Week 5 and Still Going

I haven't posted nearly as many exercise updates as I've wanted to lately, but the good news is we're still going with the whole P90X project!

We did miss about 3 workouts around the beginning of wk 4 in the program because we had LA's school Christmas program to attend, we felt totally exhausted one night, and it was the last big weekend for me to finish my MBA.

[Side note: I received my final grade for my last class: 95.3% A, which means I finished up my MBA program with a cumulative 3.80 gpa! Booyah! Now I just have to wait to receive my diploma in the mail. Oh yeah, and the whole get a job thing.]

Even though we missed a couple of days, we shook it off and decided not to beat ourselves up about it, but instead to just keep going, and that's what we've done.

We've now transitioned from the schedule for the first month, followed by a 1 week change up where we were introduced to the Core Synergistics workout and more Yoga...which is so unbelievably difficult! Way more intense than I ever expected yoga to be!

And now we're in the middle of week 5, which has a whole new schedule and several new workouts. The biggest change is that we've switched from the classic version of the program we followed in the first month to follow the doubles version of the program which incorporates an intense Cardio workout 3 days per week.

Since we haven't been doing any running lately (due to cold weather and the long time commitments to follow the P90X program) we've missed that heavy cardio effect we usually get from running, and since I really want to try to lose those last 5 pounds by the end of the year, we're becoming even more insane by following this new schedule:

Day 1: Cardio X, Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Ab Ripper X

Day 2: Plyometrics (jump training)

Day 3: Cardio X, Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X

Day 4: Yoga

Day 5: Cardio X, Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X

Day 6: Kenpo

Day 7: Rest or X Stretch

Just to give you a better idea of how crazy intense this program is, the Cardio X video is 42 min. long, followed by one of the 3 videos on Day 1, 3, and 5 that are all 58 min. long, followed by a 16 min. abs video...All in ONE night!!!!

Plyometrics and Kenpo are also hour long videos, and the Yoga is 1 1/2 hours long, so following this program really takes a big time commitment.

SD and I took some updated photos at the 30 day mark, but the physical changes you can see are very minimal at this point, so I don't feel like they're even worth posting yet. Most of the before & after shots I've seen of people going through this program start to show really big changes between the 45-60 days mark.

What we have noticed is a LOT more strength in both of us, a LOT more physical abilities in how many reps of every exercise we can actually complete in each video (a little more each time we go through it), and SD has continued to lose weight.

Since he started running with me this summer, he's just about lost a total of 20 lbs. this year! My weight the past several days has fluxed mainly around 128 lbs., and I think it's because I'm building more muscle right now, so the scale isn't moving, but my body has definitely been changing.

We've also discovered some interesting new benefits the changes in our physical shapes have created. Ever heard of a runner's high? It's that euphoric feeling you get near the end of a grueling, long run where you all of a sudden feel this huge rush of energy,...hence the term "runner's high."

Well, imagine experiencing that physical high with your spouse right along side you, also hot and dripping in sweat, and let's just say that grueling exercise can be some excellent foreplay!

Now thinking along those lines, and add to that the new muscle strength and flexibility we've both developed, and well...we've always had a very healthy s*x life, and after more than 15 years of marriage I thought there really was almost nothing we haven't ever tried, but now with the physical changes we're making, well, let's just say there are, ahem, still new things to discover.

And now you know what my husband's motivation is for going through all of this daily physical torture with me...and that's all the details a lady can share about that.

Tonight is Day 3 of the week 5 schedule listed above, and my whole body is already sore, my triceps, ribs, back, quads, knees, and calves are all feeling it today...but that's good because it tells me it's working, right?

As difficult as it all seems sometimes, seeing the physical changes in both of us is really exciting and motivating, and often KW will come along and add a little humor to break up the seriousness of it all when he chimes in and tries to do the videos with us!

There's still so much of this program I'm nowhere near in physical shape enough to do, but that's also encouraging and challenging goals to look forward to. I can't wait to see where we're at by the end of these 90 days!

A Change of Pace - P90X

Now that winter is here and I'm no longer training with Swede, SD and I have decided to change things up a little for the next few months. Instead of the strength training exercises 3 days per week and running 3 days per week I've been doing, we're switching gears and have begun the P90X video series.

If you've never heard of it, you can check it out here or Google P90X and it will bring up some short videos you can watch to get a feel for it. It's a very popular video workout series that's supposed to be incredibly intense. We have several friends going through the program, and a few who have already completed it. A friend was very generous and gave us a free copy of the videos.

When it comes to winter weather...I absolutely HATE it! So I needed to find something different to do over the next few months while I'm thoroughly frustrated that my time for running outside is severely limited by stupid cold weather. I'm still running once per week with Scott and Christa outside if the weather permits, but nothing extreme, just enough to get in a good cardio workout and spend some time with friends.

The new plan is to go through the P90X video series, which is 13 weeks long, to focus on building lots more muscle definition and overall toning and body sculpting while hopefully losing those last few pounds. The program is really not intended to be a really big weight loss type of program. You'll lose some weight, but it's more about toning & muscle definition. It's also more advanced than some other workout programs out there, so they have a pre-fit test you go through to measure and see if you can do several exercises at a minimum before beginning the program. Otherwise they recommend getting in a little better shape first before attempting this program.

Then, the way the program works is you go through a series of different video exercises, a different video every day, 6 days per week with 1 day for rest. The main underlying premise of the program is constant muscle confusion or muscle shock. Unlike many other fitness programs that are effective in the beginning, the programs eventually don't work as well because your body gets used to the movements and exercises and you end up reaching a point where you plateau in your weight loss and fitness results.

Instead the P90X program is designed to continually keep your body confused, always changing up the various workouts so you never reach that plateau level where the workouts become much less effective. The program is very flexible to each individual's pace, which is really nice because you don't feel so completely defeated when you can't keep up with as many reps as the people on the videos.

The videos also change every few weeks throughout the program, so it's not just 6 different videos for the same 13 weeks, nope...the weekly videos also change throughout those 3 months. So we've just completed week 1 in the program, which means we've done videos focusing on:

Day 1: Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X

Day 2: Plyometrics

Day 3: Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X

Day 4: Yoga

Day 5: Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X

Day 6: Kenpo

Day 7: Rest

There are more videos in the series, but we're not to that part yet. Each video is just about an hour long, plus the Ab Ripper X video which is about 16 min. long and repeated 3 times per week.

We usually don't feel too bad after the workout...it's usually not until the next day that all the soreness really sets in! So after day 1 which was filled with an hour worth of various kinds of pull ups, push ups, and lifting weights with your arms, SD and I were both really sore in all our upper body areas! The sides of my ribs felt like I had really deep bruises all over!

I was impressed with how much I felt the muscle soreness, because it reminded me of every time Swede would change up my strength training workouts and I would always feel really sore the next day like I had been beaten up by a gang of thugs or something.

After day 2 my legs and lower body matched my upper body in pain and it hurt to walk. We complained about all the soreness and pain all week, and joked about eating bowls of Advil for dinner as we griped and pushed our way through the first week.

The only day we missed a video was on day 4, because it was Thanksgiving and we were in the middle of madness preparing to host a huge last minute dinner. At the end of the week we felt pretty good about how much we managed to get through. Obviously this is just our first week, so there's many exercises we really can't do well, or can't complete all of the reps to, etc.

SD's least favorite exercises were the Kenpo and Ab Ripper X videos and he enjoyed the Shoulders & Arms video the most. My least favorite video was on day 1 with Chest & Back because my upper body strength is much weaker than my lower body strength, and my favorite video was the Plyometrics...despite how INCREDIBLY difficult it was (they say on the video it's the toughest in the set) because I really like the faster paced workouts much more than the slower ones.

So just to keep track of our results a little more, in addition to going through the pre-fit test to measure how much we could do at the beginning vs. how much we'll be able to do at the end of the program, we also took some before shots as the program directed in 6 different poses.

These are our awful "before" shots, so keep that in mind and applaud our bravery. I don't have permission to post SD's before shots yet, so for now you'll have to wait to see those. Maybe he'll be more inclined to share them after we can see some noticeable results in 30 or 60 days? But here are mine...where I'm at right now as we start this program:

 

 

 

 

 

Considering my original before photos from back in January, these before shots honestly don't seem that bad. But at the same time I'm incredibly excited to see just how much more of a difference I'll be able to make over the next 3 months!

Going through the program together is making a huge difference in our motivation to actually do the videos every day, esp. with how sore we feel right now. We haven't decided yet when we'll take some updated fitness photos? Maybe at the 30, 60, 90 days points throughout the program?

We're already eating pretty healthy and have those habits established from getting into fitness all year, so we're not following any new specific diets along with the program, just continuing what we're already doing. As far as weight loss and current weight? Well, I was doing INCREDIBLY well and actually managed to get down to 125.0 lbs. for a little over a whole week (I actually saw 124.8 lbs. one morning!).

But then we went away on a weekend retreat where we ate a lot and sat around a lot, and then Thanksgiving happened right after that, so now I'm all the way back up to 129.0 lbs. Aaaaccccckkkkk!!!!!

So this week I'm going to focus on getting back into more normal eating habits, drinking more water again, and getting better sleep (the whole sleep schedule tends to get out of whack on Thanksgiving break too).

I'll try to post more frequent updates on how the program is going. As I wrap up school in 2 more weeks, Dec. *should* be a much less stressful month! Here we go! Wish us luck!