RippedNRich.oRg

Hi All,

Well, I’m back from vacation. I got burnt… big time. But, more on that some other time, because…

Today is my Independence Day journal entry! This is the day that I officially started P90X! Bring It!

July 4, 2007 – Independence Day

Day 1: Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X

WOWY! I haven’t done anything like that in a while. In fact, I’m not sure that I’ve ever done anything like that. I did some circuit training in high school, but I don’t think I ever did it for an hour and fifteen minutes straight, or as intensely. Having said that, I did take it pretty easy on myself.

The P90X program has three phases. The P90X Fitness Guide says that during the first phase “your goal should be to master each movement and finish the workouts in one piece.” It goes on to recommend that you “focus less on the amount of weight you are lifting and instead try to achieve your desired number of repetitions while maintaining strict form.”

The first phase lasts four weeks. So, I figure that I should take it especially easy during the first week and concentrate on my form, especially since I have a history of shoulder and neck problems.

While I did do every set, I certainly did not even do close to as many reps as Tony and Co. I found myself doing an awful lot of huffing and puffing with my hands on my knees or sucking on my water bottle while Tony and Co. were pumping out more reps.

I felt especially pathetic during Ab Ripper X, which includes 349+ reps of various core exercises. I think I pumped out no more than 200 reps myself.

Here’s my Chest & Back Stats:

• Standard Push-Ups: 12, 8
• Wide Front Pull-Ups: 5, 3
• Military Push-Ups: 10, 6
• Reverse Grip Chin-Ups: 5, 3
• Wide Fly Push-Ups: 10, 10
• Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups: 3, 2
• Decline Push-Ups: 8, 5
• Heavy Pants: 10, 10 orange
• Diamond Push-Ups: 10, 3
• Lawnmowers: 12, 15 orange
• Dive-Bomber Push-Ups: 10, 5
• Back Flys: 10, 10 orange

As you can see, I definitely went a little too hard during the first set as my numbers dropped significantly across the board during the second set. Also, I think I’ll try using the bands or a chair for the pull-ups next week, as doing 2-5 reps per pull-up set doesn’t seem to be enough to get the type of gains I would like to see.

It sure was fun though!

It’s fascinating to think back to Day 1, Independence Day, in light of the present. P90X continues to make me huff and puff, but this will always be the case as I will always be able to push harder. I still can’t get through all the Ab Ripper X reps, but I’m doing significantly more now than on Day 1, and my abs and core are much stronger. I remember being absolutely exhausted after my first session with P90X… Now I’m frequently doing two per day!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2007 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Exercise, P90X, Ripped. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.