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!