The more I modify the system, the more I feel involved and like a willing participant. Doing this thing the second time around can get a little repetitive and so even during the DVDs that I followed with such venom previously I am finding ways to make things different. Today was Kenpo, one of the workouts that I will stick with for this 3 month adventure however I am looking at ways of changing it up a bit. However, due to the fast pace and cleverly crafted add-a-move configuration it was almost impossible. I wish that there were some modifications on the DVD that would make it a little more advanced at times. I am already doing jump kicks and roundhouses and backfist combinations to up the complexity but I am running out of ideas. Watching “The Ultimate Fighter” on Spike TV helps and I find myself stealing some of the training moves I see during the show. I don’t want to sink to the level of breaking out the wife’s Tae Bo DVDs but I will have to see. For the time being, I will have to put up with Tony “I’m a fan” and Phil “Don’t try too hard” for my Kenpo workout. Pity that FITBOMB had to reveal Phil for the lazy slacker that he is, every time I watch the DVD all I can do is stare at his pathetic horse stance and grind my teeth together…
Month: October 2009
G-Day 5 – Legs and Back
So here is my interpretation. It is basically the same as doing the DVD in fact, I have only substituted a couple of moves. I cannot nail down the best way to work in the incline leg press so it may never make it in to the workout.
I posted this before the workout, so here it is again with the numbers included. This was a long (48min without warm up) and difficult workout. Surprisingly one of the hardest things was the Chair Pose on the BOSU ball. I was sweating bullets after that one and shaking like a leaf while attempting it.
| Legs and Back | ||
| COUNT |
GOAL |
Exercise |
| 24 | 24 | Balance Lunges |
| 30 | 30 | Calf-Raise Squats |
| 13 | FULL | Reverse Grip Chin-Ups |
| REST | ||
| 15 | 15 | Super Skaters |
| 4x15s | 60s | Wall Squats |
| 7 | FULL | Wide Front Pull-Ups |
| REST | ||
| 20 | 20 | Step Back Lunges |
| 20 | 24 | Alternating Side Lunges |
| 12 | FULL | Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups |
| REST | ||
| 6×10 | 60s | Single-Leg Wall Squats |
| 8 | 12 | Deadlift Squats – SINGLE LEG SQUATS |
| 9 | FULL | Switch Grip Pull-Ups |
| REST | ||
| 25@50 | 24 | Hamstring Curls Machine |
| 14 | 24 | Stiff Leg Deadlifts – No Weight on bar |
| 9 | FULL | Reverse Grip Chin-Ups (again) |
| REST | ||
| 2x30s | 60s | Chair Salutations or Squat hold on BOSU |
| 20 | 12 | Toe-Roll Iso Lunges |
| 9 | FULL | Wide Front Pull-Ups (again) |
| REST | ||
| 5 | 20 | Free Squat 4 count down 4 hold 4 up |
| 47 | 20×3 | Calf Raises |
| 7 | FULL | Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups (again) |
| REST | ||
| 20 | 20 | 80/20 Siebers-Speed Squats |
| 10 | FULL | Hammer Grip Pull-Ups |
G-Day 4 – 5K Run for Charity
Share the outdoors with your kids. They will thank you for it (even if they are 40 before they do…)
Rather than spend my time alone in the basement, I took the opportunity to go on the 30th Annual Howl On The Hill 5k run with my wife and some kids from her Fit Kids class. I am sad to say there wasn’t much running to be done but spending time with kids and in the cool autumn air was a great experience. It brought back many memories of being a kid out hiking with my Dad in the Yorkshire Moors complaining about how far it was to the next Youth Hostel. In those days we did 15 miles a day at age 12, these kids were complaining about a 5k walk on suburban streets. Can’t blame them, of course, they are products of their environment and I think all kids are, to some degree, wired to whinge a lot of the time. However, they will grow up with their own pleasant memories and as I get older I realize just how lucky I was as a child not to live in a big city and to have parents who cared about and loved my sister and me enough to truck us out to the countryside and make us carry our own backpacks from Youth Hostel to Youth Hostel where we had to help in the cooking, cleaning and general upkeep of the hostel once we got there. Life wasn’t hard by any means and looking back on it I really really loved those weekends away and although I seem to have lost my point along the way here, those memories of my childhood exercising with my Dad are some of the best that I have. Maybe as a surrogate point here we should agree that although fitness and weight loss are incredibly personal things, they are also things that you can share with your kids and maybe give them some memories like I have of times out in the open country with their parents just having fun.
Tony is a great motivator and an awesome specimen but spending time with him instead of your kids is not the idea. The point is to do what you can with him to make sure you are able to do the other fun stuff with them.
Balance, I am a fan…
G-Day 3 – Shoulders and Arms
Here is the plan for today, shoulders and arms G90X styleeee!
| Shoulders and Arms | |
| First Circuit: | |
| Alternating Shoulder Presses | |
| Straight Bar Bicep Curls | |
| Tricep Cable Pushdowns | |
| Second Circuit: | |
| Deep Swimmer’s Presses | |
| Full Supination Concentration Curls | |
| Feet Up Bench Dips | |
| Third Circuit: | |
| Upright Rows – Straight Bar | |
| Static Arm Curls – Straight Bar | |
| Overhead Dumbell Tricep Extension | |
| Fourth Circuit: | |
| Standing Front and Side Shoulder Fly | |
| Seated Concentration Curls | |
| Tricep Extension and Close Grip Bench Finish | |
| Bonus Circuit: | |
| Hero Flys (Shoulder Fly to Y Position) | |
| Straight Bar Curls with French Curl Finish | |
| Free Dips on Dip Station | |
I will fill in the weights and other details including the obligatory whining about how sore my arms are going to be later…
I Ran (G-Day 2 – Plyo Substitute)
Knee pain? Hip pain? Low back pain while running? Check your ITB.
As I was preparing to go down to the basement to do Plyo with Tony, the ever modest, humble Tony, I recalled something he says during the Plyo workout. “You should see me play hoops after doing this for a couple of months… Unbelievable”. Well, I wondered just what he could have meant by unbelievable and if there was an equivalent level of disbelief that I could test for myself. So I decided that I would go for a jog. Now, those who know me are familiar with my stature and know at first sight that although my body is designed for many things, running is not one of them. The last time I ran with any regularity was after I graduated University and was still playing club rugby for the Oakville Crusaders. That was many many years ago and also many many pounds ago. When I was playing last I weighed about 210lbs. I currently weigh in at about 255lbs, mostly due to a big push during the late ’90s when I gained about 40lbs of muscle over the course of about 2 years while trying to make a living as a personal trainer. Anyway, the point being that running is in my far distant past. I have tried over the last few years since my back surgery to run so that I could drop some weight but my runs were more of a walk with some really fast walking mixed in. I would call it jogging but that would probably be an insult to joggers everywhere. I developed shin splints, my tight hip/ITB tore at my knee joints and the whole experience was awful.
Needless to say, my expectations were low and as the rain lightly fell on my face I started out into the darkness to see if my 3 month affair with Tony had been worth it. With my iPod on and thoughts of Tony berating his minions I forged ahead, expecting the usual sad performance. However, I am happy to report that I completed approximately 2.25 miles only stopping at the 3 major intersections to stretch my ITB. Other than that, I RAN THE WHOLE WAY!!!! Unbelievable doesn’t even cover my feeling after I was done and even though the elusive “runner’s high” was nowhere to be found, I was definitely impressed with myself and can say without any uncertainty that P90X was the ONLY reason I was able to do what I did. I know it may not seem like much, but one man’s 2.25 mile jog is another man’s 350lb bench press.
So colour me tickled, I was very happy with myself. That was, of course, until I tried to get out of bed the next day.
Tony, I hate him, but I love him…
G-Day 2 – Come back Tony, all is forgiven
Day 1 of G90X was great. No, wait, it sucked. Well, at the time it was great, now, 2 days later and I am facing Plyo while unable to walk properly I can tell you it was awful. I thought for sure I wouldn’t get sore, after all I had been doing pushups and pullups, what would a little weights be after that?
Well, as you can see below I didn’t use heavy weights, in fact I should have used the pink Olympic bar my bench was so light. In any case, I subbed what I could and did chin ups on the chest fly machine… An enormous double stack of weights with rowing machines and lat machines attached. The cool thing is that it faces the mirror wall and unlike my basement all the mirrors line up properly so you don’t look like a Salvador Dali painting as you are sweating your nuts off.
It was odd being back in the gym especially since I was there NOT doing my gym workout. Instead I had a list to get through. That list is here:
| Day 1 Chest and Back | ||
| Date |
19-Oct |
|
|
Set 1 |
Set 2 |
|
| Flat bench | 25 @ 135 | 20 @ 135 |
| Wide Front Pull Ups |
11 |
10 |
| Narrow Grip Bench | 25 @ 135 | 10 @ 135 |
| Reverse Grip Chin Ups |
12 |
9 |
| Wide Fly Press | 20 @ 25 | 15 @ 25 |
| Closed Grip Overhand Pull Ups |
7 |
6 |
| Incline Bench (OR INCLINE DB PRESS) | 20 @ 40 | 12 @ 40 |
| Heavy Pants or Seated Cable Row | 15 @ 150 | 12 @ 150 |
| Diamond Push Ups / CABLE FLYS | 20 @ 50 | 20 @ 50 |
| Lawnmower | 20 @ 30 | 20 @ 30 |
| Dive Bomber Push Ups |
6 |
6 |
| Back Flys with machine | 10 @ 110 | 10 @ 110 |
2 days later and I am in critical condition I am so sore.
Day 89, 90 and 1! P90X is dead, long live G90X!
The Return Of The Gym Rat…
It’s time for a rebirth. Time to reinvest in myself and to take what Tony taught me back into the gym.
Today is going to be Day 1 of G90X. My gym infused version of P90X. Since I have a gym membership and my psyche still requires that public exposure as mild motivation I will be taking my P90X workout to the gym. I haven’t worked out the whole program yet, I have a 5 day rotation with which to work and I am going to be doing the Cardio, Kenpo, Plyo and Yoga components of P90X mixed into the newly revamped gym workout.
All I know right now is that if I take Chest and Back to the gym I will have 3 or 4 days to figure out Shoulders and Arms. If I don’t go until I figure it out, I will stay home and watch TV eating bonbons…
So here goes, this is the plan which will probably change once I have a chance to go through it once or twice. I’ll be keeping an excel spreadsheet to record my reps and weights which I will scan later.
6 Day Rotation with rest as required (but with 2 days off a week, rest should not be an issue.
Day 1 – Chest and Back
Day 2 – Plyo with Tony
Day 3 – Shoulders and Arms
Day 4 – Yoga
Day 5 – Legs and Back
Day 6 – Kenpo or Cardio or Core Syn
I am not sure I will be incorporating a rest week or not. I will see how I feel after the first 3 weeks.
•Flat bench with 2/3 body weight (up to full body weight, no more)
•Wide Front Pull Ups
•Narrow Grip Bench with 2/3 body weight (up to full body weight, no more)
•Reverse Grip Chin Ups
•Wide Fly Press (start at 40’s)
•Closed Grip Overhand Pull Ups
•Incline Bench with 50% bodyweight up to full bodyweight (OR INCLINE DUMBELL PRESS)
•Heavy Pants or Seated Cable Row
•Diamond Push Ups / CABLE FLYS
•Lawnmower
•Dive Bomber Push Ups
•Back Flys with machine
Day 88 – The whole rest week problem
So I have figured out why I am hating P90X all of a sudden. It is this lingering painful last rest week. I have always been the type who like to finish practice with a sprint. When I played rugby throughout all my youth either in England for my school or County, here in Canada for my High School, Town, University or Province it was ALWAYS the case that conditioning was last thing at practice. That way you left everything you had on the field and left with a real sense of achievement and pride. Finishing the P90X program with a rest week is like Friday practice before the game. It’s just lame. I wanted to be shredded and beaten down, to be chiseled and have abs like granite and after the last week of resistance training I did. It’s now almost 2 weeks later and I still haven’t got through the rest week because I am not achieving anything. That lack of final punch has left me unmotivated and listless. If the program had been P83X it would have been almost perfect. The only thing that would have made it better would be a week of stress testing workouts. Some way of really pushing you past your boundaries to see what you and your new body can do. Sadly, I think that they have taken that theory and instead of making a kick-ass, bust your balls, show me what a frigging hero I have become week, they have made a “new” program called P90X Plus out of it to wring more cash out of their bloated cash cow that is Beachbody.com.
Colour me disappointed.
What I wanted, and what I will therefore invent would be a set of lets say 4 workouts with 3 “recovery” days (Yoga, Core, Stretch). The 4 days would consist of an hour long workout designed not to train you but to test you. A final week long fit test if you like to show you just what you have spent the last 3 months doing. Sure it is great to say I did 88 pullups in a session or that I did 350 pushups during a single workout but wouldn’t it be better to say that I completed the Graduation Week of P90X in all it’s painful gut wrenching muscle screaming lactic acid spewing hell?
Maybe it’s just me.
At least they could give you the option of trying handstand pushups or inverted pullups even if to most people it would be pure insanity. I have all this new muscle and the only thing that is confusing it right now is the fact that I am still putting fake boxes on fake shelves instead of crushing cars with my bare hands. Durable in the real world? Sure, that is nice. How about phenomenal in my own basement? That is what I was looking for from days 83-90.
Now I’m just irritated and I still have to do yoga before I can say it’s over.
Day 87 – Heart Monitors and Stretching
Extreme Relaxing… Bring It (to me on the couch)
I was reminded today while watching the Biggest Loser on TV the importance of a good heart rate monitor. Even if you are not particularly concerned with your heart rate per se you should have one that tells you how many calories you have burned in any given workout. This will give you a ballpark idea as to the rate at which you are working. Personally I usually burn between 500-700 calories during an hour long P90X workout. This was overshadowed yesterday by my pathetic count of 200 calories burned during stretch X. It’s not that I am dissing Stretch X, not at all, in fact I actually enjoy the stretching when I do it. The sad thing is that it is usually a choice between Stretch X and Couch X and regardless of the outward appearance that I am a fit healthy and active individual, the couch and I still enjoy a strong and intimate relationship when Tony isn’t looking.
So I opted out of doing Cardio X as a substitute and a dash of adventure and instead went about stretching every muscle known to man. I really enjoyed Stretch X, it’s kid of like a kinder, gentler Yoga X without the leg pain and the Yoga Belly 7. It is a real mind calming workout, and if you choose not to do it on your days off during the phases, make sure you don’t skip it during rest week because I am sure that it is often overlooked like a red-headed stepchild (or the middle child if you are one and just have to throw your $.02 in). It left me at peace, relaxed and feeling much better than I did after a pan full of beans and turkey sausage that I had for dinner.
I have coaching Thursday night and since it is Thanksgiving in Canada this weekend ahead of the big freeze I should be able to squeeze out the last 3 workouts from Friday to Monday. Especially since this is an International Break weekend for Football in England so I know Liverpool won’t be playing and the next Formula 1 Grand Prix isn’t until next weekend so the TV will sit idle on Saturday morning.
Day 86 – Yoga didn’t finish my floor yet
Yoga – October 8 2009
Rugby… Great for your legs, hard on the head.
This is the second last time I will do Yoga. Due to my creative interpretation of the order in which I have been doing the program the last few weeks I have 2 yoga, 1 core syn and 1 stretch x left to do until the end. I hate to admit that I have lost all the momentum I had before coaching happened and my physique really shows it. It’s just that coaching 4 hours a night after a full day of work even if it is only twice a week is enough to knock you out for a while. Until your body adjusts, things are tough! However, I am not doing so little that I am losing touch with my progress or gains. My yoga session today proved that I still have 2 things: 1. that pain in my right hamstring that I believe is a strain. 2. The flexibility that I have worked so hard to gain over the past 90 days. However, there are still components of the yoga session which I haver resigned myself that I may never achieve. Due to the overwhelming volume of my thighs (thanks to 18 years of rugby for that) I may never be able to go directly from plank to runners pose. My leg just won’t fit under my body and until I make it down to the 200lb mark I don’t think it ever will. I am also disappointed in some areas of my flexibility that seem to be extremely resistant to change most notably my lower back since even though my toe reach is better, my cobbler pose has gone nowhere!
So I am looking at the last 4 days, Stretch, CoreSyn, Yoga and Stretch. After reading a review of CardioX recently I think maybe I will substitute that for my StretchX today given that I have taken enough days off already. This rest week has become a rest fortnight and that is weighing heavily on my mind. I also need a little more time to perfect the GYM90X workout that I have been working on!