Wanderings to a Better Me

Dag yoga is hard.  And not just P90’s version, but yoga in general.  And wouldn’t ya know it P90’s is even harder.  I am the complete opposite of flexible, and I’m impatient to boot so yoga is one of my least favorite things in life.  I was only able to do a little over 30 minutes.  Next week’s goal is to do 40 minutes.

A side note, my biceps are niiice and sore today.  I haven’t felt a soreness like this in as long as I can remember, which is awesome ’cause in the past I couldn’t get that kind of feeling no matter what I did.  Yes yes I’m a p90 fan boy.

Whoa buddy.  Today was awesome.  I can’t remember the last time I felt a pump in my arms like today.  It was just one after another, exercise after exercise pounding your arms and back.  Though I didn’t really feel too much of a good workout in my back – kinda hard to when you’re just physically incapable of doing the exercises required.  But I did towards the end start to use a chair on the pull-ups and I think that’ll help dramatically in gettin’ me up to speed.

Yesterday I didn’t do Plyo.  I know, I suck.  But I did go on like a 3 mile walk pushin’ my baby girl around, so hopefully that counts for something.  Tomorrow I am going to do Yoga though.  For the first time.  We’ll see what a kick in the pants that’ll be.  Today’s work:

1. wide front pull-ups: 4.5
2. lawnmowers:  45’sx15
3. 21’s curls: 20’sx22
4. one-arm cross-body curl: 20’sx10
5. switch grip pull-ups: 6
6. elbows-out lawnmowers: 45’sx10 (i loved these, could really feel the difference in angle in my back)
7. standing bicep curls: 25’sx10
8. one-arm concentration curls: 20×9.5
9. corn cob pull-ups:  HELL NO I can’t do these, but next time I’ll use the chair
10. reverse grip bent-over row: 30’sx9.5
11. open arm curls: 20’sx12
12. static arm curls: 20’sx16
13. towel pull-ups: couldn’t really do these either, need the chair
14. Congdon locomotives:  20’sx40
15. crouching Cohen curl: 25’sx8
16. one-arm corkscrew curl: 20’sx13
17. chin-ups: 4 + 5 on the chair
18. seated bent-over reverse fly: 25’sx9.5
19. curl-up/hammer down: 25’sx10
20. hammer curl: 25’sx9
21. max rep pull-ups:  fuggedaboutit
22. supermans: 5
23. in-out hammer curl: 20’sx7+1
24. strip-set curls:  20’s, 15’s, 10’s

If you can’t feel a burn in your bi’s after this workout you are either dead or not using enough weight.  Another thing I noticed was that it seemed the pace in this new phase workout was much much higher than in previous ones, while the reps themselves seemed a bit slower and more methodical which was nice.

Well, suck.  I took the “recovery week” a little too close to heart and did nothing.  Sucks, yeah?  Yeah…sucks.  I was so weak today comin’ back for my exercises.  Suffice it to say when this new phase is over I’ll NOT be taking the next recovery week off.

So yeah, today’s workout was hard, but not in the sense that I was winded or fatigued, just in the sense that some of the exercises were like jaw-droppingly difficult to perform at all.  “WTF!?!” and “Hell no!” were the two most oft-uttered phrases comin’ out my mouth today.  ‘Cause some of the exercises were freaking ridiculous.  Today’s work:

1. slow-motion 3-in-1 push-ups: 10+6
2. in/out shoulder flys: 10’sx16
3. chair dips: 17
4. plange push-ups: 7
5. pike presses: 8
6. side-tri rises: 8
7. floor flys: 8
8. scarecrows: 10’sx15
9. overhead tricep extensions: 20’sx8
10. two-twitch speed push-ups: 7
11. y-presses: 20’sx12
12. lying tricep extensions: 15’sx13
13. side-to-side push-ups: 6
14. pour flys: 10’sx8
15. side-leaning tricep extensions: 15’sx13
16. one-arm push-ups: 0
17. weighted circles: 10’sx24
18. throw the bomb: 15×12
19. clap push-ups: 5
20. slo-mo throws: 10×8+2
21. front-to-back tricep extensions: 15×15
22. one-arm balance push-ups: 4
23. fly-row presses: 10’sx6
24. dumbbell cross-body blows: 15’sx30

And holy crap, that’s a lot of different exercises.  At first I thought all the talk about “muscle confusion” in this program was a bit overblown.  I was like, “Well duh, if you wanna grow you’ve gotta change up your routine every few weeks.”  But after today, “muscle confusion” has new meaning for me.  WOW!  Talk about confused.  There were some wonderful new exercises in here that I can use for the rest of my life, either for cutting or for bulking.  And despite my difficulties, I just about got one of the best workouts I’ve ever had for my triceps, and the best part is today I’m not even sore.  I think ’cause of having all the different exercises you get challenged and you get growth without fatigue or risk of injuring your muscles.  I can’t wait to do this workout next week now that I know what to expect.  And hopefully I can get more disciplined for the rest of the program.

Skipped our workout yesterday.  It just was absolutely not happening.  But today we picked up with legs and back and we’ll do cardio tomorrow.  This was particularly hard today, just couldn’t get into my groove for one reason or another (didn’t help that the coffee I made for pre-workout was see thru, this stuff requires rocket fuel).  But with more than a few breaks and moanin’ and groanin’ I made it.  Today’s work (the back part at least):

1. reverse grip chin-ups: 9, 8.5
2. wide front pull-ups: 4.75, 3
3. close-grip overhand pull-ups: 5, 5.5
4. switch grip pull-ups: 4, 4

Today’s total:  41 FREAKING PULL-UPS, another life record

Today was the first time I was able to do the leg/back workout without going to dumbbells for my back work.  Some of ‘em weren’t pretty, but I just wanted to up my total.  The bane of my existence continues to be wide front pull-ups.  Those suckers are hard.  And for the switch grip pull-ups no I wasn’t enough of a badass to actually switch grips while dangling in the air.  I just hit the ground between switches, but overall I’m still pleased.  For comparison, in the very first week I was able to put up a total of about 18 pull-ups, whereas I’m only in Week 3 and I’ve upped it to 41 (last week I did 32).  I never would’ve expected I’d see these kinds of totals.

A bit of catch-up from a couple days ago:

It’s amazing how you’re body can adapt to just about any activity, no matter how hard it may seem at first.  Not to say Kenpo is extremely hard, but this workout I felt like I really commanded.  Just went straight thru it with fairly decent form (I might always look ridiculous doing back kicks), no muss, no fuss.

I’ve come to the hard fought conclusion that I’ll never reach my requisite level of rippedness until I embrace eating more vegetables throughout my day.  They say you’re supposed to try and get fibrous carbs (mostly green vegetables) at least 5 times a day, which to me is just impossible.  But now I’m trying to be diligent, and it looks somethin’ like this at the moment:

1. mid-morning snack: celery with peanut butter
2. lunch:  tomato/cucumber/onion salad
3. afternoon snack: carrot sticks
4. dinner: steamed veggies

Where’s my fifth?  Well hell, there’s just not that many meals in the day.  Whenever I’m in the mood I guess I can stick some green onions or something into some eggs.  Other than that it’s very hard for me to imagine eating veggies in the morning.

Today’s workout went great.  Since this week is the last in Phase 1 I tried to go heavy and stay in the rep range of 8-10.  For the most part it went off well, and I’m not even feeling any pain or soreness in my right shoulder which is consistently a problem for me.

Today’s work:

1. alternating shoulder press: 45’sx11, 45’sx8
2. in/out bicep curls: 25’sx16, 30’sx10+6
3. two-arm tricep kickbacks: 15’sx11, 15’sx11
4. deep swimmer’s press: 20’sx9, 20’sx9
5. full supination concentration curls: 25’sx12, 30’sx8
6. chair dips: 22, 15
7. upright rows: 45’sx9, 45’sx8
8. static arm curls: 25’sx16, 25’sx16
9. flip-grip twist tricep kickbacks: 10’sx9.5, 10’sx10
10. two-angle shoulder flys: 15’sx14+2, 15’sx14
11. concentration curl: 25×8
12. drag curl: 20×11
13. lying down tricep extension: 30’sx10, 30’sx11
14. in/out straight-arm shoulder flys: 15’sx16, 15’sx14+2
15. Congdon curls: 20’sx8, 20’sx9
16. overhead tricep extension: 45×13, 45×16

I changed a couple things today.  Instead of doing croushing Cohen curls I did concentration and drag curls on 12 and 13.  I just don’t think I get much out of Cohens.  And instead of side tri-rises I did overhead tricep extensions with a single dumbbell, though I absolutely should’ve used a lot more weight.  But at that point I was just worried about my tri’s being fried and a weight coming down on my head.  Other than that I’m pretty pleased with today and I’m lookin’ forward to movin’ into Phase 2.

Dag my right shoulder hurts.  It’s amazing how much stress gets placed on your shoulders from doing pull-ups.  But it’s there for sure.  Today for the first time I did pull-ups every time it was called for in this workout, no bent-over rows with weights, so as a result my pace was a bit slower.  But for the most part I was able to make some good gains from weeks 1 and 2.  Today’s work:

1. standard push-ups: 22, 16
2. wide front pull-ups: 5, 3
3. military push-ups: 15, 10
4. reverse grip chin-ups: 8, 6.5
5. wide fly push-ups: 10, 11
6. close grip overhand pull-ups: 3.75, 4.5
7. decline push-ups: 11, 10
8. heavy pants: 60’sx8, 60’sx5
9. diamond push-ups: 10, 7
10. lawnmowers: 60’sx12, 60’sx13
11. dive-bomber push-ups: 7, 5
12. back flys: 30’sx8, 30’sx8

I went way too heavy on heavy pants, but other than that I was pleased with today.  And for the first time in pull-ups I felt like I actually had some degree of control over my body weight, ’specially during reverse grip chin-ups which is my best pull-up exercise by far.

Today was awesome.  I managed to get thru my least favorite workout of the entire program not only without dying, but with a fair amount of enthusiasm.  I won’t say I’m starting to get the hang of it, especially ’cause the last time I did plyo I crapped out halfway thru, but today was good for sure.

Yesterday we skipped cardio (bad I know).  But today was remarkable for the fact that I did THE MOST pull-ups in my entire life – 32.  And the way P90 is, it’s like nothin’ to do that.  It’s just like, “Bust out as many pull-ups as you can, and today you’ll end up doing the most you’ve ever done.”  I love it.  Granted I’m still a ways from the 120 you’re supposed to be able to do, but I am making progress.  For some reason they don’t want you to record the leg work you do, only the back work, which to me is weird because I forget the weights I use for some of the squats and the lunges but oh well, that’s what’s posted here:

1. reverse grip chin-ups:  7,8
2. wide front pull-ups:  4, 3 (these are the hardest ever)
3. closed grip overhead pull-ups:  5.5, 5
4. switch grip pull-ups:  40’sx11.5, 40’sx8 (these’ll be the hardest ever, so for now I am just using dumbbells; plus I’m completely fried by the time I get to this exercise)

I’m not sure how my progress’ll appear in a couple days when I take my weekly picture, but I am feeling awesome.  I can feel myself more and more being poured into my clothes, in a good way.