Monday, February 2, 2009

P90X Round 2 Day 15: Chest, Back, and Ab Ripper X

Jumped back on the horse today and ripped off an excellent Chest and Back routine. First off, I ate like crap, as expected, during the Super Bowl party yesterday. I have been eating clean for six months so I am not feeling too guilty but I am not feeling good about it. But, it is now in the past and I will work that much harder this week to burn it off.

Chest and Back is always a fun exercise for me. Mainly because you get two cracks at it! You do 12 different exercises and then come back and do all 12 exercises again. Uusually, I don't KILL myself during the first run through because I want to have something left for time two. Not today... I did reps until failure on pretty much all 24 exercises -- except the Diamond Push-ups. For some reason the Diamond Push-ups absolutely kill my wrists. Basically you place your hands directly below the center of your chest with your thumbs touching and point finger touching so you make like a triangle shape with these fingers. However, it just burns my wrist and not a good burn so I stop on these ones when it starts to hurt. But everything else I brough the hell out of it. My upper back and pectorial muscles are very sore right now.

Then I moved to ARX and it was difficult today. I struggled on the reverse bicycles, left oblique raises and mason twists. I got to 40 on the twists but I had to pause on 30 and couldn't do the bonus. It is amazing how ARX just never gets easier. It is just a brutal 15 minutes every single time.

I got a question -- What kind of snack bar do you guys recommend?

I normally have a Pure Protein bar (19G of Protein/200 Cals/5 carbs) for my midday snacks but since I am adding more calories and carbs to my diet I am looking for a bar that gives me more. Preferrably the bars will not contain high fructose corn syrup (Tony Horton says it is B-A-D!). So, fire up your suggestions because I am at a loss! Oh..the South Beach Diet ones would be perfect but they DESTROY my stomach and my poor wife does not deserve that!

Tomorrow is the beast --Plyometrics! I am now off to watch Jack Bauer save the country one more time.

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

7 comments:

  1. Diamond pushups kill my wrists as well. I even taped them up during my P90X "trial" a few months ago and they still killed me. Don't know what it is. I have strong triceps and can crank out military pushups, but my body geometry grinds against Diamond pushups...as well as Seated Spinal Stretches in Yoga. I must have a deformity some where.

    You axed about protein bars. I eat Balance Gold bars. Total fat-9%, Sat. fat-20%, 14g protein, total carbs-23g, cholesterol-1%, sodium-125mg, potassium-23g, sugar is 14g. Found at most grocery stores, and my price club sells them 24-box for $19.98.

    All in all, compared to the P90X bar, they looked better in most categories. I'm sure there are better ones out there but for the money, these couldn't be beat.

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  2. You may want to go to GNC...I know I know. I have been buying the ones that are about to go out of date. For example I recently bought some(2 weeks ago) that expire in March. They are Muscletech Nitrotech Hardcore Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars and Have 270 calories w/ 30gr of pr 7gr fat 31 gr carbs and 1 gr sugar. I got a box of 12 for $8.75. Typically they sell for $2.50-3 a bar. I would also reccomend the Met-Rx colossal bars which have 420 calories and 32 gr of protein. I am not sure about any good solution for price on those though. I would defiantly see if you could find some about to go out of date though. I mentioned it on a BB messageboard and a guy in Tenn. was able to get 4 boxes for about the same price I was talking about.

    Hope the workout continue to go well. I have to admit I slacked off a little on the nutrition this weekend as well. I did kill Chest and Back yesterday and Core Synergystics today(rest week ahahaah). I got almost 300 push ups(280). I have also recently tried some of this stuff called Quinoa which is mentioned in the nutrition guide. It is delicious. You should check it out. I usually cook it in watered down chicken broth or beef broth and mix in some carrots raisins onions and walnuts to add a little more flavor. Stop be TDP sometime soon...the thread that I have been posting on has come alive.....(I'm thinking I may have had something to do with it....) You can also check out what I have been eating by clicking on my name. Who knows maybe you can get some ideas since I am now eating a little over 3000 calories myself.

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  3. Use push up bars for the Diamond push ups. Your thumbs touching makes no difference as to how your muscles are worked. The push up bars will put your wrists at a easier angle.

    Keep up the good work. I'm on my second round of P90X. I'm doing Doubles for all 3 phases this time.

    take care... I enjoy your blog.

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  4. Thanks for the bar sugestions guys. Gonna have to check them out and see what works.

    Thanks also to the poster who suggested using the push up bars for the diamonds. I have actually tried my pushup bars for them (I use them on every other pushup!) but for some reason it feels very weird to use them during the diamond pushups? Not sure why .. so this is why I just go without them. Who knows, I'll just keep pushing play and struggle through the diamonds!

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  5. Check out this post another P90Xer did on three of his favorite bars.

    http://altmode.typepad.com/fitness/2009/02/protein-bar-review.html

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  6. Thanks Mark ... I love the Pure Protein bar he mentions and have been doing a ton of reading about bars and will probably stick with them -- why mess with success right?

    I am not a big fan of MuscleTech products. They seem to be the highest priced products in the market. I tried the Anabolic Halo recovery drink by them and had decent results but not enough to justify the cost, IMO. BUT that being said I am paying out the ass for Cell Mass and Nitix currently.... sort of hypocritical ....LOL

    Thanks for the link!

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  7. I like the pure protein bars too! They are pretty low cal, low fat and have a good amount of protein. The ratios are pretty decent.

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