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.