Today was Yoga X. I felt strong and like I was doing all of the moves to the best of my ability throughout the workout. My hip joints hurt a lot less on the Half Moon poses, but I can’t really stay upright on one leg for as long as they do in the movie…it burns plus I can’t balance for that long without falling!

I am also getting better at the balance postures…though there’s still really no way at all I can do Crane or the Shoulder Stand….my legs are just too big and my arms to scrawny. But oh well, it was fun, I got all the way through and had a good time, definitely feel like I am improving.

Well, I didn’t burn out so badly that I didn’t do the routines – I did them – Monday and Tuesday both – I just did not do them very well.  I did not “bring it,” as you are supposed to for these workout.  I think it probably had something to do with the food I ate over the weekend (out of town again, people always take you out to restaurant dinners when you visit them!) and the fact that I got home around midnight on Sunday/Monday night so I was tiiiiired.  On Core I skipped a bunch of the moves and was way tired before even nearing the end, and with Cardio I just got through it as fast as I could and skipped the Dreya Rolls again.

Today, however, I am pleased to announce, was a different story.  I woke up feeling fine and even though I skipped breakfast, I definitely “brought it” for the workouts today.  I started with Ab Ripper first, and for the first time since I started, I actually got to 25 reps on every single move (well, besides the last one, where you do 40 reps)!  I was very happy and proud, and it didn’t burn as much as before.  That’s a good thing right?

And then I did Shoulders and Arms and consistently did more reps than I did last week, and used a higher weight on a couple of moves than I did last week too.    Overall, today was a good day!  Now need to get geared up for the loooooong Yoga video tomorrow

Today was Kenpo! This workout is fun and goes by so fast. There are barely any breaks at all inbetween moves, and even on the actual “breaks” you keep moving, running and doing jumping jacks. Maybe that is why it seems like ti goes by so fast. I think I am a lot stronger in more of the moves already and it has only been two weeks. I still like this workout a lot. It’s fun and sweaty. I could get a little better at back kicks and staying balanced, and my left arm is a little sloppy on some of the blocks, but other than that I think I am doing pretty good.

Fun workout, only takes about an hour, little less, including warm up and cooldown!

Today was Legs and Back and Ab Ripper X. I know in my last Ab Ripper post I said it was easier to do if I did it before the big routine for the day, but I didn’t do that today, I think I just forgot. Last time on Legs and Back I found the bands were a little too easy, so this time I set them up so it was a little harder to pull, and made sure I was holding them when I pulled them in – I don’t think I did that last time. I might need to just get the next color of bands up in difficulty. Around the Sieber’s Squats my right foot started to hurt…I have never been a huge exercise fan besides fun exercises like water skiing, swimming, hiking etc…so I’ll admit I made a mistake and haven’t been wearing shoes for any of this routines. Everyone is barefoot in Yoga X but not in any of the other workouts I believe, so I should probably follow suit and start wearing shoes when I do these!

Ab Ripper seemed a lot shorter to get through this time, and I am still not quite up to ability to do 25 reps each time…I get to 20 or 22 usually, taking little breaks when I need to. But at least I do it and don’t skip it totally and never skip any moves, right?

That’s all for today, nothing special expect the possible pulled muscle in my foot Took about an hour and half all told.

I decided that maybe the reason I hated Ab Ripper so much last week was because it was after a workout, and after a cooldown, so you are all tuckered out and ready to be done and go shower – and then there’s still 349 moves left to do!  So today, I decided to do Ab Rupper X before I did Shoulders and Arms, and yes, this worked out much better.  I did way more reps than I did last time and I defintiely worked harder than I did last time on Abs.

As for Shoulders and Arms, I did pretty good and more reps overall than I did last time.  I’m thinking if I keep doing the same amount of reps or more I will just go buy some higher weights instead of going for more reps…we will see.

The weight lifting ones don’t make me as tired and sweaty as the cardio workouts, of course, but they are still work, and I get shaky sometimes.  I am doing good on time still with waking up earlier to fit these in.  Woke up at 730 today, started at 8, done with everything by 930.

Friday: Legs and Back…no Ab Ripper

Weekend: Rest, missed Kenpo X!

Monday: Did Kenpo X, missed Core

Tuesday: Did Core and Cardio, no longer behind!

Yeah, that’s right, I didn’t do this weekend Kenpo and it got me all behind. I also forgot to blog on Friday for some reason…

Friday I was probably just too busy to blog, with homework and work, but at least I got the routine in.  Over the weekend, went on a little unplanned road trip so that messed up my schedule and I didn’t do Kenpo.  I did hike though, if that makes up for it at all

Kind of sad I missed Kenpo because I was excited to blog about it!  It is definitely my favorite workout of all of them.  It’s so fun and you don’t think it would be hard enough to make you sweat but you do, and it feels great.  It’s funny the resident Kenpo “expert” on the videos is Vanessa, I wonder if it is just a girl thing to love this workout?

Today I did Core first, and then Cardio.  I just skipped the cooldown for Core and the warmup for Cardio so that I could combine them in less time.  It didn’t take as long as I thought it would.  I did a lot more of the moves than I did last week, and definitely “brought it” a lot better to Core.

No specifics today, as there’s too many routines to break them all down.  Happy I am caught up, lookin forward to weights tomorrow ~

Today was Yoga X.  This is the longest workout in the P90X program.  The first 30 minutes are the real tough parts, mostly with vinyasas and warrior poses.  For some reason I can’t do the moon poses for very long, my hips start cramping up really bad and it hurts.  After the first 30 minutes of that though, it’s just balance postures (which I think are fun, though I cannot do Crane at all even a little bit), and then a bunch of stretches…until you get to what Tony calls the “Yoga Belly 7,” which are 7 poses/moves that burn your abs, and a few of them are in the Ab Ripper Video.  I think it was kind of dumb to do the really heavy hard stuff first, and then make you think you are done and just going with stretches/balance/flexiblity for the rest and then spring the horrible abs moves on you at the last minute…I was almost too relaxed and burnt out to even try them.

It ends with some more stretching/balance poses (I can’t do Shoulder Stand at all either), and then some resting and breathing.  At the end Tony does some om’s, and the audio from that part totally freaks my cats out and makes them hide under the couch, so that is an added bonus of this routine

Today I woke up at 8, started at 9 (late start!), was done by 1030, and ready for work at 11.

I was very, very grateful that today wasn’t going to be too strenuous or use my glutes or leg muslces much (as they are still sore from yesterday), and this was all well and good until I remembered I had to do the 15-minute Ab Ripper X after I finished Shoulders and Arms.

Shoulders and Arms is a fun workout, I like it. My lowest reps were the Deep Swimmer’s Press and the Lying Down Tricep Extensions…while my highest were, well, all the ones where I used my smaller barbells Tony is a little goofy in this video, but I like it, it’s much better than other types of hosts where they are all serious and domineering. I did the bonus round, because these weight lifting videos don’t really work you as hard as the cardio videos, so they don’t leave you as burnt out towards the end. Tricep Rises are about the hardest ones for me to do, and there is no way I could do the shoulder flies with a heavier weight (yet).

But, moving on to Ab Ripper, my review would probably be a string of expletives if I had written it right after. That workout sucks. Honestly. And it’s weird because for me it doesn’t hurt my stomach as much as it makes my legs burn. Holding my legs up in the air is crazy hard, and like the girl in the video on the last move, they shake a lot. However, the redeeming factor of this workout is that it’s only 15 minutes long (including cooldown/stretch), and Tony repeatedly tells you it’s ok to do less reps than them (I probably averaged about 18-20 instead of 25) and take breaks if you need to (which I will probably have to do for the first few times). Luckily, you only do this routine twice a week, on the days when you do weights.

Today I slept in, started at noon, was done by 120.

Today was just the Cardio X workout.  I say ‘just’ because it is pretty short, only 45 minute total video, probably only 20-25 of actual workout, rest is warmup(long)/cooldown/intro/goodbye.  It is a fairly nice cardio workout, not too hard, but today my glutes and thighs were all sorts of sore from the Core yesterday.  I had to skip the Dreya Roll, couldn’t even attempt that, but got through everything else fine.  I didn’t do the jump at the end of the Squat X Presses…but someday!

I don’t much like the yoga stuff, I guess it must be a little difficult for me still, so I don’t like using it as a warmup, but of course I did it anyway.  This workout doesn’t really get hard until they hit the Plyo stuff.  Kenpo X is my favorite wrokout routine in the whole series, so I like Cardio X because it uses quite a bit of Kenpo in the first half of the workout.

Also, can I just say, the Wacky Jacks freak me out

Woke up at 830, started at 9, done with everything by 950

I have decided I am doing to do the lean routine, just because Classic seems much more geared towards body-building and bicep-meausring men, and the Doubles just looks like hell

So my first day consisted of Core Synergistics. I had already tried P90X before, last summer, and only lasted three weeks before schedule conflicts made me give up, so I am familiar with most of the workouts already (except Plyometircs, as they leave that out of the lean routine). At some point during Core Tony (the host) says that this will probably end up as your favorite work out — all I can say to that right now is that he couldnt be more wrong. This is a very hard workout and even if you are in excellent shape like the people in the video, you will end up sweating, hurting, grunting, and panting (as everyone in the video but Tony does at some point). This is of course a good thing for any work out – as long as you don’t hurt so much that you injured yourself – but annoying nonetheless.

I remember last summer doing this video the first couple times I just completely gave up after the “Prison Cell Push-ups.” Everything after that I just could not do at all, as I had basically nothing for muscles in my legs and arms. The Squat X Press, Steam Engine, and the Lunge Kickback Curl Presses are doable fine, but Superman Banana, Side Hip Raises, and the Dreya Roll were all pretty much half-assed impossible right now for me. (and the Reach High and Under Push Ups were compeltely impossible, I just skipped past them on the video). There is a “Bonus Round” (3 extra moves) in this video after the regular workout, which probably for the first couple to few times I will skip, as this workout is just about as hard as they come already without bonus moves.

Overall, took about an hour, woke up at 830, started workout at 9, done at 10, clocked into work by 1030.