P90X, Day 5: Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X

My arms are still sore. It's my biceps on the other side of my elbow. It's gotten to the point where it's no longer the "feel good" type of sore; it's getting really annoying how sore it is. The soreness has oddly moved down to reach the top and inside of my forearm as well. I'm excited to not be sore anymore.

This morning was legs and back: many lunge and squat -type things plus variations of pull-ups. I need to clean up my room! There was a bit of the cramped feeling going on. During the calf raises, I thought I could go on forever but my calves started to feel like they were being tickled from the inside..? I can't explain it. But people who know me well know that I'm weird about my calves so that had something to do with it. The calf raises were interesting: first you do it wide-toed, then straight-footed, then pigeon-toed. By the time we got to the pigeon-toed ones I was shaky and tickly so I had to quit. There were also wall squats. You do a higher-than-90*-angle for 15 seconds (or 10?) and then you go 90 degrees, then up again. Those were really hard. The other one was at 90* but one legged and switch legs after ever 10 without getting up. I only stopped on one of them. But I don't think I was exactly at 90* though.

Abs again. Man, I am really not liking sit ups. The one where you lie down and sit up and touch your alternating toe is super annoying because for some reason I end up inching up my yoga mat. The sit-up v-ups are almost the worst. The side sit up things are THE worst. I started to skip that part now. I did all 50 seconds of the thing in the end. I'm not sure how upright I'm supposed to be though.

Oh, two gripes I forgot to mention about P90X:

1. Tony Horton doesn't show you the move first. As a n00b it's most annoying because I have no idea what anything is. And even after I get to know the moves, I won't remember the names (except Heavy Pants. That name is funny!) so it would be nice to be able to have a refresher without a finger on the rewind button.
2. The image on tv isn't a mirror image (...yes... like in Insanity).

Overall from what I can tell 5 days in it looks like P90X is pretty well-rounded. Lots of strength training with a few cardio days. Where's my beach body...

P90X, Day 4: Yoga

Ugh.. oh boy. Still super sore this morning especially in my bicep area. I can't lift, push, or pull anything! My triceps aren't so sore but my biceps are and unfortunately when you push you still use a little bit of your biceps so everything hurts no matter what. It was not easy yesterday to get out of cars even, because of my legs but mostly my arms. You never know how much you use different muscles until you are unable to use them!!

Yoga was this morning. I must admit I already dislike yoga but Tony Horton convinced me that doing yoga will help in all aspects of life. Ok, I exaggerated, but I do believe that yoga is great for the body and mind, as cliche as that sounds. Which is why I was really disappointed when I turned off the DVD after half an hour (1/3 of the way through it).

Why I hate yoga:

1. It's boring.
2. It's repetitive.
3. Many of the moves are uncomfortable.
4. I'm sure #3 goes away with time but getting there is a pain. Kind of like how beer and wine are "acquired tastes." I don't want to go through the trouble of acquiring those tastes because the means of doing so suck.
5. It's worth saying again it's boring and repetitive.

Don't get me wrong. I give mad props to people who are super duper flexible and can do crazy moves with crazy balance. Also, I'm still sore which added to the pain of some of the moves. That was really only the beginning though. I became able to completely straighten my arm without any pain whatsoever, but now the pain is back all over my muscles. I just very much dislike yoga. Oh, and the fact that it's 1.5 freakin hours is discouraging!!! I think I *might* be able to pull of 40 mins of it. MAYBE an hour. But 1.5?! I want to be flexible but do I really have to go through plank, cobra stretch, plank, downward dog, leg lift, runner's pose, warrior pose 1, warrior pose 2, then all in reverse, 100 times for each side?

I have a confession to make: sometimes when I'm not good at something I quit right away because it's not enjoyable. Other things I work through (like snowboarding and ping pong). Yoga definitely belongs in the former category. When I'm unable to do certain moves and other people can I get discouraged easily, even though I know those people in the video have been doing it for a while, AND they made sure to include people who have different ranges of flexibility, from being able to put their entire palms on the ground to needing to use yoga blocks. So.. I don't know. Time was an issue. Maybe I can plan ahead next time....

P90X, Day 3: Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X

WOW, k, very sore. Arms, back, chest, abs, quads. Worked out this morning, a couple of hours has passed and I am thoroughly sore. I can't even straighten my arms out tall the way because my biceps hurt. Definitely underestimated the plyometrics from yesterday because my quads are sore. I'm not nearly as sore as I was when I started doing Insanity (here I go comparing again), but when I did Insanity I was more out of shape. Issue is I thought that I was way more in shape now so I wasn't expecting to be sore at all. I guess a two-week hiatus (even if interrupted by 3 days of boarding) really does contribute to muscle loss huh!?

Anyway, back to this morning. Shoulders & Arms has no pull-ups; only uses weights/resistance bands. I have resistance bands just to try them out (...and because they're cheaper than weights). Problems with resistance bands include:

• chafing on my forearms and wrists during most moves
• smaller range of motion
• inconsistency because I can't always remember how big I made my loop
• Indian skin burns under my bare foot as the resistance bands contract
• the feeling that resistance bands aren't as good as weights because on the way down I have to do very little work as the bands retract on their own

Since this was my first time doing Shoulders & Arms and first time using resistance bands ever this was kind of a trial. You want to cap out at 8-10 reps of heavier weights if you wanna build size or 12-15 reps of lighter weights if you wanna get lean. I didn't know exactly what my strength is on all the different exercises so I found myself switching bands a lot. It was annoying but necessary, and I didn't really see any other way around it. I made sure to record all my progress and take notes on the bands.

The only pros of resistance bands are that they are great for travel, take up very little room, and are cheap. The cons listed above outweigh the pros for me. Now I want weights, but they are so darn expensive. I have chafe marks on my arms which is not cool... and will eventually start to get raw and hurt. Guess I gotta save up huh?

Ab Ripper X was good. I was able to do more of the exercises despite how sore I was. Haha, I guess Ab Ripper X isn't MUCH worse than Insanity if I was still sore yeah? haha.

P90X, Day 2: Plyometrics

I heard that P90X's Plyo is NOTHING compared to Insanity's Plyo. And word on the street is consistent with mine. In this Plyo you do everything for 30 seconds but it's way easier than Insanity's Plyo. (If you remember, Insanity's Max Plyo was the one I skipped because I hated it that much.) That's not to say that it was a breeze for me. It was still work and I didn't last through all of them. But the basics are there: variations of squats and different kinds of jumps, including these weird squat jumping jack things. I started to sweat near the end of the warm-up but that's NOTHING compared to not even being able to go through the entire warm-up of Insanity at first. I should really stop comparing!!!

P90X, Day 1: Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X

Finally! Time to start P90X. Wanna get ripped. Starting off with:

119.2 lbs
26" waist
19% body fat

My main goals are to gain strength (especially in my upper body), define my abdominal muscles, and lose fat in my stomach and thighs. Specifically I would like to do an unassisted pull-up, a real push up (5 if I can), and get at least a solid 4-pack (right now it's only if I haven't eaten and if I stand in a certain light).

I heard Tony Horton gets annoying, but I didn't understand why ...at first. He is a little bit weird. He is constantly talking throughout the exercises, which is fine and encouraging but sometimes he touches the "annoying" line. Just, meh, some of the stuff he says that would sound weird and out of context on a blog. I started to miss Shaun T REALLY badly. But thankfully either I got used to it or it's not too big of a deal.

Chest and back is mostly alternating versions of push ups and pull-ups. You do everything for either 30 seconds or a minute or so. I used the pull-up bar for the first time today. Had to use the chair of course, and I can't even get my chin over the bar. For push ups, I used a mix between the pull-up bar on the ground and using my hands on the ground. I don't like using my hands on the ground because it hurts my wrist, but not sure if using the bar is better, either. And the issue of not being able to go deep enough on the ground the regular way is a non-issue for me. If anything, doing push ups on the bar is easier because I'm higher off the ground.

Ab Ripper X is not too bad. Insanity helped... and I think I like Insanity's more. Insanity's is tougher in that the moves are harder but you don't do any crunches or sit-up-like moves. In P90X you definitely have moves where you are sitting and you are reaching for your legs which always puts strain on my neck. I don't get how other people do it more comfortably. There is one move that is IMPOSSIBLE for me to do, and that's the one where you lie on your side and bring your knees to your chest to work your obliques. I would seriously rather do power jumps!!! I can't get there, and when I'm close to lifting off the ground my hip bone hurts.

Anyway, that's it for Day 1. 69 more to go!

last night & this morn

So I re-did my weight and stuff.

Last night:
56.1% TBW
19.1% body fat

This morn:
119.4 lbs
26" waist

So I still gained a couple of pounds..and... a couple of percentage points of body fat since before Insanity. Ok. I think my scale is off. Or, I hope so! That's annoying.

Insanity, Day 67: Fit Test and IT'S OVER!!

Ok, Day 66 was supposed to be Plyo, but I pussied out and didn't do it because I hate it. Armando said he was going to keep P90X from me if I didn't do Plyo, but I told him then I won't do plyo and I won't do P90X and he's the one who has to look at me, so.. he surrendered. :) I feel kind of bad for not doing Plyo, but yes, I hated it that much.

Let's look at results, shall we!

Date	1/27	2/10			3/30
Move	Fit Test 1	Fit Test 2			Fit Test 5
Switch Kicks	52	90			103
Power Jacks	43	57			57
Power Knees	77	80-90			110
Power Jumps	38	35			38
Globe Jumps	9	13			13
Suicide Jumps	14	20			21
Push-Up Jacks	20	22			25-26
Low Plank Oblique	23	55			65
Measurements
Weight	117.4	118.8			120
BMI	20.79421	21.04218			21.25472
Body Fat %	19.7	17			20.1
Neck	12	11.75			12
Waist	26.25	26			26
Hips	36.5	36.5			36.5
Right Thigh	20.5	20.75			20.75
Left Thigh	20.5	20.75			20.75
Right Calf
Left Calf
Right Bicep	10 1/8				10.25
Left Bicep	10 1/8				10.25
Right Forearm	9				8.75
Left Forearm	8.75				8.5

So for the first half of the chart, I see that my fitness level increased significantly between weeks 1 and 3 and then kinda stagnated or got a little better for most of the exercises between week 3's and today's. I'm slightly surprised I was able to get that many more switch kicks in, and a little disappointed that I couldn't get more power jumps, but then again, whenever we do power jumps I usually opt not to push myself on those... so... I guess it makes sense. Globe jumps, I dunno if I am going up all the way, but I still made it to 13! I had to take a rest after that one, and a rest after all the ones after that. Like I said before, this is not for the faint of heart! The push-up jacks... oigh. Totally not going down all the way. And then the low-plank obliques after that! I think that could have been better planned -- like, not having to use your shoulders and arms twice in a row. Just like I think power jumps and globe jumps should have been spaced out. Lots of thigh muscle work going on. And I didn't feel nauseated this time! Well.. until the end. After the low-plank obliques. Had to lie down and keep my food from last night down. I did notice though, that even though some of my numbers up there aren't much higher (or at all higher) than in the 2nd fit test, I lasted longer and was stronger and was able to make it with fewer breaks.

Measurement-wise.. nothing changed too much. It looks like I gained a couple of pounds and.. either I gained body fat or there is something wrong with my scale. Not sure. But I do know that I feel stronger and much more fit. My lower abdomen significantly shrunk with Insanity, and a little bit of definition has started to show through. My thighs didn't shrink like I thought they would... although they are a bit more shapely, I'll admit that.

Overall, glad I did it! Onto P90X and get those abs :) Starting.. next week, after I go to Mammoth.