(Round 2.1) Day 9: Plyometrics

Late workout. Not a big fan, need to try to get up earlier to do this.

Really not enjoying plyo. I know I said this round isn't about cardio, but perhaps I need to break out the runs in lieu of plyo. At least when it's not 95 and muggy anymore.

Arms and muscle building tomorrow.

(Round 2.1) Day 2: Plyometrics

Ah to be sore again.

Really sore.

I worked out Monday evening so it took my body til Tuesday afternoon to realize how much I had put it through. Progressively my back, then my chest, then my sides, then my abs, all filled with lactic acid and decided to inflict pain.

It's all worth it.

Plyo this evening. Can't say I missed this part. Pretty exhausting, especially for not having done it for a month.

As for my diet, well it's time to set that back on track as well. I took pictures Monday evening which will be part of the new 1/30/60/90 photo collection. I'm certainly in a better place than where I was on my original day 1 in regard to body fat. I don't care too much about eating small meals to speed up my metabolism right now. Losing fat isn't my goal. Putting on muscle is. So, if I continue the 5-6 meals a day, they've got to be bigger this time around.

I don't think I was eating enough during round 1. Yes it led to fat loss, but not to enough muscle production. This time around, lots of chicken, meat, protein shakes, eggs and milk.

Oh, and time to cut out beer again too. Guess it's back to gin and tonics.

(Round 2) Day 36: Plyometrics

Plyo today.

Wish I had more to say about Tuesdays. Very repetitive in nature. More to say tomorrow.

(Round 2) Day 29: Plyometrics

Back to good ol' plyo. Not a terrible day of eating either.

Tomorrow's Day 30 and some awful pictures. This will truly be a reality check and get me back into the game. Consider this my recession.

(Round 2) Day 16: Plyometrics

Back to working out in the morning. Today was pretty rough, first time in a while jumping around to plyo that early.

Still pretty sore from that Saturday routine. My body just wasn't used to that kind of routine. Which means I might have to do it again this Saturday.

Tomorrow's arms and shoulders. And some abs.

(Round 2) Day 9: Plyometrics

Plyo today, no run. 20-30 mph winds. Wouldn't have been fun.

So yea, just stuck to plyo. Nothing special, lots of jumping around.

Hoping the weather stays nice the next few days so I can get some more runs in. Shoulders and arms tomorrow, along with ab ripper x.

Day 78: Plyometrics, Run

Exhausted. And starting to hate Plyo all over again.

Ran first. Figured I'd rather be burnt out for something I'm used to than something fairly new to me.

Did 2.5 miles on this hot, hot day.

Did some plyo after but I was pretty drained. Plyo is frustrating stuff. I think during round 2 I'm going to substitute Cardio X or even just a long run for plyo on days that I don't want to be working out for 2 hours.

Abs hurt today. But only two more scheduled times of doing ab ripper x.

Back and biceps tomorrow.

Day 71: Plyometrics

Alright after raving about how much I'm going to run, I've now gone two days without it. I'll blame the weather. My body will blame me though.

Today was Plyo, nothing special. Very used to this workout by now after complaining about it my first time on Day 2.

Tomorrow I run. It's supposed to be 60 and sunny.

Also, I've added a new widget to the right side of my blog. It's from DailyMile.com and it allows you to track your mileage, training, etc. I'm not training for anything so I just added the small widget. So every time I run I log on, put in the mileage, and it adds everything up.

My goal for tomorrow is 2+ miles.

Day 64: Plyometrics

So I thought I'd be sore from yesterday's chest and upper body workout.

I was right.

But it's not my chest that's the most sore. It's not my shoulders either. Nor is it my triceps. Actually, my lats are the most sore. Somehow my sides, towards my back, are in a lot of pain. Didn't think the moves from yesterday were supposed to target that area. But it hurts.

Today's plyo was nothing special. Waited a bit too long into the day to do it. I think I need to go back to my morning routines, especially for today's workout.

Tomorrow is back and biceps. Hopefully my lats are prepared for the hell I'll put them through on the pullup bar.

Corn cob pullups, towel pullups and max reps. Going to be fun.

Day 57: Plyometrics

Plyo day. Forgot how much fun this is.

Eh not really. I was so excited for this week to begin for muscle building, and all of the sudden it's day two and I'm running it circles. Literally.

Circle Run: Place a towel/any random item on the floor, and run in a circle around it. Basically you're always facing in one direction, and your legs are moving beneath you. Clockwise for 30 seconds, then counterclockwise for 30 seconds.

Tomorrow's shoulders and arms. And abs. We'll see how that goes considering just how incredibly sore I am from yesterday.

I can only hope tomorrow's better. I tried to do a couple pushups to no avail. Started in plank, went down so that my chest hit the floor, and didn't get back up.

Day 44: Plyometrics

I can't believe it's March.

I know, that change occurred yesterday. However it didn't really hit me until after I posted and saw Day 43 wind up under March on the right side of my blog. The next time the month changes, I'll be on Day 74 and just a couple weeks from the end. Crazy.

Plyo today wasn't bad. My abs and triceps hurt the most from yesterday.

Pretty tiring, but it's the last time I do plyo for a couple weeks. Next week is recovery, so this is a whole bunch of 'lasts' for me for a while.

Looking forward to Back and Biceps tomorrow. I feel like my arms are seeing the quickest results so I'm eager to get to work on those again.

My posts have been getting shorter only because there's nothing new to say. I don't feel the need to go over moves I've mentioned before. If you've been following my blog you understand what I've been going through. If you're just stumbling upon it now, I recommend reading up on week 1 and week 5 when the routines were brand new to me.

And thanks for those who have been avid followers. Approaching 2000 visits. I know a lot of those are my own, but it's good to know at least someone's out there reading along.

Day 37: Plyometrics

I'm sore.

Warmups today hurt. Any kind of stretching that included arms and/or chest were a struggle. Luckily, plyo's intent is not to destroy your upper body.

It destroys your lower body. Great.

No worse than any other day, but still less than a joy to perform.

I'm getting pretty good at the 360 degree torso twists. Basically you stand with your feet shoulder width apart, jump and spin all the way around, land on your feet, and repeat. First time I tried these I nearly slammed my head into my dresser, but a bit more balanced now.

Outside of that everything's pretty standard. This 'week' is certainly more difficult than the first 'week' that was repeated 3 times. I'm almost midway through round 2 of week 2, and already I'm unexcited for the pain from tomorrow's back and biceps.

Bring on corn cob pullups.

Day 30: Plyometrics

I thought I'd dread plyo days when I began this program. But I don't. In fact, I look forward to it now.

Tonight was good. It's so much different than anything else they have you do, including core synergistics. Cardio X is one of only two DVDs I haven't tried yet, but I don't think it could match plyo.

I tried to work hard through moves I had trouble with before. Went pretty well, outside of almost collapsing from 360 degree torso twists.

As for my pain level from yesterday, it's pretty high. My whole front upper body hurts. Chest, triceps, shoulders. They're all connected and during the middle of the night they banded together and decided, 'we're going to provide a lot of pain tomorrow.'

What's good, however, is that the pain in those areas didn't hinder any moves during plyo. The only thing that might have been affected was my arm swing during my Rock Star Jumps. But that's all.

Now, seeing that today's Day 30, I must provide photos. Let me start by saying this:

You can't target fat loss. If I could have lost more around my love handles than I could have around my ribs, I would have. But that's not my decision. More oblique exercises would only have strengthened muscle but not burned away that fat. That's a shame.

Want to feel terrible about yourself? Go take a picture of yourself, and trace (either in Photoshop or by hand) your love handles. That'll motivate you to get your ass in shape.

I blurred out my face because while most of you who follow this know who I am, I really don't need my face (or back of my head) associated with this blog.

Okay, enough procrastinating, here it goes:





Am I happy so far? Well if I wasn't doing p90x I'd be in the shape on the left, today. So yes, I've made progress. I really hope Day 60 is a much more drastic of a change than this.

And no, my room is not purgatory. I cut myself out of the backgrounds to clear the clutter of my room.

Tomorrow Back and Bis. Gotta get those arms ripped.

Day 16: Plyometrics

Remember Jimmy from Seinfeld?

Jimmy's under the boards.
Jimmy's in the open.
Jimmy makes the shot...

Jimmy's going into shock.

That's Tony. Well he doesn't always speak in the third person, but there's one move where after he's beat, he bends over and goes:

Tony's grabbing his knees!

And he sounds exactly like Jimmy.

As for the workout, today was the first Plyo day with my heart rate monitor. I made note of just some of my numbers:

140/161 run stance squat switch pickup
150/163 circle run

179/170 jump knee tucks
178/165 twist combos

160/155 run squat 180 jump switches
158/154 monster truck tires

147 throw and catch
150 catch and shoot
154 football heroes

Beats per minute. First set / second set.

At first I recognized that the second time around my heart rate was higher. Figured that was going to be the case throughout, considering the first set is done after a break, the second is the repeated time sans break. But as I continued I noticed two things: The second set ended up being lower, and I wasn't reaching 160/170/180 as much. Here's my explanation, and there's zero scientific backing to it:

At first it took a while for me to get going. The repeated efforts became exhausting. Eventually, my body got used to the movement, and so I stayed more constant around 150. Also, heart rates are generally lower in the morning. My guess is that most, if not all of these numbers would be higher in the evening.

Plyo's one of the DVDs that doesn't go away when we switch routines. That means I'll be able to track my heart rate next week compared to these results.

Brett's grabbing his knees.

Day 9: Plyometrics

Not 9 hours after finishing Chest and Back last night, I'm squatting and reaching with my friend Tony.

Plyo day. The same day my heart rate monitor's supposed to arrive. Damn.

Just as I felt with my second repetition of yesterday's workout, today's wasn't as brutal as the first go-round. I think that's the theme of the week: Not as awful when you know what's coming.

Some moves are still brutal. Mary Catherine Gallagher's are terrible. You lunge, one knee bent forward, the other leg straight and kicked back far behind you. Arms up. Now jump and switch positions. Superstaaarrr. Terrible.

My least favorite, which I tried to keep up for the full minute, were Hot Foots. Yes, foots. Stand on one leg and jump around making a cross shape. Each foot for 30 seconds. After switching feet:

Tony: If you get tired...
Dude with prosthetic leg: Or if you have one leg...
Tony: Then just do some jump ropes on both feet.

Pretty intense for a 7am workout.

Day 9 of 90. That's 10%, ey?

Day 2: Plyometrics

Phew. I've never wanted to go to work so badly.

My goal is to do this in the morning before heading off to work. This is definitely the workout to do before the day starts. There's no way I'd want this looming as something I need to do once I come home.

Plyometrics is p90x's badass cardio workout. It's 23 different moves, and here's how they group them. You do four routines, three for 30 seconds and the final for 60 seconds. Then you repeat those four, then a 30 second water break. Then the next 4, and so on. The final three are their Sports Bonus ones, which I'll get to in a minute.

Remember yesterday when I asked where the normal guy was in the video? The guy who'd have difficulty with this? Well, I certainly got what I asked for. The cast included Tony, one girl and two guys ... one with a prosthetic leg. COME ON.

Some moves were harder than other. It's a lot of squatting, a lot of turning, and a whole lot of jumping. The girl who lives underneath me might not have enjoyed this 7am routine.

Some of the more enjoyable moves (Notice how I didn't say 'fun'):

Run-Stance Squat Pick-up: Start in a running position, jump, turn 180 degrees, land in a squat with your hand on the floor. Aaand repeat.

Jump Knee Tuck: Simple right? Jump up with your knees coming as close to your body as possible. Just not simple midway through your workout. Aaand repeat.

Rockstar Hop: Similar to Jump Knee Tuck, but swing your arms like you're playing the air guitar (see: Peter Townshend). Aaand repeat.

Twist Combo: Arms out like they're holding ski poles. Lightly jump and turn your torso and feet 90 degrees, so they point left, center, right, center... Aaand repeat.

They ended with a Sports Bonus:

Pitch & Catch: Wind up like a pitcher, make a throwing motion, then squat to catch it. 30 seconds on both arms. My rights must have been really impressive.

Jump Shot: Catch and shoot. Ballin'

Football Hero: Four 'juke' steps forward, then 8 high knees backwards.

Sports bonus was definitely the best. Kept me pushing through towards the end.

Overall, I can see why I'm going to hate this one as it approaches. After yesterday, I was happy to be off the pullup/pushup routine. Now I can't wait to hit the floor.

Oh, and Tony took 2 sips of water the entire 59 minutes. He's either a camel or a machine. Wouldn't be surprised by either.