Welcome Back to Me

It has been quite awhile that I've posted anything! Well I haven't back off on my training, I've gone through P90X a couple more times, and performed much better on both my softball teams and my vintage base ball team. The hard work definitely paid off. I even had my first over-the-fence home run in softball last summer! That was quite a thrill and highlight!

I also got married this winter and I couldn't be happier! My wife and I have gotten up many an early morning to workout together. During the last round of P90X my wife and I both sort of cooled to the idea of the program, not because it wasn't working, but more in just that it wasn't as much fun as it started out as. I think some of it was that I had been through it a few other times and it was almost getting routine. My numbers were still improving so it wasn't physically not working it was a mental thing.

I started looking at some other ways of staying in shape and improving my strength, at the same time not spending lots of money on equipment. I was researching body weight exercises and came across a few books, Convict Conditioning, You Are Your Own Gym, and Naked Warrior. They all discuss own to improve your strength with only using your own body weight to get stronger, as the strongmen of old times did before all the fancy weight machines.

Sole E35 Elliptical Machine

Well, these books will be great for my training but my wife wasn't nearly as interested in that sort of training for her! So we had to look elsewhere. Before we were married she would go to the YMCA and train on an elliptical machine and had great success with it! So we ordered one and got it setup this past weekend.

The wife has used it a few times as have I. It's the first time I have ever used one and I'm enjoying it. My goal from it is just to help with improving my cardio. Wednesday I did a mile, yesterday improved to one and a half miles and today was just shy of three miles in forty five minutes. I did take a couple of breaks but I know that will improve as I continue to use the elliptical machine.

As for my strength training, I'm going through the progressions that are laid out in the Convict Conditioning book. There are six areas of the body that are focused upon and there are ten types of exercises for each area. The types of exercises are pushups, pullups, squats, leg lifts, shoulder stands and bridging. As I read the book and saw the steps I know that I could jump to certain progressions since I've been able to do, for example, 3 sets of 20 pushups. But I want to start at the beginning and gain the strength needed for the final step as well as condition my tendons and ligaments for the more strenuous steps.

I am currently on step two of four of them, the book suggests to get to step six before starting bridging and the shoulder stands, so that is what I'm doing. I'm taking my time progressing through them to make sure I have proper form as well as so when I jump to the next step I will be able to continue without much strain.

I have been doing pushups and leg lifts on Mondays and Thursdays and squats and pullups on Tuesdays and Fridays with weekends and Wednesdays as my rest days. Once I get to step six on each I will then either move each exercise to its own day or add shoulder stands and bridges to Wednesdays and Saturdays. These exercises aren't always easy but they also don't usually take long to complete three sets. And if I move each exercise to it's own day then it shouldn't take me more than 15-20 minutes per day to complete which I can always find that much time to workout!

Well that should have caught you up to where I am now. I hope to do a better job of adding to this blog here in the future. Hope you keep reading and continue in your improvement in your struggle against yourself!

P90X2 - Finished!

Well it has been a while since I've updated this blog. However, rest assured, just because I haven't updated doesn't mean I had slacked on my workouts! In fact I finished P90X2 on the 31st of March! I have gained just over 10 pounds of muscle with it and I feel great! One of the reasons why I went through the program was to improve my baseball game. Well so far I noticed a big difference in my power hitting, and I have gained a couple of steps in my speed. However the thing that I am really excited about improving was my arm strength. I know feel that I have the arm that I had when I was much younger. I have now played 2 softball games and had a couple of practices of both softball and with my vintage base ball team and feel that I am much better than I was last year.

Now you might be wondering, now that I am finished with P90X2 what I'll be doing next. I have moved to improve the one area that I didn't feel that I got enough of in P90X2, conditioning. So I have started Insanity and have been at it for just over a week. It hasn't been easy but that's fine with me. The harder I work the better I'll get. Even within this weeks worth of the program I have noticed I can play longer. I play in the outfield have last night I was running all over but still felt like I could keep going even when the game was finished. I can't wait to see how I look and feel when I finish up.

Until the next time I update keep pushing play!

P90X2 Day #24 - Rest or Recovery and Mobility

I first started this blog to write my thoughts after each workout. Well as you can see that hasn't happened. I either haven't gotten in the habit of blogging or just don't have the time do update this. However, rest assured I have not stopped working out! I will be finishing the first phase this Saturday and starting the second phase this Sunday. I have decided to try to move on without have the recovery week. I have decided this for a couple reasons. 1.) I can't wait to get into the muscle building phase. I have already seen visual improvements in my muscles and can't wait to see more. 2.) I don't feel all that broken down. I think a vast majority of that is the supplements I've been taking that have help me recover quicker than when I did P90X without them. 3.) I really don't want to do yoga that many times in one week. (This is a week excuse, but I'm just being honest.)

As for the workouts and my progression, I started seeing improvements in the numbers between weeks two and three. From week one and two there wasn't that much improvement, if any. Some of this has to do with just learning all the moves in week one and concentrating more on the moves and form over the actual numbers. In week three I pushed myself much harder and in week four, even harder. And by doing that I have been able to increase all the numbers (at least all the max rep exercises) at a good clip from week three to week four. I am kinda apprehensive on how difficult the next phase will be but I'm also looking forward to it since that is what I loved about P90X, the strengthening. I'll try to include a chart on my numbers in a couple of days (I've said that before, I know) but it will help show you and myself the improvements through the four weeks of the foundational phase.

Thanks for reading, keep pushing play and doing your best!

P90X2 Day #11 - X2 Total Body + X2 Ab Ripper

I love this workout! It is tough, but the muscle pump I feel when finished is awesome! My numbers increased on many of the exercises as I pushed myself harder. Even from the first round to the second I pushed myself to beat the last. I was expecting a little more soreness from doing Plyocide yesterday but I didn't feel it or at least not as much as I expected. I was tight on time again so I didn't do Ab Ripper but I also paused on a few exercises that I shouldn't need to do next time. That should give me the time needed for Ab Ripper.

I still need to get the nutritional side of this down. I need to eat more! Last night I was starving only a couple of hours after dinner so I made myself some scrambled eggs with various veggies and feta cheese and a side of grapes. I also planned today to have more food throughout the day.

Well until next time keep pushing play and doing your best!

P90X2 Day #10 - Plyocide

I haven't keep this blog up to date with daily postings like I was hoping to but I do plan to keep you informed throughout this journey. This past weekend I got another cold however I was still able to do the workouts without too much problem. I did switch a couple of days, a workout day and a rest day so I haven't missed a workout yet! Yesterday was supposed to be the Plyocide workout but since I woke up feeling some of the lingering effects of the cold I switched to the rest day and did Plyocide today instead of resting. It will make tomorrow's X2 Total Body workout a little tougher probably but I will still fight through the soreness and knock that one out.

As for today's notes on the workout. I still find it amazing on how much one can improve in just one week. I was able to get almost all the way through, yes there were still more breaks than the kids and some exercises I didn't get all the way through but for the most part I did and did better than last week. And truly that is all I can ask of myself, give everything that I can and do better than I did yesterday. If I keep doing that then I will continue to improve and reach my ultimate goal!

I'm still not too keen on the working out in the morning, but it is the only time that I'm willing to set aside to do it, and thanks to N.O.-Explode 2.0 I am actually able to feel the energy that I need to get started and last through the workout! That's all for today, keep pushing play and doing your best!

P90X2 Day #4 - X2 Total Body + X2 Ab Ripper

Another morning, another workout. This time it was X2 Total Body and it was different than what I was expecting.  A lot of balancing while lifting. This first section of P90X2 is definitely working on building up the core muscles! That was the plan of it and the key to all the exercises is to ENGAGE the core! Similar to the first day I was pausing and rewinding a bit so I could learn the proper form. So it took me a little longer than I wanted. I also need to get out of bed when the alarm goes off and not lie there for another 10 - 15 minutes. I think that will come. I'm getting back to the point where I love to workout, as difficult as it is. I know from the sore muscles that it is doing the job.

Back to the program, because of the pausing and rewinding (and the snooze-button-pressing) I ran out of time to do the Ab Ripper, but I watched the first few minutes and Tony mentioned that instead of just working the abs this is designed to work more of the core. Which is the premise of X2, get us into the athletic form, and the most important aspect of the elite athlete is a solid core. Everything comes from the core.

Tomorrow is X2 Yoga and I'm a little apprehensive about it, mainly because I wasn't a fan of yoga in P90X. It did help with my flexibility and balance, but I still didn't like it. I'm hoping that it stays more in the 1 hour time frame than the 1 1/2 hours, that was part of my disliking of it, oh and it was hard! Oh well, until tomorrow keep pushing play and just do your best!

P90X2 Day #3 - Rest/Mobility and Recovery

Well yesterday was the first rest day and I took advantage of it! As I've mentioned before I'm getting up early to workout, I think I also mentioned I'm not a morning person!! So instead of the Mobility and Recovery portion I did the Rest, and slept in. Throughout the day my upper legs were still sore and I'm sure will stay that way for a while. Looking forward to seeing what the Total Body workout is like and how painful the Ab Ripper is. Until then keep pushing play and just do your best.