I decided today that I would workout as soon as I got back from work instead of eating, resting and working out at arounnd 6pm. My legs were weak and wobbly, and I am not sure if it was due to lack of food or just that I was tired after the weekend cardio. Either way, the workout was hard today, my quads were burning for a lot of the time but since I am very familiar with the Plyometrics program now it was easy to focus on the finish line and power through the pain. I have to be careful doing this due to my back issues, once my legs get weak, my back has to take an additional load which can lead to my nerves pinching again. However, I seem to be pretty good at pushing just far enough these days that I got an amazing workout and didn’t cripple myself.
It has been raining here the last few days, but the humidity that Toronto is known and despised for has returned. Today I was drenched in sweat since I work out in the gym in the basement with the patio doors open. There was a warm, sticky breeze and the air was difficult to get any refreshment from. Luckily I had my freezing cold water to help but the relief was agonizingly temporary. I felt at times like I was inside an oven staring through the glass door trying to get out… Not a comfortable feeling at all.
I can’t believe I am 1/3 done already. Looking back at the changes in my fitness I am really excited for the next 60 days. It kind of blows my mind that I have done 30 days already…
Hmm, I was worried this may happen. Tonight during Plyometrics I found myself tiring very quickly, more quickly than usual and realized that over the past few days my vegetable intake and fruit intake has fallen a little. I was concerned that after a week off I would be sore, tired and in desperate need of sleep however I did not anticipate “bonking” during the workout. It probably didn’t help that we had Greek food about an hour before and the whole basement was filled with the smell of bad tzatziki breath. Anyway, I pushed through, that is what we P90X’ers do you know! It was nice to have a workout that I remembered, or at least was slightly familiar with. The time went quickly but I was bagged about half way through. I was literally dripping with sweat and my heart rate was way above 150, a sure sign that my body was underfueled. My legs felt heavy, my arms were sore from yesterday’s reintorduction to the weight workouts and I generally felt pretty terrible. However, there is something about seeing yourself in the mirror as you exercise that can be incredibly motivating. Needless to say I didn’t quit after watching my chunky butt doing jumping jacks…
We had to cancel the private class we were supposed to have tonight so I was able to get home early and get to Plyo before it got too late. I learned from last week that when it comes to Plyo or other cardio type workouts that I cannot eat before no matter what. So tonight I had a light snack of fat free jello pudding and set about the workout with a vengeance. One thing I have learned is that I take this quite seriously and once I get in my zone I am quite a focused individual. Some may call it angry, I call it attentive. I have always had a very difficult time working out with people unless I knew I was the best. This is a bit weird considering during the 80’s I spent a lot of my workout time teaching and leading aerobics classes of one kind or another. Anyway, for whatever reason once I get into the gym I leave my sense of humour in my pants and develop a frightening degree of focus. Maybe it is a fear of appearing silly, maybe it is a fear or not being able to perform, whatever it is I think it’s probably a deep seated fear of something and I combat it with a surprising lack of patience.
The workout was hard, harder I think than previous weeks. I think it’s mostly because I am pushing myself harder, squatting deeper, jumping higher etc. but whatever it is my heartrate this evening was up over 150 for a significant portion of the workout. There is a section called run squat jump turns or something where you are supposed to start with your leading hand on your leading shoe and jump 180 degrees. I wasn’t even able to reach my foot last time but I did today! The other significant difference was in the full squat jumps where you have to touch the floor with both hands beside your feet then jump up into a full stretch. For the first time tonight I was able to touch the floor before extending and jumping. These may not seem like earth shattering things but each improvement I make and every improvement I feel is like a major achievement to me especially considering that I thought myself to be in pretty good shape when I started this thing. I am just cooling down after finishing, Nicole is out for a walk since Mr. Angry didn’t want her making fun of me on the treadmill as I sweated my ass off  wearing only my underwear and a heart monitor. I must have looked like an epilleptic pot roast. So I am off to mix a recovery shake, some fruit, some protein powder and some juice and settle in for a couple of hours of telly.
Hint for the day:
Relax, you will live longer. You will also not look like an angry swollen stuffed tenderloin in Haynes.
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.
When I woke up I was relatively fine. The fact is that I am used to push ups and a certain amount of chin ups so I wasn’t expecting the kind of rude awakening that some people get when they first start the program. I felt so good in fact that after a Chakra bar and a glass of juice I was on the treadmill for 45 minutes as I am every Saturday morning for a run/jog/walk combo session. It wasn’t until after I had a bit of lunch (spinach salad, broccoli and some feta) that I felt some twinges across my back. I went out to Home Depot to get some hardware to create a mirrored wall in the gym in the basement so that I can check my form, something I have always done since my earliest powerlifting days. By the time I got back and got some of the mirrors up I was starting to feel a familiar sting of pain across my shoulders and under my armpits. So I decided I had better get to day 2 before the pain spread and I made a bad decision.
Nicole had texted me earlier in the day, she was reading the P90X book at the gym while she was doing her floor hours. It simply said that she thought Plyometrics was not going to be easy for me. No kidding, its not P90A or B, it’s X after all… However, knowing my history of back issues, my little leg (still not recovered all the mass I lost after the surgery), and of course the mass I was going to have to throw around I wasn’t exactly going to argue. Needless to say I was a little concerned with how it was going to go. The really weird thing is that I didn’t think I couldn’t handle it, I was more concerned with if I was going to be able to walk tomorrow. However I decided to get the measurements done and bring the pain.
I am somewhat ashamed that even with coaching all season and having spent quite some time losing weight already that I still was looking at a 42 inch waist. I am sure I will be equally appalled when I do my body fat test tomorrow morning. But that is why I am doing this I suppose.
Day 2 started off OK. I had my heart rate monitor which I highly recommend if you are going to be taking on this challenge. I have had one for a while, it came with my Polar F11 watch and I use it almost every day. I had my 2l of water and my towel and was ready to rock. I have to admit that Tony is much more agreeable this time around. Maybe it is because he can be obnoxious and motivating rather than having to be more polite and generic as he is on the P90 DVD. So far I have not had the urge to put my foot through the TV just to put a stop to his taunts.
So I didn’t go all the way down in the squats, I know this is dangerous for me. I didn’t quite make 30 seconds of everything but I managed to squeeze out around 23 – 25. My heart rate stayed between 140 and 150 for the duration of the workout which I admit I find amazing and very motivating. If you have read any other P90X blogs you will no doubt have read about the sweating and I am no exception. I like to work out without a shirt but for this I couldn’t do it, I was dripping like a dog spa mongrel. The hour did seem to drag around the 26 minute mark but once we got to 35 or so it was plain sailing. By plain sailing I mean of course it was ridiculous torture and felt like I had knives sticking in my butt cheeks but I managed to make it through. Thankfully there was no Ab Ripper today. It hurts to laugh. It actually hurts to do most things but really only in my obliques.
So there it is. Day 2 in the bag and I am looking forward to waking up tomorrow feeling like I was mauled in my sleep by a marauding llama.
