Day 24

Kenpo X

I have officially advanced to Ninja status while doing Kenpo X.  I have gotten to the point where I am doing more advanced movements than the people on the video so in my opinion that means I could beat them all up. :)  Seriously though I have been really trying to advance Kenpo X because it is by far my strongest workout, and I can really see myself advancing.

Day 23

Happy Birthday to me!  Tiera bought me some Vibram five finger shoes and I was able to use them on my workout today.  I really like way it strengthens your feet and ankles, it really does feel like being barefoot but with the little bit padding that it provides.

Core Synergistics
Merriam Webster defines synergy as : a mutually advantageous conjunction or compatibility of distinct business participants or elements (as resources or efforts)

Well I would say Mr. Horton has been reading his dictionary because core synergistics is a work out that literally uses every muscle that you didn't know you had.  This isn't a workout that use you glamour muscles or a straight cardio,  it is a tough workout that leaves you exhausted in pretty much every muscles in your stomach and upper thighs. 

Day 22

Yoga X. meh. I like the fact that I am increasing my flexibility, but man oh manischewitz is it a long and tiring workout.  We had to wake up 30 minutes earlier just to make sure we could get it done in time for work.  And some of the moves are just so tough, its not like pushing yourself athletically because its all about keeping the calm within the storm.  and I am not quite to the right felibility yet, but I do feel like I am improving.  The good news is we are in recovery week, so that means no pull ups, no pushups, no Plyo, but we do have to do yoga twice.

Day 21

Kenpo continues to be my best workout, I try really hard to push myself...Not letting my foot hit the floor on the 3 kick set, doing jumping jacks the entire rest, and trying to through full body movement punches instead of little easy ones.  I feel like I am pushing myself, but Kenpo just doesnt leave me as tired as the other workouts.  I guess that is kind of the point, do a lite cardio workout so you dont kill yourself.  I still tend to burn in the high 600's calorie wise so its basically like running for an hour and I definetly have a fun time doing it.

Day 20

Yea buddy into the 20's!  Legs and back is a very tough workout and I do my best to try to advance my pullups.  I have always had strong legs from playing football so the legs portions are definetly challenging but I think they are pretty fun.  I really like how the different exercises isolate certain muscles, you can really feel it when you work out.  Tiera is getting alot better with these too, I have noticed a huge impact on when she started to where she is at now, and she doesnt have much of a back especially not with any kind of weights.  So it just goes to show p90x can be a great starter program also.

Day 19

We decided to try out the X-Stretch option instead of Yoga because we have to do Yoga twice next week, and it is difficult for us to get a good workout because some of the positions are really tough.  X-Stretch is a lot less advanced but it gave us the chance to work really hard and push ourselves during the exercises, so I think next week we will do X-Stretch instead of yoga for the first workout and see if it gives us better results during Yoga.

Day 18

Due to the arrival of the Hoffpauirs in Shreveport we decided to move our rest day to Saturday instead of Sunday, so today was a much needed day of relaxation.

Day 17

Shoulders and arms.  I have been alternating my weight a little bit using 15's and 25's  and boy does that 10 pounds make a difference.  Shoulders and arms is a more traditional workout atleast for as much as I am used too.   Once again ab ripper X beat me, I just cant get my stomach into p90x shape, but I am advancing little by little.

Day 16

The mother of all p90x workouts!  Plyometrics everyone who has done p90x knows this is a brutal workout, today was no exception.  squat, jump, leap, fancy hands, all these things sound nice by themselves but when you combine them all with Pam the blam the one legged guy, and the the leap frog guy it turns into an X-treme workout.  Today I burned 900 calories and had an average heaartrate in the 160's I also scored a record high 192 heart rate.  All in all it was an extremely tough workout and I felt completely dead afterward.

Day 15

Chest and Back the push pull workout is of course a really tough workout today was no exception.  My number one goal is to progress with my pull ups.  I figure if I can do one extra pull up for each set every week then eventually I will be knocking them out like they're nothing.  AB ripper X is still proving to be one of my hardest workouts, and after killing myself on the first workout I dont feel like I am progressing like I should on my abs.

Day 14

Kenpo X. 

I wore my heart rate monitor today for kenpo X and to "X" it up a notch I did jumping jacks the entire 1.5 minute break.  I pushed really hard on every exercise and I was able to keep my heart rate really high (upin the 170-180's)  and my heart rate monitor said I burned 900 calories.  THats pretty awesome considering how fast the time flies.  Kenpo is, in my opinion, the most fun workout of P90X.  I always wanted to take karate and just doing the workout makes me feel like Chuck Norris.  But hey if my heart rate monitor is right which it has been accurate in the past.  Not only is it fun but also a very successful workout.

Day 13

Happy Valentines Day!  On this valentines day I would like to list the things that I do not love. 
No. 1 Pullups holy crap these things are tough
No. 2 sneaky lunges whoever came up with this workout is a masochist
No. 3 One legged wall squats, it is crazy that you can take a seat and not even move around and be in so much pain.

Thats 3 of a really long list, legs and back is a pretty radical workout but the good thing is I can really see a difference in the amount of pullups I can do.  When we started I could barely do 2 and now I can do 6.  I am looking forward to the day when I can do atleast 5 of each kind because there are still alot of pullups that I have to use the chair for.

Day 12

Rest Day.  We spent Valentines Day eve putting up decorations and touch up painting over the walls where I tried to hang up art last week.  We got some pretty cool stuff and our house is now looking like a home.

Day 11

YOGA X!  Yoga is tough it was a little easier this time but man some of those positions are just hard, I am not looking forward to having to do yoga twice a week in week 4.

Day 10

OOOO double digits yea baby!  Shoulders and arms is a great workout but I have had a tough time with getting the weight right, number one I dont have a great set of weights and it takes forever to change them out, so that of course causes me to stick with the weights on the bar instead of increasing or lowering.  That being said this was the first time we have done this workout, we were supposed to do it last week but we ended up doing a different upper bosy workout on accident.  Beachbody does a great job of coming up with moves that completely isolate the muscles you are working thats what gives X-ers such great results, my arms were dead after this workout but because we had kind of a late start this morning we had to skip ab ripper X, dont worry we are doing it when we get home after work.  I dread ab ripper X because me abs right now are ridiculously sore, I cant even cough without shedding a tear, but I guess thats a good sign.  I hope everyone liked my picture for today it took me about 10 minutes to put together but I thought it was really funny.

Day 9

Day 9 of 90, that means we are 1/10 of the way though.  Not what I would call a giant leap but hey its a step in the right direction.  Today was Plyo which is one of my favorite workouts because it is so challenging.  It is tough it makes your legs ache and your whole body sore, but it is exciting so it goes by really quick, plus I am super happy because it is not followed by ab ripper X.  I cant even cough right now without feeling it in my abs.  I found a really cool app called Eat right 90, a guy made this app to couple with the p90x nutrition guide, I really need to put more emphasis into the nutrition guide, because everything I have read says that basically the difference between good results and great results are from following the guide.  So here we are on Day 9 and we are gonna do this thing right.

Day 8

Chest and Back

Tony Horton says "Bring it!"  Well ladies and gentleman it has been broughted.  Todays workout was a sheer test of willpower over strength, I obviously dont have the strength to knockout 20 pull ups.  However push ups, if done X like, have the ability to really test your mettle.  Let me explain:  In the chest and Back portion Tony tells us "pick a number" this now becomes a one on one battle against your muscles and your brain, because when you get to the point where your muscles are tired, you cant even pick up your glass of water because you are shaking so bad, or your trying to figure out whether you should be spending your break resting or hanging over the toilet, and you realize that the number you picked is five more reps away.  Well people this is an "X"ample of a test of strength.  Not so much physical strength, obviously thats important, but mental strength.  It takes alot too die out on a push up, hit the ground, and then do three more, but it can be done.  I now approach Day 9 knowing that everything I thought I could do, any weight I thought was enough, and any exercise I thought was too tough, can not only be done, but can be conquered, and then intensified. 

Day 7

I am Ninja!  This morning was Kenpo X,  I really like this workout the only thing is I dont feel like it is as brutal as the others.  While this is good in theory you have to take a step back and remember what we are doing this for.  The next time we workout I am going to use my heart rate monitor to make sure I am in the zone.  Which makes me wonder what is the zone anyway, I am sure I missed it somewhere in the p90x book, but does anyone know how to calculate your optimal heart rate?

Day 6

So Yoda (our dog) was sick last night so we kinda had a restless night.  Yes we skipped our workout this morning, but it will be done at 5:00 when we get off work, no excuses, It really sucks waking up early to do p90x.  But after not doing it today I kind of miss the feeling it gives me throughout the day.

Day 5

Rest day!  We moved our 7th day which is the off day so we could have Sundays off.  SO we spent the day putting up decorations in the house and watching the Super Bowl!

Day 4

Its cold outside but all the snow is melting as Tiera and I pop in Yoga-X.  Expecting a laid back workout we soon find out there are some of the most X-treme stretches and poses that I have ever done, but we held tight and finished, and I gotta say it does a body good.

Day 3

So the roads are froze, highways are shut down, and half of my employees called in for work.  But I still managed to get my "X" on!  arms are starting to feel a little rubbery after these pull ups and dumbbells I dont know how they manage to do all these sets of pull ups with out a chair, I can barely pound them out with a chair.

P90x Day 2

There is a reason why PLYO is a four letter word!  Great work out this morning with our special guest Joseph Champion, Joe's not used to seeing this side of 6am but I think we had a pretty good workout out.
I bought some of the workout recovery mix and we have used it the past two days and really does seem to help with the soreness, which is awesome!, but it also seems to put the "X" in ex lax, Ill leave that up to your imagination.  The thing I love about Plyo is once you get the momentum going you can really push yourself on alot of the jumps and it can be a really fun workout, it also lets you know right after that you just had a good workout, because it doesn't take very long to feel the burn. 

Day 1

Alright so waking up at 6:00 in the morning, putting on running shorts, and working out with Tony Horton didn't really seem like it would be very much fun.  I kind of had the advantage because I have done early morning runs in the past but I am really impressed that Tiera even rolled out of bed!  All in all day 1 was a pretty good workout pull ups of course are brutal but I am really hoping to advance through this program to the point where I can get pound out at least 10.  I don't think working out in the morning is going to be that hard to do throughout the process, but I am definitely going to get pickup a bunch of 5 hour energy, they may take a min to kick in but they seemed to act pretty fast.  I don't know if Tony would approve of 5 hour energy but its the best option I could come up with.