Home Fitness Geek

Four weeks into this round of Bring It! workouts, I am reminded again that time flies when you’re having fun. Wait, am I having fun? Well, I can see that I’m making progress, based on my worksheet, and that’s fun. Here are some exercises that have improved this week:

• Tick Tock Lifts: I did all 20 twice this week, on the first circuit. On Saturday I only did 18, but I came back for 11 on a partial second circuit.
• My Wide Hands and Legs Push Ups count is up to 37 per circuit. Last week I did 35 on a good day.
• On Saturday, when I had time to do as many exercises as possible, I got through the entire Circuit 1, the Bonus Round (which I like to do early in case I can’t get through Circuit 2), and then I did most of Circuit 2, in 1 hour 15 minutes. This includes warm up and cool down using P90X2 Shoulders and Arms. I am doing more exercises in the same amount of time compared to last week, and even Monday of this week!

Monday: P90X2 Plyocide and neuro-integrated stretching. I like starting my week with this one! I am still a lover of cardio more than push ups, and this is as close as it gets with P90X2. It does the job of a cardio workout, and maintains my connection to the concepts I learned so recently.

Tuesday: My Resistance workout took 1 hr 15 mins to do 1 circuit, the bonus round , plus four extra from Circuit 2.

Wednesday: Warrior Level 1 Cardio. Today I really did Bring It!  I had a big calorie burn (for me, relatively speaking), and my timing was perfect, a 54 minute workout. I substituted a few moves (Flying Fighter Kick and Mary Katherine Leap from P90X2, the High Knee Run from the Striver’s level workout) for ones I don’t like or understand in this one. Overall, a much better experience than I have had in previous weeks with this workout.

Thursday: The Resistance workout was cut short because I was running late. I managed to do one full circuit, plus the bonus round, in an hour. I timed each section (warm up, circuit, bonus, cool down) and figured out that the P90X2 warm up is pretty long (18 minutes), including the stability ball, foam rolling, and stretches. This might explain some of my extra time, compared to Tony’s 55 minute estimate.

Friday: X2 Yoga. No skipping or stopping early, which for me is a rare thing indeed.  My shoulders are sore, though, so I took it easy on the Downward Dog when necessary. My Warrior 3 still stinks.

Saturday: As I said at the beginning, Resistance today was proof that I am making improvements. It was worth the feeling I had as I crawled away afterwards. No, not really, but I was tired for sure.

I was considering a switch to another workout program next week, to give my shoulders a break, or at least give myself a change of routine from these four workouts. I am curious, though, to see if I can make more progress before I end this round. Decisions, decisions!

Bring It! Tip of the Week:  Using your heart rate monitor or the clock on the wall, time each part of your workout, and write it down on your worksheet, to see how it changes from week to week. Sometimes the mere act of note taking (food journal, personal diary, etc.) can help you to improve.