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I recently completed another round of P90X, sort of a “Lean” variation with the Striver Level 2 workout from Bring It!, and I knew it was going to be about the same time as the estimated delivery date for P90X2. Then it arrived, on December 8, almost three weeks ago…
My family decided to surprise me, by telling me the charge had been put on my credit card that day (true), so it should be arriving “soon.” They hung the contents of the package in a doorway, as shown, and I walked right past it all. It’s actually a dark hallway, if the lights aren’t on, OK? When I came back down the hallway, they were all just staring at me… Then I got really excited!
I have mentioned before that I came into the P90X “family” pretty late, just a couple of years ago. I know there have been some updates (P90X Plus and Tony Horton One on One), but I wasn’t ready to spend the money yet. Almost a year ago, I had the opportunity to meet Tony during his Bring It! book tour, and the book helped me out of an exercise slump. Now P90X2 is here, and it feels like I waited until just the right time for all these major events in Tony Horton/P90X history… Or something like that, anyway.
I have taken the past few weeks to enjoy the holiday season and prepare for round 1 of P90X2. Although my previous blog entries are certainly not a complete description of my experiences with P90X, after seven rounds (more or less), I was using the program in “maintenance mode” and not making too many improvements. Not a plateau, exactly, because I am happy to have maintained my weight and waist size all this time, without being “on a diet” but monitoring my calorie intake. Sometimes “monitoring” is not the same as “limiting” my calories, but I always try to be honest with myself.
I hope this new series of blog entries helps people to learn more about P90X2, and maybe pick up some helpful tips from firsthand experience.
My P90X2 Goals
Thanks to my previous weight loss and exercise efforts, I am still at my goal weight, and my stomach is flat. Of course, the grass is always greener on the other side of the street, as they say, and I have looked on with envy at the P90X success stories (now even more impressive with the P90X2 promotional videos). I suspect that I have not achieved that level of success because my calorie-conscious eating habits are not as strict as the P90X Nutrition Guide (now updated for P90X2, of course). Also, the parts of the P90X program which always suffered from my lack of time or procrastination were the Ab Ripper and Yoga workouts. I have made my peace with yoga as a workout that’s good for the core muscles, and I wish I had made time for Ab Ripper more often by shortening the main workout as needed, or putting in the 20 minutes at night. Anyway, looking ahead to P90X2, my two main goals are:
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I want to see my six pack abs. I know they are there, and probably not too well hidden, but I don’t have that sculpted look yet.
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I want to be “Pull Up Boy” (and Push Up Boy, if possible). As I went through P90X, I did my best with resistance bands and push up stands. I have certainly made progress. Now I have a new set of resistance bands, and the new P90X2 workouts promise to improve my body so I will be able to “work harder than ever before.”
Questions or Feedback
Please leave a comment and let me know if you are interested in P90X2, or if you have any experience with the program. If you have any questions, I would be glad to help. If you would like to support my blogging efforts, please visit any of the links on the page. Thanks!
P90X2 is all about working on the core muscles, and improving stability through exercises on unstable platforms. Functional fitness, as they call it. I guess we’re starting with the basics, as the title X2 Core implies, but also starting with a bang. During all my rounds of P90X, there were certain exercises where I felt less confident, where it seemed that if I skipped “that one” and focused on the others, it would be OK. Who would know, right? Well, apparently someone was watching.
It was obvious with the first exercise, called the Sphinx Plank Crunch. P90X fans will recognize the Sphinx push up, in which you start on your forearms, lift your elbows and arms off the ground, and go back down. I was never very good at those. After a while, I skipped them entirely, or substituted a “one arm up, then the other, then down, down” variation. So this is how it begins… SPOILER ALERT: I have gone through all the Phase 1 workouts, and there are several exercises involving the Sphinx. As a matter of fact, there is another in this workout: The Ryan Sphinx Twist Crunch.
Another pet peeve of mine from P90X was the Warrior 3 position in the yoga workout. As a matter of fact, I got tired of trying that whole section (beginning with Warrior 3 through to the balance postures). I could never keep my leg straight and level, balance was not my friend, etc. So of course, exercise 2 of this workout is the Warrior 3 Cross Crunch. Ugh! Again, there are several exercises throughout the Phase 1 workouts based on this position. Definitely an “unstable platform” for me!
The other exercises in this workout include familiar ones like the boat (yoga and core), pushups using an optional medicine ball, the Dreya Roll (also with a medicine ball), and a few more, as well as new-to-P90X moves like the burpee (stand up, get down flat on the floor, perform a push up or some other move as specified, get back up). You can see the progression from P90X to P90X2, but it’s definitely a whole new game. Is this how the Power 90 graduates feel when they start P90X?
What is strikingly different with the new P90X2 phases is the workout schedule. As I mentioned at the beginning, core strength is developed throughout the program, so the Ab Ripper workout (new and improved, of course) is only done once a week. Not today, thank goodness! Also, recovery days are scheduled on day 3 and day 7. They explain the importance of recovery in the P90X2 Fitness Guide, of course. I am still working my way up to the level of difficulty that will require serious recovery. I feel sore, of course, but I will be ready for Plyocide tomorrow!
Have you started P90X2 yet? Do you have any experiences, tips or tricks to share about some of the more well-known exercises (like the burpee)?
P90X2 Tip of the Day: Embrace the changes in P90X2 compared to P90X. Yes, it’s different. It will also help you to improve in a different way than P90X did.
August Update
Hmm, it’s been a while (once again). Don’t worry, it’s not because I have abandoned the good habits Jillian and Tony taught me. On the contrary, I have continued to work out on a regular basis, I seem to be making progress on my slowly expanding waistline, if that makes sense, and I made an important pre-purchase recently…
Workouts
Sometime after my previous post, I had some trouble with my Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD. It just wouldn’t play in my basement DVD player, where I like to work out. I don’t see any scratches on there, and the DVD player works fine otherwise. At that point, I had been using it for about three weeks anyway, so I decided to mix it up (again) by going back to the workouts in Tony Horton’s “Bring It!”. That was how I structured my workouts for the month of August, with a relaxed schedule of cardio, strength, and treadmill workouts, 45-60 minutes, five or six days per week.
The big news is that I have pre-ordered P90X2, which will be shipped in December. I didn’t order the package with the exercise ball and foam roller. As with P90X, I think I will purchase the accessories elsewhere. I suppose there’s time to change my order if I decide they are really offering a good package deal, but putting down the money for the DVDs is plenty for me right now.
Nutrition
For 19 days last month, I was at a calorie deficit, or about 100 calories surplus. That’s pretty good, I think. There were a couple of high calorie days around my wedding anniversary, which is OK, and the other “high” days were not too bad (300 calories surplus, or less). I did have a run of about a week where I ran a surplus every day, but as you will see below, my weight was not adversely affected.
Health and well-being
I am still trying to figure out my sleep deficit problems. Nothing new there. I could certainly benefit from a new mattress, from quieter surroundings (when the air conditioners are removed from our windows), and from more time in bed, plain and simple.
I have lost two pounds overall, and my waist size is shrinking slowly, back to where I would like it to be.
Update
Well, it’s been three weeks, and it’s great to be back! I’ve been hanging out with Jillian Michaels more than with Tony Horton these days, reading Jillian’s book Unlimited, listening to her podcast (which, unlike the Beachbody podcast, is NOT a wholesale infomercial), and revisiting the 30 Day Shred workout DVD. I’m even looking at the new Rip 60 workout system, which Jillian developed with MMA fighter Georges St. Pierre as an obvious “Rip-off” (ha ha, I mean “alternative”) to P90X. I want to write a blog post comparing the two, but I can’t afford the $120 (familiar price) for Rip 60, so it will have to be a feature comparison. Time will tell if my next fitness purchase will be this or P90X: MC2. Since Georges is a French Canadian like I am, maybe it’s my dessstinyyyy…
Workouts
I really haven’t been working out too hard, to be honest. Well, I guess I should put that in relative terms. I have been doing Jillian’s 30 Day Shred, as mentioned above, and tacking on a 30-minute-or-less treadmill session. On the treadmill, I am not really focused on a goal, just alternating walking and running with not too much incline. In that context, of course 30 Day Shred (level 2 and 3) is an intense 25-minute workout, and I am still feeling it when I hit the treadmill. It’s certainly not a one hour or more P90X workout, but it gets the job done for now. At the end of 30 days, I think I will go back to Tony Horton’s Bring It! for another month.
Nutrition
A 30 day snapshot of my Calorie Count shows that I was at a calorie deficit for 13 days, pretty close to breaking even on 10 days (give or take), and for the rest, anywhere from 200 to 1000 calories over my daily calorie burn. Those days were spread out, with two really high ones about two weeks apart. Overall, not so bad. I have been maintaining my weight and waist size, as the “ripped” physique continues to elude me. At least I can proudly say that I am being honest about what I eat, and there’s always room for improvement.
Health and well-being
True confession time… About a week ago, I was really tired after a bad night’s sleep followed by a workout, and I lashed out at my wife (verbally) during breakfast. It was undeserved on her part, and it was a clear indication to both of us that my poor sleeping habits have come to a new low. I have renewed my determination to get a good night’s sleep most of the time, which for me seems to be a difficult task. Often I am in bed at the right hour, but something will awaken me at 3 AM, for example, and I will lie there unable to get back to sleep. That’s the primary reason I have cut back on my workouts. I am trying several approaches to improve my sleep habits, such as a melatonin supplement, covering my eyes and ears, doing my best to relax after I wake up during the night, etc. I think my next step will be a sleep journal to track my progress, so I can measure it objectively.
My shoulder pain is diminished, if not totally eliminated, after several sessions of the Shoulder Pain Solved program from Rick Kaselj. I need to fit this into my routine several times a week, or at least do what I can while watching TV or standing at my desk. Many of the stretches require no equipment and can help relieve stress in the neck, shoulders, and back. I have stopped visiting the chiropractor for now, too. I am generally pain-free, with the occasional twinge, but I haven’t gone back to a pushup-intensive program like P90X yet. The plank poses and other core exercises in 30 Day Shred haven’t been a problem for me.
Update
It’s been a long time since my last post! I feel like saying “since my last confession.” As the blog’s name implies, it has been good, bad, and ugly over the past couple of months. I will do my best to summarize. What I have learned from looking at the statistics for the blog is that I do get some hits because of people searching for information about Tony’s book. It’s not a lot of traffic per day, but I’m glad to provide information about that, at least. Speaking of Tony’s book, here is an ABC “Good Morning America” interview with Tony Horton about “Bring It!”
Workouts
I just completed the round of P90X which I began documenting in April. My results were not amazing. I was having a lot of difficulty with shoulder pain, which led to chiropractor visits (a first for me), and “modifying” as Tony says in order to keep up with the workouts while resting my shoulders. This meant a lot fewer (and easier) pushups, mostly on my knees, and after skipping pull downs for a couple of weeks, I tried using a lighter band and a shorter distance. I have been seeing improvement as the weeks passed.
The chiropractor has been applying steam compresses, massage, and checking my mobility from week to week. The pain is subsiding, and during my final yoga session yesterday I tried the quick pushups from the chaturanga pose. No pain, just the usual discomfort of raising myself from the floor. So round 5 of P90X ends with little fanfare, but it did maintain my fitness for the past three months.
Nutrition
Looking at the Calorie Count analysis for the past month, my calorie intake has been all over the map. There was Father’s Day, my son’s birthday parties, some day trips, and other disruptions. On the positive side, there are 10 days in the past month where I was slightly negative or at the breakeven point. I know that if I want to see that inch or so come off my waist, and see those abs I have been “ripping” (“I hate it, but I love it!”), then I need to do better with my calories and/or my activity level. I have been hearing too often lately “You can eat your way out of any exercise that you do.” It’s not enough to “Bring It” to the exercise. I have to eat better than I have been over the past few months.
Health and well-being
I have been sleeping better lately, if not as long as I would like on a daily basis. At least I am not waking up at 3 or 4 AM as much as I was. I have been taking Concentrace morning and evening, as well as a melatonin supplement on some nights. Over the past few months, my shoulders have been sore and painful, which caused some discomfort at night, but that has been improving.
In order to help my shoulders recover, I have purchased the Shoulder Pain Solved online video series from Rick Kaselj. It’s more of a presentation (with Powerpoint and a demontration of the exercises) than an exercise video, but the eight types of exercises he describes seem to be helping with my shoulder stiffness and pain. Some exercises are familiar to P90X fans (around the neck, for example), but others were new to me and are very helpful.
What next?
I am trying to figure out my goals for health and fitness, as well as other parts of my life, for the months ahead. Yes, of course I want to see those ripped abs. I wish they had been there when I first lost the weight and started strength training, but what can I say? I am looking forward to P90X: MC2, which is the major P90X reboot being released in the fall. In the meantime, I might go back to Tony’s book (that Warrior level section is still calling me), or Jillian Michaels (30 Day Shred sounds about right at this point), maybe with some running thrown in. At the risk of embarrassing myself with another long absence, stay tuned!
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