Month: June 2009

Day 2 – The Downward Spiral Begins

Plyometrics

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.

Wet much?

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.

Here I go. Day 1, time to “Bring It”.

funny-pictures-angry-slothJune 19th, 2009. D-Day.

So this is an off the cuff decision for me, deciding to jump into P90X without much pre-thought. It’s probably better this way, no trepidation or anxiety leading up to the kickoff. Just a day to think “will I regret this?”. I know Tony, and by ‘know’ I mean we spent some time together last year in my basement while I took on the original P90 program.

From what I can recall, I hate Tony. He represents so many failed attempts and a goal that seems simply unachievable. Simply put, I hate him because at this point, I hate myself for what I have become.

Maybe this will be better, but I think it is what he represents more than him as an individual. I am sure my charity won’t extend past this afternoon so that is all I am going to say for now.

Lunch was a bit of a disaster, I haven’t actually read the nutritional guide yet so blissful in my ignorance I had BBQ for lunch with the work gang. Needless to say I am sitting here in a meat coma thinking of how I am possibly going to “bring it” without “bringing it up” later in the basement. Also, I have not actually set the floor in the basement yet with the extended floor mats. We currently have half the basement as the gym, I will need to extend that to the full room if I am going to have the space to do this P90X thing. So when I get home I have to fix the floor, find a workout book, towel, mat and arrange the dumbells ready for the program. Big day, I can feel it!

Let me just say that I consider myself to be in decent shape. I can do a hundred pushups, a couple hundred crunches and a handful of full extension chinups without much effort. However, I am a static athlete. Most of what I do is with free weights and my strength is very limited to the range of motion. So even though I can bench close to 400lbs and shoulder press over 275lbs I am not necessarily “fit”. I know my cardio can use a little work since I do not run since my back surgery but I consider myself pretty strong. What I really want is what our kids at gymnastics have, all around flexibility and strength. I am at the age now where carrying such a large amount of muscle around is getting to be too much like hard work and I think it may be time to tone it down a bit.

11:10PM

Chest and Back

I sit here having achieved most of my goals for the day. Basement floor, check. Arrange workout stuff, check. Go to Supperworks and make a week of meals even though I forgot we were going, check. Bring it, check and check!

Tony warned us to take our time and pace ourselves and even though Nicole had a miserable attempt at day 1 yesterday I think today we brought what we could. The push ups were easy, I easily matched what the guys in the video were doing. Even the pull ups which I have spent the last year working on at the gym were fine. It was the Ab Ripper X (which I forgot we had to do for day 1) that killed me. I have an ab, just one, but a few minutes in it had admitted defeat and shamelessly abandoned it’s post. By the conclusion, I was unable to achieve a standing position, much less hold the upwards facing dog (which for me resembled a tranquilized chihuahua).

Given the adrenaline of it being day 1 and our unbridled enthusiasm I am not surprised we made it through. I am, however,  surprised that my heartrate monitor stayed above 140 for almost an hour straight and that even though it was 3 hours ago now I am still a little shaken and more than a touch nauseous.

Welcome to day 1, the only thing I can guarantee is that I will feel a whole lot worse before I start to feel any better. But that is why they call it X!