In the past 6 days I've had ~7.5 hours of pretty intense workouts, and one of those days I didn't actually workout.
That being said, I need to be in tune with what my body is feeling like and trying to tell me.
I'm on edge of over-training because when I woke up this morning, my body was telling me to go back to sleep, so I slept for around 10 hours today. Even after waking up and getting some food and a shower, I just don't feel up to par, almost like I'm coming down with something.
I'm taking that as a sign to do a rest day, and see how I'm feeling tomorrow, and hop right back on to my routine. In those 6 days here is what my schedule looked like:
Thursday 1/20: Chest, Shoulders & Triceps (No time for Ab Ripper, time warner Tech showed up)
Friday 1/21: Plyometrics - The most intense and rewarding plyo workout I've ever done, my heartrate maxed out at 205 at one point, and I was floored for about 30 seconds and I only completely skipped Mary Katherine Lunges ---- I'm scared of them after blowing my knee out once, and almost doing it again the following week.
Saturday 1/22: Back & Biceps and Ab Ripper X
Sunday 1/23: Yoga X
Monday 1/24: Cardio X and Legs & Back
Tuesday 1/25: Kenpo Cardio Plus and Chest Shoulders and Triceps and Ab Ripper X
Apparently I forgot I was going to switch to recovery week, I think I might start that tomorrow. With how hard I've been pushing myself this past week, my goal is to leave the scale untouched until the end of my recovery week, and then hold off until the beginning of my next recovery week. I'm keeping track of my nutrition through www.myfitnesspal.com after reading about it from another coach. I might be down 15 pounds by the end of the next 5 weeks if I can keep my nutrition in line.
Pretty excited about what I'm doing for myself =).
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Thursday, January 20, 2011
A bit of an update
Had a couple of busy weeks, and my internet was out for a few days. Fortunately, that reduced my chances of distraction and allowed me to stay on track with my fitness =)
So now before I go and do my plyometrics (and possibly back and biceps later) I have a very informative article for people who want to see more information on why watching the scale to determine fat loss isn't very effective.
http://www.leighpeele.com/water-retention-and-weight-loss-2
It appears that if you're losing fat, those fat cells will empty of fat, and fill up with water because your body is still unsure of whether or not it really needs something in there. I really like and can relate to the 'whoosh' affect that they talk about in the article.
This is absolutely my last week of Phase II, otherwise I'm likely to plateau because I've spent almost 6 weeks in it. When I finish P90X I might start looking into some of the Crossfit programs.
Pushing play.
So now before I go and do my plyometrics (and possibly back and biceps later) I have a very informative article for people who want to see more information on why watching the scale to determine fat loss isn't very effective.
http://www.leighpeele.com/water-retention-and-weight-loss-2
It appears that if you're losing fat, those fat cells will empty of fat, and fill up with water because your body is still unsure of whether or not it really needs something in there. I really like and can relate to the 'whoosh' affect that they talk about in the article.
This is absolutely my last week of Phase II, otherwise I'm likely to plateau because I've spent almost 6 weeks in it. When I finish P90X I might start looking into some of the Crossfit programs.
Pushing play.
Monday, January 10, 2011
More Goals!!!!!
Over the past few days I've been thinking about things from my daily life that I'd really like to improve.
Nutrition - One that I'm diligently improving would be my nutrition. I sometimes think I'm way too interested in how different foods/vitamins/supplements affect the body positively and negatively. I'm consistently finding a way to plan out my meals and add in certain parts of my nutrition that I am missing, while keeping at a minor calorie deficit.
Sleep - Sleep is unbelievably hard for me to regulate for myself, and I feel that it's the #1 important thing for me on my list of self-improvement. I grew up with a curfew when I was fairly young, though I was sneaky and always found ways to break it and play my little handheld games or read a book when I was supposed to be sleeping. Even today I'll have worked a 3pm - 11pm shift, have to be back in to work at 5AM, and STILL stay up until 1-2AM.
Studies have shown that 1 month of doing something consistently can make the activity a routine and habit for you, where you will MAKE TIME to do the activity. My plan is to take advantage of that information, and apply it to consistently waking up at the same time each day. Since my work schedule tends to push my evenings to 11PM-Midnight area, I'll be looking to be up most mornings by 8:30-9AM, with a good breakfast and after some settle time, a workout to follow.
On the note of sleep/waking up, I recently purchased a new alarm clock. Specifically I picked up the Philips wake-up light because I got sick of my annoying and frustrating *BEEP BEEP* clock. I was skeptical about whether or not I'd actually get up to the light or not, but it definitely did its job correctly. I woke up on time, and I made sure to turn off my *BEEP BEEP* clock before it went off and tempted me to crush it into bits. The wake-up light is a non-violent way to wake up and the snooze button does not turn the light off, only the sound choice you made to wake up to, (whether it be radio, bird chirps, or some relaxing drumming - more expensive versions have more choices I believe) and is set to a permanent 9 minute snooze timer. If you got the correct amount of rest for the night you will feel ready to get up and move on with the day, otherwise you'll still feel groggy, but less annoyed.
Time to start working that sleep schedule =)
Nutrition - One that I'm diligently improving would be my nutrition. I sometimes think I'm way too interested in how different foods/vitamins/supplements affect the body positively and negatively. I'm consistently finding a way to plan out my meals and add in certain parts of my nutrition that I am missing, while keeping at a minor calorie deficit.
Sleep - Sleep is unbelievably hard for me to regulate for myself, and I feel that it's the #1 important thing for me on my list of self-improvement. I grew up with a curfew when I was fairly young, though I was sneaky and always found ways to break it and play my little handheld games or read a book when I was supposed to be sleeping. Even today I'll have worked a 3pm - 11pm shift, have to be back in to work at 5AM, and STILL stay up until 1-2AM.
Studies have shown that 1 month of doing something consistently can make the activity a routine and habit for you, where you will MAKE TIME to do the activity. My plan is to take advantage of that information, and apply it to consistently waking up at the same time each day. Since my work schedule tends to push my evenings to 11PM-Midnight area, I'll be looking to be up most mornings by 8:30-9AM, with a good breakfast and after some settle time, a workout to follow.
On the note of sleep/waking up, I recently purchased a new alarm clock. Specifically I picked up the Philips wake-up light because I got sick of my annoying and frustrating *BEEP BEEP* clock. I was skeptical about whether or not I'd actually get up to the light or not, but it definitely did its job correctly. I woke up on time, and I made sure to turn off my *BEEP BEEP* clock before it went off and tempted me to crush it into bits. The wake-up light is a non-violent way to wake up and the snooze button does not turn the light off, only the sound choice you made to wake up to, (whether it be radio, bird chirps, or some relaxing drumming - more expensive versions have more choices I believe) and is set to a permanent 9 minute snooze timer. If you got the correct amount of rest for the night you will feel ready to get up and move on with the day, otherwise you'll still feel groggy, but less annoyed.
Time to start working that sleep schedule =)
Monday, January 3, 2011
P90X Plus beginnings
I'm terrible at sticking to my old toys when I get new ones, and the case follows through with my workout program. For Christmas I got "P90X Plus" and have been very excited to give it a try. Now once again I have extended phase II so I can use the P90X Plus doubles routine in place of the Classic P90X schedule.
The great thing about P90X Plus, is that you don't stop using the classic routines and you just occasionally substitute a "Plus" video instead of the regular classic workout (For example Upper Plus & Abs/Core Plus to replace Chest, shoulders, triceps and ab ripper X), but then later on in the week you might do ab ripper X instead of abs core plus... without making things too confusing, you just swap up the workouts to keep variety.
I got a jump start on the Plus DVDs yesterday, instead of doing my Kenpo X, I tried out Kenpo Cardio Plus. The first thing I noticed was that the routine was shorter, but soon after I also realized that I don't stop moving, even on rest breaks. Afterwards I felt great, and felt like I worked harder than I would on Kenpo X. Later that night I found out that my abs were sore as well, so without even knowing it a lot of the moves were working my core as well.
Today was the true beginning of the "Plus Doubles". I started off with Total Body Plus and was worried. You move between sets very quickly in this and it is definitely a full body workout. Originally at the start, I felt like maybe it moved too fast, and I wasn't working the muscles hard enough to get gains, but as the DVD went on, I realized that it packed so much into a short period of time, I was exhausting my muscles without realizing it ---About 15 minutes after the workout, I realized that it had worked enough to cause tired shaky legs and tired shaky arms.
After that, I got a little food and rest in, and then fired up Cardio X to complete the doubles requirement for the day.
In Total Body, unlike what I'm used to in the Classic P90X resistance days, you don't do reps to failure(With good form), you do reps until you start feeling tired and get close to that burn and then quickly move onto another body part. These mini-rest breaks make you feel like you've got a lot more in you and allow you to pump out extra reps. I didn't realize the exhaustion until after the workout, whereas often times I feel like I'm out of pump near the end of the workouts, and was dreading the next move.
Tomorrow I'll get to see how Cardio Intervals Plus compares to Plyo, as well as Abs/Core workout compared to Ab Ripper X. I'll definitely be wearing my new HRM for cardio intervals to do my comparison with the plyo.
The great thing about P90X Plus, is that you don't stop using the classic routines and you just occasionally substitute a "Plus" video instead of the regular classic workout (For example Upper Plus & Abs/Core Plus to replace Chest, shoulders, triceps and ab ripper X), but then later on in the week you might do ab ripper X instead of abs core plus... without making things too confusing, you just swap up the workouts to keep variety.
I got a jump start on the Plus DVDs yesterday, instead of doing my Kenpo X, I tried out Kenpo Cardio Plus. The first thing I noticed was that the routine was shorter, but soon after I also realized that I don't stop moving, even on rest breaks. Afterwards I felt great, and felt like I worked harder than I would on Kenpo X. Later that night I found out that my abs were sore as well, so without even knowing it a lot of the moves were working my core as well.
Today was the true beginning of the "Plus Doubles". I started off with Total Body Plus and was worried. You move between sets very quickly in this and it is definitely a full body workout. Originally at the start, I felt like maybe it moved too fast, and I wasn't working the muscles hard enough to get gains, but as the DVD went on, I realized that it packed so much into a short period of time, I was exhausting my muscles without realizing it ---About 15 minutes after the workout, I realized that it had worked enough to cause tired shaky legs and tired shaky arms.
After that, I got a little food and rest in, and then fired up Cardio X to complete the doubles requirement for the day.
In Total Body, unlike what I'm used to in the Classic P90X resistance days, you don't do reps to failure(With good form), you do reps until you start feeling tired and get close to that burn and then quickly move onto another body part. These mini-rest breaks make you feel like you've got a lot more in you and allow you to pump out extra reps. I didn't realize the exhaustion until after the workout, whereas often times I feel like I'm out of pump near the end of the workouts, and was dreading the next move.
Tomorrow I'll get to see how Cardio Intervals Plus compares to Plyo, as well as Abs/Core workout compared to Ab Ripper X. I'll definitely be wearing my new HRM for cardio intervals to do my comparison with the plyo.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Legs and Back
If there is one workout that I absolutely do not like, and I'm not completely certain why, it would be legs & back. I would have thought I liked it, because Plyo is my favorite (lots of leg work), and I enjoy the improvements I get on my back on chest & back and back & biceps days.
I've noticed that I can't do wall squats very long like I used to be able to back in gym class and it's fairly frustrating. Because of this I think I'll be forcing myself to like the workout a little more, to work on some improvement-a new goal and motivation to keep moving forward. I think the large amount of lunges bothers me the most, because I'm constantly afraid of blowing a knee out (my kneecaps have a tendency to slide sideways on me, a lot). Lunges are sometimes sketchy in form when your legs are getting shaky and tired, and that's when you have to be careful to avoid injury.
I'm hoping that on Monday I'll be fully incorporating P90X Plus into the program, and I'm gonna get a headstart look at the videos to get an idea of what I'm in for... I've already seen small clips of the abs/core plus DVD and the banana cherry bomb exercise looks pretty intense. I wanna see how sore my upper body should expect to be the following day =p.
A final note, my sister told me that the Chili recipe in the P90X book is a really easy to make and freeze meal. She was correct, and I'll be making a LOT more of it. It's loaded with a lot of good stuff (fiber, complex carbs, protein, FLAVOR!). For my level, 2 cups matches up to a meal for me and that's a lot, making it fairly filling too. Time to gather up all my small containers and clean out the freezer, because I'm gonna stock up.
I've noticed that I can't do wall squats very long like I used to be able to back in gym class and it's fairly frustrating. Because of this I think I'll be forcing myself to like the workout a little more, to work on some improvement-a new goal and motivation to keep moving forward. I think the large amount of lunges bothers me the most, because I'm constantly afraid of blowing a knee out (my kneecaps have a tendency to slide sideways on me, a lot). Lunges are sometimes sketchy in form when your legs are getting shaky and tired, and that's when you have to be careful to avoid injury.
I'm hoping that on Monday I'll be fully incorporating P90X Plus into the program, and I'm gonna get a headstart look at the videos to get an idea of what I'm in for... I've already seen small clips of the abs/core plus DVD and the banana cherry bomb exercise looks pretty intense. I wanna see how sore my upper body should expect to be the following day =p.
A final note, my sister told me that the Chili recipe in the P90X book is a really easy to make and freeze meal. She was correct, and I'll be making a LOT more of it. It's loaded with a lot of good stuff (fiber, complex carbs, protein, FLAVOR!). For my level, 2 cups matches up to a meal for me and that's a lot, making it fairly filling too. Time to gather up all my small containers and clean out the freezer, because I'm gonna stock up.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Plyo... again
Plyo will always be my most complained about workout even though it's my favorite workout. This workout makes the following day a living hell due to the likelihood of you deciding to stand up, sit down, or crouch for any reason, not to mention any travel involving stairs.
I'm still fairly sore from Sunday's workout (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps), of which my triceps are the sorest, followed by my chest. My upcoming work schedule is a pain, so I'm taking today as a rest day and hoping to get some cardio in tomorrow along with my back and biceps (will start with this to be sure I at least stay on regular schedule).
Slightly related, after a chat with a coworker I decided to start looking at what kind of programs I'm interested in for schooling, since I've really been hoping to go back. The university I previously went to offers a "Human Nutrition" focus in their Food Science and Nutrition degree program. This is number 1 on my list, and following that would be Kinesiology, focusing on athletic training. I could definitely fit a little bit of each program into my semesters (fill in empty slots, since I've done most of my general ed requirements already), but I would ultimately try to focus on nutrition and maybe after graduating look into athletic training. This also means I've gotta go through the whole application and financial bells and whistles of love that is college, again.
In the past couple of years I've become a much more focused and goal oriented person, and I feel motivated enough to follow through with educational goals. My distractions are fairly minimal now and I could use a change of pace.
I'm still fairly sore from Sunday's workout (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps), of which my triceps are the sorest, followed by my chest. My upcoming work schedule is a pain, so I'm taking today as a rest day and hoping to get some cardio in tomorrow along with my back and biceps (will start with this to be sure I at least stay on regular schedule).
Slightly related, after a chat with a coworker I decided to start looking at what kind of programs I'm interested in for schooling, since I've really been hoping to go back. The university I previously went to offers a "Human Nutrition" focus in their Food Science and Nutrition degree program. This is number 1 on my list, and following that would be Kinesiology, focusing on athletic training. I could definitely fit a little bit of each program into my semesters (fill in empty slots, since I've done most of my general ed requirements already), but I would ultimately try to focus on nutrition and maybe after graduating look into athletic training. This also means I've gotta go through the whole application and financial bells and whistles of love that is college, again.
In the past couple of years I've become a much more focused and goal oriented person, and I feel motivated enough to follow through with educational goals. My distractions are fairly minimal now and I could use a change of pace.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
What happened!?
I'm sure people are wondering if I've abandoned the blog, or forgotten about it, or given up on my workouts.
Here is what has happened in the past week and a half:Thursday the 16th to December 25th were days in which I succumbed to the holiday season. Thursday night and the following Monday night I did some partying, and took part in mostly unhealthy nutrition practices. The rest of the week I kept my nutrition decent but lost motivation to keep with my workouts. I also allowed myself to enjoy my Christmas with free eating habits (Prime rib, sweets, soda, wine, etc.)
Guess what? I have found my motivation again. Today I picked up a couple extra hours at work, got home and got a little food into me, drank 64oz of water and relaxed for about 2 hours to let everything settle. I decided to do a complete restart of Phase II to make up for my week and a half of lax nutrition and exercise.
I would like to make this post a quick overview of my previous progress, and a photo of me today. I know that in my first post I explained my success through the first 90 days of the program (which was more like 116 or so days, because I extended phases due to missing workouts and illness). I figure it would be good to show some proof of the progress and where I'm at today. Below are Day 1 versus Day 90 photos from my first round of the program.
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