Wow .... Plyometrics is The Beast. Tony calls it the Beast during the workout and he is right! I went through two 20 oz bottles of water during the 58 minutes of this workout and probably could have had another two. I burned 642 calories and my average heart rate was 138 BPM. Not to mention that I am completely exhausted. I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to talk about the nutrition portion of P90X and this seems like the appropriate time to do that. First off, my goal is to put on 6-8lbs of muscle. So, that being said, I have decided to modify the recommended nutrition portion a little to meet this goal. Normally the first four weeks of P90X has you eating 60% Protein/20% Carbs/20%Fat. This is called Phase One or the Fat Shredding Phase. This is when your body is basically shocked into losing weight by consuming mass quantities of protein and burning all the stored up fat that you have. The next four weeks, or Phase Two, is a more balanced 40% Protein/40% Carbs/20% Fat intake. In this Phase your body has become accustomed to the hard workouts and the carbs are added to give you more energy for the workouts. And then the last four weeks, Phase 3, is 60% Carbs/20% Protein/20% Fat. This Phase is designed for you to be able to Bring It as hard as possible with all the carbs. That is the Reader's Digest version of how the nutrition plan works, pretty simple actually.
Basically what I am going to do is skip Phase One and start at Phase Two. The reasoning is that I really do not want to lose anymore weight and since I am in decent shape already carbs are going to be needed. And because I want to gain muscle I will probably jump into Phase Three between days 30 and 45 -- depending on what my body feels like.
Now how am I going to get there? Whey Protein Powder, Chicken, Lean Steak, Pure Protein Bars, Whole Grain Bread, Whole Grain Bagel, Whole Grain English Muffins, Whole Grain Waffles, Broccoli, Carrots, Apples, Bananas ...etc. You get the picture, basically just eat clean - FIVE Times a day - pretty simple!
Now I get a decent amount of emails asking about supplements so I'll give my opinion. Some people do not believe in using them but I do. When I was 23 years old I never used supplements but now that I am older any boost I can get is cool by me. I am currently using EAS 100% Whey Protein for my morning protein shakes. My midday snacks are usually Pure Protein Bars, which really give me the necessary calories and protein intake to keep me going during the day. I have tried a number of Pre-Workout supplements but am currently using BCS Labs Phenom Amped pills. I like the pills over the drinks because the drinks make me feel bloated and heavy and that isn't good before you workout and the pills really get me jacked up! As for post workout drinks I have tried a few including the P90X Recovery Formula, but am currently using GNC Pro Performance Wheybolic Extreme 60. I loved the way the P90X Recovery Drink tasted but I felt like I needed more protein so I switched and am happy I did. When I run out of the Wheybolic Extreme 60 I will probably just take the regular EAS protein in its place. Lastly, I am also taking Creatine - AST Sports Science CM750 Creatine Caps - this is the first time I have taken Creatine but according to reviews it can be an essential tool to building muscle and since that is my goal, Creatine it is!
Sorry for the length of this post but I hope you found it interesting. I particularly wanted to talk about this to those of you who are considering doing P90X because this will give you an idea on what you need to do nutrition wise. The supplement part is completely up to you but I wanted to give you the full picture of what I am doing and what has been successful. Please comment if you have any questions and I'd love to hear what others think about my nutrition goals.
Tomorrow I will post my pictures. My wife/photographer is doing inventory at work and has not been around to snap the pics for me but she is off tomorrow so I promise to get them up!
Thanks for Reading,
Jeff
Enjoy the blog keep it up! First time commenter here. I have tried pretty much every pre-supplemetn available and would recommend NO-Xplode. I take it before every trip to the gym and my results have been great. I usually drink whey protein or muscle milk after my workouts. Give the NO-Xplode a try I think you will like it.
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Jeff:
ReplyDeleteGreat blog and I will check in regularly!
I'm a week and a day ahead of you with my P90X routine (2nd week of Phase 1) and finished my Shoulders-Arms routine this morning at 5:25am ET. BUT...since this is round 2 with you, I will want to learn much from you.
Great info on supplements. I've been doing a diet similar to yours, and today purchased BioRthyms's "AfterGlow" recovery drink at GNC. It has about the same protein-carb ratio, but with buffered creatine. It's pricey, but from what I can tell, its worth the money.
Already in my 2nd week, I've lost about 4lbs and am seeing some cuts in my abs! Plus, I'm getting better at balancing myself during the Ab Ripper X. Crunchy frogs had me sprawling on my back at first, but now I'm getting the hang of it.
Thanks for the great blog!
Steve
JD,
ReplyDeleteI have thought about trying the NO-Xplode, thanks for the recommendation. The one thing I have found with the preworkout drinks is that over time they seem to loss effectiveness. I have used SuperPump250 and Nano Vapor and both were great for a couple of months and then I started to not even notice that I was taken them ....that is when it is time to change!
Welcome aboard the P90X train Steve! Stop back often. I found out during my first round it really helped to have a group of people within a couple of weeks of eachother doing the X. I knew if I skipped a day or half-assed it they would give me shit! So good luck and let me know how the AfterGlow works out.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree that every exercise should be coupled with proper diet plan. Thanks for sharing this. Keep writing.
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