Category: DVD Days P90X to Tapout XT

Everything I think about the workouts. Including some weights, reps and sets etc. Detailed as much as I can remember or is relevant.

R11D24/5 – Ebb And Flow

juggernautI have been careful where I can to make sure I am doing weight, cardio and recuperation workouts with some balance and with that in mind on Wednesday I did the P90X3 Eccentric Upper and it was, in fact, exactly what I had envisioned apart from there are pullups in there. That was a surprise. Besides that, it’s basically some presses, curls and so on, basic moves, but all with the accent on the 4 count lowering of the weight and one count explosion. It’s typical eccentric exercises and despite the lack of real warmup I was not too sore the following 2 days. However, since my sleep has not been ideal I opted on Thursday to do P90X3 Yoga X. I was especially interested in this since I believe in the power of yoga once you can keep up with it and I loved Tony’s One on One Fountain of Youth Yoga. This, I have to say, was a rival for that if only because you are not subjected to endless rounds of the same vinyasa all over again. This was quick, variable and had the yoga, balance and flexibility sections I was looking for. All in all it is a great little short Yoga workout, one that is bound to get lots of use.

I stumbled up on another interesting diet log blog, and although not as entertaining as Fat Head or Morgan Spurlock’s lies it’s an amazing story of one man’s journey to prove that high fat low carb diets are really the way we were made to eat. You can find it but the navigation around the site leaves much to be desired. It’s called Smash The Fat and it can be found at http://live.smashthefat.com/why-i-didnt-get-fat/ where he explains how he managed to eat 5000 calories a day and actually improve his physique. He is doing a Vegan version now, and after 11 days has apparently already gained 8lbs. Interesting stuff.

R11D22-23 – Shoulder Good, Coordination Not So Much

anatomia-spalla-4My plan was to take Sunday off as a day of rest in case I had actually done something bad to my shoulder and then to go straight back to the same routine to see if it held up. I left the bar at 135lbs and planned the following:

5×5 Deadlift
5×5 Hang Clean
5×5 Power Clean

I didn’t want to get too complicated, just to make sure I did every rep of every set and see how my shoulder held up. Thankfully it was fine, not only that, it actually felt better after I was done. I am struggling a little to get the power cleans done since the weight is still a little unstable as I come up but I am able to hang on mostly and get the bar back in shape. I am amazed at how heavy it feels after knowing how easy it was last summer. I also know that it’s a matter of time before I am able to contemplate hitting 155.

That was Monday before coaching and the only residual issue I have is my left shoulder (not the really bad one) is still a little painful. I felt it during bars as I was spotting front stride circles. I will keep updating the issue and the progress. Tuesday I decided I needed a little cardio so I took on T25 Speed 2.0. Since Speed 1.0 was a bit of  letdown I was hoping that this would be a massive improvement and I was not disappointed. The workout has 2 sets of moves, as far as I can tell designed to simultaneously make you trip over yourself and make you feel slightly remedial in your agility. The good news is that the 2 sections are then repeated with shorter intervals, 8 counts instead of 16. Then, after going through them all a second time, you are then instructed to go through again even faster with 4 counts. Of course then there is a burnout which from what I could see through the sweat was more of a chicken dance meets mosh pit meets full body seizure. Fact is it’s a 2 count run through of the whole thing. I was able to keep up for most of the time however there were a couple of transitions that had me twisting my toes on the foam floor tiles or staring blankly like a 3 year old does when  you tell them it’s PJ time.

I have to admit I love this format, especially when the moves are challenging which these definitely were. As the tempo increases, the time seems to pass faster and the last 8 minutes or so are just a blur. Unless Speed 3.0 is another quantum leap, I think I will be doing this workout any time I feel like I need an agility boost. I liked is so much in fact that I am going to steal some of the moves for my next cardio conditioning at gym which should be Friday. I can’t wait to see the confusion on their young faces… hahah!

R1D19-21 – The Shoulder Fix – Heavy Olympic Lifts.

cleanIt was a weird weekend workout wise. I know I was going to do Abs before gym but I didn’t want to give in to my lazy side and decided to do P90X3 CVX instead. CVX stands for Cardio Vascular Extreme and it was a pretty tough workout, not because of the moves that you are performing but rather for the fact that you are doing it with a weigh in your hands. I started with 12lbs, quickly moved to 10 after about 8 minutes and by the end I admit I dropped the weight a couple of times. Now I am not a proponent of this kind of workout, I think it’s very hard on the shoulders and takes a great deal of care to get it right. For most people, I think it’s best not to have a weight at the end of your arms where it can swing with a huge multiplicative factor while jumping and running. That said, the workout was pretty tiring, it was definitely a good amount of activity and although I won’t be doing it again, it was OK.

Saturday I decided to stay with my non-lazy approach and up my Oly weights to 135 on the barbell and 185 on the bench. The proposal was as follows:

5×5 Deadlift
5×10 Bench
5×5 Hang Clean
5×5 Power Clean
5×10 Shrugs
5×5 Squats

This is pretty much what I was doing last summer without the bench obviously because I was up in the garage. I was quickly reminded that I am still a way from where I wish I was as I struggled with the Hang Cleans and only managed to do 2 sets of the Power Cleans. I finished the bench and shrugs but did zero squats even though the deadlifts were not as bad as I had imagined they would be. What amazed me was that after doing some of the hang cleans I suddenly realized that the pain in my shoulder was gone. I didn’t know if I was just being optimistic, maybe saturated with adrenaline or what so I ignored it. About an hour after the workout I had a very strange pain in my left shoulder, which has not been too bad lately but also the same strange pain in my right. However, the mobility in my right shoulder was completely fixed. I can reach behind my back and scratch my shoulderblade without any pain for the first time in about 6 months. Since I spent quite a few hours in pain at the physio while he tried to fix it without success you can imagine my surprise and happiness when the next morning the mobility and pain free situation continued. I slowly started to recognize the pain that I was feeling in both shoulders, it was the same pain I had way back when I endured separations during my rugby playing days. I am guessing that somehow my shoulders have been out of alignment for a while and doing the heavy lifting with the barbell somehow relocated them. I took Sunday off in order to rest the joints, took some advil but I plan to get back to the barbell tonight and try to complete more of the program than I did on Saturday.

The description of the shoulder pain I was feeling was intense pain at the point of the shoulder, when I had my arms in dip position, in other words the same position you are in if you go to get your wallet out of your back pocket or when you go to pull up the back of your pants with both hands. I literally couldn’t put my hand flat against my lower back at the start it was so bad. Now though, there is still a little pain, but probably only 15% of what was there before, I am not sure if that is just inflammation due to the relocation or if it will go away at all but I have my fingers crossed.

 

R11D15-18 – Work Rate, MMA and Sick Child Obstacles

tapoutxt vs p90x2 days off with a sick child could drive anyone crazy. Hours on hours of Timmy Time and Shaun The Sheep interspersed with bouts of a bored 3 year old trying to find something to do which in case you are wondering is a VERY dangerous proposition. I am glad to say though that I managed to work out both days after taking Sunday off with several localized sore patches. Monday I did T25 Lower Body Focus which was a very good workout, as you can imagine it’s mostly legs, squats, lunges and plenty of cardio. In fact, it’s a workout that I plan on doing again only once I have compared it with the P90X3 Lower Body workout. On Tuesday I was going to do the upper body P90X3 but instead since I knew exactly what I wanted to work I did a bench and curls workout to hit the body parts that I felt were getting a little neglected. Wednesday was a forced rest day with gymnastics coaching and daycare pick-up leaving no time for a workout. I was going to do some conditioning with the girls at the end of class but since I have been a little tired and sore all over I opted for the rest. I feel like it was a quality decision too since on Thursday I was able to crush the P90X3 MMX workout. In MMX, there is a lot of similarities to Kenpo X but with added sprawling (or burpees if you like). The advantage I have is that I have a heavy bag in the basement so the limp jabs and punches that you ordinarily associate with any martial arts workout are replaced by actual physical contact punches and kicks. Believe me when I tell you that the difference is night and day. I was drenched with sweat when I finished and my legs and shoulders really got a fantastic workout. However, since I have a copy of Tapout XT I am not so sure that this workout will ever see the light of day again. It’s OK, just not a really involved or accurate MMA workout. That said, it’s far better than George St Pierre’s Rushfit which is, in my opinion, a complete waste of time.
Today I plan to do T25 Ab Intervals and then coaching, and maybe take the workout with me and make the kids do it if it is any good.

In case you are wondering, it’s now Day 19 and I have managed to keep my percentage (days on vs days off) up above 85% until my forced rest on Wednesday. Mostly due to the 100% start but also my commitment to the high work rate required for me to have any hope of weight loss. I have dipped down to 83% (16 of 19 days) but after the weekend I should be comfortably over the mark. Remember working out 4 days a week is only 57% and 5 days a week still only 71%. If you are truly focused on weight control and long term health and fitness then 6 days a week (85%) with one day of Yoga or Pilates or Isometrics is what you should be aiming for. I know people have a problem with working out 7 days a week but if you are balanced in your approach and build low effort days into the mix you will be fine.  Here’s what I have done so far and I am moving towards Month 2 workouts in P90X3 and Beta workouts in T25.

Monday, 01/06/2014 1 T25 Cardio 100%
Tuesday, 01/07/2014 2 P90X3 Total Synergistics 100%
Wednesday, 01/08/2014 3 P90X3 Agility X 100%
Thursday, 01/09/2014 4 T25 Speed 1.0 100%
Friday, 01/10/2014 5 Oly Lift 5×5 @ 95 DL SQ PCL 100%
Saturday, 01/11/2014 6 ice clearing 45 min 100%
Sunday, 01/12/2014 7 T25 Total Body Conditioning 100%
Monday, 01/13/2014 Off 0%
Tuesday, 01/14/2014 8 Driveway Ice 45 min 89%
Wednesday, 01/15/2014 9 T25 Core Cardio 90%
Thursday, 01/16/2014 10 p90x3  warrrior 91%
Friday, 01/17/2014 11 P90X3 Dynamix 92%
Saturday, 01/18/2014 12 Oly lift and increase weights 92%
Sunday, 01/19/2014 off 0%
Monday, 01/20/2014 13 T25 Lower Body Focus 87%
Tuesday, 01/21/2014 14 Bench and curls improv 88%
Wednesday, 01/22/2014 88%
Thursday, 01/23/2014 15 P90X3 MMX 83%
Friday, 01/24/2014 16 T25 Ab Intervals 84%

R11D12-14 – Piriformis Pain Returns – Stretching Did It.

DynamixFriday before coaching I wanted something in the rest/recuperate department so I tried out P90X3 Dynamix. It’s a good stretching / rehabilitating workout after a hard workout week. It was actually really nice to get some stretching done in a disciplined and organized manner. However, after stretching my piriformis I once again have the weird sharp pain in my hip/back on the right side. I remember it got worse the more I stretched last year and eventually I got to the point where my hip pain was so bad I had to take time off. I wonder if there is such a thing as not stretching muscles to avoid inflammation. The issue is that I need the pigeon stretch to help my hips and ITB but whenever I do a little too much I get a debilitating pain in my back. I guess I will just have to try and avoid overstretching the area so that it’s not inhibiting my workouts but also not sretched to the point of pain. So much for getting old. Anyway, Saturday I did my 5×5 workout with Oly lifts including Deadlift, clean, squat and bench. In fact, I also increased my weights a little, got my barbell up to 115 and my bench bar up to 165. Still well within my limits, but on a steady and slow rise. Sunday I decided to rest, I have done 12 of 14 days and I think I am getting a little mentally burned out. Physically I am fine, but as we all know once you feel overtrained it’s way too late to do anything about it. I think that’s why the Dynamix workout was so good, there were some good stretches, a bit of core work with some more challenging holds and some dynamic stretching also. There is no Ab Ripper in P90X3 but the core work during Dynamix will certainly let you know if you need more abs work or not!

Today I am home with a sick child so lots of up and down on the floor to play games, do puzzles, have naps fight with the cat etc. Hoping I can squeeze in a workout during nap time, whenever that is.

R11D11 – P90X3 The Warrior

ultimatewarriorI actually talked myself into this one. I stood in front of my barbell quite prepared to do a quick 5×5 with bench as a delicious side but remembered that I had planned to do The Warrior. Usually I would ignore my plan and do whatever it was that I wanted however with my return to daily workouts still in it’s infancy I thought it would be better to stick to my plan. Not only that, I wanted to save the Oly lifting for the weekend so that I can actually increase the weights which, as you can probably imagine, increased the total workout time. I was pushed for time as it was, and so I crossed my fingers, hoping not to hear andy Forrest Gump and turned on Warrior. As it turns out, this is my favourite kind of workout. It’s a true bootcamp style workout based on upper, core and lower power moves. It’s simple, but incorporated the whole body and as with most of these workouts is very scaleable. However, my complaint of the day again is my legs. I’m pretty sore, and I am back in the bad habit of not getting to bed at 1030 like I am supposed to but sitting up and falling asleep watching TV. Not only that, but because I am tired I know that my posture for burpees and all the moves where you have to touch the floor isn’t the best so I now have a sore mid back on the left side. It may be time for some Yoga X since I am actually interested to find out what a 30 minute yoga session looks like.

So it’s pretty much the end of week 2 and since I don’t really update on the weekend my feelings are as follows:

Starting over sucks. Week 1 is a mixture of anticipation, overenthusiasm and pain whereas week 2 devolves into pretty much just pain. However, capability and endurance begin to shine through and you definitely start to reap some rewards, however they are usually pushed back into oblivion by your screaming thighs and calves / shoulders. However, I have started with a blast, 10 days out of 11 and so as I progress I can start to ease back to my 80% goal and hopefully work rest into my schedule. I am glad I started over, it’s good to feel capable again.

By the way, I stole this moves list from the interwebs for The Warrior.Oh, abnd one more thing, you actually get REST periods in this workout!!

The moves:

PLANK SPHINX PUSH-UPS
SPEED SKATER
DOWN DOG CRUNCHES
SIDE LUNGE JUMP SHOT
ELEVATOR PUSH-UPS
DOUBLE UPPER CUT SPRAWLS
ROLLER BOAT
ONE LEG JUMP SQUATS
THUMBS-UP PUSH-UPS
ELBOW, OVER THE TOP ELBOW, SPRAWL
FIFER SCISSOR TWIST
WARRIOR SQUAT LUNGES
SUPER BURPEE
THINK DRILLS
ABRINOME
SPIDERMAN SQUATS
BURNOUT

R11D10 – Accidental Beta

lovebetaI seem to have had post fright in 2013. Apparently I posted a measly 72 posts in 2013 as compared to 143 in 2012. Let’s hope I can do a better job in 2014.

Last night I had to go by memory and of course it all went horribly wrong. As I started the T25 workout I was wondering why the participants seemed to be trying harder than usual, a few minutes in and Shaun T revealed that this was a BETA workout, not an Alpha so I was thrown into phase 2 without any notice. What I did notice however was that I was not really able to keep up like I would have liked. The workout itself was T25 Core Cardio which has kind of an innocuous name. It was a tough workout though, lots of core work standing, planking and so on, no situps however, that’s not really the way to do core nowadays anyway. My biggest problem at the moment is once again my size and flexibility. I remember after doing a round of P90X and Insanity how impressed I was with my flexibility, and I know that it doesn’t take long to regain the range of motion but for now getting my feet to my hands coming up from burpee is killing me. I am impressed by the Y25 workouts though, I was assuming that they would not be as tough as they are, but once again BB has done a great job in designing workouts that are almost infinitely scaleable both up and down. Personally I am trying to keep up and not scale back at all but last night I did end up modifying a little and at one point stopping a full 10 seconds before the end of the move. Tonight is my daughters swimming class so I am hoping to get a P90X3 workout done (CVX or Warrior) as soon as I get home. However, she was off daycare with a fever today so I am not sure if she will even be well enough to go.

Core Cardio was challenging but then again Shaun T did say several times that the base for this workout was Alpha which is supposed to last a month. Maybe in another 3 weeks I can try this one again and see just how much easier it is once I am in better shape. So far so good though, there is a lot of jumping so my calves are pretty sore most of the time, and my hands seem to be sore from the planks and shoulder touches etc but that’s probably because my floor isn’t that forgiving. I noticed last night my quads started to give out after only about 15 minutes which I am guessing is because of the ice workout. We will see tonight if they are still trashed or if my sleep and rest is adequate.

R11D8 – Rest, Credit and Critique

i-hate-rest-days2It was a time constraint that forced me into taking my rest day, and as usual I was not happy about it. However, I am committed to rest and so I also made the quality decision to get to bed at 1030 in order to take full advantage of my resting. It also gave me an opportunity to look at my week and decide what the shortcomings were. It’s something that I don’t think people do enough when they finally decide to take charge of their workouts. It’s easy enough to plan, but evaluating your past week and addressing how you felt about it is a completely different skill. Even if your choice is to go with a 90 day program like T25 or P90X3 you should still evaluate at the end of each week what you got from it and if there are any issues that need work. For example, like many people who do or did P90X I was less than thrilled with Yoga and Kenpo. Eventually I decided to replace them both with something more appropriate to my goals. This time around, knowing that P90X3 may have shortcomings with it’s cardio days I have decided to evaluate all the workouts first and then develop a schedule from what I learn. To be honest, what I learned from the first week is that the only things worth doing again were P90X Agility X and T25 Total Body Circuit. But at least I know and what I also know is that I have gone through most of the phase 1 workouts so things are, I think, about to get bananas. At least I hope so.

Since I had my back surgery in April, I have understandably been relatively inactive compared to the last few years but I have to give myself a little credit because I am only 9 months post op and I am in almost every sense back to where I was. I would even have gone so far as to say I was there when we went to Cuba in December, only 8 months after. Now I haven’t been posting here for 10 years since my first surgery but I do have an interesting excerpt from my personal blog that I was writing at the time.

I started back on January 12th with complete and utter disregard for my New Year’s Resolution to start Jan 1 with a strict regimen of walking. I started off with just 20 minutes a day but rapidly realized that unless I was going to push myself to get back as quickly as possible then the whole process was going to be excruciatingly painful. So I went from a sedate 20 minutes 4 days a week in the beginning to 45 minutes every day within the first month. Of course, my weight remained resolutely high, determined that it could outlast my will. We have, of course, had this fight before, I think in terms of score, we are about even. However, this time I was not to be discouraged. I was determined that if I was going to change some things in my life, then I had to change some things in my life. Simple, right? Well, actually yes, it is. If you think about it, I wanted to change my health, my weight and my habits, so I had to change the support system on which those things relied. It was time to start felling the tree at the base, rather than trimming the top with nail scissors.

The amazing thing about this is that I wrote that in mid March of 2004, a full 14 1/2 months after my surgery. What I realize now is that the second time around I had learned enough from the life changing disaster that was my first surgery to make the second one seem like an outpatient corn removal. Check this out:

Today was a wonderful day weather wise which is so much better for rehab than the dead of a Canadian winter. I was able to get out and walk twice again today for a total of 1.6km or so, slightly ahead of my projected goal of 1.5k. I will try for 2k tomorrow but I think that I should stick with that for a few days, my leg was sore, I had some hip pain and the speed was noticeably diminished at the end of the walk.

That was taken from DAY 2 OF MY RECOVERY!! Even I have a hard time reconciling that it took me 14 and a half months to get to the point that should have taken 2 days. It makes me sick to realize just how much of my life I wasted on that first recovery but as they say, you can’t cry over spilled milk. That’s why this time I was so resolute in my decision to push as hard as I could to get up and about and with pretty impressive results. Yes, it’s been 8 months and I am still at the same place I was after about 2 months but that said my pain level is much improved and I can comfortably blame some of my inactivity on my lingering sicknesses.

All of that because I took one day off after 7 in a row, and yes, I am happy to report that once again I hate rest days. Today will be P90X3 again and hopefully another 6 in a row until my next rest day. Also, tomorrow I find out how much weight if any I have lost this week as it’s week 2 of the biggest loser weigh in…

R11D5-7 – The Weekend

shaun-t-not-impressedI completed the Olympic lifting schedule. Sticking with my 5×5 routine of deadlifts, power cleans and squats. Since it was my first time back I stuck with the 95lb bar and checked my form. The goal is to get back up to 135 as soon as possible for everything and then work back to 200+ by the summer. A 200lb clean is nothing to sneeze at, but I really should be aiming for a 300lb deadlift and squat, the only problem is that I don’t have a squat rack so that’s an issue. That said, I often get asked by people WHY I work out like I do and as often as I do, and my answer is not necessarily what they expect. I suppose they want me to tell them about the health benefits and so on but really all I want long term is to be able to get through my life with the ability to take on any challenges I may face. For example, on Saturday I had to clear the snow and ice off my upper deck which is probably about 400sf. The ice was about 5 inches think in places and broke off in chunks weighing upwards of 60lbs each. I took particular enjoyment out of hurling these massive sheets of ice off the balcony down on to the lawn below and in total I probably shovelled and tossed 600lbs+ of ice off that deck. It took me about 45 minutes but I am happy to report that I was not sore the next day and regardless of the awkward size and shape of the blocks I was able to handle them with ease. That’s the reason I work out. So if I come up against a high demand incident I can blow through it rather than have a heart attack trying to do something I am not prepared for. Of course, being healthy and living a long life are important, but those are very ethereal goals and personally I like to have something more concrete to push against. Tony Horton calls it being durable and less prone to injury and at my age I tend to agree that being able to handle high demand situations is critical. It doesn’t matter if it’s self inflicted like my deck clearing or accidental like having to shovel yourself out of a ditch, either way I don’t want to be the guy who has a coronary in the snow.

Which brings me to Sunday where I picked T25 Total Body Circuit as my opponent and was forced to take back everything I had said last week about T25 being too easy. This was a tough workout. Now let me state that if I was in the kind of shape I was at this time last year then maybe this wouldn’t have been so hard and if I compare it to the bootcamps that I was running last year it’s a distant second. However, current state dictates that I report what it was I felt and I have to admit nausea came into it a little at the end. I was sweating like a thief and  at one point I actually had to rest during the burnout at the end. It was a little shameful and extremely motivating to know just how far away from my peak I am and to know that as painful as it was, it’s a step in the right direction. It was, however, a very enjoyable workout and one that I think I would like to repeat (actually it’s the only one so far that I think I would enjoy a second time). It’s now Monday and I have done 7 days straight, and since I am not anywhere near burnout yet I think I will continue until I require a day off through time constraints or simple rest requirement. I will try to hit a P90X3 workout tonight like I did the other day (likely CVX since I want to save the chinups).

R11D4 – Active Rest? That’s Speed 1.0

ThanksShaunTI caught up with Speed 1.0 last night and I can only hope that is is deliberately slow and easy in order to contrast with Speed 2.0 and 3.0. It was, if I am honest, like a day off. I suppose it’s kind of an introduction to Interval Agility training with speedy agile movements mixed in with static stretching. Yes, I said it, STATIC stretching. It’s a bit weird but I have to keep in mind that this is the very start of the workout schedule. Contrasting it with Agility X with Tony is like comparing Artistic Gymnastics and Rhythmic Gymnastics, they both seem pretty cool until you compare them and then you realize why nobody likes Rhythmic Gymnastics. Anyhoo, it was nice to have a slower night because for the past 3 days I have felt like I have had a 6 inch nail in each butt cheek. Every time I start to walk I realize that doing lunges after so long doing so little is a recipe for dis-ass-ter. Seriously my butt is so painful I should name it Rob Ford, the worlds biggest pain in the ass for 2013.

Tonight I have to pick a P90X3 workout and I would have done Yoga but for last night so I think I may take the Challenge and see what happens. If I was smart I would check out the videos first so I know what to expect but as my wife will vehemently deny, I love a surprise. There is a big difference between not knowing what workout to expect and being told halfway to the mall to go to 1 store to purchase one item that you will in fact be “quickly” going to several other stores just to “check something out”. But I digress. So far my foray back into home fitness has been a resounding success. I feel invigorated, sore and I am finally getting over the hacking cough I have had since Christmas. I am wearing my heart rate monitor again and truly getting back into the swing of keeping my eye on what I am doing and also what I am aiming for. It’s nice to have longer term goals, I spent the approach to Christmas a little frustrated with my workouts not really organizing myself to maximize my effort and time. New year, new gear, and this time, the gear is a positive attitude towards a more rigid schedule. Happy Friday everyone!

Actually I have changed my mind, I have a hankering for some Oly lifting tonight so I will be doing 5x5s tonight with deadlifts, Clean, power clean etc. Tomorrow I will be doing the Challenge because it’s basically just pullups and pushups and it’s going to be warm enough to go out on the deck and do pullups or at the very least do them in the garage.