Sunday, September 19, 2010

P90X, Surviving Week 1 and Other Sunday Stuff

Day one of the P90X workout program was Monday.
The week went like this:


Monday = Back and Chest ... one hour of relentless pullups, pushups, and Assorted Other Tortures ... hereafter known as "AOT"


Tuesday = Plyometrics = one hour of jump training, squats, and AOT. Complete and total agony.


Wednesday = Arms and Shoulders ... one hour of dumbell work, pushups, ... this one I was best prepared for, but it still killed me ... and it was followed by an insanely torturous AbRipper workout that thankfully was only 16 minutes long.


Thursday = Yoga X ... 90 minutes of stretching, bending, balancing . I had always thought yoga was just some kind of mild hippy stretching exercises. Arrrrgghhhh! Downward dog, Upward Dog, Warrior One, Warrior Two, blah, blah, ... this stuff is hard!

Friday = Back and Legs ... one hour of squats of all kinds, pull ups of all kinds, AOT. Ab Ripper again too.

Saturday = Kenpo Karate ... one hour of nonstop kicking and punching and the realization that it's been a long time since my Tang Soo Doo Korean karate lessons when I was 17. This was a rapid fire aerobic workout.

Sunday = a day of rest. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Each day produced a new soreness hangover involving muscles you forgot were there.
A cool thing happened though, by Friday, the soreness was relenting and it felt really good ... mostly.

Did I mention I love this program?
It's about consistent hard work and nutrition.
I read the nutrition plan and it's very similar to the way I eat now, so that transition is almost seamless and much less painful than it would be if I was a fastfood, chips, soda kind of eater.

I was doing my own thing and had hit what most people who stay fit call a plateau. Plus, I was only working upper body ... and not in a very organized way.

I believe (without checking the book) that I have two more weeks of the schedule above before entering the next phase.
Maybe this week I can do some of those yoga moves without falling on my asterisk.

The P90X folks did not pay for that little critique above by the way. That's just me, someone you "know" letting you know what it's like.
Just in case like me, you had considered ordering it, but weren't sure if it was valid.
I think it is. Good science and a philosophy of very hard work ... rather than the take a pill and eat whatever you want infomercial pap.
We have now developed a routine and the P90X DVD gets popped in before supper. We do not skip because we are tired from work.
We do.

They are good capitalists at BeachBody.com (P90X parent company), so expect this: They will try and sell you beaucoup supplements and equipment when you order it.
Just be strong if your budget is tight like mine.
Equipment is minimal ... some bands or dumbells, a mat, and a pullup bar, some protein bars and a whey protein drink mix.
You can get all that stuff at Walmart for pennies compared to their price.

In other news,


  • The days are hot, but the mornings are teasing us with cool air. Sweet!
  • I am picking datils for our use as well as letting some go orange for seed saving. By the end of this month I will post my little datil seed ad off in the sidebar. Thank you all who ordered some last year. If you save your seeds, you won't need me this year. Go You!
  • Today is the day we harvest a few of our farmed prawns, so stay tuned for a prawncookin' post.
  • Go here for some neat gator shots.
  • Lots of computer issues here lately ... sorry for the missed days. The laptop is having an adjustment and I'm using our old, faithful 2003 vintage Dell desktop for this post. (Dell, you rock!)

That's all for this morning.

Time for me to go out and find you something wild.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

That cool you feel is air being pumped down from up north by Igor out at sea. It feels sort of dryer down here in south Florida too as a result.

tai haku said...

Hey FC - speaking of pepper seed someone offered me seeds of something they described as "a pequin that grows wild in Minorca" recently. Assuming I get seeds do you want some sending over? I'm guessing it's going to be a wildtype pequin but figured you might be interested given the history....

Anonymous said...

I hope you found something wild for us, fc.

Deb said...

Congrats on the self discipline fitness thing. I'll have to check out that program and stop making excuses! Enjoy your day of rest!

Miz S said...

You will be a BEAST!

Josh and I have been toying with the idea of doing P90X. Is Mrs. FC doing it with you? I'm terrified of even TRYING a pull-up. But I would love to challenge myself physically.

Aunty Belle said...

Oh dear.

Ain't bein' contary, but, uh..well, it's jes' that a fella of a
certain, ah... maturity, ain't *trustworthy* unless he has a decent amount of dunlap. I mean, why's he doin' this? No really, would YOU trust a totally buff fella of a certain number of years? Yeah, I thought not.

: )

Sayre said...

Only two more weeks of this... and then WHAT? Even MORE? Sounds crazy, but it wasn't that long ago that I was actually taking KenPo classes here. The bad thing was that the place had concrete floors with non-padded indoor/outdoor carpet. I landed on my knees a few two many times on that floor and I can't really do much of anything with them now. But KenPo is a WONDERFUL workout!

I think I planted my datils too late. THe plants look great now, but we didn't get any peppers on them. I still have a few seeds from last go 'round, so I'll try to plant earlier.

R.Powers said...

Robert,
Yup and I thanked Igor all day.


Tai,
Sounds good.
There are some tiny peppers growing on an Island off Cedar Key that I hope to find again.
Years ago I came across them, but the area is a little off limits ...



Robin,
There's so much to choose from.
:)


Deb,
It's good. Tough but good.



Miz S,
Go Beasty!
Yes she is, even though she has a some chronic pain from a torn Achilles Tendon years ago.
She adapts the program to her abilities which is what the P90X plan stresses.
On Plyometric day with all it's jumping, she swims at a friends house who has one of those concrete swimming holes.


Aunty,
Dear, are you saying I should let myself go because I hit some arbitrary age?
The world is too dangerous to be weak.
I'm not doing this to lose weight ... kind of expect to gain a little if I work hard enough.
Looking at some of our politicians past and present, I can't believe that bellyfat makes someone trustworthy... Clinton was a pudgeball.
This is about being strong and healthy not chasing interns.
:)


Sayre,
The Kenpo was a blast.
The program is 90 days so, yes, after this it ramps up with new DVD's full of AOT!
LOL!
Did your datils blossom at all?
You can overwinter them in a greenhouse or other warm sunny spot.
Be careful about fertilizing peppers too much or all you get is a beautiful bush and no peppers.
I just had tilapia with some of our 2010 batch of datil pepper sauce and OMG as the tweeters would say.

cousin Tina said...

2003 Dell. I have you beat. I have a 2002 beast that keeps me going at home. My Datils did not enjoy being north of the mason-dixon.

Brad said...

The "then what" is what makes P90X hard. Its constantly changing so when you think you're getting good Tony says its time to move on. Stick with it. I have not been back to the gym in 3 years because of P90X.

Thunder said...

Sounds like a kickasterisk program, hope you can keep at it!

I've been doing a lot of 1/2 squats lifting the bike to take off and then at each stop light, that and the 12-16oz curling program. ;-)

R.Powers said...

Tina,
Okay you win!
If your datils survived at all you might be able to overwinter them in a sunny window.


Brad,
Thanks for the encouragement! That concept is what makes P90X so interesting.


Dave,
As long as you ae not doing those exercises simultaneously!

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