Visual Progress Report

Well, I'm 21 days late with the photos (I was supposed to post new ones on Day 30...), but here they are, with Day 0 comparisons. Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a drastic change. However, I have lost two inches in my waist, and can now fit into waist size 32 pants!! I haven't seen that in more than 15 years!

Here they are (click on a photo to embiggerize):


Day 0...No, I haven't gotten shorter!...Day 49


Day 0 ................ Day 49


Day 0 ................ Day 49


Day 0 ................ Day 49


Day 0 ................ Day 49


Day 0 ................ Day 49

I switched mid-stream from the cumbersome, ineffective (for me) resistance bands, to a more traditional dumbbell set, and I have been dealing with my right shoulder issue, so there are two excuses I can offer for the lack of improvement in definition. I still have a considerable amount of belly fat, but it has shrunk. My pants don't lie.

I don't imagine there will be much purpose in taking day 60 photos (as I'm supposed to do) in only 11 days, but I will try to do so anyway and post them here, again with Day 0 comparisons. You never know; there could be some noticeable change. I noticed today that I seem to be dropping weight after maintaining 180 since I started P90X. I'm headed into the recovery phase of Training Block 2. I'm told that some pretty drastic changes occur in Training Block 3.

So, I dunno. We're each our own worst critic. I don't see much change or improvement in the new photos. Let me know what you think ... other than that I need to get out in the sun more....





Motivation Deprivation

Over this past week I had a two-day shoot gig. Last month when I had a three-day shoot gig, I took only the three days, and suffered the consequences when I had a short week from which to make up the next week's lease payment on the taxi. This month I decided to take the whole week off. The coming week's lease is paid already, and I'll just pick up from where I left off.

All that aside, I knew that several days' loafing, as well as the two long days of shooting and traveling, would affect my motivation for working out. And I was right. Monday's workout came very late in the day ..er, night... Tuesday was the first day of the shoot, local, but then I drove to Muskegon, Michigan, and arrived late. There was definitely no opportunity to work out where I stayed (think RUSTIC). Wednesday I shot in Michigan, and then drove back, again arriving very late in the evening. Two days with no workouts.

Thursday was spent returning gear, the rental car, and I had a job interview downtown!! I failed to get the energy up and press play, so no workout Thursday, either. I originally thought I would knock out two workouts a day to catch up, but Friday I decided I would forgo all the cardio workouts for the week, and just focus on the resistance workouts...at least the ones I can do without my right shoulder. So Friday it was Biceps (I skipped Ab Ripper X because I wanted to get out to see a movie...yeah, motivation!!), and Saturday will be Legs and Ab Ripper X.

Good news, though, is that on Monday I finally bit the bullet and bought a sensible alternative to the stupid resistance bands. At $400 dollars that I really can't afford to spend, I bought a Bowflex SelecTech BD552 Dumbbells set:


Click on photo to embiggerate.
Don't worry, it won't get heavier...

They're mechanical dumbbells with selector knobs that, when the dumbbells are in their tray, allow the user to quickly change the weight from as light as 5 pounds each up to 52.5 pounds each. It was expensive, but I saved about $100 and a ton of space over buying individual pairs of dumbbells, not to mention the fact that the Bowflex set weighs a total of 105 pounds, where individual pairs of dumbbells, starting at 5 pounds and going up to 50 pounds in 5 pound increments per dumbbell, would weigh 550 pounds!! I got more than a quarter-ton of workout weights in a package that I can carry in two hands.

Theoretically.

May the next week I be faithful.





Setback

For several months before I started P90X I had noticed soreness in my right shoulder when I moved it into certain positions, usually with my arm stretched out in front of me or above my head. It came on gradually, so I figured it was just out of laziness and lack of motion, brought on by the limited movement involved in driving a taxi ten hours or more a day. I also noticed that the pain didn't happen in the same positions if my arm bore a load of some sort, and that made me ever more certain that it just needed exercise.

During Training Block 1 of P90X I had no trouble at all with my shoulder; the warmup before each workout all but eliminated the pain. But something changed during the recovery week of Training Block 1, because when I started Training Block 2 last Monday, I couldn't shake or warm up the pain out of my shoulder. And when I started the Day 1 workout — Chest, Shoulders & Back — there was nothing I could do with my right arm that didn't cause severe pain in my shoulder. I was devastated emotionally. I was finally psyched up for really the first time in my life about working out, and Monday it seemed like it was all over. I stopped the DVD and emotionally curled up into a little ball.

It was a brief moment of panic, but after I calmed down I realized that it's just my shoulder. Yes, it connects the arm to the body, and just about anything that involves the arm involves the shoulder, but I can still do biceps and most triceps exercises. I can still (unfortunately) do the Ab Ripper X workouts. And the leg workouts.

I took a look at WebMD online and determined from the symptoms that it's likely a "chronic tear" in my rotator cuff. It's common in men my age, common in the dominant arm, and comes on gradually, often with no definitive injury event to point to. So, eliminated until I can get it checked out and corrected (I have no health insurance at the moment) are all chin-ups and pull-ups, push-ups, yoga, shoulder "fly" exercises, and some triceps moves that involve extending my arms above my head.

I'll be a chiseled god from below the chest, down. Chest and up, I'll still be all marshmallowy....





Recovery Phase

The P90X Extreme Home Fitness program is designed in three training blocks of 28 days. Each block is broken down into two phases: Adaptive & Mastery Phase; Recovery Phase. Adaptive & Mastery is pretty self-explanatory. You do these exercises. Your body isn't used to them, so it must adapt to the movements, build new strength to do them more easily, and eventually master the movements. And that's when you change what you;re doing. It's called "muscle confusion." Never let the muscles settle into a routine. That's when your body hits a plateau. After three weeks of Adaptive & Mastery, just when the muscles are solid and you feel confident and secure about the exercises, the program changes.

The Recovery Phase eliminates all the weight training and focuses on stretching, cardio, and core training, and allows the muscles that have been worked so hard in the lifting and pulling workouts to fully recover. And grow. It also introduces a few new workouts, such as "Core Synergistics" and "Stretch X," while working in a few familiar workouts such as "Yoga X" and "Kenpo X."

Today is day 22, the first day of the Recovery Phase of Training Block 1. I was looking forward to a brand new workout, but was disappointed to look at the schedule and see that today is "Yoga X." But the mantra of P90X is "Just press play. So I did.

I've been having trouble with "Yoga X" because of my aforementioned lower back/left hamstring. The hamstring is extremely tight, and is either the result of or the cause of my lower back pain. Today I vowed to take it a little easier through the stretches and poses of "Yoga X," and to my surprise, thgouh I still couldn't do all the poses or hold the ones I could do for as long as they do in the video, I was able to do more than I could last time. I even tried and found some success with the balance postures, which had me perched precariously on one leg while extending various other limbs out and up! Where the last three times I skipped the middle half-hour of "Yoga X," today I stuck it through and at least tried all the poses and movements. I felt damn proud of myself. Not to mention soaking sweaty wet.

So it's this kind of stuff for the rest of the week. Next week begins Training Block 2, with a workout of the Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, and, of course, the dread Ab Ripper X!

Still with it!

Just because I haven't posted here in a week doesn't mean I quit...even though that's what I wrote in the description up top. BE PATIENT, PEOPLE! Give it a couple of weeks before you assume I quit. (Though do keep an eye on the obituary pages, as those go up within a day or two, and they don't repeat....)

It's Friday, so today was Legs and Back again. I'm too lazy to actually write, here, so below is my copied and pasted entry from the Team Beachbody message boards:

Did Yoga X Thursday mid-day, before heading out for a long shift. I've been dealing with a finicky lower back off and on since I was a teenager. My left side above the glute, and then on down the hamstring, and sometimes into my groin...they get tweaked, and they let me know how unhappy they are. My left hamstring is ridiculously tight. When I stand for too long (and lately 5 minutes is too long :( ) my back goes into painful spasm and I have to sit and/or stretch it out.

In Yoga X, the standing stretch of the RIGHT side, with the left side compressed, was too painful to do. So, needless to say, though I Brought It to Yoga X Thursday, I was about half-intensity (though FULL sweat!). I did a few more of the poses that I avoided last week, though none of the balance poses.

Today, however, though my back was talking to me before the Legs & Back workout, it gave me no problems during! On the other hand, I did the workout not long after waking up and having a small snack (one hard-boiled egg whites (I botched the boil and the yolks were semi-solid... YECCHHH!)) I had to hit pause a few times after some of the leg exercises before hitting the chin-up bar. And I only made it half-way through the one-leg wall squats (I killed all the wall squats last week!!)

Today, with the chin-ups, I did only negatives* and counted the time that my arms stayed at 90° or less. And, yes, the numbers were pathetic! But at least those are more real than the "leg-ups," and I can gauge true progress that way.

But the workout, combined with , I'm sure, poor nutrition/first thing after waking up, left me totally wiped. I skipped Ab Ripper X completely. I think I will try it tomorrow after Kenpo X. We'll see. It's a shame, too, because I think I'm actually beginning to see a little definition pushing through the fat on my belly!

Nutrition accountability: Thursday night I ate a Met-Rx Power Bar as a meal replacement (before I saw the suggestion [in this message board thread] for Clif Bars). I love the disclaimer on the wrapper, something to the effect of, "Contains sugar alcohols. May cause gastrointestinal discomfort. Frequent consumption may have a laxative effect." I ate it anyway.

Later on I tried a "Muscle Shake" chocolate flavored drink. I don't know if that was too much, too many calories or carbs or protein after the Power Bar, but I do know it was BLECHHH! It tasted like I was sucking on metal. And the taste stuck with me for hours after I finished the drink!

I'll stick with the fart bars, thank you!




*"negatives" are achieved with assistance to the top of the chin-up, and then dangling and holding the "up" position as long as you can, and slowly lowering yourself (as though you had a choice!) to the bottom.



°

Changes

I'm nearing the end of week 2 of P90X, now, and, despite missing the second workout of Chest and Back on Monday, I have begun to notice some changes.

My legs are feeling stronger. I get in and out of the taxi probably a half-dozen times a day; more if I'm really busy. Before starting with P90X (and dealing with lower back pain that I know from the past is due to weak back muscles - hence I'm working out) I noticed that I had started using my left arm as a lever to raise myself out of the seat to get out of the car. And getting into the car, I was stepping in with my right foot and then dropping into the seat. Now I'm using mainly my legs to get in and out of the car!

My energy level has increased slightly. My sleep schedule is still on the deprivation side and, though the P90X literature stresses adequate sleep, I'm noticing less sleepiness while I'm working, and fewer or shorter naps when business gets slow. And I'm still caffeine free!

I'm already seeing less of me. While my weight has plateaued at around 180 lbs., I've noticed that my belly fat has decreased. Pants that had been loose around my waist after working with George, the personal trainer last year, and had begun to fit more snugly recently are once again feeling loose. With/After P90X, I may finally feel the confidence and self-assurance to go out and buy replacement pants for a new, smaller waist size!

Day 12: Legs and Back; Ab Ripper X
Today's workout was Legs and Back, and Ab Ripper X. I did great in the Legs and Back workout, keeping up with most of the routines. I'm still using a step-stool for the chin-ups. Next go-round I'm going to push the stool further away from me so that my arms work harder, and the leg has less say in the deal. I still can't do ONE without aid. Grrr.

Ab Ripper X, on the other hand, kicked my ass today. As I'm officially on the night shift for the weekend, I worked out in the early evening shortly after waking up. I think I over-hydrated, or I began working out too soon after drinking a full glass of water. About 1/3 of the way through Ab Ripper X I started feeling like I was going to hurl if I pushed much harder. So I lay there panting and sweating on my mat, watching the exercises and studying form. I sat through most of the middle ones, and then joined in on the last move, a seated on the floor, balanced on your tailbone, feet off the floor and legs bent position, matching about one for every two of their reps of touching joined fists on the floor on one side of the body and then the other, back and forth. They do it fifty times, but I managed to do maybe 30.

I was wiped for sure, and I spent a good deal of time walking around with my hands on my hips, my head hanging from my shoulders, trying to just feel better. After a shower and the P90X recovery drink, I do feel better.

Kenpo X again tomorrow, and then it's on to week three!





Where the heck am I?

I haven't posted here for a while. No I haven't quit. And I hope it's obvious that I didn't die....

Life has been busy the last few days after getting back from the shoot in Omaha, and getting on track again with the taxi schedule. I skipped Monday's return to Chest and Back all together, but I have stayed with the rest of P90X. Perhaps I'll double up on it somewhere down the road so that I'll have the same number of workouts with Chest and Back as I do with all the others.

Life is still busy, so this is a short post.

Was that a collective sigh of relief I heard?



