P90X Day 3: Arms/Shoulders/Abs

I was sore today people!!

The pain in my quads made it hard to sit, little bit of grunting getting in and out of my car today. That being said, I feel awesome otherwise. I have more energy than I have had in a long time and I am sleeping like a champ. I have never been a sound sleeper and I usually wake to the slightest noise but since I started this diet and workout I have been sleeping great. Maybe just a coincidence, maybe not?

Started the morning with a protein shake mixed with skim milk, banana and a watermelon slice - it was excellent. Had a protein bar for my mid-morning snack and a chef salad with turkey, ham, cheese and fat-free ranch for lunch. My midday snack was 1 oz of mozzarella cheese stick and the recovery drink. BTW - the P90X Recovery Drink tastes great.

Today's workout was intense as usual. It was paced very quick and as usual I was soaked at the end. I used the Green resistance bands (I think they are 50 lbs) for all of the arm and shoulder exercises, except the straight arm flys, used the red (30lbs). The burn was good and I hit most of my rep goals. I will look forward to doing this again next week, unlike Plyometrics which almost killed me.

Then I rolled right into AB RIPPER X. It is brutal. I absolutely love it. I did much better this time than during Day 1. Still felt like I was going to vomit a few times.

So, going to make the Beef and broccoli Stir Fry from the Nutrition Guide for dinner. It looks good.

Tomorrow is Yoga. Not sure how I feel about this.

On a more serious note it looks like Hurricane IKE has a real good chance of doing some damage here in the Houston area. The weather sites are saying it will hit late Friday or early Saturday. I was here when Rita came through 3 years ago and it was hard to see so many struggle. So, if anyone is actually reading my daily drivel please keep my family and the entire Gulf Region in your prayers.

Thanks for reading!

Jeff

P90X Day 2: Plyometrics

Day 2 is in the books!

I read that some people call Plyometrics "The Beast", that name is deserved.

I got up early today and had a Protein Shake with Skim Milk and a banana. I then had my SuperPump 250 pre-workout drink and planned out my entire week for my job. I was pretty sore from yesterdays workout but I was still pumped to get started.

I then went upstairs to do my workout. I was tired after the 8-minute warm-up! This was not good!

Plyometrics was a beast and I may have sweat more in those 58 minutes than I ever had in my life. You probably could have rung two cups of sweat from my clothes -- it was that intense. But, I made it through and really had to push for the last 10 minutes. I felt a small ting of pride when I finished.

Today was my first day doing this program that I had to also work. I am an outside sales rep and basically live in my car. I do not have a normal nine-to-five type of job that has scheduled breaks. I skip alot of lunches and end up eating fast food because of time constraints.

So, today I packed a cooler with bottled waters, protein bars and a chef salad. I was able to eat all these while driving between appointments at my scheduled times. It was actually cool to have everything in a cooler in my back seat. Felt a little like camping. Except without the woods or a tent or...okay maybe it wasn't anything like camping but I still enjoyed it. I am going to get used to this new style of eating in no time!

I am off to grill some Swordfish for my last meal of the day. Tomorrow is Arms and Shoulders - should be fun since both are already sore as hell.

P90X Day 1: Chest & Back

It has been Brought!

A little piece of me died this morning. Luckily it was a piece of stomache fat.

I started day one with a Protein Shake (Gladiator/Vanilla flavored/Skim milk) and Banana for Breakfast. I then mixed 2 scoops of SuperPump 250. After about 30 minutes the SP250 had me full of energy - I felt great and highly recommend this for your pre-workout drink.

The Chest & Back workout starts with warm-ups and stretching. I actually had a nice little sweat going. Then it jumps right in: Push-ups, Pull-ups, Chin-up, Lawn mowers .... Click here to see the exercises and my results. It totaled 12 different exercises and towards the end I was REALLY feeling the burn. Then when you think you are done Tony informs you we are going to do it all again. This is when you feel the pain. A couple of times I felt like I was going to pass out but keep pushing through. I could not believe how much I was sweating!

After you finish the 24 grueling exercises the hard part is just beginning: AB RIPPER X!!!

This is 15 minutes of non-stop core ripping. My form was pretty bad doing most of the AB exercises. Hopefully this will improve over the nesxt 89 days. AB RIPPER X is killer. I was dropping curse words throughout.

I am drinking the P90X Recovery Drink as I type this and it is very good. I am going to look forward to drinking this after each workout!

My first day review of the P90X in one word: Awesome!

If I can keep this up for 90 days I am going to be in the best shape of my life.

Anyways, I have my diet planned for the rest of the day: Protein Bar Snack, Chef Salad Lunch, Cheese stick and Protein Drink snack, Grilled Chicken Breast Dinner. Protein Galore!

Here are my Pre-Day one Photos (hello fatty!) and you can see my measurement on the Fit Tracker Link on the right:

Thanks for Reading -- Time to go watch the Steelers beat up on the Texans. Yes, I live in Houston but I am from Pittsburgh.

Go Stillers!

Jeff

It is Time to BRING IT!

The P90X FINALLY arrived yesterday evening! After only 10 short days of waiting.


I received the 12 DVDs, 3 Resistance Bands, P90X Recovery Tub, Nutrition Guide, Fitness Guide and the Chin-Up Bar. I also received the P90X Plus (+) so I guess I will be doing that 91 days from tomorrow! The nutrition guide is a little overwhelming when you first start reading it but by about the middle it really starts to make sense. The Beachbody writers stress that the nutrition part is the key to results. Drop the crappy snack food and stick to the program.


I am ready to BRING IT starting tomorrow morning. Today I am going to install the ChinUp Bar above a guest bedroom and go grocery shopping and plan my entire week based on the nutrition guide. Last night I bought push up handles and a yoga mat so I am just about ready!

I cleared away my gameroom and it will now become my home gym:

I finished watching the Intro DVD and I am pumped up. I would start right now but I promised Mike we would stay on the same day and he cannot start until tomorrow.

So, next time I post will be after the Day 1 workout! Wish me luck at Bringing It.

Jeff

The P90X Fit Test

Today I did the P90X Fit Test with my wife Annie. She is in very good shape and it was fun to compare our results to each other.

The P90X creators recommend doing this test in order to see if you are ready to do the videos. I guess if you fail miserably at the Fit Test you probably need to hit the gym before you begin the actual program.

As for the test it had some challenging exercises. The reason I did this was so that I would have a baseline to measure my results at the end of 90 days other than the pictures I will post soon.

Here is the link on Google Docs with the stats: Fit Test

Here is the order and results of the 8 exercises of the Fit Test:

Resting Heart Rate -- Jeff 74 bpm; Annie 57 bpm.
My Weight -- 181 lbs

#1. Pull-Ups: Test says men should do 3 and women 1.
Jeff 3; Annie 1/4

#2. Vertical Leap: Test says men should do at least 5 inches and women 3 inches (I've always had decent ups).
Jeff 23.5 inches; Annie 9.5 inches

#3. Push-Ups: Men should do at least 15 and women 3 (I was burning after this).
Jeff 29; Annie 21

#4. Toe Touch: Minimum for both men and women is -6 inches.
Jeff +2.5 inches; Annie +8

#5. Wall Squat: Minimum for both men women is 1:00 minute (This was hard).
Jeff 1:07; Annie 0:22

#6. Bicep Curls: Men shoud do minimum of 10 curls at 20 lbs, women 10 at 8 lbs.
Jeff 51 reps at 20 lbs; Annie 31 reps at 20 lbs

#7. In & Outs (Abs): Both should do a minimum of 25 reps.
Jeff 26; Annie 30

#8. Heart Rate Maximizer: This measures your heart rate after 2 minutes of jumping jacks.
Jeff started at 138 bpm and ended at 94.
Annie started at 168 and ended at 77.

Overall I feel like I did pretty well and this has me pumped up to get started. My tracking number says it should be here on Friday. My friend Mike received his today and from what he tells me a lot needs to happen in terms of prep before we can start.

Anyways, if you are considering the P90X I recommend doing this Fit Test. It does give you an idea of where you are physically and where you hope to be in 90 days.

Jeff