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.

R9D62/3 – PAP Upper Review and Bootcamp 3.3.2 Cardio

So the bad news is that the knee issues continue, I am not sure why, if it is exercise related, rest related, standing at my desk related or what. I do recall that I have had occasional issues in the past for a few days at a time, I am hoping this will pass. It’s not that I can’t work out, it’s more that I can’t kneel on my right knee because the kneecap is painful. I am trying to baby it a little while keeping it mobile and upping my fish oil a little. I am also thinking about starting with a joint health supplement, a little Glucosamine and Chondroitin maybe. Anyone with any suggestions would be welcome!

So I have finally taken my first steps into Phase 3 with PAP Upper. I have to admit I am a little disappointed. I was expecting some new methodology, some interesting new moves or angles to work the muscles or maybe even something I hadn’t seen before. Sadly it was just my bootcamp class for the public. Maybe I am expecting too much, I mean the workout was OK, I liked the people in the video and the presentation was OK but the workout itself left a little to be desired.

PAP stands for Post Activation Potentiation. It could also easily stand for Pushups And Pullups or Poor Athletic Performance (OK, so maybe that is a little harsh but I was not particularly impressed). It is supposed to be a mix of power, explosiveness, isometrics and flexibility. I found the variety of moves both confusing for the beginner and inadequate for the person supposedly on the third phase of the best at home workout on the planet.

Here is the basic outline, you decide:

Complex 1 (of 2)

10 Renegade Rows (Pushups on dumbbells with rowing between each pushup)
10 Clapping pushups (they are called plyo but to me plyo are airbourne pushups)
60s Plank hold with feet on a medicine ball
60s Weighted bar superman – this was the only challenge during the hour.

Repeat until you have done Complex 1 4 times without resting.

Complex 2

10 Towel Pullups
10 med ball v ups (V-snaps)
10 leg raised shoulder press (other leg resting on an 18″ to 24″ plyo box)
60s Foam Roller Angel

Again repeat 4 times.
I guess it was interesting enough to do a couple of times but it’s not going to be a favourite of mine by a long shot. I hope PAP Lower is a little more challenging.

In contrast, here is my Bootcamp class from last night:

D6 3.3.2 Plates and Weights

Huggers
Twists
World’s Slowest Burpees
Inch Worm
Worlds Greatest Stretch
Groiners
Scorpion

Workout with bench plates or dumbbells (I used a 45lb plate)

X2
10 Strict Press
10 Overhead tricep extension
10 Curls
20 Crunch
20 Hanging Leg Raise

X2
10 High Pull
10 1 arm shrugs each side
10 1 arm side bends each side
10 side crunch each side
10 hanging crunches (tuck)

X2
20 in and out
10 roll to boat hold
20 ARX bicycle
10 full sit up
10 hanging leg raise sides

X2
10 Front raise
10 Halo
10 Curls
20 weighted In and Out
20 Russian Twists
10 Pullups

X2
10 Laying Press
10 Laying Pullover
20 Laying Press
10 Laying Pullover
10 Weighted Rainbows
20 Laying side crunch each side
10 Pullups

R9D61 – Bootcamp 3.2.2 Bodyweight Abs

They asked for an abs workout so this is what I did to them today. It was not as hard as I had imagined it would be, but then again I sneezed this morning and thought my body had exploded à la Mr Creosote.

Still it could be worse, I could be at Planet Fitness having Krispy Kremes after my elliptical “workout”

 

 

 

 

 

Bootcamp 3.2.2
20 shoulder crunch
20 hip crunch
10 legs up 3+1
10 bum lifts
10 hanging leg raise

10 regular pushups
10 military pushups
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side hold
10 pullups

20 in and out
10 roll to boat hold
20 ARX bicycle
10 full sit up
10 hanging leg raise sides

10 pushup step out
10 clap pushup
10 plyo pushup
10 pushup side raise leg raise
10 pullups

20 side crunch
20 side to side flutter
20 full rainbow
20 russian twists

20 shoulder touch
20 hip touch
10 spider each side
10 knee to elbow each
10 knee to opposite elbow each

20 standing knee to same elbow
20 standing knee to opposite elbow
40 happy dance
20 standing knee to same elbow
20 standing knee to opposite elbow
40 happy dance

20 Crunchy Frog
10 rollback hold
20 ARX scissor switch
20 shoulder crunch 3+1 to hip

R9D56 – Base And Back

Yeah I know, finally a P90X2 workout! Seems like forever since I actually put a DVD in the machine, in fact, my last P90X2 workout was Feb 11. So much for round 9 being P90X2. However, I have worked through the program doing the workouts and only have Phase 3 left to conquer which includes the oddly named PAP Upper and PAP Lower. In fact I am not sure that I have ever done the Base and Back workout, it seemed completely new to me and going back over the last few months I can’t find a time when I did! Looking at the day (56) I think it is about time to move on to the last phase, the Performance Phase since I have been doing the same things as Strength Phase for a while now. I figure I can work in some of the PAP system into the Bootcamp and be completely done with P90X2 in another 30 days leaving 2 months of Bootcamp 3 to go until the summer hits in full swing. I’m probably going to be doing P90X2 workouts for the rest of the Spring and Summer however just to make sure I get a good feel for them like I do with P90X. Of course, I am hoping not to be disappointed in the PAP system, I am going in completely dark on purpose to give me the best shot at muscle confusion. Because I don’t typically use repetition sets in my bootcamp workout I find them frustrating on the DVDs, I just hope it’s not a 6 move set repeated a dozen times! We’ll see…

As for the base and back workout I found it pretty easy to be honest, I did around 110 pullups out on the deck which is the best thing about this warm weather we are having. I found the plyo portion to be easy since I do most of that stuff for bootcamp anyway and in much tougher circumstances. I am not really getting any better at pullups, I still struggle to do more than 10 sets of 10 and I haven’t yet tried to do my 10 in 10 test which would be 10 sets of 10 pullups in 10 minutes. But I spent most of my life, from being a chunky kid in school who couldn’t climb the rope to a hulking monster at the gym who still couldn’t do the whole stack on the lat pulldown machine and stayed clear of the pullup station, not being able or willing to do any pullups at all. I remember a couple of years ago when I first started trying them in the gym I couldn’t do more than a couple. I used to watch this one guy who would come in and do 6 or 7 in a row and I would think it was magic or voodoo, especially since he had big triceps but not big lats. However it didn`t take long before I was able to squeeze out a couple, and with the help of heavy pulldowns on a Cybex machine I finally graduated to being 3 or 4. I figured if I could do that many I could just pretend I was at the end of a tough workout!! In any event it wasn`t until Tony and the gang came along that I really started to improve and for that, I thank them!

R9D55 – Bootcamp 2.12.2 Cardio. Last Day Of Session 2!

Sadly today was the last day of session two and we are losing at least one participant for the next 12 weeks. Having said that, we are hopefully going to gain a few more for the summer session that will start sometime mid June.

D24 – 2.12.2 Cardio

2x section
20 squat jumps
20 belt kicks
20 swing kicks
20 vsnaps

2x section
20 Hit The Floor
10 2 line Suicides
20 switch kicks
20 double switch sit up

2x section
5x long jump run back – single double triple repeat
10 river jumps
10 2 line suicides with burpee
10 ski abs

2x section
20 squat half turn
10 switch split 180 3+1
20 jack MK switch 1+1
50 happy knees to elbow

2x section
10 depth charge from knees SJ TJ
10 side to side suicide shufle
10 side to side suicide front and back
4 side knees up full line
10 roll and hold

Bonus
2X
20 jacks
10 airborne X
5 Diamond Jacks

R9D41-3 – Bootcamp 2.8.2 Bodyweight And The Week That Wasn’t

I had big plans to exercise every day last week but as it worked out with Valentines and other interruptions it was actually a disappointing week. After bootcamp on Wednesday I ended up taking Thursday off, doing an RKC workout on Friday and then yesterday doing P90X Kenpo for a laugh. I am sure my Firstbeat Athlete coach will have my intensity below the acceptable line for the week which means I have to work extra hard starting on Monday which is also Family Day and my Birthday. The bodyweight workout was almost another carbon copy because like I have already said once, we are hitting our stride with workouts that we are all enjoying trying to master. So the bodyweight bootcamp for this week was not full of surprises, just hard work. In contrast my RKC workout was something I haven’t done in a while and it was refreshing to get that work done, and by the same token, doing Kenpo for the first time in weeks or maybe even months was great. I know I loved Kenpo then during the P90X program I started to loathe it but for a day when you want a light cardio workout and want it to go by quickly then Kenpo is ideal. Almost every time I think I want to have a light day I will go with Kenpo, I mean I am not going to go with any kind of yoga am I?!

Here, just for reference is the workout.

10 regular pushups
10 military pushups
10 sphinx to plank step or drop
10 pushup side raise
10 pullups

10 air squats reg
10 lunge no step
10 1 leg squat knee raise
10 air squats half bounce
10 pullups

20 in and out row
20 roll to boat hold
20 bicycle with leg extension
20 arms up in and out
20 pullups

10 pushup
10 clap pushup
10 plyo pushup
10 pushup side raise toe touch
10 pullups

ONTO BOXES AGAINST WALL

10 dips legs bent
10 dips legs straight
10 dips one leg raised
10 leg lifts

10 dips legs bent
10 dips legs straight
10 dips one leg raised
10 leg lifts

regular pushups 10 decline 10 incline
military pushups 10 decline 10 incline
sphinx to plank step or drop 10 decline 10 incline
pushup side raise 10 decline 10 incline

20 Crunchy Frog
20 superman banana with vsnap
20 laying triple bicycles
20 full situps

10 walk in to hip raise
10 shoulder hip raise
10 shoulder hold hip raise leg up
10 hip raise alternating arm reach
10 hip raise single shoulder to foot touch

R9D39/40 – X2 Shoulders + Arms Plus Bootcamp 2.8.1 (Cardio)

This was my second time doing the shoulders and arms workout and I have to admit I am disappointed that the arms workout doesn’t include any dips. For myself, I find dips to be second only to close grip bench for building massive tricep strength. The fixation that Tony has with tricep extensions is annoying for me. So I usually replace the ineffective tricep extensions with dips on my home made dip station which wobbles like crazy and in doing so creates all sorts of minor muscle fatigue that you just can’t beat. I think it cost me about $20 to build and I love it! Other than the frustration with the triceps and the fact that this workout is basically P90X shoulders and arms standing on one leg, I quite enjoy it.

Monday brought more pain in the form of Cardio Bootcamp. I had taken Sunday off knowing that I will be working out probably 5 or 6 days this week and so I was ready to fire on all cylinders when Monday evening rolled around. I had added and modified the workout a little and had planned for this to be the toughest bootcamp so far. When I think back to how we started I am so proud of the participants in my group. We came from a small room doing 21 movements to working out on a full floor with Olympic weights and stability balls and medicine balls and cranking out 52 movements in the same hour long class. This was by far the toughest cardio workout we have done, and it looked like this:

Bootcamp 2.8.1 – Cardio

2x section
10 SB burpee lift ball
20 SB plank run
10 SB pushup boing
20 SB elbow plank run
10 SB plank jacks

2x section
20 hit the floor
10 Suicides
16 log jump 4x one direction
20 in and out abs

2x section
8x burpee with jump half half
16 log jump 8x one direction
5 horse stance jacks with pulse (4+8)
10 vsnaps

2x section
3 suicide lines with run back (1,2,3)
3 suicide lines with run back with pancake
3 suicide lines with run back with pancake tuck jump
10 ski abs to finish

2x section
10 frog jumps
10 frog jump half
10 tuck jump
10 tuck jump half
20 plank jacks
10 plank jacks with in and out

Bonus leg burners

10 squats
8 squat 2 tuck
6 squat 4 tuck
4 squat 6 tuck
2 squat 8 tuck
10 tuck jumps

Catching Up

R9 D33 – Bootcamp was supposed to be cardio butI switched it for bodyweight instead. It was a repeat of the last bodyweight class we did (2.5.2)
Thursday off
R9D34 – Friday at the gym we did a big mashup of wallball, plate stacking, cleans, clean and press, strict press, burpees and pretty much anythign else I could think of including pullups
R9D35 – X2 Chest Back and Balance to make up for the accidental day 1 of phase 2
Sunday off
R9D36 – Bootcamp 2.6.1 Cardio – A tough one, we retook the test from the last cardio day and switched the order. It’s a killer.
Tuesday off – sick with something but not Lupus, it’s  never Lupus 
R9D37 – Bootcamp 2.6.2 Weights. There were almost tears, but we repeated the last class because to be honest we are really hitting our stride now with the workouts, they are tough, varied and manageable. Still, the ladies have a long way to go to get to 100% and that’s how it should be.

 

 

 

Bootcamp 2.6.2

With blocks and med balls and db

standing, straight leg on block, leg raise to hip
same but backwards for butt
same each side

EVERYTHING 20 x2
pushup
shoulder push up
box dip
side reach with db
laying leg raise
full situp
pullups

military
side front row with db
db/mb straight arm twist
arx bicycles
weighted crunch
pullups

pushup side arm balance
arm straight ball pass side to side shoulder height
laying side crunch
leg lift with bum raise
full crunch arms up with weight
pullups

high plank knee to elbow cross
russian twists with weight
laying bicycles with hold
legs up reach alternate
pulse 50 crunch

pushup arm balance toe touch
dog raise leg kick
dog raise back forehead to kick out
plank spider no pushup
insanity in and out with run 4/8

TGU to hip raise no stand
same with foot on block
(feet on block)
hips up raise
hips up leg up
hips up twist
hips up elbow to knee switch

R9D31&32 – Bootcamp Weights Plus Finally A Gap Day Workout (Plyocide)

<– Plyocide depth charge alternate, step up then step into tuck jump.

Bootcamp this week was poorly attended but nevertheless it was a tough one using 35lb plates in addition to the 8lb med balls. This was only the second time the participants had been able to move heavy weight around and I think it went well. This is what was involved:

Spin row warm up

20 air squats
20 step switch
10 each lunge up switch
20 each weighted calf raise
10 each lunge back leg up
pullups

add med ball

20 air squats
20 step switch
10 each lunge up switch
20 each weighted calf raise
10 each lunge back leg up
pullups

add plate

20 air squats
20 step switch
10 each lunge up switch
20 each weighted calf raise
10 each lunge back leg up
pullups

Abs – 25-15-10 free-med-plate

in and out
bicycles
full situp
russian twist

Shoulder 15 with med ball

halos
weighted box dip
upright row
box dip left leg up
shoulder front fly
box dip right leg up

Shoulder 10 with plate

halos
weighted box dip
upright row
weighted box dip
shoulder front fly
weighted box dip

Abs – 25-15-10 free-med-plate

in and out
bicycles
full situp
russian twist

Bonus Round

Pushups with plate on back – Mostly failed
Squat half bounce 20 with mb
Squat half bounce 10 with plate

It seems like a lot, but it went pretty fast. We did go overtime but only because we had to wait for the ladies to arrive in the snow.

Last night I decided to be good to my word for the week and try not to take off the day between my bootcamp classes which will make today the third workout in a row of fairly high intensity. I did plyocide last night and the one thing that came out of it was my realization that you don’t need a plyo box to do the depth charge move.

Tony has you step up onto a plyo box, jump down and explode up into a straight jump. Since I have 8 foot ceilings and no plyo box (even if I did I wouldn’t be able to use in inside) I have to modify this and I have found a perfect replacement. Instead of skipping the move completely, if you start on your knees you can step up to standing (alternating each leg) and it’s just like you are stepping up onto a box, then I perform a tuck jump just to stick it to Tony and his straight jumps. It’s a little harder, takes some balance but it’s a great substitution.

R9D30 – Phase 2 – I Messed Up Already (but at least I’m not curling detergent)

So I was supposed to do Chest + Back + Balance & X2 Ab Ripper this weekend as a start to Phase 2 but somehow I got confused and did X2 Shoulders + Arms & X2 Ab Ripper instead. I am not sure where the confusion came from but it is what it is, I need to do a Plyocide workout then do CBB and I will be back on track. It’s bootcamp tonight and probably rest day tomorrow, Wed is bootcamp again and then hopefully Ply on Thursday.

But I’ve been thinking.

I’m not as tired as I should be, I am getting an unsettling feeling that I need to do an extra day per week working out so I think I will do plyo tomorrow between the bootcamps. For a few weeks not I have been taking Tuesdays off but I think it’s about time I picked up that day and did something with it since I tend to take Friday or a weekend day off too (which is inexplicable!). Whatever it is I am consistently having the feeling that I am not pushing hard enough regardless of the fact my back has been sore for a week now. But maybe that’s why… The fewer workouts are working against me.

I’m working my way through Convict Conditioning by Paul Wade, it seems like an interesting read about old school calisthenics and bodyweight conditioning. I will report more once I have read more. It’s in line with my current philosophy that you should be able to train yourself without weights and without a gym using only your imagination and your body weight. Even such extreme things as one arm handstands or handstand pushups should be in the realm of the ordinary athlete if they are training appropriately, but how many people do you know who can do a handstand at all never mind a handstand pushup…

I see so many ridiculous “home workout” clips on line with people using soup cans and detergent bottles as a substitute for the gym weights, it’s just an incorrect interpretation of a flawed approach. I guess teaching proper pushup technique, pullups and squats isn’t sexy enough to make the papers. All those other videos just serve to make the “trainer” look like a fool. Seriously, bodyweight training is a proven, ages old method of developing the human body to perform as it was designed, and I can’t say I can imagine any caveman picking up a couple of rocks to do bent over tricep kickbacks. The whole fitness industry is as flawed as the diet industry, people are lost and confused and I think it’s time to exit the ride and get back to solid ground. Much like we did in the 80’s after the aerobics craze died out and people started going back to weight bearing exercise I think it’s time to get serious again and revisit our past. It’s in line with the nutritional approach of the paleo lifestyle, simplify and get better, faster and more useful results.