You will notice the title of this blog is no longer P90X Workout Journal. I dropped the ball on this blog and P90X for several reasons ranging from sloth to life events.
I kept up the P90X through about 30 days (not consecutive though), but then disaster struck. I was running one night, and an improperly set sidewalk segment with a very high lip caught my toe and sent me tumbling. This wouldn’t have been catastrophic, but the segment in question angled down to the road about 45 degrees so that my upper body fell flew an additional 1.5 feet or so before impact. I thought I broke something, and my arm was pretty much useless for much of anything for a month or so, but I just damaged soft tissue according to the doctors. I went through several weeks of rehabilitation and got back full range plus or minus a few degrees of extension. I credit P90X for making me strong enough that it wasn’t a worse injury. My workout routine and motivation in general fell apart after this event. I am wary of pull ups, and I haven’t done push ups. However, I am using free weights again and building some strength.
Anyway, I am starting to exercise anew with the warm spring season upon me, and I want to salvage this blog and make it a home again for general exercise. I am eschewing calorie tracking for sensible portioning and regular exercise. If you go all the way back to the first post on here you’ll see mention of foot numbness from running. I have finally determined that this is due to over-pronation issues on one side, and I spent so much time at the orthopedist that I know they can make some good custom orthotics for this kind of stuff. I plant to get some of these after I move, but for now I am using the aid of some off the shelf arch supports for running.
Since I last blogged:
- I got married
- I went to Disney World (honeymoon) with a fancy dining plan (I do not advise this for those trying to keep weight off)
- I am about to move to another state
- I stopped running altogether
- A work project of over two years is culminating in a milestone (although it will probably never go away completely, see FUBAR). It is worth mentioning that I am going to be telecommuting from my new home state to my current job. I do not know how long this will last, but my wife and I will be living off my income alone for the next few months and the job market sucks for now so I had to do what I had to do.
- I am about to turn 25
- I am way out of shape
- My wife is graduating from law school (see sugarmama)
I noticed some readers have added this blog to their RSS feed, and I hope I didn’t let anyone down (besides myself). I may post less regularly than I was when I started (I don’t know that daily posts are maintainable), but I will find my stride and try to post interesting health/fitness info, my personal experiences, and what has been working for me lately.
Today was rest or x stretch. I did the stretch because flexibility is a problem of mine. Although I have been runnning for years, I am not flexible by any stretch of the imagination. I do some pre-workout stretches, but it is the bare minimum needed.
I found the stretching was rather difficult. It is another 1 hour program, but the stretches are often very advanced, and I had to do many of the “less flexible” versions of these. Luckily, these modifications were demonstrated by at least one member at all times. My back felt a little less good after the stretching than before. Plenty of moves from Yoga X also appeared in this routine.
FYI: You will definitely appreciate having a good soft workout mat for doing this routine. I recently purchased a real workout mat for about $17 at my local Play It Again Sports. It is leaps and bounds above my camping mat as far as padding and not sliding around on the rug.
Today was Kenpo X. This workout was actually pretty tame compared to the rest. Some might say this is because I failed to “bring it.” I found some combinations of punches to be difficult to follow this first time through, but I’m hoping that will improve with time. The most difficult sets were the ones with 4 punch alternating hand combos while switching the left/right starting position (thus, switching which arm and order the punches are thrown from). This was a decent workout, but the constant rests were kind of silly to me considering how they will go from pull up to pull up and other crazy non-stop working out in the other videos. This is probably my bias coming from a primarily cardio background. I have no qualms running a heart rate in the 190’s for prolonged periods.
I payed attention to the warnings about avoiding hyper extension of the joints, although they were still a bit sore at the end anyway. The workout was fun though, but I wouldn’t say it was more difficult than that other workout by Mr. Blanks. My legs are finally fully recovered from plyo earlier in the week.
I was trying to do this routine on a large low-pile rug, but I quickly pulled up the rug because the whole thing was sliding around when I was kicking or lunging. I am going to go looking for some no-slip shelf liner to hold the rug fast on my wood floor, and I’ll advise as to how that works out for me.
Today was my first time doing legs & back. It wasn’t too bad, but I’m starting to notice that there is some repetition in the types of stretches and some of the exercises across the different workouts. This workout was quad intensive, but not too difficult. It was followed up with ab ripper which can be hard on the hip flexors by itself.
I had to take another day off after a punishing yoga session left me with a weak left hip flexor.
Today was Yoga X. This isn’t your father’s yoga (if your father does yoga). It is 1.5 hours of more downward dog, plank, and bridge than your body has room for. It starts out with floor poses switching from downward dog with heel lifting, upward dog, runner’s pose, warrior poses, and various modifications on the warrior poses including one legged variants with all kinds of crazyness that left me unable to partake. I now wish I had the yoga blocks. Then they switch to balance poses where you stand and hold. Then they get on the floor for abdominal focused poses and leg focused poses. Then they follow it up with lots of stretches. A few times, I cursed the people on the screen. Luckily, they have one guy who is somewhere close to what a newbie would do so you can watch him for easier ways for those of us whose tendons and ligaments aren’t made from bunjee cables. They warn you about super advanced poses like the crane (not happening at all for me). They sometimes, mercifully, provide suggestions for what to do when you can’t complete the crazy version of a pose.
This workout is especially abdominal intensive since it comes on the heels of an ab ripper workout day. I liked this workout because it seems like you can get a lot more from it after you develop your flexibility. Also, if you want motivation to stick to your diet, the poses where you are propped up on your shoulders with your back and legs in the air will give you newfound fervor since they will make any stomach “pooch” hang just above your face in an upside down and exaggerated manner. On a cautionary note, you really ought to have a towel nearby. I didn’t and I was pouring sweat from this workout (which makes it hard to grip your mat).
After a drawn out recovery, I think I’ll take it easier on the chest workouts in the future. For now though, I am back in the saddle!
Today I tackled the arms and shoulders routine. This routine has you doing all kinds of dumbbell lifts from standing to lying and sitting. You also do some chair dips and lay on your side and push down with one arm to lift yourself up. These exercises are arranged in sets of three which are repeated upon completion. I don’t have bands, and I wouldn’t recommend them for these exercises because some of the lifts are complicated, and I assume they would inhibit the proper range of motion needed. Also, I own supportive velcro wrist wraps. I recommend these to fortify your wrists if you are going to be pushing your limits with the weights.
I found this workout much easier than the previous two. Most of the people in the video are taking it easer than before. For this workout I used all my dumbbells from 8 - 20lbs, and I am going to need heavier ones for some of these exercises next time I do them. For several of the exercises, Tony says to do exactly 16 reps and not your own number. That can be a lot of reps for a heavy weight, so plan accordingly. I think I will push myself harder on this segment next time for the exercises where my form won’t suffer from the much heavier weights. You follow up the completion of this workout with ab ripper x. I discovered that it is on the arms and shoulders disk if you wait after finishing the workout. On day 1 I used the ab ripper disk after finishing chest and back. The ab workout seems a heck of a lot harder to do when an easier workout proceeds it.
Update: The stretching routines used in this exercise segment helped almost all my lingering chest soreness go away by the next day.
Protein comes from many sources: nuts, dairy, meat, beans, eggs, fish, etc
There are differences in the quality of these proteins and how bioavailable (easily used by your body) they are. I’m going to discuss the two I know about.
Firstly, egg protein (casein) is a slow absorbing protein. It is found in egg whites in great concentration. You can find egg whites in the baking section of your local grocer, but I have had great success adding liquefied egg whites to fruit smoothies. There is less protein per ounce in fresh egg whites because they are not dried like whey protein, so you won’t get much unless you add a lot of egg white to your diet. However, a non processed food with high protein content (like egg whites) make a great source of bioavailable protein.
Whey protein is probably the most commonly used protein supplement. This protein is derived from dairy products, and it is rapidly absorbed by the body. One scoop is usually around 23-28g of protein. Because of this rapid absorption by your body, if your muscles aren’t “eating it up” due to recovery, a substantial amount can just pass right back out of your body (or be converted to other things). This protein is ranked the same as egg protein on bioavailability.
One final note, lean meats that are high in protein are a good way to meet your needs (think tuna and turkey). Some people will say that your muscles will “waste” unless you feed them an abundance of protein, but I think they probably just aren’t as likely to thrive and that you really don’t need to have 5 scoops of whey a day or anything crazy like that. Remember that, except for the time around workouts, foods with high natural protein content that provide slow absorption are always preferable to processed protein sources.
In my first nutrition post. I mentioned how I was looking into quick digesting sugars for muscle gain during the post workout insulin spike. People think that fructose (fruit sugar) is not fast enough for this task and recommend dextrose and maltodextrin. I decided that it would be better for me to just use the smoothie since it will provide natural nutrients intermingled with all those otherwise empty calories (as well as fiber and protein). The downside is that I can’t workout late at night because I’ll go to bed with a stomach full of sugary fruity goodness, but exercising late at night is not something that I want to be doing anyway since it wastes the metabolic boost from the workout.
In bodybuilding forums there is lots of talk about hydrogen bonds and sugar molecules, but I have no experience in organic chemistry and subsequently don’t know if I am being fed a line about these sugars. My decision suits my needs for overall benefit (some for muscle gain and some for general consumption versus all for muscle gain and a potential fat storage for excess empty calories in simple sugar) from my post workout concoction.
In the next nutritional segment, I’ll cover what I know about protein.
After the painful workouts of days 1 and 2, I find myself too sore to take on the third day properly, and I feel I would be risking injury if I did. My triceps, biceps, deltoids, traps, thighs, quads, abs, etc hurt like the dickens and I can’t sustain more damage from an arm workout at this point since my arms hurt the most.
I don’t want to postpone, because I won’t be able to give a true and fair assessment of what it is like to do this program in 90 days. However, injury will cause a longer postponement and safety comes first. I am doing a 45 minute walk and not much else until this passes, but otherwise I’m taking it easy in the hopes of picking up on day 3 where I should be now.
Update: I ended up taking three days off to heal up.
