RippedNRich.oRg

My first Yoga X workout was intense. As I relate below, I cried during the ohms at the end.

July 7, 2007

Day 4: Yoga X

Although I’ve never really gotten into it, I have done some yoga before. I’ve tried a variety of types of yoga with a variety of instructors at a variety of studios, but was never so inspired that I committed myself to it.

I have a Master’s Degree in Eastern Classics from St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM, where my favorite texts were Hindu and the tradition I most identified with was Hinduism. One of my favorite texts is Pantanjali’s Yoga Sutra. In fact, the Yoga Sutra was the first Eastern text to which I was exposed, and, in large part, inspired me to enroll in the master’s program. At present, I am working (slowly but surely) on a Master’s Thesis on Bahkti Yoga in the Bhagavad-Gita… but I’ll write more about this in the future.

Getting back to Yoga X… it is intense. In fact, with the exception of a yoga class that I once took from one of my fellow master’s students, it is the most intense yoga I have ever done. I didn’t even attempt a few of the poses, and my form was horrible on a few others. This was a real challenge… and, at 92 minutes and 24 seconds, it is a long routine (the longest in P90X).

I think what is most important to note about Yoga X (and yoga in general), is that it is as much a mental test as it is a physical test. Yoga is done most effectively when you are uncomfortable throughout the routine. Not too uncomfortable, mind you. But, if you are breezing through Yoga X without any discomfort, then you are not doing it properly. In a sense, the point of yoga is to push yourself just outside of your comfort zone and stay there for a while. Holding uncomfortable positions requires as much mental fortitude as physical fortitude.

In all likelihood, especially when you are just beginning to do yoga, you will find yourself delving into areas of mental and emotional discomfort as you are pushing yourself into physical discomfort. No matter how you try to clear your mind and focus on your form, when you are first starting out, you can anticipate your emotional baggage surfacing during the routine.

I’ve been going through a difficult time in my life lately, the most significant event certainly being my father’s recent passing. I cried during the ohms at the end of the routine. I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I have been emotional all day, alternating between feelings of anger and sadness for the most part. However, as I said, this is to be expected.

I am confident that, over the course of the next 90 days, Yoga X will help me to process the recent (and not so recent) events in my life, contribute to my emotional and physical well being, and purify my soul.

I still find Yoga X to be the most mentally challenging of all the P90X workouts. However, my Yoga X performance has been continuously improving… but more on that in future posts.

My first P90X Shoulders & Arms workout was the first time I had ever used resistance bands for a complete workout.

July 6, 2007

Day 3: Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X

When I woke up this morning, my legs where a little sore from yesterday’s work out and my chest & back had recovered, which worked out well since I was doing shoulders & arms today.

This workout was considerably more sophisticated than the Chest & Back workout, which consists mostly of pull-ups and push-ups. This workout had me really using a variety of resistance bands in a variety of ways and it took some getting used to.

The only time I’ve ever worked with resistance bands before, I was using light bands for physical therapy, not as a substitution for heavy dumbbells. At present, it doesn’t make much sense for me to invest in a set of dumbbells, especially considering how cheap the resistance bands are, as I am moving around a lot between Santa Fe, NM and Concord, MA. I got the complete kit of B-lines Bands (10 in all) from Million Dollar Body for $80, which is pretty economical considering in would cost hundreds of dollars to get the dumbbell equivalent.

I don’t want to gripe about them too much at present, as I think I am ultimately going to like them very much. However, I do wonder if they are as effective as dumbbells. It has been suggested to me that, for certain exercises, they are actually more effective than dumbbells, which makes perfect sense. For, with the bands, unlike dumbbells, the level of resistance increases as you stretch them. However, this characteristic obviously renders the bands less effective in certain exercises as well.

I think most of my frustration with them today can be chalked up to inexperience. I had difficulty determining which one to use for which exercise and how big of a loop to use on some of the exercises.

Also, I wish the complete kit came with more sets of handles. It only comes with three. So you need to transfer the handles between exercises if you use more than three bands. For the lighter bands, this isn’t that big of a deal. However, this is rather difficult to do with the heavier bands, at least for someone who is inexperienced (and weak) like me. I didn’t end up transferring any of the handles today, but I did struggle to get the handles on the green band.

Anyway, here’s my Shoulders & Arms stats:

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

I’ve been using the B-lines Bands for seven weeks now and am much more comfortable with them. Bottom line: They work! I’ll have more to say about this in the future. For now, let me just say that I definitely recommend B-lines Bands as an inexpensive and mobile alternative to dumbbells.

Plyometrics has become one of my favorite P90X workouts over the past seven weeks… and most adventurous… but more on that in a later journal entry.

For now, here’s my first plyo post:

July 5, 2007

Day 2: Plyometrics

When I woke up this morning, my chest and back were quite sore… in a good way. So, I must have done something right yesterday.

I feel like I did a little better today in regard to keeping up with Tony & Co. Although, it was definitely easier to take it easy today and keep up, as I just didn’t squat down quite as deep or jump quite as high as Tony & Co.

To be brief, plyometrics (“plyo” for short) is essentially jumping exercises. So, lots of jumping today.

Tony really emphasizes the importance of landing softly and properly, which I appreciate, as it is easy for me to tweak my neck with too much impact… and plyo is definitely high impact.

Also, I realized today that, while I had anticipated this, the ceiling in the garage (where I am working out) is a little low for plyometrics. While I made some reasonable adjustments, I worry that this may become more of a problem as I progress through the program.

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!

My last journal entry explained what inspired me to get back into shape. In this journal entry I relate how and why I decided to do it with P90X.

July 3, 2007

My Decision

About two months after my father’s passing, I found myself searching for information online and designing a workout program for myself. However, it was coming along rather slowly as I can be a perfectionist with such things. If I was going to truly devote myself to as intense a regimen as I was envisioning, it had to be good.

It was while I was visiting my sister for a few days at St. Michael’s College in Burlington, VT, that I caught my first glimpse of P90X. Myself, my sister, and a couple of her friends were sitting around the tv hanging out when, for a brief moment, a P90X infomercial came on. The girl who was lackadaisically flipping through the channels was distracted for a moment and left the P90X infomercial on long enough to peak my interest.

I got on the P90X website the next day and I was quite intrigued right away. I remember thinking, “Wow! This looks like the exact type of program that I want to design for myself… but better!” That night, after the girls had gone to bed, I was having difficulty falling asleep on the broken futon I was given, and my thoughts turned to P90X. The broken futon happened to be in the tv room (my sister had a very nice dorm), so I decided to see if I could find the infomercial… I did!

I took this as a sign (and I was awfully impressed with the P90X program), and it was not long before I had ended my research into developing a program for myself, and was ordering P90X and researching and buying the equipment that I needed.

Now, I must admit, after I found P90X I thought I was ready to go. However, I had underestimated how long it was going to take me to get all of the equipment, supplements, etc., that I wanted before I began the program. While Beachbody.com does carry most everything you need, after nine years of not working out, I didn’t even have things like shorts, sneakers, and socks.

My starting the P90X program was delayed even further by my decision, in light of my father’s passing, to move home to Concord, MA, to live with my mother for the summer. We have a beautiful home in Concord (birthplace of the American Revolution, Thoreau, Emerson, and Alcott), but there wasn’t exactly a good place for me to workout. So, I had to make a place for myself in the garage, which, in addition to setting up a tv, pull-up bar, etc., also required cleaning out the garage some.

So, from H.S. to College, to firewood, to my father, to my sister’s dorm, to my mother’s garage, I’ve pretty much covered it.

Tomorrow, I “Push Play” for the first time, and “Bring It!” with P90X.

There you have it: “My History”, “My Inspiration”, and “My Decision”.

So, how do I feel about my decision to “Bring It!” with P90X?… I couldn’t be happier!

This journal entry was a difficult one to write:

July 2, 2007

My Inspiration

This past November, I had a moment that I knew was important… you know how you have those moments sometimes. I was in Santa Fe, NM, hauling firewood in preparation for winter (yes, Santa Fe does have winter everyone, we’re not Phoenix… at one point this past winter I had 3-4 ft. of snow in my driveway and was snowshoeing to work and back for two weeks). When I picked up an especially large basket of wood to carry inside, I found that I couldn’t make it without stopping a few times to rest and remove some of the logs.

Now, like I said, it was a large basket of wood, and many people would not have been able to even pick it up, but I had not thought that I would have much trouble picking it up and carrying it inside, and here I was, huffing and puffing, and failing. After I got it inside, I was standing there with my hands on my knees thinking about how I wouldn’t have had much trouble moving that basket nine years ago, when I started getting angry. Now, it’s not like I made a resolution that day or anything, but… I just knew that a desire had been born in me that day… a seed had been planted, if you will.

A few months later, Febuary 4^th, 2007, was a day that I will remember forever. I got an unusually early morning call from my mother. It was immediately evident that something was very, very wrong.

With much difficulty, my mother informed me that my father had died of a heart attack. My father was 55 years old, and, although he was by no means the healthiest man on the planet, no one had expected that something like this would happen so soon. 65… maybe. 55… no.

My mother, sister, and I, as well as our friends and family, take some comfort in knowing that my father had a great last night. He and my mother had hosted a party the night before at which most of the guests were friends my parents had known since they were teenagers. His last words were to my mother, “I love you, dear.”

To put it mildly, this was hard to take… still is… I’m crying as I am writing this.

Like no other time in my life, the importance of physical health was thrust before my eyes.

I LOVE YOU, DAD!

This journal entry provides a brief history of my life as it relates to fitness and nutrition:

July 1, 2007

My History

I was a three sport (football, basketball, baseball) varsity athlete in high school. My best sport was baseball. My senior year I was a team captain and the only player in the league to be unanimously selected to the all-star team (every coach voted for me). As far as I know, I still hold my high school’s record for stolen bases in a season (24 steals in 24 games).

I could have played college ball, but I decided to focus on academics instead and, after I graduated from H.S. in ’98, I wound up at a Great Books school, St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM. While going to St. John’s was the best decision that I have ever made (I would encourage all aspiring young scholars to check it out), I was too busy exercising my brain to spend much time exercising my body and my physical prowess slowly wasted away.

To make a long story short, in high school I suffered a rash of shoulder and neck injuries during my junior year that made me ineffective on the field and forced me to sit out my senior football and basketball seasons. Determined to make a come back and have a great baseball season, I did a ton of physical therapy and, for the first time, hit the weights pretty hard. When I graduated from high school, I was a muscular 5’ 9” and 190 lbs. As I sit here typing today, I am still 5’ 9”, and my weight fluctuates between a relatively weak 150-155 lbs.

However, attention to my physical health has hardly been entirely absent in the nine years since I graduated high school. In fact, my nutritional health has been quite good, much better than it was in high school. I have learned a great deal about nutrition, and I credit my current 11% body fat reading to my nutritional health over the past nine years. My nutritional health combined with the occasional hike/ski in the Santa Fe mountains (sometimes less occasional than others) has kept my feeling physically alive… but, all the while, I’ve been feeling increasingly weak.

That time that I mention during my junior year of high school where I seemed to be getting injured every week really impressed upon me the importance of physical fitness in order to avoid injuries. Today, I remember those injuries well because I am still affected by them. However, those problem spots, which I will get into in more detail later, aren’t as problematic as they were just over a month ago before I started P90X!

A couple days after the P90X Prep & Fit Test, I was feeing sore but I was excited by my new ambition. So, I sat down to write in my journal and found myself asking, “Why am I doing this?” So, I entitled this entry “Why P90X?”

Here it is:

June 30, 2007

Why P90X?

So, I completed the P90X Prep & Fit Test two days ago, and I’m still feeling pretty sore. I think my decision to start the P90X program on July 4^th was a good one, as it will give my body some time to recover from the Fit Test.

To get myself psyched up and remind myself of why I am doing P90X, I thought I should use my journal over the next few days to record what led up to my Personal Declaration of Independence from a sedentary lifestyle and physical weakness.

I’ve been doing a little brainstorming today and I think I’ll make three journal entries over the next three days, which will lead right up to July 4^th. The three journal entries will be entitled: “My History”, “My Inspiration”, and “My Decision”.

Over the next three days I did just as I set out to do. Writing these journal entries was difficult at times, but I’m glad, especially given all that has happened since I started the P90X program, that I did it.

Next up is my journal entry and numbers for the P90X Fit Test:

June 29, 2007

The P90X Fit Test

After completing the “Prep” part of the P90X Prep & Fit Test, I warmed up for about 10 min. with the Cardio X warm up and began the hard part of the P90X Prep & Fit Test… the “Fit” part.

The results:

• Pull Ups: 5 (P90X min: 3)
• Vertical Leap: 21” (P90X min: 5”)
• Push Ups: 18 with bars (P90X min: 15)
• Toe Touch: +5” (P90X min: -6”)
• Wall Squat: 2 min. (P90X min: 1 min.)
• Bicep Curls: 45 with orange band (P90X min: 10 with 20 lbs.)
• In & Outs: 50 (P90X min: 25)
• Heart Rate Maximizer:
  • Immediately following 2 min. of jumping jacks: 152 bpm
  • 1 min. after stopping: 108 bpm
  • 2 min. after stopping: 98 bpm
  • 3 min. after stopping: 93 bpm
  • 4 min. after stopping: 87 bpm
  • (P90X min: Finish the 2 min. of jumping jacks)

I Passed!!!

It was hard though. And, on the upper body strength exercises (pull ups, push ups, and bicep curls), I didn’t pass by much. With the bicep curls, I should have used a heavier band. With most all of the exercises, my form was lacking at times.

The most difficult part was knowing when I was at the point of “failure” (to which you are supposed to perform all the exercises). The P90X Fitness Guide says: “Physically ‘to failure’ is when your body stops you by not being able to go any further without causing injury. Do not force past failure.” Okay, but I am so out of touch with my physical limitations at present that I was always unsure of whether one more rep would cause injury.

This reminds me of my experiences over the past few years with sprinting. In H.S. I was quite fast. I hold my school’s record for stolen bases in a season with 24 in 24 games. However, although my brain seems to think I can still run that fast, my legs object every time I try by instantly cramping as soon as I take my first sprinting steps. I’ve learned to manage by just not trying to run that fast the few times I’ve been in situations where I’ve wanted to run since H.S… (no, none of them involved the police).

Getting back to the question of “failure” in the P90X Fit Test, my best example was the wall squat. Two minutes into it, I was in pain and my left leg was shaking like crazy. However, I continued to hold the squat for another minute, at which point both my legs were shaking like crazy. I could have gone longer, but I didn’t want to hurt myself. So, at what point did I fail exactly?… I’m not sure.

However, I am sure that I passed!

P90X… Here I Come!

Bring It!!!

It’s cool to think about how far I have come just over the past month plus. I now do set after set of what I was maxing out at when I did the P90X Fit Test, and I feel much more in tune with my body’s ever-increasing limitations.

Here’s my journal entry and numbers for the P90X Prep Test:

June 28, 2007

The P90X Prep Test

I got up this morning pumped to take the P90X Prep & Fit Test… and somewhat concerned that I might fail.

Although I was pumped, I tried not to be. As the first thing I did upon waking up was to strap my heart rate monitor around my chest and get back into bed. I dozed for about a half-hour, checking my heart rate every few minutes and moving nothing other than my breath. The reading fluctuated from 50 to 65, but the number I saw most often (the mode) was definitely 53 and it seemed like the mean and median where about 53 as well.

So, I decided to make it official:

• Resting Heart Rate Prior to Day 1: 53 bpm.

After a quick bite to eat, it was time to take my body measurements.

First, I stripped down to my birthday suit, got on my new fancy scale (more on this some other time), and received the following readings.

• Body Fat: 11%
• Weight: 153 lbs.

Then, I put my shorts back on and enlisted my sister and my grandmother’s old tape measure to give me a hand with the following measurements:

• Chest: 37” (around nipples)
• Waist: 32” (around belly button)
• Hips: 35” (widest part)
• Thighs: 18” (midpoint)
• Arms: 12” (peak of flexed biceps)

Next, I plopped my digital camera in my sister’s hands and we took my “Before Photos”. With that, the Prep part of the P90X Prep & Fit Test was done.

Now, the real fun began with the P90X Fit Test…

If you would like to take a look at my “Before Photos”, check out my P90X Gallery in the MDB Community Message Boards. My “Before Photos” are the ones marked “Day 0″.