Day: 2, Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

Workout

Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit Status: Completed Oh man! I have finally started Insanity, with a real workout (not the fit test) and my first reaction is that I have not been lied to. Insanity is very appropriately named, and that was the hardest workout DVD I've ever done. Plyometric cardio circuit starts out with a warm up. At first it felt just like a slightly harder P90X workout. Then when we reached the finish point, when I stopped and went to grab water and thought "This isn't so bad. I can do this fine" Shaun T says again. I didn't even know what he wanted again....turns out the entire warm up! This time it was faster too! So I did it and felt drained after, and then we did it again WAY fast! That's just the warm up; P90X, 3 times, on crack. Yup. The workout itself is the exact same way. The first four workouts are pretty similar to Plyo X, except the breaks between moves is gone and the emphasis was on being fast. And again, we did the set 3 times. I did my best, but I have a long ways to go. Also, the second half uses a lot of jump down into pushups, and aside from my chest hurting from yesterday my floor kept falling apart! I have those puzzle foam mats in the garage, so I may need to find an alternative. My cardio has a ways to go, as does my endurance. That said, I still came out of this workout completely soaked, and there's not a doubt in my mind that I got a good workout. The saving grace is that it's a lot shorter. This workout was about 45 minutes, and since I'm so used to one hour or more, I didn't feel that intimidated throughout the whole thing. Insanity has begun. The next 60 days will be very interesting. Dig Deep!

Day: 1, Insanity Fit Test

Log Entry

Daily Note: The last six months flew by, and I have done P90X twice now! I remember years ago wondering if I would ever even try it, and I failed twice before. Then boom, six months and I beat it twice! I challenged myself and I did it. That's the thing I like about the home workout things. The body is nice, but it's not the promise of the body that drags me into the gym every day. It's the challenge! That 90 right there in the middle of P90X is just sitting there, asking if I can do this for 90 days. It's a challenge, and I brought it. And then I did it again! Now it's time for Shaun T's challenge. 60 days huh? I've done 3 sets of 60 days already. Bring it on Shaun T! I'm ready. Then I'll take GSP's challenge, and then I have a few more challenges of my own ready to go. I'm on my way. I wonder where I'll be in another six months!

Workout

Insanity Fit Test Status: Completed Insanity has officially begun. Today was the fit test, so nothing crazy....or so I thought going into it. This is the benchmark workout. Where in P90X they gave you time to write everything down, there isn't enough time in Insanity. Instead, every 2 weeks there's a fit test, and you measure your growth on that. My numbers were ok...nothing spectacular but all a few short of the test group folks' original starting numbers. I'm hoping I'll have major gains in the next two months. We'll see. One thing about this workout is the glimpse I got of what the Insanity workouts will be like. There were a lot of complex body movements, like bringing the knees to the side while in plank. Crazy. And fast! Even in plyo x, nothing was every incredibly fast. This whole thing was push push push, go go go! The next few weeks will be interesting. Week 1 has begun. It's time to Dig Deep!

Workout

P90X Chest and Back Status: Completed As scheduled, I did my first mass workout style workout for Insanity, Chest & Back from P90X. Just the usual stuff for this workout, but I threw in the resistance pushup thing I bought a few weeks ago. It's two resistance bands with a piece of fabric in between. Basically it adds resistance to pushups, which it did. I didn't do it for all of the pushups, mostly because I didn't have time to put it on between sets. But it really did add something, and my pushups destroyed me. I will say my numbers went down a little, mostly from the resistance thing, but also because I did Insanity first. The fit test I'll always do before P90X workouts because I want to be fresh for those. When I have to do an actual Insanity workout though, I'll do P90X first, then probably take a break and do Insanity later or after work. That's partly because I heard you should do weights first, because you get the same benefits from cardio whether you're fresh or wrecked, and partly because I know I'll flake on the P90X workouts if I do them after. They're optional, and I don't want to treat them like that. The Insanity workouts are not optional, so they'll get done no matter what. Big changes are coming for the body! The next two months will be Insane! Bring it!

Day 1, 90 and 180 pictures

From left to right we have Days 0, 90 and 180 (Day 90 of Round 2). I didn't lose as much weight this round, and honestly didn't weigh myself for about two months. That's partially because I feel weight is a poor indicator of success since I'm building muscle too. I notice somewhat of a difference in my stomach between 90 and 180, but not as much as I'd hoped for. I wasn't the best nutrition person this round, though, and attribute a lot of that to that. That said, I notice a great difference in my neck and chest areas, the latter feeling a lot stronger. Also my arms (which are hard to see in these pics) are the biggest and strongest they've ever been in my whole life, which is why I really look forward to continuing the resistance workouts throughout Insanity.

Nutrition is a huge part of all of these programs, especially as I move forward. I've lost as much fat as I can with my diet, and will be getting back onto the nutrition program starting Sunday. That, plus the additional cardio should put me a lot closer to my goal of being a rock hard sex magnet. But there's still some great changes being made between all three of these photos, and I am stoked about my success.

Expect a recap of P90X Round 2 sometime soon, but I'm glad I got these pictures up.

Way to Bring It Fat Free Jew! Way to Bring It!

Day: 90, P90X Yoga: MC2

Log Entry

Daily Note: Today is the final day of Round 2! I'm going to take pictures in a few minutes, and I'll put together a recap sometime today or tomorrow. Insanity starts on Sunday! It's time to Dig Deep!

Workout

P90X Yoga: MC2 Status: Completed The final Yoga: MC2 is completed. I'll be honest, it wasn't my best, but I'm exhausted this morning for some reason and I'm ok with the work I put in. I'm really glad I used this DVD for this round of P90X. It's an awesome routine and much more engaging than Yoga X. I don't know when I'll next do yoga, but when I get a program that has it in I hope the routine is as fun as this one. Maybe I'll do it again. See you in the future yoga! Round 2 is complete!! Namaste.

Workout

Martial Arts Status: Completed Just to document it, last night I actually did GSP Rushfit's all around fight conditioning workout again. This thing is like kenpo x on crack. Really really strong crack! It's a good workout and I broke a good sweat. Just wanted some extra work in the final two days. Can't wait to try this whole program in a few months.

Day: 89, P90X Core Synergistics

Workout

P90X Core Synergistics Status: Completed The final Core Synergistics is completed! I only get to do this one 6 times in a round, so I'm never too familiar with it when I do it. For that reason it always kicks my ass, and I love it. The pushups are all really crazy (I love the staggered hands ones in the beginning) and the full body weight workouts are nuts! The lunge kickback curl press things are my favorite in this whole workout, and I also love that I can do the entire plank chattaranga iso. One more day in this round of P90X, and it's Yoga! I'm ready to wrap this round up and get started with Insanity! Bring it!

Day: 88, P90X X Stretch

Workout

P90X X Stretch Status: Completed Feeling stretched. Running late for work so I'm making this short. Two more days! Bring it!

Day: 87, P90X Kenpo X

Workout

P90X Kenpo X Status: Completed The final Kenpo X of my life is done! I woke up early, had a protein shake, threw on the boxing gloves and got to work. I still hate the stretch section on this disc, but once the punching starts I always get into it. I hit the bag as hard as I could because I knew I wouldn't see Kenpo X again, and I tried out a lot of the stuff from the Machida-Do DVD from the other day. Mostly stance and movement stuff, but it really adds more to work on in this DVD. I also switched a few things up so I could hit the bag more. I switched the back kicks with roundhouse kicks again, and I also switched the side kicks with a side kick from a front position. Basically I would pivot my whole body from straight to side while I chambered the kick, and then I was ready to hit the bag with the side kick. I got that from the Machida DVD. Very cool, and again it added something new. I dig it. I say this is the last time I ever do Kenpo X because I've found a few workouts that I think are better. I wanted to do it as part of this round of P90X, but I don't think I'll ever do this program verbatim again. Next is Insanity, then GSP Rushfit, then either another program called ESP-XC (look it up....it's awesome) or develop my own program. If I do the last idea, it'll be the P90X schedule, but switching the discs for harder ones I've found (ie Insanity Plyo instead of Plyo X). I already like one of the GSP Rushfit DVDs more than Kenpo X, and expect to find some even more intense DVDs on the way, so this is probably it for kenpo. It's a good start, but I've outgrown it and I'm ready to move on. Kenpo X, thanks for everything you've given me over the last 6 months (holy crap, it's already been 6 months?!). Three workouts left in this round. One stretch, one core and one yoga. Bring it!