Tag: Pictures

Day 54 – A Long Way From England

Yoga X.

I do have some body shots from day 1 or thereabouts, but for now this will have to do. Last summer we went to England and I can’t believe in a country of 65 million people nobody mentioned that I looked this bad!

Who ate all the pies, who ate all the pies...

My weight went up and down during gymnastics season and I know that when I started P90X I was not that out of shape but let’s be honest, this was only about 12 months ago and if my math is right, about 40lbs ago. The problem is being able to avoid going there again. I had been there before, lost a ton of weight and ended up back there again. I know why, lack of attention and lack of motivation. I am older now, and even if I am not wiser I am certainly closer to death if I continue to eat like I am 25. I am happy that I have found P90X because it has taught me some really valuable lessons, things that have made me look at fitness in a new way. The thing that occurred to me this morning was the big difference between what I was doing in the gym and what I am doing now. That thing is very simply leaving the ground. With all the training that I was doing my feet never really left the ground. Everything was weights, static isolated weights. With the P90X program and with any circuit training program the key is getting off your feet. Whether it is getting down onto the floor to do bodyweight movements or getting airbourne doing jump training or Kenpo the philosophy is the same, get your body used to the impact of jumping and moving up and down and you will discover a whole new plane of exertion.

Look at that guy, you think he was jumping any fences on that holiday?

The “thing” that makes you feel like you are “fit” or “in shape” doesn’t seem to be size or strength for me, it seems to be mobility and feeling light on my feet.

 

Who ate all the pies, who ate all the pies…

Area 51 – Bodyparts (Abs, who knew?)

I will put up before pictures but at the moment I can’t stomach them so these will have to do. Just goes to prove that anyone can find some abs, even if it is only one or two! I am having a hard time imagining that I will be significantly different than this at the end but I hope that at the very least my final pictures will be even a slight improvement over today.

Core Synergistics – The wannabe workout.

Core is a weird workout, it’s not difficult enough to be a real challenge which is good for rest week but at the same time you get the feeling that the moves you are doing are just the cast offs that didn’t make the show. They are the red headed stepchild of the other 3 weeks, they are the returning houseguests that didn’t make it in to the house again this season. Although the quality is there and the workout is still a good one, you can’t help but feel a little sorry for the exercises that didn’t quite make it on to the first team.

My weightloss has stalled, I have weighed about the same for 2 weeks running now and although I feel like my body is still changing I would like to see a better reflection on the scale. People say that numbers don’t matter but in fact that only really applies to people who are already at their desired bodyfat level or who are working out with weights for the first time. NOT the first time in a while either, but the first time. Even then, the ability to put on weight as muscle is so incredibly difficult that saying that you are “losing fat and gaining muscle” is completely bogus. In actuality, and any bodybuilder will attest to this, you are always either gaining muscle OR losing fat but to do both at the same time is insanely challenging once you are past the first few months. For this reason I know that my stagnant weight is nothing to do with muscle gain, but is more a reflection of my “alternate” food choices over the last couple of weeks. It may not seem like much to say that I had one bowl of low fat ice cream and fell short on my vegetable intake for 3 or more days but at this level when you are trying to balance your diet carefully those things have a huge impact.

So this is how Rest Week 2 looks on the Classic Program:

YogaX     √Done
Core Synergistics     √Done
KenpoX
X Stretch
Core Synergistics
YogaX
Rest or X Stretch