Wow, I haven't posted much lately

K, looking over the blog I can see that I have not posted enough lately. That's pretty much because I haven't worked out enough lately. For that, friends, I want to apologize. This blog is a dedication to my commitment to getting in shape and staying healthy and for the last few weeks I have done this blog a disservice. So tonight I'm changing that. Yes, I am busy, and yes, lately I've felt really out of it (probably from the busy) but we're done with that!

Last night we did another 300 workout. Overall it went well. I've gotta say I really like the floor wipers now that I can actually do them (with help getting the bar up of course). At the end we did two quick rounds of jiu jitsu, but honestly I was exhausted and had to get dinner in the oven so I called it good.

Tonight is cardio. I'm pretty sure it's Cardio/Combo from ESP-XC, but I'm not 100% sure yet. It looks like another round of P90X just isn't in the cards for me so we're going back to the pick a DVD each night system. As long as I stick with it that should still be good.


I'll keep you posted. Bring it!

Quick recap cuz I feel terrible

Alright, first off I've felt like shit all week. I think it's the weather and my allergies. Migraines are happening every night and outside of work all I've had the energy to do this week is sleep.

So last night we did another round of 300. It went well, just like Monday. We did pushups though instead of bench, but we also did actual floor wipers! I really like those when I have someone spotting me so I don't kill myself.

K, that's all I have energy for. I feel terrible right now but I didn't want to not document this workout. Hopefully I feel better soon and can get back in the gym.

Bring it.

The 300 workout on a Monday?

Yup, the title is correct. The 300 workout was done on a Monday. Well, sort of. Here's what happened.

First off, the last few days got a little screwy. Friday night some stuff ended up coming up that got in the way of working out, then some more stuff got in the way of that stuff. Long story short, Friday's workout didn't happen. The stuff from Friday had me not feeling 100% on Saturday, so 300 didn't happen on Saturday. Sunday I had a few projects I needed to take care of, and that's my rest day anyways, so no workout there either. I know, I'm getting lazy. Heather's arm is still hurting which means she can't work out, and without motivation (ie people to work out with) I lose motivation quickly!

So last night, since P90X is currently on hiatus until everyone's feeling healthy again, I didn't work out until the group came over at 7pm. We hit the gym around 7:30, and instantly got into a conversation about 300. Long story short, with us steering away from strength building somehow we decided to do the 300 workout as our group workout for the night. Not for time, but instead focusing on just completing the whole thing.

There were five of us in the gym, but two modified the program a bit, leaving myself, Caleb and Vince trying to tackle the main workout. Here's how it went down.

I started with 3 sets of 5 pullups. In the full program there's 25 pullups here, but we'll take a minute to get there. Next we did deadlift. I did 2 sets of 15 at 135 lbs. The program calls for 50, but again, I'm working up to it. Next was 2 sets of 15 on bench press with 135 lbs; this one's supposed to be pushups, but it was bench day according to the Starting Strength plans so we kept that in. Next was squat jumps and we did 3 sets of 10. We'd originally planned on doing 5 sets of 10, which is what we have been doing on normal workout days, but after all of the deadlifts we were starting to slow down.

Floor wipers came after all of this madness. I did 1 set of 10 with the ball like I have been doing. Vince then did a set with the bar at 135, which is what you're supposed to do and I've been scared to do without supervision. Fortunately there was supervision today. Caleb did a set of 12, and that compelled me to do a set of 12 too. It was actually a lot easier to do than I thought, after getting the bar up with some help from friends. Then Vince did one more set of 10.

Next came clean and press, and we did those with 30 lbs dumbbells. I did a set of 10 and a set of 5 on the right side and then the same thing on the left.

Finally we finished with some more pullups. I did 2 sets of 5 and called it good.

Over all it was a great workout. It took us about an hour, we did fewer reps than the program calls for and we took lots of breaks. That said, we all felt exhausted at the end and it was a great workout! Expect us to be doing it again on Thursday.

So that was last night. Tonight I've gotta do some work so I won't be able to work out (this is becoming a theme) but I'm looking to straighten a few things out in my schedule in the next few weeks so I should be back into P90X and a regular schedule ASAP.

That's all I've got for today. Bring it!

Lifting and cardio last night

Well folks, I'm officially off programs for the week. Stronglifts and P90X have both been severely deviated this week, but working out is definitely still happening. Here's what happened last night...

First off, I was supposed to do yoga for P90X. With Heather out of commission for the week she wasn't able to join me, and somehow a quick errand popped up in my life that could only work time wise during yoga time. So as you can imagine, yoga before lifting did not happen like it did last week.

The actual lifting workout for the day got started around 7:30. We once again decided to do the 50 jump squats in place of the regular lifting squats. I've decided I really like these. They may not be increasing my strength but they are slowly working my cardio and endurance. I was tired by the end of 50, but not as dead as I usually am.

After squats we did some more body weight stuff, like sprinting in place, burpees (bleh!), pushups and other stuff along those lines. Then we got into actual lifting.

I shoulder pressed 115 lbs for 5x5. I've done this weight before a few weeks ago, but as I'm slowly building back up this was a challenge. I completed all of my sets, but by the end my arms and back were feeling it. I'm going to repeat this weight next week.

Deadlift was next and I did 1x5 at 205. This is the most I've ever deadlifted, but the second or third time I've done it. I'm going to repeat this weight next week and will move up the week after.

Finally instead of pullups Mark and I went 4 rounds on jiu jitsu again. Holy crap, I still can't get over how hard this is. The entire body is being used to push another body away from you, and I've just never experienced any exercise like this. Mark won all four rounds, but I did better than I thought I would. I learned from a youtube video yesterday how to defend against a single leg takedown a little better, and I actually pulled off the move from the video. This worked two or three times, and then Mark showed me something else I didn't know about standing leg takedowns....when they're happening, you're pretty much open to be choked. I didn't realize we hadn't covered that part yet, but man oh man did I realize it quick after I got choked while going for the leg. Ridiculous.

The grappling completely wore me out and there were no pullups. Overall though it was an awesome workout so I'm still happy with it.

We're still trying to figure out what our twice weekly workouts are going to eventually become. I really couldn't care less of squats come back, though they probably should. Shoulders and bench I want to keep working on and adding to, and deadlift too of course. Other than that I think I'm ready to change goals from strength training to fat loss. I want to do more drills like we did last night with the burpees and sprinting, and I want to do more cardio DVDs. And I've told the group I have no problem if everyone does their own thing as long as they come in with a plan. Someone just hanging out in the gym debating what to do next isn't going to get the best workout (trust me, I've been there), so coming in with a set program or a list of things they'll do for the day will really help.

There's also a program I was looking at last night for adding muscle mass that looked good for me. It was basically Starting Strength split into two days, Monday and Tuesday, except it was broken into an upper body day (Monday) and a lower body day (Tuesday). Wednesday was rest, and Thursday, Friday and Saturday were shoulders & arms, legs, and chest & back respectively, each focusing on 3 sets of 8 reps. The program can be laid on top of a cardio program for the same days, and based on my goals this makes the most sense for me.

I'll keep you posted what the next step is. Theoretically Heather and I are starting Week 2 of P90X Lean again on Monday, so I've gotta decide if that schedule will coincide with this new one. Hmm.

Anyways, that's all I've got for today. I'm going to do some cardio work tonight, but not sure what. Hmm.....

Bring it!

My first jiu jitsu class (sort of)

Well, P90X has hit a snag. Heather's arm is officially kaput, at least for the moment. I'm not sure if she slept on it wrong or if she tweaked it during Core on Monday, but it's been bandaged up most of the week and she has multiple appointments with her doctor to feel better. It sounds like she'll be good next week, but the rest of this week she cannot work out.

Since I'm trying to get us to do P90X together, I think we're putting this week on hold and starting up with Week 2 again on Monday. It's cheating, but I don't want her to have to start all the way over again.

So last night should have been arms, but my roommate Mark was home and he wanted to work out too. Mark's been doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for almost a year (which is one of three martial arts I'd someday like to study if/when I ever get the time) but this week he can't train because he's on call at work. So since there was nothing tying me to a specific workout and he still wanted to work out, I got to have my first jiu jitsu lesson!

This was a very dumbed down version of what is seen in an actual bjj class. We started with some basic warmup stuff, jumping, running, stretching, etc. Then we did burpees, which are never fun. A few ground/rolling around exercises after that, and then we got started on the actual fighting stuff. Mark taught me some very basic stuff on how to defend against single leg and double leg takedowns, then he taught me how to do single leg and double leg takedowns. We then worked on some basic standing grappling, and then did a series of 1 minute rounds.

I've gotta say, I was completely unprepared for this. Aside from thinking I'd be much better at jiu jitsu than I actually am (that was a wakeup call), physically this was one of the most intense sports I'd ever played. The entire body is working, and lots of muscles I never even thought about using were used. There's a lot of pressure on the top of the head, so my neck was feeling it. Defending leg takedowns requires a TON of leg strength, and my legs felt like jelly at the end. And as far as pushing a human body off of you, that required WAY more triceps and chest than I thought it would.

After an hour of working out I felt like my soul had been drained, but I was glad I did it. I really want to get back into martial arts, especially this style. It's just so different from any other martial art. Plus, if this is how I felt after a home jiu jitsu class I know that a real one will kick my ass! My ass needs to be kicked so I can lose some more weight, so yes, someday I need to do this!

Speaking of losing weight, my diet's been great the last few weeks. Don't get me wrong, it could always be better, but I'm doing about 6 tiny meals a day (lunch and dinner are the two biggest) and somehow I've finally seen the light and am eating carbs and protein at every meal. I was originally trying to cut carbs out completely, but somehow enough people made me realize they have energy benefits and in moderation they won't make me fat. This whole nutrition thing is beyond me, but I'm slowly learning.

So that's my story. Tonight is scheduled for yoga, but I might work on some martial arts. And of course lifting tonight. We'll see if we do squats again or just start doing some different things tonight. I'll let you know how it goes.

Bring it!

Day: 9, P90X Cardio X

Workout

P90X Cardio X Status: Completed Interesting night for P90X. It's Tuesday, which means Cardio X night, and we had some friends join us. Here's how it went down. First off, Heather tweaked her arm the wrong way. I'm not sure if it was from Core yesterday or from invisible murderous midgets who attack in your sleep. In either case, her left arm is completely bandaged up with a compression heat pack on the shoulder. She looks pretty rough and I feel bad for her; she looks like she's in a lot of pain. Our friends Jacqi and Candyce came over to join us for Cardio X, and with the new modifications to the gym there was plenty of room. Jacqi lifts with me, but she's been wanting to do more cardio and Heather and I invited her. We got started around 6:30, and everyone did great! Heather did was she could, but with yoga as the beginning there wasn't a whole lot she could do. Candyce doesn't work out much, but she kept up the whole time (with a few short breaks) and it was great to see her doing something awesome for her body. Jacqi pretty much kept up with the whole DVD. There were a few things she couldn't do physically yet, but she modified all of that stuff and never stopped moving. I was really proud of her! For me this was a pretty decent workout. I'd had a pretty shitty day leading up to the workout, but as soon as I got moving I felt a good rush of energy. Not as much as last week but I definitely felt better because I worked out. The yoga section felt really strong (Heather did call me out on my runner's pose for not keeping my back straight), the kenpo was solid, the plyo felt good and the core went well. Overall I was pleased with the work. So ya, it was a good workout overall. I think Jacqi is going to join us again next week for Cardio X. Heather said she might try Cardio X tomorrow too, but we'll see; we still have shoulders and arms to hit tomorrow night and I don't want her spending all of her energy on the wrong workout. Ok, that's all I've got for today. Bring it!

Day: 8, P90X Core Synergistics

Workout

P90X Core Synergistics Status: Completed Heather and I got started on Core Synergistics and the beginning of Week 2 of P90X Lean around 6:15 pm. Her back wasn't feeling to well, but I promised her I'd get her in the gym and that's exactly what I did. Heather ended up having a great workout! She did a lot more than I thought she was going to be able to with her back being sore, but she really impressed me. She really likes the Superman/Banana stuff too, and she did great! Me, I had a mediocre workout. I was really pumped to get in there, but once we got started I somehow lost a lot of steam. I don't know. I've been in a slump for the past few weeks, and it finally caught up with me the last few workouts. Hopefully I can push through the week. We didn't do the last ten minutes because people showed up for weightlifting, but overall it was a great workout and I'm happy with the progress!

Workout

Weights Status: Completed We got a late start, about 7:45, for weightlifting. Since we were behind we decided to do the jump squats again. Honestly, I'm starting to think these are harder than the regular squats. Ya, there's no weight, but I feel my legs way more at the end. We did 5 sets of 10 with a squat in the air on each. It was rough, but it helped us fly through the squats and got the cardio going strong. I'm a little worried that this is two workouts in a row that we did air squats. I want to get back into heavy lifting for squats, but if we keep starting late there just isn't time. We'll see what happens. Bench was next and I got started working on 175. I did 3x5, 1x4 and 1x2. Not my best numbers, but this was a lot of weight. And I had done pushups in core. But ya, I wanted to accomplish more. Hopefully I can make more progress next Monday. Rows were next and I did 5x5 at 75 lbs. It felt good but it's starting to get heavy. I'm going to add 5 lbs next week. Instead of chinups Mark talked me into some light sparring. We put on the gear and worked some muay thai and grappling. All of these things I really need work on. I did get a great workout though. My heart was pumping. I'd never really grappled before, and I want to start doing this more. I love mma, so I want to focus my workouts around it more. I did one set of 5 chinups, but at that point I was drained. Overall a good workout, but not really orthodox for what we usually do. There's talk about scrapping the weightlifting altogether and just meeting a few times a week to work out on whatever we want. I'm not sure if that's where it'll go, but it's been discussed so I figured I'd keep the blog up to date. That's all I've got. Cardio X tomorrow! Bring it!

Day: 6, P90X Kenpo X and 300 Workout

Workout

P90X Kenpo X Status: Completed I actually did this workout after 300, but because it's the P90X workout of the day it has to go first according to the app I'm using to write this blog. Heather and I got started around 4:30pm. Unfortunately she and I were both feeling the work from the week, especially in the legs! We made it about 3/4 of the way through, but when it occurred to me that I wasn't sweating because I just physically couldn't push myself any harder I realized I was just wasting energy. Heather made it further than I did. She had a lot of energy and was doing great. When I said I was done though she looked relieved and agreed with me. So we turned it off, and that's the end of week 1. Overall a great week with a mediocre ending. Let's see what week 2 brings....

Workout

300 Challenge - Week 2 Status: Completed I got started on 300 challenge around 10:45 on Saturday. My buddy Richard came over for it too. Richard works out a lot and we told ourselves we'd start this program together after the first of the year. This was my second time doing the work and his first, so here's how it went down. We started with just a quick warmup to get the blood flowing. Stretch, jump around, etc. Then I explained the workout to him. I kept the giant ball exercise in that replaced floor wipers, and squat jumps have officially added a second squat at the top by touching your knees. After explanation I told Richard I would go first to show him how to do each exercise, and he'd go second (since the gym isn't big enough and I don't have the equipment for both of us to do the workout at once). For week 2 I added a few reps to everything. Now I'm on 20's and 10's, which came out to 120 reps total. Not quite 300, but more than last week. I finished the whole routine in 10:49.3. That means I added on just over 2 minutes by adding on 28 reps. It feels slow to me, but I still managed to complete it in under 20 minutes, which means more reps next week! Richard went next, and he looked like he was caught off guard. He works out a lot, even more than me, and he's pretty built. However, he finished the pullups and got into the deadlifts, and by the end of the deadlifts he was moving SLOW! I knew exactly how he felt. Somehow the life just gets drained out of you when you do this workout, and we're not even doing the full workout! All in all he completed the program at just about 15 minutes. Hey, he still did it in under 20 minutes, so his reps are going up next week also! We both felt absolutely terrible by the end! The body feels so drained that you can only collapse and wait for oxygen to remember that it belongs in your lungs. But afterwards we felt great and were glad we did it. I'm going to figure out a formula to plug in x seconds per reps to see if I went up or down this week. That should help keep me on task. So that's Week 2 of 300! Wish me luck in Week 3 as I move up to 13's and 25's! Bring it!

Day: 5, Calories: 0, P90X Legs & Back

Workout

P90X Legs & Back Status: Completed Ow!!! My legs hurt! I do not like this workout and I didn't realize until today that I haven't done it since 2010. I did my best but by the second half could barely move. I did the pullups and what I could, but overall I'm giving today's workout a low C. Heather did great. I'm glad she had a good workout. K, I'm keeping this short. 300 tomorrow. Bring it!

Day: 4, Calories: 0, P90X Yoga X

Workout

P90X Yoga X Status: Completed Heather and I hit play on Yoga X around 6pm, and as far as I feel it went awesome! I hadn't done Yoga X in a few months, but I had a lot more stamina than I thought I would. I didn't take a single break until after the chair pose, which is the best I've ever done on yoga. Also my chair pose was awesome! The next set of the moving asynas was ok, but somehow my energy got zapped during that little break. Still, my warrior 3's were getting much better than before so it was good progress. Heather did great too. She took a few breaks, usually one every few poses, but it's Yoga X and she doesn't do yoga much. The first time I did yoga I barely did half as much as she did, and I was so proud of her. She used the yoga blocks to help her get deeper into the stretches which was a great idea. I wish I'd had yoga blocks the first time I did yoga. But ya, I'm really proud of her. We had people coming over for weight lifting, so we called it quits after the royal dancers. Still, that's an hour of yoga and the hardest part of the whole DVD. It was a very great yoga workout.

Workout

Weights Status: Completed We got into Stronglifts at 7:45. A lot later than normal. We got distracted by this video, but after a few views we finally decided to lift some weights. As soon as we got into the gym a terrible realization occurred to me. I just finished yoga and have legs tomorrow, and the first thing I'm going to do with Stronglifts is squats?! It didn't seem like a good idea. I threw to the group my problem, and somehow we all decided to do jump squats instead. 5x10. Since I'm doing these in 300 I thought it was a great compromise. We did them as a group with 1 minute rests in between and it was awesome! My legs felt just like they do after squats and we even got some cardio out of it. Plus I got to work on some 300 work! I'm not sure if this will be an every Thursday thing (though it's not a bad idea now that I think about it) but I liked doing the air jump squats. Shoulder press was next and I did 5x5 at 110. This felt great! My strength in shoulder press is returning and I'll ad 5 lbs next week! Deadlift was next and I hit 200 again. This actually felt easy. Well, easy is a relative term, but not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. The jump squats may have helped with that since my legs weren't lifting a lot during the workout. But ya, great work on deadlift and I'll be adding 5 lbs next week, taking me back to my previous max of 205! I finished with 3x6 on pullups. I was tired and didn't get my 5 sets like I wanted, but the pullups were good. I'll make up for the pullups during tomorrow's legs and back workout and on Saturday with 300. Overall a great lifting day! And we're almost done with Week 1 of P90X! Bring it!

Day: 3, P90X Shoulders & Arms

Workout

P90X Shoulders & Arms Status: Completed Day 3 of P90X Lean is in the books! Heather has an important meeting tonight so we got up at 6:15 and hit the gym around 6:50. Unfortunately the sound wasn't working on the DVD player, so we fiddled with that for about 10 minutes and finally said screw it to sound at 7. I haven't done a P90X lifting routine in months. I've been spending on my weight time on the barbell, and it felt good to use the dumbbells again. Also I got to use my new dumbbells that have a bunch of different weight settings. This is a fun workout. It's shoulders, bis, tris, repeat, rest. And you repeat that 6 times. I spent a little time coaching Heather through the stuff, but most of it she didn't need my help at all and she and I spent the whole time just working really hard. I love lifting weights and love how my arms feel at the end of this workout, and today I was definitely feeling a burn! It's great! Heather did awesome too. She used lighter weights than me and focused on higher reps, which is perfect for what her goals are. You can read more about her progress at Home Gym Chick. Also working out without sound is interesting. We just listened to music and followed along, but it was easy to get lost from Tony's pace. Because of the sound problems we opted not to do ab ripper today. That one would be too hard to do without sound since you're on the ground and not looking at the screen very often. I might do a little more cardio when I get home tonight. I'll let you know. Bring it!

Day: 2, Calories: 0, P90X Cardio X

Workout

P90X Cardio X Status: Completed Another day of p90x lean is in the books. We did cardio x today. This is one of my favorite workouts. My roommate does it a lot and I usually join him, and I've thrown it in many times in my past routines as extra cardio. I've never done it as part of an actual schedule though. Overall it was a great workout. I felt better than I have in a while on the yoga section (and subsequently am really looking forward to Thursday's yoga), kenpo I really felt like my arms were strong and throwing solid punches, plyo I pushed my hardest and jumped further than ever before, and I finished really strong with the core section. As always I passed on the Dreya rolls. I really don't like her for some reason. I jogged instead. But ya, I felt excellent afterwards! Heather did awesome too. She took a few breaks but she never once quit. She was covered in sweat at the end and looked like she had an awesome workout. She used the yoga blocks to help her with yoga, which really helped her hold the poses longer. As for everything else she stuck with me and tried her absolute best, finishing strong with a big grin on her face. I'm so proud of her. You can read her progress in more depth at homegymchick.blogspot.com. I like working out with her. I've never done a full program with another person before; I've worked out with other people, and that always makes me work harder, but never a full program. Having her there really makes me work harder, and at this rate I'm going to have amazing results! Tomorrow we're getting started before work, so wish us luck. Bring it!

Day: 1, Calories: 0, P90X Core Synergistics

Workout

P90X Core Synergistics Status: Completed Well p90x has begun. The girlfriend and I got started tonight with core, and man it was harder than I remembered. I did really well though. I didn't keep track of my numbers, but I'm positive I did better than ever before. I was really tired by the end and felt excellent! I'm glad I have a lot of my old strength and endurance still. I may have been exhausted, but I hung in there and I'm proud of my work. Heather did incredible too! She stuck with it, modified and did great. I hope she enjoys it. We're not gonna let each other quit and she's going to have amazing results!

Workout

Weights Status: Completed We finished around 7 with core and got started on strong lifts around 7:45. It was a decent break in between. I did squats at 175 again. They felt heavy and I'm going to repeat them on Thursday. The core workout probably was a part of that. Bench was next at 170 and I did awesome. I'll add 5 on Monday. Rows were next and I added 10 lbs. I felt great about them and will add 10 next week. Finally I finished with 5x6 on chinups. Great workout. It's cold outside where I'm blogging and I'm hungry. Heather made stir fry! Bring it!

300 Challenge Begins!

Saturday I got into the gym around 11am to begin the 300 challenge! For those who haven't been following, the 300 Challenge is 300 reps performed in 20 minutes, and is "supposedly" the workout test used for the guys training for the movie 300. Here's what the normal challenge looks like:

• Pullups - 25 reps
• Barbell Deadlift with 135 lbs. - 50 reps
• Pushups - 50 reps
• 24-inch Box Jumps - 50 reps
• Floor Wipers - 50 reps
• Single-Arm Clean-and-Press with 36 lbs Kettlebell - 50 reps
• Pullups - 25 reps

With that said I'm a little limited on equipment. I wasn't able to find an affordable box for the jumps and my kettlebells only go up to 20 lbs. Also I tried lifting the 135 up from the ground for the floor wipers, but I just didn't feel safe holding that weight like that without help. The link above has a modified version of the 300 workout and I picked a few of the modifications from it. Instead of the box jumps I'm doing body weight squat jumps (go down into a squat, and then jump straight up), and instead of floor wipers I'm doing V ups. I'm actually modifying the V ups too and doing them with a ball. Basically I take the ball between my arms, come up into a V and pass the ball to my legs, then bring the ball all the way down. Then I bring the ball back up and put it back in my arms, and once I've put the ball back down over my head I have completed 1 rep. Finally I'm just going to stick with the clean and press with the 20 lb kettlebell. Either that or use the 30 lb weights I have, even though for day 1 I used the kettlebell.

So my plan for this program is to start with 15's on everything instead of 50 (half for the ones that are split or only use one arm, and always rounding up), and once I can do a workout in under 20 minutes I'll add 5 to everything. That's how it started. So my first try at 300 looked like this.

• Pullups - 8 reps
• Barbell Deadlift with 135 lbs. - 15 reps
• Pushups - 15 reps
• Bodyweight Squat Jumps - 15 reps
• V-Ups - 15 reps
• Single-Arm Clean-and-Press with 20 lbs Kettlebell - 16 reps (8 each arm)
  
• Pullups - 8 reps

And here's the results of that. Well, I did it. In fact I did the whole thing in 8 minutes and 34.9 seconds. That's a hell of a lot faster than I thought I would, and much much shorter than the 20 minute goal. Like my plan says, this means I'm going up to 20's and 10's this coming Saturday. However, I must must say that at the end the workout I felt absolutely terrible! Drained like my soul got sucked out. I flew threw it trying to beat 20 minutes, and while I did destroy the 20 minute barrier I don't know how much more I could have done. 20's and 10's is going to be tough next week. That said, I can apparently take a few more breaks than I did last time, so maybe that'll make it easier.

To document it, I did the first 10 minutes of Core Synergistics before starting 300 so I'd have a nice warmup. That felt good.

Today starts P90X Lean with the girlfriend! We're both very excited to get moving! Also afterwards I have Stronglifts today. Wish me luck!

Bring it!

Rounding out Week 1 of Stronglifts

Last night none of us were feeling very motivated, but around 7:30 we got started on Stronglifts. As usual we did squats first. I upped the weight and completed 5x5 at 175. I'm going to repeat on Monday and next week will get back into the dreaded 180 lbs!

Shoulder press was next and it'd been a while since we worked these! I opted for 105 lbs, and that proved to be a good weight. I got through 5x5, and will up the weight by 5 lbs next week, but man I was tired after!

I did 5x5 on pullups after that. This is not part of Stronglifts, but it's what I've been working on for a few months now and I want to keep it on Thursdays while we do this workout. For some reason pullups are easier for me when I tuck my legs a little higher, and I did well on them doing that last night. I'm not sure if that's cheating though. I'm not using momentum to get up, I just find it easier to pull my body when I'm compact.

Deadlift was last and I pulled 195. I know I was doing more before this, but it's been a while since I lifted heavy and I want to work my way back up. Just 1x5 on this program for deadlifts, but I'll be adding 5 lbs next week and will soon be back to where I was.

For some reason motivation has been tough the last few weeks. The whole group admitted it last night. We still work out, at least with lifting, but none of us want to anymore. We're not quitting, but it's weird how the motivation has dwindled.

As for my own working out, somehow life keeps getting in the way. I don't remember being this busy or tired a few months ago, but somehow finding time and energy to work out on my own has really been a struggle. I remember having so much down time a year ago and working out made perfect sense to fill that time. Now I don't have any free time and I don't know where it all went.

I'm really really struggling to stay motivated. I wanted to start P90X this week, but distractions got in the way and rather than fighting them like I should have I gave in and just sat on the couch. I don't know how, but I absolutely need to start working out again, preferably P90x, ASAP or all of my work for the last year and a half will have been for nothing! Junk food, busy schedules, not getting rest....all of these were things I never had to deal with before but somehow they keep popping up in my life and I need to find a way to squash it or I'm just going to lose it.

K, I've had my rant. Wish me luck on getting back into the swing of things. My plan (I know, my plans are garbage these days) is to do 300 for the first time tomorrow with sets of 15. Wish me luck!

Bring it!

Day 1 of Stronglifts 5x5

K, P90X ran into a snag. Let's go over the weekend.

New Years Eve was incredible! We had a huge party at the house with lights and colors and a ton of people! It was a blast!

Sunday we slept in late, then slowly cleaned the whole house and rebuilt the gym. The last part took a lot longer than we thought, and after installing the new floor we left it a complete mess and went to bed.

Monday was somehow a work from home day, so we finished cleaning the garage/gym after finishing up my day's work. That's when tired REALLY kicked in from the last few days and P90X just didn't happen. The girlfriend and I got into the gym, made it through the warmup, and then she looked drained and I didn't want to push her. We decided that starting immediately after New Years was a poor decision and have pushed P90X Lean back one week. We'll start Monday!

Monday night people came over and I'd officially gotten my energy back, so we finally started with the 2 day split of Stronglifts 5x5. This is a different version of Starting Strength that can be done as a 2 day or 3 day split, but we've actually been pulling a little from it for the last few weeks now. Here's how it went down.

We started with squats (as always). Since it'd been 2 weeks since I lifted heavy I went down to 165 again. I did 5x5 (see where the name Stronglifts 5x5 comes in?) and felt really good about them. I'll be adding 10 lbs to the squat on Thursday.

Next was bench and I did 165 again for 5x5. These felt really great and I'll be moving up 5 lbs on Monday. It's good to see my strength didn't leave me after not pushing hard for two weeks.

The new exercise for this program, bent over rows, was an interesting workout. I did 5x5 at 55 lbs. It felt like a low weight, but the great thing about these lifting programs is that even with a low weight, in a few weeks I'll catch up to a weight that'll really work my muscles. That said, I definitely felt 55 lbs and really enjoy this exercise. You're bent over in an "L" shape and using just your arms you raise the bar to your chest. It felt good and when I focused on using my shoulder blades I really felt it in my upper back. Excellent!

This isn't part of the program, but we've decided to add in chinups on Mondays and pullups on Thursdays as homage to the original program (and to have an excuse to keep working pullups). I did 5x5 on the chinups and felt pretty damn good about the form.

So that was Monday, and sorry it's taken me a few days to get back on here. I planned on doing a workout last night but didn't get out of the office until a lot later than normal, and I wanted to spend as much time with my girlfriend as I could (she and I have been running around like mad men lately and I owed her some us time). Today is Wednesday and tonight I have every intention of getting into the gym for an hour when I get home from work.

Tomorrow is Day 2 of Stronglifts. Wish me luck as we bring back shoulder press and deadlift!

Bring it!