RippedNRich.oRg

Well, I’ve been awfully busy lately working on RippedNRich.oRg and other related projects behind the scenes… so busy that I neglected to announce…

Mission Accomplished! P90X Complete!

That’s right, I have completed my first round with P90X and I loved it!

I’ll get to my pics, numbers, etc., in a second. First, I have to say that the physical transformation and the numbers you are about to see were accomplished with a rather poor Phase III. A few things really knocked me off my P90X stride.

The first was a weekend long wedding, where I danced the night away (embarrassing myself at times… or so I’m told), and received two huge blisters on my big toes. As a result, I missed 5 days of workouts.

The second was that I hurt myself… no, not working out… sleeping. One morning I woke up and my neck was all tweaked out. I had some pretty intense dreams that night, so I imagine I hurt my neck while dreaming. I actually thought I was going to be laid up for awhile, but my neck was feeling better again in two days time. I have to credit my new level of physical fitness and P90X for my quick recovery.

The last thing that knocked me off my P90X stride was the desire to improve my workout area. I used the B-lines resistance bands during my first round with P90X, and they work great (as my results prove). However, I can’t help but conclude that certain exercises are certainly better with dumbbells and that, overall, it is best to use both dumbbells and bands… this is right in line with the “muscle confusion” concept that is central to P90X. So, I purchased some dumbbells. (I don’t want to disclose which dumbbells I purchased just yet as I have not had enough experience with them, but let me just say that they are not your average dumbbells.) However, with my new dumbbells on there way, I didn’t have room for them in my workout area, so I needed to make some room. Now, my exercise area is in the garage, the garage is quite messy, and I’ve been cleaning it bit by bit… as it turned out, making some room for the dumbbells required 5 days of cleaning and organizing before I had my workout area back (and a cleaner garage).

Throw all those days in with a couple other days that I just kinda missed and, all told, I missed 14 days of Phase III, which runs for 35 days… so I missed 2/5 of my Phase III workouts and still got fantastic results!

With that said, here are my Round I P90X results:

First, check out my gallery (these are the poses they recommend, although I wish I had had a little more fun with the poses and am thinking of throwing a few more poses in the mix for Round II): CoachJames.name/gallery

I was also quite pleased with my numbers:

Test: Day 0 / Day 90
Body Fat %: 11% / 8%
Weight: 153 lbs. / 160 lbs.
Chest: 37” / 41”
Waist: 32” / 32”
Hips: 35” / 38.5”
Thighs: 18” / 21”
Arms: 12” / 14”
Resting Heart Rate: 53 bpm / 50 bpm
Pull-Ups: 5 / 12.5
Vertical: 21” / 26”
Push-Ups: 18 / 44
Toe Touch: +5” / +10”
Wall Squat (min): 2:00 / 5:00
Bicep Curls: 45 (orange) / 16 (25 lbs)
In & Outs: 50 / 100

But, most of all, I am pleased with the way I feel, emotionally, mentally, and physically. I remain on a more even keel throughout the day. I focus more easily. And, the neck and shoulder problems I have been experiencing as a result of sports injuries in high school are practically gone!

This is not the last you will hear about P90X from me… in fact, this may just be the beginning! Nevertheless, I hope my success with my first round of P90X inspires you to “Bring It!” with P90X too!

Hey Everybody,

After a little break, I’m back!

I’ve been reevaluating my approach to this blog, and I’ll have more to say about this soon.

However, for now, I wanted to announce to everyone that I have posted my Day 56 (end of Phase II) pics!

I’m on Day 70 now, so it took me a couple weeks to actually get these pics in my gallery, but the results are clear and provide great motivation to continue to “Bring It!” with P90X and MDB!

More Soon, Coach James

After really struggling physically and emotionally during my first two Yoga X workouts, it was nice to nail my third one.  Perhaps the biggest indication of my improvement was that, unlike the first two times, I did not cry during the ohms at the end.

 July 21, 2007

 Day 18: Yoga X

 Ooooohhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm…

 I felt good after the Yoga X workout today!

 As I have written, the first two times I did Yoga X, I did not feel good during or after the workout.  During the workout, I felt stressed and frustrated.  I was unable to do many of the moves, and I felt as though I was doing many of the moves that I did do poorly.  At the end of each workout, I cried during the ohms and did feel some relief, but afterwards I found myself alternating between feelings of sadness and anger for the rest of the day.

 As I have written, this experience is not uncommon.  In fact, I have gone though it before when starting a yoga program, and it was certainly a contributing factor to my not sticking to any of them for very long.  It is no surprise that I would have this experience with Yoga X, especially given that it is one of the more challenging yoga programs I have attempted and that, generally speaking, I have not been very happy lately, my father’s recent passing being the main source of my unhappiness.

 As I have written, I did Yoga X last week a little differently from the first week.  When I was unsure of myself, rather than struggling to hold a posture while being unsure of whether I was even trying to do what I was supposed to be doing, I stopped, breathed, and watched Tony & Co.  I feel like I learned a lot by doing so, and I think my performance and feelings about my performance today, as well as the way I felt when it was done, indicate that my decision to watch more and do less last week was a good decision.

 In truth, I did even better this week than I expected.  I was pleasantly surprised by two things in particular. The first was that I balanced myself in and held the “crane” position for a few seconds, and probably could have held it for longer, but Tony & Co. were moving on.  The second was that I got myself into wheel and held it for a few seconds, and probably could have held it for longer, but I was so shocked that I had gotten myself into it in the first place that I think I just kind of wimped out.

 Crane is a very difficult balance position.  With a crouched stance, you place your hands on the floor, about shoulder distance apart, and open up your knees a little wider than your elbows.  You then place the inside of your knees against your arms and lift your feet off the ground while supporting yourself with your hands.  It’s kind of like a mini handstand.

 Wheel gives you a crazy stretch all across the front of your body.  To get into wheel, you first get into bridge.  You get into bridge by lying on your back with your feet on the floor and your knees bent, and raising your pelvis as high as you can with your hands clasped and your arms underneath you.  You then get into wheel by putting your hand on the floor next to your head and straightening your arms and legs.  I think some would call it a back bend… but if we called it that then we wouldn’t be doing yoga. 

 The only problem I had today was that my left wrist was a little tweaked, so I had to be careful with it.  It didn’t bother me much though.  Really the only thing I did differently was skipping the push-ups that Tony likes to do during the vinyasas.

 I didn’t cry during the ohms today, although I thought I might.  And, I really felt pretty good when I was done.  I certainly have not felt angry today as in the past.

 Today’s P90X Yoga X experience was closer to what it should be… and that in and of itself makes me feel good.

July 20, 2007

Day 17: Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X

I had a great workout again today… no puking though.

I know I’ve said it before, but it continues to be the case. Every time I use the B-lines Bands I feel that I am more comfortable with them, and that I am getting a better work out from them. Today my big breakthrough came with the use of a loop.

Up until today, I had tried to watch what the guy on the DVD was doing, whether he was using a loop in the band or not, and do the same. However, today I departed from this practice and struck out on my own.

The guy who uses the B-lines Bands in the Shoulders & Arms DVD, (David Hass, I believe), never (I think) uses a loop for the exercises where he is standing up straight. This makes sense to me and works well for me with exercises where you raise the bands above your head, like the Alternating Shoulder Presses and Lying-Down Tricep Extensions (you don’t actually lie down when you are using the bands), for example. However, I found that the bands were slack and thus not giving me much resistance at the bottom of the exercises where you are standing up straight but only raising your hands to shoulder level, like the Upright Rows and Static Arm Curls. So, I started using a loop for such exercises and got a much better pump as a result.

The only problem is that this means that I need to reconsider which B-lines Bands I use for these exercises. And, I won’t be doing these exercises again for six weeks.

As I said with regard to the Chest & Back workout a couple days ago, I am kind of disappointed that I won’t be doing the Shoulders & Arms routine again for six weeks. I feel like I am just starting to get the hang of it. But, once again, that is the whole idea behind the “muscle confusion” concept; if you feel like you are getting the hang of it, it’s time to do something else. I am fascinated by the “muscle confusion” concept and I will write more about it in the future.

I also want to mention that I did Ab Ripper X again today… well, sort of. My neck was actually not the problem. I am unhappy that I skipped a week of it (3 times in total) and I started out the routine happy to be doing it again. However, during the first rep of the first set of the first exercise (In & Outs) that muscle above your quad and below your pelvis (hip flexor) cramped up on me. I couldn’t believe it. However, I did continue through the routine, attempting every exercise and doing the ones for which my hip flexor did not cramp.

Here’s my Shoulders & Arms stats:

• Alternating Shoulder Presses: 10, 10 orange; 10, 10 green; 10, 10 green
• In & Out Bicep Curls: 16, 16 orange; 16, 16 green; 16, 16 green
• Two-Arm Tricep Kickbacks: 10, 10 magenta; 10, 10 orange; 10, 10 red
• Deep Swimmer’s Presses: 10 orange, 6 green; 10, 8 green; 10, 8 green
• Full Supination Concentration Curls: 11, 12 green; 12, 10 green; 7, 8 green
• Chair Dips: 25, 25 bent legs; 30, 25 bent legs; 20, 13 straight legs
• Upright Rows: 15, 15 magenta; 15, 15 orange; 12, 12 red
• Static Arm Curls: 16 orange, 16 green; 16, 16 green; 16 green, 8 red;
• Flip-Grip Twist Tricep Kickbacks: 10, 8 magenta; 10, 15 magenta; 14, 14 orange
• Two-Angle Shoulder Flys: 10, 10 orange; 16, 16 magenta; 16, 12 orange
• Crouching Cohen Curls: 10, 16 magenta; 20, 15 orange; 16 red, 10 yellow
• Lying-Down Tricep Extensions: 12, 16 magenta; 12, 10 orange; 12 orange, 10 red
• In & Out Straight-Arm Shoulder Flys: 16, 12 magenta; 16, 16 magenta; 16, 10 orange
• Congdon Curls: 10, 10 green; 12, 15 green; 7, 8 green
• Side Tri-Rises: 10/10, 8/8; 15/15, 20/20; 20/20, 21/21

Purely by coincidence, I am publishing this journal entry on the day that I did the P90X Shoulders & Arms workout for the first time since the day I wrote this journal entry. I was just writing my journal entry for today and I definitely did the Shoulders & Arms workout differently as a result of what I learned doing the Back & Biceps workout during Phase II.

Yeah, I’m hard core.

 July 19, 2007

 Day 16: Plyometrics

 I Puked!

 Yes sir… Threw Up!… Blew Chunks!… I was Praying to the Porcelain God! (as we used to say in college)… Whatever you want to call it… However you want to describe it… I did it!

 The first two times through the Plyometrics workout, I was worried that I wasn’t pushing myself hard enough.  However, I didn’t want to push too hard and hurt myself.

 As I wrote on Day 1:

 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.’

 Well, I’m not worried that I didn’t push myself as hard as I should today!

 I was conscious of the fact that I felt a little less hydrated than I would have liked to be when I started the workout this morning.  It’s been somewhat sweaty here in Concord, MA over the past couple of days, and I don’t think I drank enough water before I went to bed last night.  In fact, I even started my workout this morning a little later than I wanted, just so I could drink an extra glass of water.

 Once I started, I felt thirsty throughout the workout and kept going back for a little more water whenever given an opportunity.  I felt good though, at first anyway. 

 I have yet to actually sit down and figure out how all the heart rate zones work, and what my heart rate should be at during the workouts (I should do this soon).  However, I have been wearing my heart rate monitor during the Plyometrics and Kenpo X workouts and keeping an eye on it.  During the first two Plyo workouts, my heart rate remained above 130 for the most part and got into the 140s on occasion.  During the first two Kenpo X workouts, my heart rate remained above 120 for the most part and got into the 130s on occasion.  Today, my heart rate remained above 140 for the most part, got into the 150s on occasion, and even hit the 160s a couple times.

 Like I said, I felt good, at first.  I felt like I was pushing myself a bit more.  I felt comfortable doing so.  I was sweating and huffing and puffing and it felt like I was doing the Plyometrics workout the way it was meant to be done… or at least closer to how it was meant to be done than the first two times.

 However, about three quarters of the way through, I began to feel a little nauseous.  “I’ve been drinking too much water,” I thought to myself, in the midst of all those feel good chemicals that Tony talked about in the live chat on Monday flowing through my brain, “I just won’t drink anymore until it’s over.” 

 Well, my heart was pounding, sweat was dripping onto the mat, and I was huffing and puffing like I have not done in years.  I finished strong, not feeling too nauseous… but then when the cool down started… all that water started to come up… and I was not about to keep it down!  I rushed over to an empty trash barrel and…

 I Puked!

 Then, I threw up again… then I blew chunks again (actually, there were no chunks at all, it was all water and froth and a little stomach acid I suppose)… and again… and again… and again…

 By the time I was done, so were Tony and Co.

 It was hard because, even though my body wanted that water out of my tummy, my body also wanted to be moving around and cooling down.  I went from a heart rate above 160 (I don’t recall looking, but I did really push it at the end), to on my hands and knees with stomach convulsions.

 Nevertheless, I wiped off my mouth, scanned back the DVD, and did the cool down, complete with some extra stretching and breathing at the end.

 By the time I was done, I felt fine.  And, thankfully, the P90X Peak Recovery Formula remained in my stomach with no problems.

 Although I don’t want to repeat this experience, I do feel like an official hard core P90Xer now!

This entry makes me smile…

July 18, 2007

 My First Glimpse of the MDB Coaching Program

 I can’t believe how much time I am spending writing about my experience with Million Dollar Body in these journal entries.  This journal was intended to be about working out with P90X… and it is.  Only, I have discovered that working out with P90X does not merely involve “pushing play”, as Tony is always encouraging you to do.  Rather, if you want it too, working out with P90X involves a whole community, which I had not anticipated, as well as additional financial opportunities, which I certainly had not anticipated.

 I discovered and wrote about the Million Dollar Body Game a couple weeks ago.  I discovered and wrote about the Million Dollar Body Success Story Contest yesterday.  Well, I did a little more digging last night after I had completed my journal entry, wondering what else I may still be missing, and I cannot believe what I found out about the Million Dollar Body Coaching Program.

 Obviously, I knew about the MDB Coaching Program before.  I’ve written about my wonderful experience with my MDB Coach, Coach McD, already.  However, until last night, I did not have the slightest inkling as to what the MDB Coaching Program truly was.

 Shortly after my initial interaction with Coach McD, I checked out his MDB website.  I thought it was cool that MDB provides every MDB Coach with a webpage.  I also noticed that he mentioned something about his appreciation for the MDB Coaching Program and “the opportunities it offers, both professionally and physically” and an “improved quality of life both financially and through better health,” but this was not what I was focusing on.  If I did give it a second thought, I’m sure I figured that MDB was offering a small stipend to its coaches or something.  (In fact, when I just went back to find these quotes, it took me awhile to locate them, they were so buried within his bio and given so little importance.)

 However, last night, I took a closer look at the Million Dollar Body Coaching Program and quickly fired off an email to Coach McD… to say the least, I am intrigued!…

 As you know if you have been reading this blog, I am now an MDB Coach.  As if a gift from God, the Million Dollar Body Coaching Program came at the time that I needed it most!

 But there will be more on this in upcoming journal entries…

On Day 15, I completed my third session with the Chest & Back workout and said goodbye… not permanently… just for 6 weeks… but it was hard… we were just getting to know each other…

 July 18, 2007

 Day 15: Chest & Back

 I had a great workout today!

 I positioned the chair closer to the pull-up bar today and found that I was actually able to rely on it less while also supporting myself with it more when I needed it.  Also, I continue to feel more comfortable with the bands.

 I didn’t do Ab Ripper X again today because, although my neck was not stiff when I started the workout, it felt somewhat stiff at the end and I am mindful that it was after doing the Chest & Back/Ab Ripper X combo last week that my neck really stiffened up.  It stands to reason that all those push-ups and pull-ups would torque a guy’s neck a bit.

 Nevertheless, I really like the Chest & Back workout and am kind of disappointed that I won’t be doing it again for six weeks.  I feel like I am just starting to get the hang of it… but that is the whole idea behind the “muscle confusion” concept.  If you feel like you are getting the hang of it, it’s time to do something else.

 Here’s my Chest & Back Stats:

• Standard Push-Ups: 12, 8;  15, 10;  15, 12
• Wide Front Pull-Ups: 5, 3;  12, 14;  12, 12
• Military Push-Ups: 10, 6;  12, 8;  12, 7
• Reverse Grip Chin-Ups: 5, 3;  12, 10;  12, 12
• Wide Fly Push-Ups: 10, 10;  12, 12;  12, 12
• Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups: 3, 2;  12, 12;  9, 10
• Decline Push-Ups: 8, 5;  8, 3;  12, 6
• Heavy Pants: 10, 10 orange;  15, 10 orange; 15 orange, 10 red
• Diamond Push-Ups: 10, 3;  8, 6;  10, 8
• Lawnmowers: 12, 15 orange;  15, 15 orange;  12 orange, 10 red
• Dive-Bomber Push-Ups: 10, 5;  8, 8;  8, 6
• Back Flys: 10, 10 orange;  15, 15 orange; 12 orange, 10 red

It’s a little hard to believe, but today is my last day with Phase II of P90X. Tomorrow, I’ll be doing Chest & Back again for the first time since my Day 15 journal entry. The past six weeks have gone by fast… but I guess time flies when you’re having fun working out!

I did the X Stretch again at the end of the second week and I recall that it felt quite good.

However, when I sat down to write my journal entry that night, my mind was focused on something else…

July 17, 2007

Day 14: X Stretch

Million Dollar Body Success Story Contest

Well, I completed week two today. The stretching felt really good. I will write more about this routine in the future, but… I’m a little excited about something else at the moment.

I periodically get behind on my emails and end up spending an afternoon or more going through them and clearing out my inbox. Today I was doing just that when I opened up an email from Million Dollar Body entitled: “Check Out the Latest Winners of the Million Dollar Body Game!”

I wrote about the Million Dollar Body Game a couple weeks ago. To review (from my previous entry):

In order to play the Million Dollar Body Game you log in to MillionDollarBody.com, go to WOWY (Work Out With You… more on this later), click on “Start Your Workout Now”, select your exercise routine, and click “Continue.” At this point, you can post a message for your fellow WOWY gym rats to see (like I said, more on this later), or just click “Enter WOWY Now!” and start working out.

At this point, you have entered the Million Dollar Body Game and are eligible to win the daily prize. It looks like about 1000 people enter every day. Six days a week, the winner gets $300 or a physical prize like an iPod. Once a week, on the WOWY Mystery Day, the winner gets $1,000!

You can enter once per day and winners are chosen at random and notified by email when they are selected. Theoretically, you could win the daily prize every day. Highly unlikely…but possible. No purchase is required. You just have to have registered with WOWY and uploaded your picture to your profile.

So, when I opened up the aforementioned email this evening, I was expecting to see the winners of the aforementioned contest… Instead I saw the profiles of two people who had won $10,000 and five others who had won $1000 all under the title: “Check out the June Winners of the Million Dollar Body Game.” The winners were broken down by gender and age.

I was a little confused for a moment, before I remembered that I had seen something about a monthly “success story contest” as well. Now, I hadn’t paid any attention to this before. However, this email revealed something interesting to me…

As I said previously, there were two $10,000 winners pictured and five $1000 winners, but there should have been six. The sixth winner was missing because there were “no entries for Men age 20-29”… that’s me! This means that Million Dollar Body wanted to give away a grand to a male age 20-29 who had achieved success with the Million Dollar Body Products, and no one had shown up to claim it.

Sounds like an easy grand to me! I’m doing P90X anyway. I’m two weeks in and loving it. And, obviously, I’m doing this because I want results… without really being conscious of it, I already wanted to be a success story! Now, I’ve got at least a grand waiting for me as a little extra motivation… very cool.

Upon further research, I found out that the way it works it thus:

To enter the Million Dollar Body Success Story Contest, you need to be a member of the Million Dollar Body Club. I have known about the Club since I first registered with MDB, but I hadn’t really looked into it. I’ll look into the Club in more detain later, but it costs $3 a week and comes with lots of benefits.

Once you are a Club member, you just upload your “before” and “after” pictures to your Success Story page (which you get when you first register with MDB for free), add your stats (weight, body fat, etc.), and write a relatively brief transformation story. It takes MDB a day or two to approve your pictures, but once they have, you are ready to enter. You just log in to MDB and click “Enter the Success Story Contest.” You’ll be sent to your “profile page”, where you click “Submit my Success Story for the transformation contest!” That’s it!

There are eight winners every month, four men and four women. They are selected from four different age groups: 18-29, 30-39, 40-49, and 50+. The best male and female entries each month win $10,000 and the six other contestants win $1,000. Plus, all the monthly winners can compete in the annual contest, where six $50,000 prizes are awarded and the best male and female entries win the $250,000 Grand Prize!

I’m sure I will write more about this in the future and get into more detail… but this is great! I now understand why they call it “Million Dollar Body!”

I chuckle to myself now when I read that last sentence because, although I thought I knew why “they call it ‘Million Dollar Body’”, I only knew half of it. At the time, I was still unaware of the full benefits of the Million Dollar Body Coaching Program.

By the way, I’ll be finishing Phase II of P90X tomorrow and taking my pics and measurements, and I’d say my “Million Dollar Body Success Story” is coming along quite well!…

A week after I noticed that sore spot under my right shoulder blade, it had fully recovered. I was careful not to re-injure it during my second round with P90X Kenpo X.

July 16, 2007

Day 13: Kenpo X

I really had a good time with the Kenpo X workout again today.

While I have written in some detail about my concern for my shoulders when doing pull-ups, as I touched on in my letter to Coach Mcd, I believe the overly sore area beneath my right shoulder blade last week came from a little too much punching enthusiasm. After all, that sore spot did surface the morning after my first round of Kenpo X. Therefore, I was careful not to punch too hard this time.

Tony Horton’s tip of the day for Kenpo X is, “Don’t bang… Don’t bang the joints!” Good advice no doubt. However, perhaps he should add, “Don’t overextend… Don’t overextend your arms!”

I think this is precisely what I did. I was getting all into the punching… “Jab, Cross… Jab, Cross… Jab, Cross, Hook… Jab, Cross, Hook… Jab, Cross, Hook, Uppercut… Jab, Cross, Hook, Uppercut…” And, while I was not banging my joints, I do think I was overextending my arms, particularly on the cross punches.

With regard to that sore spot beneath my right shoulder blade, I think I just stretched it a little further than it wanted to go due to the ferocious force of my right fist!…

Watch out Mike Tyson cause I’m gonna knock you out!!!

Anyway, that sore spot beneath my right shoulder blade feels better now and I was careful not to re-injure it today.

When you are in the early stages of a workout routine, especially when you have not worked out in a while, it is important to monitor your body for budding problems and alter your workout accordingly. This is particularly true when beginning a routine as extreme as P90X. As stated in the P90X Fitness Guide, your goal during the first phase (first four weeks) of P90X is to “finish the workouts in one piece”.

My neck was still feeling a little stiff and my shoulders a little weak on Day 12, so I altered my workout accordingly.

July 15, 2007

Day 12: Legs & Back

Even though I skipped the yoga moves that seemed particularly hard on your neck yesterday, my neck was still a little stiff when I woke up this morning, so I decided not to do Ab Ripper X again today. However, I imagine that I’ll do it again, as scheduled, in a few days.

The rest of my body felt great. Once again, it stuck me that the Yoga X workout is well timed.

Once again, it struck me that the Legs & Back routine is well balanced. I pushed a little harder than last time and once again felt just maxed out at the end.

I felt much better about my performance with the pull-ups today than I have in either of the Chest & Back days or the Legs & Back day that I have done so far. I’m getting the hang of using the chair and getting a nice burn at the end of each set.

Rather than switching the position of my hands every two reps, as Tony suggests, during the Switch Grip Pull-Ups, I switched them every six reps (so only once) during the second set today. I felt like that was a good compromise between protecting my loose shoulders and getting some benefit from the switch. As my reps per set increase, I think I may stick to switching every six reps.

Here’s my Legs & Back stats:

• Reverse Grip Chin-Ups: 5, 6; 12, 16
• Wide Front Pull-Ups: 5, 5; 12, 12
• Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups: 5, 5; 12, 12
• Switch Grip Pull-Ups: 6, 6; 12, 12