Category: DVD Days P90X to Tapout XT

Strength is a good workout for me. It is something I can do without much mobility difficulty and I can scale up and down to make it more challenging. There is one move I like in particular and that is the hip flys which I didn’t believe would do anything for me but once I got my shoulders down a little I was surprised at the lat work I got. The other thing is the progression on the pull up bar from jumping pullups to all out hanging hand position changes. For me, since I am still indoors and the doorway is a little narrow I have to improvise a bit and so I do regular pullups but then in addition to the pushups, I also do handstands since they are a definite weakness for me and something that I admit I am jealous of when I see the guys at gymnastics doing them. So I am setting a goal for a 10 second handstand by the summer. Not only that but anyone who reads Fitbomb regularly will know how much he complains about his double under proficiency. Well, you can put me in that boat too. Although I am up to 100 regular jumps pretty regularly now, and I can almost make a full minute if I concentrate the art of the double under is something that I fear will elude me on a more long term basis. Being in a basement doesn’t help really but then again, at least nobody can see me there. I am hoping to have some degree of skip rope skill before I start working out on the lower deck again this year. Otherwise I may draw a crowd and end up on youtube as “the guy across the way who can’t skip to save his life”. Don’t think it doesn’t happen people!

So I am feeling a sense of responsibility for the Biggest Loser at work. The results are not stellar and so today I sent out the following as an attempt at motivation. I know it is a contest, but in the spirit of helping and encouraging not beating down and humiliating. So my conscience got the best of me and I am trying to help…

So here are my 3 simple suggestions.

1. Keep a food diary for a week… I know, you have all heard this before but it really helps to narrow down what is causing the issue. For those of you who choose nuts and seeds as your snack of choice please be aware that a serving of nuts (around 22 almonds) is between 150 and 200 calories and let`s be honest, who eats only 22 almonds? A cup of trail mix can be between 600 and 1000 calories which, when your intake should be 1500-2500 a day is enormously significant. Try to snack on fruit instead, nuts and seeds are often a downfall for weight loss as they were for me a few months ago.
2. Write down and post your goals for the next 3 months. 90 days is a short enough time to stick to something and long enough to make a significant difference. Include in your goals not only your weight, but also your activity on a weekly basis, your proposed sleep schedule, your foods that you would like to temporarily forsake and your REASONS for having these goals. Make sure your goals are big and small, small goals are easy to achieve and give you a great confidence boost. Every day you achieve something, check it off on your list so you can see that you are moving in the right direction.
3. Write down 1 thing that you can do every day to move towards your goal. If you need to get out and walk then write down that you will go for 10 minutes every day the first week and LIMIT yourself to that. By the time week 2 comes, commit to 15 or 20 minutes a day and once you have created that habit you will find it easier to keep going.

My last piece of this rant is regarding “reasons”. As you probably know I am a gymnastics coach and I have trained many many teenage athletes over the years. The biggest obstacle to their performance in the gym is their ability to create “reasons” for not being able to do something. This is a habit that will stick with them and something I try my hardest to prevent them from reinforcing. Your reasons are not reasons, they are excuses. I know it’s hard to hear but it is the simple truth. If you have a big enough WHY you can endure almost any HOW but if you allow fear, discomfort or laziness to dictate your life then your reasons will only prevent you from reaching your goal. Instead of using your “reasons” for failing, transform them into opportunities to succeed. Set them up as obstacles that you are determined to challenge and realize that they are only in your way because you allow them to be there.

Take control.

Mixing this schedule right off the bat may not be the best idea so I am going to only count the IA days and not the RKC days so I don’t get lost. As it happens I am on day 6 which is a return to Speed and Agility. This was a weird week, I have had family in from out of the country, I had a gymnastics competition to do for 3 days and I have been trying to keep up with the workout. No need to tell you that things have not gone well. For one day I did a hybrid of RKC with some rope practice which was a good 40 minute workout. The next day I was able to do the warmup but a fridge emergency cancelled that workout short leaving me frustrated. So I managed to muddle through the speed and agility in pieces and the next workout will be back to strength. That will have to be tomorrow and hopefully I will be back on track. 2 weeks until the next competition so I have a good window of opportunity here to get to work. I keep meaning to do a walkthrough of the workouts to give an idea of what you are required to do but knowing that this will all be redundant and useless in short order as others with more time will get it done I don’t think I will bother.

My parents being here has been great but it does tend to curb my own enthusiasm for working out, not that I am not committed but when you only get to see your parents  a few weeks a year you tend to make a meal of it! It’s now tuesday and I am going to do strength today and then hopefully tomorrow something before gym. The ‘rents go home tomorrow evening so I hope to be able to squeeze something in if I have time. If not, I am keeping my unnecessarily obsessive beast at bay and not going to worry about it. That is another benefit of the Paleo lifestyle, if I skip a day or two of workouts I don’t end up several pounds heavier and feeling like garbage.

 

Back to core is a weird little workout. I did RKC the day before (5 ladders, 34543 on the rungs) and that seemed to fit in well. Day 4 was back to core and I had expected a core workout similar to core synergistics but was surprised by a workout that attempted to work the back and the core. It was a little bit like stretch X meets Yoga X, it really didn’t know where it was coming from and for an extreme workout for the back and core not to use the chin up bar was, well, bizarre.  There were some effective and inventive moves involving bands that no matter how effective they may be only manage to make you feel like a home gym failure who can’t use dumbbells or chin up bars. It was not a difficult workout and I think I would find it a little short on the challenging scale after a few rounds. Vertical Plyo however was a rude awakening. It was like P90X plyo meets Insanity on steroids. The workout was fierce, varied, challenging and interesting. I was toasted by the rope jumps again but all in all this was an enjoyable workout. I have been critical of PlyoX in the past and admit that I was far more fond of Insanity Plyo Cardio and this was a fitting evolution of the concept. There is plenty to challenge even the most determined grasshopper out there and for me, there is much to be achieved.

Today was a welcome relief after yesterday kicked my ass and waking up this morning feeling like I slept in a garbage compactor. My back was sore all day, I presume that was the bear walking. However, today brought a day of strength, using dumbbells (and in my case kettlebells) and a pull up bar. Strength has never been my issue so strength endurance days are not usually that tough. Today was no different. The workout was enjoyable, went quickly and gave me a chance to repair my tattered self respect after yesterday’s fiasco. Although I could have used heavier weights, the workout allows you to work as hard as you need, not necessarily as hard as you can but still get the benefits you are training for. There is no use of the skip rope so my temper was in check, and the agility ladder was thankfully rested for the day. I am glad there are pull ups too however they are few and far between. It is a fun whole body workout, nothing too specific and still gives you a feeling that you actually did something instead of going through the motions to fill the time while your instructor comes up with another aerobic combo to bore you with. I certainly don’t feel as wiped out as yesterday but I feel that the next workout may be a return to humility for me.

Meanwhile, I will enjoy having kept up with the on screen crowd.

April20, 2011

It’s time!!

19th June 2009 I started P90X. I had owned the DVDs for a while, had done P90 with Tony (the gentle, less annoying version) and was aching for something to change my life. That something was me! It seems odd to me that I should have suddenly decided to do this and where it has led me, but just like Baz Luhrmann says:

The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that
never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm
on some idle Tuesday.

The same thing applies for anything, troubling or not, that changes your life. You don’t always plan for it, sometimes it just happens.

I have to admit, when I started I was coming off a good summer in the gym and I was a little full of myself:

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”.

However my sentiments were correct. I was strong, but I was not fit. Nor was I particularly healthy. After round 1 of P90X I was impressed both with myself and with Tony’s program. It wasn’t until I tried Insanity that I was once again surprised by the quality and care put into the workouts. I am prepared to be impressed again and I have to admit I am a little giddy with excitement. I will be back later, after the Athletic Performance Assessment!