I haven’t had time to talk about my P90X journey yet. I started last February, and I am finishing up round 4. Now that I have done it, I would not recommend doing multiple rounds of P90X one after the other. I guess it works for some people, but I have had difficulty since somewhere in round 3. My overall energy level has been lacking, and rather than making progress I have been gaining an inch or two around my waist. I will talk about what I have done right and wrong in another post. For now, here’s what happened in today’s workout.
Chest and Back is the first workout in the program. Every time I do it, I think of that first day, and how difficult/exciting it was to get through it. Over the months, my number of reps have not changed dramatically. I use resistance bands for pull-downs rather than pull-ups, and I have been pulling baaaack from the wall more and more as time goes on. My pushup reps have increased slightly, or shifted so that I do more regular pushups before switching to my knees. So what really surprised me today was that I got through the whole workout without hitting the Pause button. I moved quickly from one exercise to the next, maintained my reps from last time or even increased them slightly, and made it all the way to the end.
So what was different? First of all, I decided to try some Concentrace before my workout rather than after. This is a concentrated dose of minerals (similar to electrolytes, but they claim it is better assimilated by the body). Just a half teaspoon in 8 oz of water did the trick. In addition, I really did pace myself as Tony has told me… how many times? I didn’t tack on those extra knee pushups at the end of the first set to feel like I was wearing myself out. As a result, my overall workout was better. At the end I felt like I could take on the world. I really did feel bad that I had to skip Ab Ripper today, because I needed to leave early for work. (That will be under the “What I Did Wrong” column in a future post.)
Taking the electrolytes (or that Recovery Drink I never bought) and pacing myself are not new information, for sure. I am just happy to have a great workout this late into round 4, which for me has been a crazy ride. I guess sometimes you really do just have to “Push Play” and see what happens.
