pullups
20OFF
21P90X Chest & Back, Ab Ripper
22Cardio Power and Resistance
23P90X Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
24WOD with Pullups
25OFF
26Core Cardio and Balance
27Core Synergistics
28Core Cardio and Balance
29P90X Chest & Triceps, Ab Ripper X
30Max Interval Plyo
31P90X Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X
32WOD with Pullups
33GYM Shoulders Traps and Ab Ripper X
34Pure Cardio
35OFF
36GYM  Chest and Triceps
37WOD with Pullups
38GYM Back & Biceps
39Pure Cardio
40GYM Shoulders Traps and Ab Ripper X
41WOD with Pullups
42OFF
43P90X Chest & Triceps, Ab Ripper X
44Pure Cardio
45P90X Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X
46WOD with Pullups
47GYM Shoulders Traps and Ab Ripper X
48Max Interval Plyo
49OFF
50FOY Yoga
51Core Cardio and Balance
52Core Synergistics
53FOY Yoga
54OFF
55WOD with Pullups
56Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
57Max Cardio
58Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
59OFF
60WOD with Pullups
61Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X
62Max Interval Plyo
63Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Ab Ripper X
64OFF
65WOD with Pullups
66Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
67Max Interval Circuit
68Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
69OFF
70WOD with Pullups
71Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X
72Max Cardio
73Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Ab Ripper X
74OFF
75WOD with Pullups
76Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X
77Max Interval Circuit
78Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
79OFF
80P90X Fit Test & Insanity Fit Test
81Max Rep Pullups 10 min max
825K Timed Run
83Max Rep Bench 10 min max
84FINISH!!

Round 3 Day 89 – I’m Obviously Coasting To The End

It was supposed to be Legs and Back so I tried my WOD thing again:

10 Air squats
10 Regular wide squats
10 Pullups
10 Block jumps

x7

Legs like jelly as I tried to coach the kids at gym but it felt great. Ouch. Pretty happy to be getting to the end of Round 3, I am a little bored with the workouts and haven’t tried to change it up. The Round 4 schedule will be up tomorrow so I can get my head around it in time for Saturday – potentially.

I probably should also do the P90X and Insanity Fit Tests this weekend. Maybe that would be a nice rest and benchmark for the next 3 months.

Round 3 Day 84 – Beaten

My legs were incredibly sore from the air squats from yesterday and even though I dialed it back and selected a rest week workout I could only manage about half of it before I felt like weeping. My quads feel like they are on fire. Every step hurts which is a great indicator of 2 things. 1 I can work my quads without hurting my back and 2 the stuff I am doing for P90X is obviously not working the whole muscle. Interesting.

So I will move on to day 85, Chest Shoulders and Triceps and try to get my legs recovered before Max Interval Plyo. I can’t believe at this point during my third round that I am still able to find things that work me like a beginner. Sometimes I love fitness…

Round 3 – Day 82. Crossfit-ish Legs and Back

My personal WOD for legs and back today, I call it the 1115.

4 Rounds of:

10 air squats (technically still perfecting them so 10 with good form will do)
10 Pull ups
10 Jump Ups (12/16/18/24″)
5 Pullups

I was beat by the end, I actually wanted to do another set but realized that my legs were getting wobbly and jumping up onto my deck with legs like that one more time may result in my face meeting my DIY project. I have to admit, even though it only took about 20 minutes to complete it really did feel like a good workout. My heart rate was over 160 which is rare for me and a true indicator that the intensity was where it should have been.

The air squats are tough since you have to go below horizontal and in the  past that has thrown my back out so I was a little nervous. Also, there is a great deal of technique to them and I am sure that given the shortness of my hamstrings and the tightness of my ITB that my technique is far from perfect. In fact I think I am victim of the “famous” butt wink.

All I can do is keep trying, do my best and what? (silence)…( my favourite part of the P90X series… You can almost hear the crickets.)

From the Crossfit site, a short demo of the air squat: Air Squat

What’s Next? Round 4 Spitballing

September 7 2010

So I am starting to think about Round 4 and what it will entail. Since I am a big fan of Fitbomb I have taken a shine to the Crossfit methodology and even though I wouldn’t be able to do some of the movements due to my back surgery I still think that I could hit 2 out of 7. That is all I would need to get me started on something like this:

Day 1: P90X Workout
Day 2: Crossfit WOW (workout of the week choice)
Day 3: Insanity Workout
Day 4: P90X Workout
Day 5: Crossfit WOW
Day 6:  Insanity Workout
Day 7: Rest

There will have to be some kind of adjustment to the bodyparts I would work, part of me thinks that I can skip the leg workouts from P90 if I am doing both Insanity and CF. I would need to work Chest, Back, Shoulders and Arms over the 2 day split realizing that the WOW would probably then have to work something different if possible. I would still try to break it down into a 90 day session which given occasional days off (Thanksgiving weekends, parents visiting etc.) should run me well into the Christmas season. I still have almost 2 weeks of Round 3 to go and it is my mission to get this Fitness Melange organized in time to start right at the end of Round 3.

What is the philosophy behind round 4? Well, I think the ability to incorporate some running is the main focus. Also, being able to avoid burning out on Tony and Shaun is critical. The more I work out with them, the more I want to get out and see how fit I am doing other things after all, what is the point in getting fit if you aren’t going to test yourself once you get there? I think that a large part of doing a WOW will be to show off the shape I am in from doing P90X and Insanity. Plus there is something visceral about working out outside, lifting things that aren’t dumbbells or barbells and getting to grip with yourself without the aid of a TV personality.

Round 3 – Day 78 – The Half Hour From Hell Crossfit Style

I was supposed to be doing Chest, Shoulders and Triceps today, don’t ask me why I thought I was on Legs and Back but I guess in the confusion of the last few days I got mixed up. I decided that having read about Crossfit for a while that I would try a Crossfit approach to my Legs and Back day. So I went outside onto the lower deck and found 3 places I could do step up or jump up. Couple that with the two chin up bars I have out there and it was all I needed to get the job done. I thought that I would be able to do 100 jumps and 100 chinups and see how that was. Ultimately, I got to about 70 and called it quits, it was about 35 degrees with the humidity and after half an hour of this circuit I was completely beat. The session went something like this

Warmup: Jog up the hill at the side of the house 10x
Set 1: 10 14″ Jump ups 10 wide front pull ups
Set 2: 10  18″ Step ups with knee raise, 10 narrow front pull ups
Set 3: 10 14″ Jump ups , 10 reverse grip pull ups
Set 4: 10 18″ Step ups with foot tap not step down, 10 wide front pull ups
Set 5:  10 24″ Jump ups, 10 narrow front pull ups
Set 6: 10 24″ Jump ups, 10 reverse grip pull ups
Set 7: 10 24″ Jump ups, 10 wide front pull ups

Unfortunately the highest point of the deck is 24″ off the ground which, for a person my size is probably high enough! The circuit only took about 28 minutes to complete but my heart rate was alarmingly high after doing the jump ups. I was really surprised just how difficult it was even with all the Insanity stuff I have been doing. I think I will keep doing this though, at least trying to incorporate the outside world, we live on a private circle which is 600m around, so maybe I will start incorporating 600m runs into the program now that the oppressive heat seems to have broken.

Since I am writing this the day after and  I am able to walk, I can speak to the success of this program. I did have thoughts of not being able to move this morning, unsure how my back would have reacted to the workload.

Round 3 – Day 77 (Supposed to be off)

Fuji_appleSo my schedule has been sporadic, although I have not been taking multiple days off. I do however feel like I was starting to bulk up a little probably due to my diet being on the lazy side. I have, however, started to eat a lot more fruit. Failing in my ability to cook lunch for myself I have decided that fruit is the best way to keep a healthy lifestyle going. It’s either that or have fries every day for lunch. I am not a fruit hater, not the one who says that fructose is just as bad for you as sugar but rather someone who thinks that in the grand scheme, eating fruit simply can’t be a bad thing.

I have also recently cancelled our water delivery company and although I am still a devout spring water fan, I realized that buying a small bottle of Multi-Mineral supplement drops is a far cheaper way of getting great tasting water.

This by the way is a miracle to me. I have fairly sensitive taste buds thanks to my Father’s weird genes and as such I hate the taste of tap water. A few drops of Health Solute ions (sic) ConcenTrace minerals and the water tastes better than anything you will find from a spring or otherwise. There are several companies that make mineral supplements (Albi Naturals is another great one) but if you hate the taste of municipal water and don’t want to pay for spring water, get some drops, it will blow your mind.

ionic-sea-mineral-drops_2

I am keeping up with my program of doing the Max Insanity workouts and so far so good. I did have some knee soreness for a while but after a week of only 4 days working out, it seems to have disappeared.  I am also not failing to make it through the warmup any more, a fact I only just noticed yesterday!

I am also having a problem with the gym I am supposed to be working at. I coach gymnastics but since they failed to contact me during the summer, they had apparently assumed I was going to be quitting after the baby arrived, I don’t have a group. The ONLY potential upside to this is no long evenings on Tuesday and Thursday and an uninterrupted workout schedule. I would rather have the problems coaching brings though…