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....



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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.



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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....



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