Day 24: Core Synergistics

These recovery tapes are full of innovative stuff. I'm sure I'm getting a daily dose of yoga and kenpo cardio in every day, plus, the benefits of crazy exercises like Banana and Superman. I did not engage my core as much during this workokut (even though Tony says to) because half the time I wasn't able to do them. (Sphinx pushups? I was going to break my wrists a little)

Almost to day 30 though!

For Day 25, I did Kenpo with only drinking a protein shake and crackers after that... for my day of fast, I did not eat until 5pm. That was torture!

Day 22: What should have been recovery...

Due to my need to P-A-R-T-Y, I ended the week by putting off Kenpo for about two days. If you have been reading, I don't really like yoga because I can't stand doing stretching and poses for a long time. I prefer Kenpo to be 1.5 hours rather than Yoga, but I didn't write the program.

Anyways, I made up for it all today (day 22, start of Week 4: Recovery) by doing Kenpo X and switching it up and trying out Cardio X. I was doing the first workout in the living room where there's a waist up mirror, and I noticed some real definition peeking in my whole upper body. I could even see the abdominal muscle lines showing right above my tummy. I got so excited that I pulled off my shirt and did the rest in my sports bra! But then I grabbed my stomach and still could do the moldy thing with the skin there... not so bad on the "love handle" sides, but I've still got the doughy doughnut consistency around the belly button.

[And after pulling out the navel ring 2 months ago in an attempt to be more mature, I p
pinched the stud back in its place where it WILL look good in 2 more months.]

...Back to the story. That's when I decided to swap out Yoga and try the Cardio. Little did I know that the cardio workout included Yoga as a warmup (damnit) and Kenpo, which I just finished (so my knees were definitely feeling overused). Plyo and the addition of Wacky Jacks were a good supplement to the Kenpo I had, though. I can't believe a silly little move like Wacky Jacks could make my outer thighs and obliques feel so much burn! It's ridiculous!

Looking ahead on the calendar, I do Kenpo on Ash Wednesday, a Roman Catholic day of abstinence and fasting. I am going to need some nourishment for this, and I fear I will have to turn to the bread and water diet for this particular day, in order not to crash hard...

Chocolate and junk food

I did my Shoulders and Arms and Abs with Erin today.

Doing the exercises together with another person definitely keeps you in check. ESPECIALLY the Ab Ripper X routine. I think I actually killed myself this time.

Since the return of chocolate in the household due to Valentines' Day and all its glory (mind you, this is only one bar of chocolate I keep feeding on, its like the never-ending Hershey's Bar), she's advised me to keep all the junk food during the midday (all before 6pm) when the metabolism is at its highest peak. Good tip.

Bring it! Next week is all "recovery"!

Day 15

Strength training was a little rough for the day after skiing. My neck and knees were a little sore from it and ab ripper was just not helping my neck strain. But I finished the workout.

Diet has been so so. Some days I'll be really really good at starting, then the chocolate around the house (there hardly is ever any chocolate in the house, but low and behold--Valentines Day is around)... my goal every day has been to eat at least 3 things from the top two Tiers of the Michi Ladder. Majority out of the first 15 days has been YES, DIET IS FOLLOWED. I just don't know if I can give up drinking :( It's only a weekend thing...?!

Day 10 results...

I just measured myself (except weight) and I am exactly the same measurements as I was 10 days ago. I think I added a half inch to my chest... I think.

Worked for me

Ahh.... chest and back once again. The pushup/pullup drill.

This time I used a chin up bar. My arms are swollllll but lookin good already!
And I can do much more on my repetitions this time, which shows the progress I am already making.

Tip of the day: Dive Bombers can be well executed if you picture yourself in the line of enemy fire and you can only travel via trench under barbed wire. You must follow the direction of the ditch and cannot have your body touch the ground.

Or you can always picture the fact that money is involved and you cannot win a million dollars if you make your goal repetition. Whatever works.

Day 7: X Stretch

I could have taken a day off (as this was a lazy Sunday) but the guilt ate me up and so I popped the DVD in.

Started off like yoga, but then went into a whole body stretch that made me feel better in the end. I especially like the shoulder stand thing into the plough--I used to be able to do that full range but after today, I know I've got to keep working on my flexibility.

Goal for the 90 days: finish the follow through for the plough and have the knees reach past the ears and touch the floor.

Most likely I might not post for the next two weeks because they follow the same 7 day routine. I'll post if anything new comes up. Until then...

Day 6: Kenpo X

What a good cardio routine after some strenuous yoga poses! Kenpo is your typical kickboxing routine, however, with my previous experience in kickboxing and tae-bo related drills, this one did not seem very tiring. It was overall a good workout; it could act as a supplementary workout to another weight training routine. I was worried at first because last night I went out and drank a little and even smoked a cigar. That hurt the lungs a little last night, but I experienced no respiratory problems this afternoon. :)

Tomorrow is rest/Stretch, considering going for a short jog though, to add some cardio to the Classic route. Week one almost over.

Day 5: Legs & Back

This one wasn't as bad as the others. Just some lunges, wall sits, and calf exercises to make it burn a bit. The dvd was good because it included Ab Ripper X at the end of it, and most of it was able to complete and feel a nice ab burn. I am really enjoying the fact that the 3rd time I got to it, it became familiar and easier. Pretty awesome. A nice break from that Yoga business.

Tony started yelling some stuff, telling people to work harder. Great contrast from the piece yesterday. Sometimes we can be really lazy and not want to go through with it and finish it, but it helps to have someone in your face once in a while and then you remember why you wanted to do all this in the first place.

Day 4: Yoga X

I was wrong... its 1 hour and 30 minutes of ridiculous awkwardness! As I was just about to give up on the difficulty at the halfway mark of 45 minutes, we did our last Vinyasa! On to balance poses and other stretching. I get so antsy with workouts that long, especially when I am not running or doing something to keep my attention. I don't own a yoga block, so some of the moves I am modifying the execution. I get to do yoga next week... not looking forward to it, but I hope I can be better at it next time.

I noticed a slight carpal tunnel in my wrists as I was doing multiple vinyasas and upward/downward dogs (my favorite line from Tony is "...They'll put you on the cover of Downward Dog Magazine...") and that's one of the reasons why the first 45 minutes of Yoga wasn't so pleasant. I'm very proud of myself finishing the entire workout period. It is worth it to get to all the stretching in the end.

Don't give up. Do your best, forget the rest, and remember why you started in the first place.

Day 2 and 3: Plyometrics & Chest and Back

Yesterday I woke up with soreness in the arms which was a great feeling! Plyo X has to be one of the most active workouts that absolutely must be done on the lowest floor of your house. Jumping up and down and all around got tiring, but I stuck it out for all of them--30 sec of willpower--and sweating like a maniac... loved the results and the heavy breathing. I don't have a heart rate monitor, so I have no idea if I am "doggin'" it as Tony Horton would say, but I can only do what I can do, right?

Chest and Back this morning was a little rough to get into, partly because my arms were still feeling a little sore from Monday. Lucky for me, Chest and Back could be done in my bedroom without waking up the roommate. I didn't have enough time to run downstairs and grab the green band, so I did these tough exercises with the red band (the more resistant one). I feel like since I started the program with the harder resistance band, I'm going to fall into a bulk trap. I'm still not sure what I feel about big muscles since that is what I'm trying to fall away from (if you know me, you have noticed before my big arms)--I want the sexy model arms but it looks like I have to starve myself first... which I won't do!

Ab Ripper X is one of those programs where you jump in whenever you can and the people in the video are viewed as SuperGods for being able to complete these exercises. 25 repetitions for most of them and they are not your average crunches. One thing I can definitely say I'm working (and I can feel it) that I do not often work is the hip flexors. Hip flexors and thigh muscles. You can feel them burning early on in the bicycle and In&Out portions. Looking ahead, Ab Ripper X is done MWF, so with the amount of times I get to burn, it should become easier (fingers crossed).

Tomorrow is Yoga X... I remember it from 2 years ago: One hour of ridiculous awkwardness!

Day 1: Chest and Back

Welcome to the start of a journey!

I started P90X without completing the initial Fit Test--which is due to a faulty chin up bar--but I will soon get into it when I have a spare minute or two to do it. For the time being, I am committing an hour of workout first thing in the morning (or almost negative first thing in the morning because its actually before the time I usually have to wake up) to get it out of the way.

In the advice given by my dear friend Sandy:

If you have to eat a frog, eat it first thing in the morning then you have the rest of your day to enjoy. Otherwise if you put it off...you will be preocupied all day with the frog. So just eat it first thing in the morning.

Below are some pictures I took in January 2007 doing this very program. My roommate at the time had the DVDs, and I wasn't starting flight school until April (which again, is my goal month this year, 2 years later). Quite honestly, I cannot remember why I did not move onto Week 4 when I reached it, I must have gotten off track and then talked myself out of it)



Yes, these pictures are a bit outdated, but I'm not comfortable in asking my male roommate to take pictures of me with my beer belly out. Perhaps when I feel more comfortable I'll take the pictures of truth, but until then I'll be staring at these wishing I had at least a bit of definition from the body I had back then.

I am hoping that I can stick to the program and not let it fall away like I did the last time. I know that it will work, and I've got until the end of spring break to get it done. Well, now that February is a tiny month, it might spillover to May -- let's hope it works some magic by day 30 :)

Chest and Back this morning was very modified; I used resistance bands in place for pull ups and did not feel challenged. The push-ups part, however, were tough considering I haven't done a physical readiness test since April of 2008. I still lack a chin-up bar. Due to time restraints (improper planning on my part) I wasn't able to finish more than 6 minutes of Ab Ripper X. I realize that it is going to be difficult and awkward the first times, but the abdominal muscles will eventually get used to it and I'll be able to finish a full 25 reps for each exercise.

My arms are already feeling the weight of it, and waking up early only pushed me to take a nap. I am starting to adjust my sleeping schedule slowly as flight training becomes more and more.

I am really excited about this and am looking forward to the results!