P90X Week Three Redux

No P90X today. It would be our normal rest day anyway. Tomorrow would be day one of week four {recovery week}. We sorta bailed out on Thursday with no Yoga X. I did do Core Thursday and went to the gym Friday for normal weight training. We did very little this weekend except push-ups and more push-ups and bypassed Kenpo X on Saturday. Motivation is down somewhat but Desi and I are going to restart week three. We are FAR from a plateau effect so it will not be time wasted. Putting off recovery week for one more week.

I will be working extra hard this week by adding in doubles on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Doubles means getting up early for interval training prior to work. After week one and week three mistakes… No doubles for Plyo or Yoga days. They are exhausting.

Push play and do your best! You are guaranteed successful results, better health, and increased fitness. Tony Horton and friends are the best at keeping you motivated and maximizing your potential.

Tags: fitness, health, nutrition, P90X, Tony Hortoncontact via email

P90X Week 3 Complete

Kenpo X on Saturday absolutely rocked. The whole family got involved this week as well and it does get easier every week. The legs and arms are getting stronger and quicker. It is week three in the program and recovery week is just around the corner. The reality is that my weight is not shedding (due to muscle increase?), but the inches are dropping. I am in a pair of pants that had an inch gap 3 weeks ago and they fit comfortably. Weight loss stopped at 10 lbs a week ago. We have changed our eating habits to eating more healthy but we are not starving ourselves. 1900 to 2000 calories a day is what I am allowed to maintain current weight. All weight loss will occur due to activities. Four to five hundred calories burned in the morning and Six to eight hundred calories in the evening through various workout activities. If maintained six days a week, this equals around two pounds of fat loss a week. To burn fat- my understanding… when doing cardio, make sure your heart is in a fat burning zone. Mine is around 145 to 155.

Two to three days a week we are doing endurance training as well. H.I.I.T. using sprint intervals is the easiest to track. I found a really cool droid application that acts as a timer. It vibrates and whistles when I should take off or slow down. This is a perfect addition since the droid is also my MP3 player as well. Our Tuesday Plyometrics P90X sessions also work for endurance sessions. My heart rate is through the roof on many of the segments.

If you have been following the rituals and or workouts… you know we are nearly done with week three. One more day of legs and back and Kenpo X on Saturday again.

Now we enter our recovery phase. It is not a break or a reason to eat footlong chili cheese coneys. This week is all about turning down the volume and giving your neighbors a break. We have a week of Core, Cardio and Yoga. Lay off the weights and let the body heal and prepare for phase two. We will be enjoying the welcome break. Just wondering if I should slow down calorie intake? Physiology is a weird science. Trick your body by eating but eat the right stuff? If there was a fat burning food, why don’t we just eat it and be done with exercise already. Magazines are so conflicting. We simply removed the ‘bad’ foods from our house. Replaced them with fruits and vegies and decreased the volume of our servings. SIMPLE! Don’t forget to smart snack and drink lots of water cause you will sweat every time you push the P90X play button.

Push play and do your best! You are guaranteed successful results, better health, and increased fitness. Tony Horton and friends are the best a keeping you motivated and maximizing your potential

Bring It!

Tags: fitness, health, nutrition, P90X, Tony Hortoncontact via email

P90X Week 3 begins Chest and Back

Beginning Week 3 in phase one of P90X. We finished week two off on Saturday with a late night round of Kenpo X. I woke up on Sunday so fired up that I had to take an early morning run. That is such a great feeling. The family was still sleeping when I returned. Spinach and mushroom omelets were on the menu. Hey, it is Father’s day so a bit of a treat was in order. A trip to the whole food market in Fort Worth was the plan of the day. Dinner consisted of home-made Panini.

On vacation this week! The final week in Phase one of P90X before the recovery period, push push push. Time for another early morning run but this time I decided to take a running buddy. It only took 1/2 glass of water to motivate my 13 daughter to get up and join me. What can I say, I am a highly persuasive individual and she was happy to get up and go running with her daddy. “Happy” may be a bit of an exaggeration. During the run, I yelled, “there it is!” Her response was, “finally! wait! That is not the house.” I started laughing and responded, “no dear, that is the 1/2 point, now turn-a-round.” We were at the end of dead end country road. Nothing to do but run home. “The faster you run, the faster you get back to the T.V.” Suprisingly, this did not make her feet move any quicker.

Last night consisted of the Monday ritual of Chest and Back. It is amazing what kind of progress can be made when you stick to a program. Week three of the program… my personal gains include moving to 40 lb dumb bells for heavy pants. I am NOT a bodybuilder and lifting 80 lbs repeatedly (12 reps) is not something I would have thought of as fun but it was motivating knowing that I could. For whatever reason, something clicked in my brain and I REALLY PUSHED through all the second sets of each exercise. Disturbed and Bikini Kill was blasting away as I wrapped up day one of week three.

Found a new application for the Droid phone. Pretty sweet! It is an H.I.I.T. trainer. FREE FREE FREE. Love free stuff. Downloaded and set up for 20 second sprints with 40 second jogs. The GPS tracks speed and distances. It is all set-up for 12 rounds. If you don’t hear from me again, you know I did not survive it. This is incredibly stupid because tonight is plyometric training. Never do any leg or cardio for doubles with Plyo. I learned this on week one but I need to try out the new toy, don’t I?

Push play and do your best! You are guaranteed successful results, better health, and increased fitness. Tony Horton and friends are the best a keeping you motivated and maximizing your potential.

Bring it!

Tags: fitness, health, humor, nutrition, P90X, Tony Hortoncontact via email

P90X ROUND 1 DAYS 11-12 Legs and Back

Well, yesterday was a bust. Work was crazy and I spent around 8 to 9 hours moving heavy items and sweating. I manage to burn off well over 1200 during my day. It was Yoga X night but the thought of moving after we got home was pushed aside. Yes, Yoga X is very important to the program and it would probably have helped with the sore and tired muscles but the couch won out. The heat had completely zapped us. Tonight is Legs and Back followed by Ab Ripper X. Phase one is all about repetition and gets your body prepared for the rest of the program. You build on strength gained from the previous week. Using your charts, you can easily follow your gains and progress. So here we are on day 12 with Legs and Back. Today was tough at work but I am determined to stick with the program. Legs and Back from P90X coming up at 1900 hours.

Keep hitting play and do your best! Updates to come once the session is complete.

Tags: fitness, health, nutrition, P90Xcontact via email

P90X round 1, day 10 CHEST and ARMS

Well day 10 is here with only 80 days left. Twenty days left in phase one of the program. Looking forward to pulling out the camera and checking progress. The heat during the day has really sapped my energy level but the enthusiasm and willpower is still in place. Push play and start… push play and start has become my new mantra.

Desi and I are prepping for our Chest and Arms Wednesday night ritual. Our worksheets are out and the pens are at the ready. Time to see is the heat of the day has drained us. The only question that remains is “can we top last weeks performance?” We shall see. My shoulders feel tired from the Monday night effort.

Today I stuck to the meal plan. I have been working on or about 1800 calories a day. Trying to stick with whole foods throughout the day is completely foreign to me but so far, so good. Supplements are plentiful in our house but I find that eating right at home can be a challenge. Tonight was turkey dog night and I ended up eating around 2000 calories today. Weighing 237 lbs and burning around 800 calories a day through various activities… it should be ok. Still not sure where the line should be for maximum weight loss without burning muscle gain. Hope the Whey protein protects against the muscle loss.

Time to push play and leave everything on the floor. Not including supper. That is reserved for Plyo night.

Tags: fitness, health, nutrition, P90Xcontact via email

P90X round 1, day 9 PLYO

Well, my second week of P90X is in full swing. Completed Chest and Back on Monday for second time. It does get easier. More push-ups, more weights, more reps… still finished up the the routine less gassed than last week. Hooyah!

This morning I was a little tight but with no soreness. I did a few of Tony’s Horton’s famous soup stirs and shoulder rolls… all gone. Today was a short day at work due to a visit to the dentist so I added BICEPS AND BACK for a doubles mid day workout. I kept it light reserving energy for PLYO tonight. I am going to need it. Plyo is a calorie eater. According to Tony Horton, Plyo is the X in P90X. From what I read, if you give 100%, you can burn around 700 to 800 calories in one session. After the drenching last week, I fully believe it.

I stuck to the nutrition plan for this entire past week and lost nada. We hit the gym for the previous two weeks prepping for P90X and I dropped about 5 lbs. It was probably water weight. Anyway, this past weekend was our anniversary and we more or less binged by eating out a lot. When I weighed in on Monday morning, I had lost another two pounds. Go figure. It was probably the run and cardio work on Saturday and X Stretch on Sunday. Right? Back on the nutrition plan and working hard this week… just push play and do your best. P90X will work. You will get results.

Watching Doom on DVD. Gets worse everytime I see it; yet, I still watch it. Looking forward to 1900 hours when things start to burn.

UPDATE: Completed the Tuesday Plyo. Unlike the improvements made in other areas… I fell short. Not sure if it was mental or physical but it just felt tougher. My breaks were many but I did complete the program. There are two or three exercises like Rockstar hops that I literally just ran in place and watched. I am up and moving but it will be a while before I have the juice to run this particular scenario from beginning to end. The jump squats have my heart rate over 160 which causes me to gasp through the next series. That means I am either having to pause constantly or miss the benefit. Hopefully it will get easier as the weight drops off. Not necessarily easier but doable. That is the goal. Complete all cycles without the extra pauses or skips.

Tags: fitness, health, nutrition, P90Xcontact via email

P90X round one, day 6 Kenpo X

The first week is just about complete. I have tons of energy and feel lighter. Maybe its the modified diet, maybe its the 8 to 10 hours of exercise this week. Either way, I feel lighter. The scales only reflect a two pound loss for the last two weeks but I would bet more goo has exited the system than a simple scale will show.

Confessions: it is anniversary weekend. Desi and I got up to a fresh breeze and beautiful sky. We donned our running shoes and hit the road. Three miles later… showered and the family piled into the truck for a mini road trip. See previous post. The junk we put into our systems caused me to feel lazy and sluggish the rest of the day. Diet truly affects performance. You are what you eat. Yesterday became the rest day. I call it rest day only because we never pushed play. I did manage to lift weights for about 30 minutes last night. Day 7 is now our Kenpo X day for this week.

Day 7 is here. Back on schedule. One spinach and green bell pepper omelet for breakfast. Yogurt for a snack and now prepping for Kenpo X. No weights today. Body needs healing to prep for a grinding week two. This week will my biggest challenge because its hell week at work. See you guys in a week with results unless something intersting happens. This week should pretty much resemble last week but hopefully with better performance and form.

UPDATE: I challenge you to complete KENPO X giving 100% (the best you can) and NOT BE SOAKED. My shirt was drenched and my shoulders were on fire. My heart rate stayed well over my zone. Gonna do stretch X tonight and get ready for our new week.

TREAT: Great article with podcast discussing ESPN’s Doug Gottlieb and his P90X experience.

Tags: fitness, health, nutrition, P90X, Tony Hortoncontact via email

What not to do on P90X

The Saturday great cupcake hunt. The final stop was Bluebonnet Bakery in the museum cultural district of Fort Worth. It was a special anniversary weekend. Two minutes of pure goodness probably cost more than 60 P90X minutes… worth every bite. Next stop is Vintage Records. Desi and I are loving our mini road trip.

Tags: fitness, health, nutrition, P90Xcontact via email

P90X Round One, Day 5 Legs and Back

P90X day 5 is all about Legs and Back. WOW! The whole family got into the action on the legs. The energy was high tonight after the “break” of the last couple of days. Tony Horton really did plan this out really well. My legs felt great after the workout.

Fitness background: I have bad knees! Period! End of Story! I shattered my knees and was told I would pretty much never run again. 6 months later I was running 3 miles in about 19 minutes. 1 year later I was completing those same three miles at 16:40. 4 years later, I completed Marine Corps boot camp and survived as an 0311 (Combat Rifleman) for several years. No sweat. The challenge was sweet! I was running half marathons and running daily.

Fast forward close to two decades. Being 43 and overweight is a much bigger obstacle. I can run two minutes and have to walk for two minutes. The weight is killing my knees. P90X is a huge help. The sore muscles are proof that it is working but my knees are not grapefruits afterwards. Do your best and forget the rest. Do 1 Do 2 Do 3 or Do 25 reps / minutes… it does not matter. Just push play everyday and push yourself to get better each time. After two weeks at the gym and 5 days of P90X, my energy levels have increased at least threefold, my body is more flexible and my joints are more relaxed.

Tomorrow is running in the morning and Kenpo X in the evening. Lets see how that goes! I am really, really looking forward to pushing play.

Tags: fitness, health, nutrition, P90X, Tony Hortoncontact via email

P90X Round One, Day 3 and 4

Shoulders and Arms are officially my favorite day. It was an incredible workout. Desi was not feeling well and had to skip out on Wednesday. This workout is probably one of the easier events in the P90X series. It has to be one of the easier ones, I was able to keep up. Made the mistake of not tracking my workout on paper so I will have no goals or results to follow next week. Day 4 fixed all that. After 30 minutes of Yoga X, the wife jumped in and regretted missing the previous night. So, we restarted day 3 and complete it as well. I must say, it was a tad bit harder tonight but I DID record my results this time. My arms will be feeling it tomorrow.

Doubling up is not recommend unless you are in optimal shape and doing doubles. Your body needs recovery. Don’t forget to feed those sore muscles. I am trying to keep my calories around 1800 and eating whole foods plus supplements. Never sure about the line… losing weight and losing muscle from over exercise without the proper nutrition. Time will tell.

Really looking forward to “bring it” on day 5. Legs and Back on Friday. Pushing play everyday.

Tags: fitness, health, nutrition, P90X, Tony Hortoncontact via email

P90X Round One, Day Two PLYO!

What can I say… nothing but air! Nearly one hour of “high impact aerobics.” You run about 4 drills and then repeat. Each are progressively harder (especially since you are tired). The Plyo is meant to make you quicker and stronger. I can see the athletic benefits that come with this workout. It is not just aerobics, they are specialized and really make you dig deep. What goes up must come down and when you are my size… It will be a while before I have quiet landings, the house shakes. To complete the program and see the P90X results, this day is a must but it is not one of my favorites. I know, I know that it will get easier each week but the banging on your joints is OUCH!!! Not a lazy pain, it is a hurt pain. Stock up on the glucosamine and chondroitin for those sore joints.

I learned a very valuable lesson today. I woke up feeling GREAT and threw in the Cardio-X. Anybody who has done PLYO knows that this is NOT a good idea. Anyway, I wanted a workout before heading off to the job. I was absolutely GASSED 20 minutes into PLYO. The lesson… NEVER do Cardio and Plyo on the same day. Are doubles a good idea for a 240 out of shape man? Don’t know but I am going to dig deep and push play every day. In three to four months, the goal is that you will be hearing from a 210 lb. man with a decrease of about 14% in body fat. Is it possible? We shall see…

Do your best and forget the rest.

Tags: fitness, health, nutrition, P90X, Tony Hortoncontact via email

P90X Round One, Day One Complete

Alright guys,

Round one, day one is complete. 52 minutes of shoulders / back and a grueling Ab-X routine that features over 300 core movements. It was not pretty but we did it. They say, “press play.” They say, “do your best and forget the rest.” I say, “I am ready to hurl (not the jumping kind).” It was fun, seriously. You really have to push yourself to stick with it but we are sticking with it. One day at a time. We set one goal a day – push play and finish. 90 goals later and we will either be dead or transformed. Looking forward to day two and excited about day 90.

Now for Desi’s story. She was a trooper and I am so VERY PROUD. She never quit and actually pushed me a few times to NOT SIT DOWN. I was all in but she pushed me. One hour later, my metabolism is up and I am in overdrive… Miss Desi sat down after the T.V. was turned off and immediately started lightly snoring. How the hell does she do that??? She was exhausted after work but we still kept our day one goal. Anyway, her feet are hanging off the end of our sectional couch (shoes on), her shirt is wet with sweat and she is gently snoring the evening away. I can’t move my arms but I feel to good to sit down for long. Headed out to take a quick jog. PEACE!

Tags: fitness, P90X, Tony Hortoncontact via email

P90X -Survival Kit

Stuff to hurt yourself with… bands, check. weights, check. matts, check. P90X dvd, check. Watch, check. ECG, check. Phone to call for help, check!

PPE equipment (goggles), check? Pain relief equipment (Promax), check? Mags for downtime, check? Extra fiber, check? Whey? I thought that was something you did at the doctors office. =) Anyway, we are ready to go. All equipment is ready and checked off. Tomorrow begins DAY ONE!

Tags: health, nutrition, P90Xcontact via email

P90X – Addicted to Torture

Tomorrow is D-day as we begin our journey with P90X. Desi and I both are fired up and ready to push play. I only need to “push play” 90-times to get in shape? I cannot tell you how many times I have pushed play in my lifetime… we have a huge collection of DVD’s. Maybe quality is better than quantity. Now dropping the horror, sci-fi, drama and comedy and moving into Tony Horton’s P90X genre.

Looking forward to D-day plus 90.

We may need to change-up our diet a tad bit (tongue in cheek). Sure glad it came with a nutrition plan. Tony Horton told us to get the unhealthy “crap” out of our house so we had a farewell feast and undid an entire week of calorie burning cardio. Our farewell feast.

Don’t ask how many people it took to polish off this amount of fried potatoes, fried spam, biscuits, omelets, tub of margarine, etc. A clue: Eric and Desi. It’s now gone. Tomorrow begins our new fitter life.

Tags: health, nutrition, P90X, Tony Hortoncontact via email

Summer season and fitness

This post is of no consequence. I am blogging just to blog. You won’t learn a thing from this post except that I need to vent on occasion.

Desi and I are in the process of setting fitness goals. To get a good starting point we have hit the gym for a week straight splurging twice by eating out. Is this something you want do ALL the time. NO! Feasting out twice a week will probably undo all the gym work. Of course, we do get to keep the cardio gains but the fat as well. Best to moderate both. I am still pissed that an hour at the gym burning around 450 calories does not touch a Chili’s Hamburger… later when I googled it for the chart… over 1700 calories. What the heck? The world is upside down.

Last night we stepped up and took the P90X fitness test. My body strength pushed my results along but Desi probably has more heart. She hung in there like a trooper and did not quit. With no fitness background, she is using brute enthusiasm to make it. I am so proud. It will be arriving on Tuesday so we will check back with you in 90 days.

For the record, I knew I was getting heavy but according to charts and measurements, I am classified as obese. 244 lbs, 6′0 tall, 38″ waist, 16″ biceps, 7″ wrist, 25″ thigh, 50″ chest, 46″ gut. I always knew I had a gut but my cardio ability and flexibility at 43 years of age is pretty good for a non-athlete male. So when I found out my BMI was 33% and bodyfat was 29%… This = lifestyle change.

Eat small numerous meals. Cut out junk and empty calories. Rare cokes and slacking up on bread and dairy. More meat while I build muscle burning fat. Gym 3 times a week and P90X system for 90 days = 220 lbs by the end of August. We will see.

Blog is short for weblog which is an online diary, right? So, I can squeeze personal goals in here… right? So what if they are completely off topic. =)

Tags: fitness, P90Xcontact via email