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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.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 11:39 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.