A sample text widget
Etiam pulvinar consectetur dolor sed malesuada. Ut convallis
euismod dolor nec pretium. Nunc ut tristique massa.
Nam sodales mi vitae dolor ullamcorper et vulputate enim accumsan.
Morbi orci magna, tincidunt vitae molestie nec, molestie at mi. Nulla nulla lorem,
suscipit in posuere in, interdum non magna.
|
Getting back on schedule after vacation is always a little crazy, but I did not expect my exercise and healthy eating to be disrupted quite this much.
Monday: After a long ride home on Sunday, I did not workout early in the morning. Then I found out I needed to work, rather than taking a scheduled day off, so my opportunity was gone.
Tuesday: I took the day off, but had a poor night’s sleep (four hours or so). I did not want to work out at all.
Wednesday: I got a better night’s sleep, I guess, but woke up with a severe headache. I actually put in the 30 Day Shred DVD, then reconsidered.
Thursday: At last, a workout! 30 Day Shred Level 3 (rather than Level 2, which I did a few times recently). I did OK except for the Plank Rows (aka Renegade Rows in P90X2). Those are always a challenge for me.
Friday: I tried something new! I haven’t talked about it yet, but my wife purchased Jillian Michaels’ Body Revolution recently. I am really curious to see how her workouts have changed, so I did Workout 1 and 2 from Phase 1 (30 minutes each). I will talk in more detail in a separate post, but I enjoyed it!
Saturday: My family was heading out pretty early today, so I was short on time, but I fit in three circuits of Bring It! Warrior Phase 1 Cardio. I used light hand weights where possible, to add some intensity.
On the recovery front, my foot (affected by a dropped metatarsal a few weeks ago) has been improving, despite all the walking I did on vacation. That’s a relief! I’m placing my full weight on it now, with little or no pain, and doing plyometric hops (not big jumps, for now) when the workout calls for them. I think the first few days of the week, when I was sitting most of the time and not working out, were a big help. Recovery is really a big part of the fitness equation, right?
How did I do with healthy eating habits this week? Let’s just say that Calorie Count and I were not getting along this week. (Actually, the person behind the @caloriecount Twitter account was supportive as always!) I did not log my meals during vacation, and I didn’t get back on track until Friday! Since then, I’ve done much better.
Tip of the Week: Recovery from injury and exercise, variety in our workouts, and keeping track of what and how much we eat are all important things. This week, I had to find my balance and set priorities.
 |
| Jillian! Tony! Please don’t fight! |
Here we go again… On the May 12, 2012 episode of The Jillian Michaels Show podcast titled “Jillian has some great ideas on how to reach your fitness goals,” Jillian discusses several practical tips. For example, the first one is “Be honest with yourself.” Are you really eating as healthy as you should, or are you sabotaging yourself with poor choices? Are you really working out on a regular basis, and putting in the proper effort?
Her second tip starts out in the same way: Be clear with your trainer about how they can help you. If you don’t have a trainer, you have to figure out what your goals are. Sounds great! Then, we seem to wander into bashing a certain popular fitness program again… Jillian says, and I am summarizing here, “I don’t want to bash this workout product, a series of DVDs. I’ve often watched this program and wondered who it’s for. Is it for someone who wants to get smaller, or someone who wants to gain mass?”
Here is the audio clip, if you want to listen for yourself.
As if to answer Jillian’s question (before she even asked it), there are testimonials in the P90X infomercial from people who lost a lot of weight, people (primarily men) who bulked up, and other people (men and women) who got a toned, lean, muscular but not bulky look. In the P90X Fitness Guide, there is the P90X Classic workout schedule, which balances resistance training with cardio, and the P90X Lean schedule, which reduces the resistance training and increases the cardio for maximum weight loss. So the answer is that P90X is adaptable to several fitness goals, but of course you have to choose which one you want to pursue.
By the way, by the time P90X2 came along, there were several men in the workout DVDs who lost over 100 pounds with P90X, and they looked pretty muscular to me. Monica Parodi is an example of a woman who did not have a lot of extra weight to lose, but who had lost muscle mass due to an extended period of bed rest during pregnancy, and after the birth of her twins. Tony Horton points out in the X2 Shoulders + Arms DVD that she’s got toned muscles, but she certainly isn’t bulky.
The P90X Nutrition Plan enters into this discussion as well. The plan as written has received some criticism for being an extreme low-carb diet, too high (or low) in calories, depending upon who is talking. Here again, there is room to make adjustments according to a person’s goals and metabolism.
Other tips in this podcast:
- Find your mantra (that is, your motivation to exercise)
- Be patient with the exercise program, and with yourself
I enjoyed the fitness segment of this podcast, and I know she didn’t mention P90X by name. Maybe I am jumping to conclusions here, and perhaps she was talking about some other fitness program. In any case, whether the infomercial is clear on this point or not, P90X is adaptable to fitness goals such as weight loss, muscle gain, building strength, increasing athletic power, or a balanced combination of these goals.
Related Posts
Jillian Michaels Criticizes P90X on Exercise Recovery
Other Jillian-Related Posts
 |
| Pam’s Twitter Profile Pic |
laconic: (adj.) using or involving the use of a minimum of words : concise to the point of seeming rude or mysterious (Merriam-Webster)
Full Name: Pam T. Blam, as far as we’re concerned. If she chooses to remain anonymous online, or if it’s just great personal branding, that’s cool with me.
P90X Introduction: She was chosen from the original P90X test group to be in the DVDs. Her workout skills made Tony say “BLAM, Pam!” We learned in the Core Synergistics workout that she was also a private investigator. According to the interview listed in the Other Sites section below, this was not quite accurate. Pam said she [did] “background investigations for people who need security clearances.”
Current: As you will see in the Websites section below, Pam wears many hats these days: Beachbody coach, personal trainer, health/fitness educator, author, speaker, and more! She even sells her own line of motivational BLAMbands (“What Would Blam Do?” and “Go Hard Get Strong – BLAM!”).
My Comments:
I became very familiar with the P90X videos as I completed several rounds of the 90 day workout schedule. I respected Pam’s strength and stamina, even as I wondered how she could remain so quiet, with Tony right in her face! That’s OK, we love her anyway!
In contrast to many of the P90X cast members, who seem to have dropped out of sight (as far as the Internet goes, anyway), I was thrilled to find Pam active online, and so friendly.
Official/Personal Websites:
PamTheBlam.com (of course!)
Facebook (Pam the Blam COACH)
Facebook (Pam the Blam USANA)
Twitter: @pamtheblam
Other Sites Featuring Pam:
Prior to the interview below, FitBomb produced this 2009 blog post: Who is Pam the Blam, in which her true name is REVEALED! (I was going for a dramatic flourish there.) It’s a great one-page biography.
This lengthy (written) interview with Pam from 2009 is found on the FitBomb website. I know it’s a lot, but she’s led a very interesting life! Here is a summary (click on the part numbers for the details):
-
Part One: Early childhood through early adulthood, and her pre-P90X experiences in L.A.
-
Part Two: Pam the author, and the P90X test group
-
Part Three: First impressions of Tony, being chosen for P90X, and talk about other cast members
-
Part Four: Being recognized in public, more cast members, how she likes other Beachbody products, and 2011 updates (video)
By the way, this FitBomb guy is my hero! He mentions during the interview that he researched all the P90X cast members. Sounds like fun to me, too.
Related Posts
All Cast Profiles
P90X Cast Profiles
Full Name: Christina Scafati Boyce
P90X2 Introduction: A registered nurse, and mom of five, including twins. Also a Team Beachbody coach.
Current: You can add Certified Personal Trainer and Performance Enhancement Specialist to her impressive qualifications.
My Comments:
Christina is tough. Another super-fit P90X2 mom! She’s demonstrating the resistance bands moves, but in this workout there’s really no difference in difficulty level if you pick the right bands. The Bodylastics bands I use make it easy to pick a specific weight, or combine bands.
Official/Personal Websites:
Christina’s Team Beachbody Profile is a good overview of her background and fitness journey, and includes contact information. The Boyce Body Speed is both a website and a YouTube channel for the personal training business she runs with her husband, Neil (also a Team Beachbody coach). They offer training for adults, and a specialized program for kids 8-18, which is a great idea.
Christina on Facebook
Team Beachbody profile
The Boyce Body Speed
BoyceBodySpeed on YouTube
Related Posts
P90X2 P.A.P. Upper
P90X2 Moms
Other sites featuring this cast member:
Personal training profile (Washington, D.C.)
P90X2 previews (YouTube)
I was on vacation last week, with a bad foot. We had lots of walking planned, though, and I generally try to fit in a 30-60 minute workout in the morning if possible, and the hotel has an exercise room. My goals were 1) Don’t overeat ALL the time (maybe SOME OF the time); 2) Morning exercise; 3) Don’t cripple my foot, and apply cold and elevate it when possible.
Workouts
Monday: Bring It! Warrior Phase 1 Cardio. This time, I modified it by substituting a few exercises for my bad foot (only a couple this week, as I improve). I also used a trick from 30 Day Shred, by adding light weights to exercises such as squats and lunges where possible. That brought the calorie burn closer to what I have seen with 30 Day Shred itself. I felt the same way with P90X Kenpo, that no matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t burning a lot of calories. Maybe I’m just not a karate expert.
Tuesday: Resistance, shortened because we were getting ready to leave for vacation.
Wednesday: Our first morning in the hotel. When I discovered there was an exercise room, I carried my photocopied Bring It! workouts with me, and here is what I found:
 |
| Balls, weights, and a bench |
 |
| Cardio machines and pull down |
This room had it all! There were even floor mats tucked away in a cabinet, for yoga or ab exercises. I decided to stick with Bring It! workouts for the rest of the week after all. So it was a Cardio day, as scheduled, using hand weights again during squats and lunges.
Thursday: Resistance, using the lat pulldown machine (not the resistance bands) and full set of hand weights (not my adjustable ones). I could get used to this!
Friday: Cardio, with an audience (not really) of two additional people in the exercise room. We worked around each other without a problem. It was supposed to be yoga day, but I wasn’t going to attempt that using written instructions in a room with other people.
Saturday: Resistance. I made it almost all the way through the Warrior Phase 1 workout, including Circuit 1, Bonus Round, and Circuit 2 minus a few exercises when I ran out of time. All that in about an hour!
Sunday: This is normally a rest day, but I knew I was going to be in the car a while, so instead I did Cardio. I was glad I did, too, since the trip home took almost twice as long as it did to get there (nine hours to get home, with stops).
Vacation Meals and Calorie Counting
OK, I admit it: There was no calorie counting this week, and very little thought given to healthy choices, except maybe fiber where possible. I failed in my pledge to overeat only SOME of the time. Now that I am writing this back home, I am glad to return to calorie counting and healthier eating. It’s fun to let loose for a few days, but it does make me feel worn out after a while.
Activity Level
We did a lot of walking, which is a big change from my desk job. It was warm out, too. That had to help a little with the calorie surplus I was racking up, right? Also, my foot was aching at the end of most days, but did not seem to get any worse overall. The next day I was back in the exercise room and ready for more sightseeing.
Bring It! Tip of the Week: While on vacation, if at all possible, add workouts and physical activity to your fun-filled days. Your body will thank you for it, especially if you overindulge in other areas.
|
|
