First of all, I am still so sore. Today, every step I took was painful, and it hurt to sit down and get up from a chair. I also think my arms have gotten progressively more sore as the day has gone on. I'm kind of scared for tomorrow's workout, Legs and Back. If it's going to be more squats, I'm not sure I'll be able to handle it. Or maybe my legs will recover just in time to get sore again.
Anyway, today was Yoga X. I love this workout. I've taken some beginner yoga classes before, so I was familiar with some of the positions, and the others weren't too hard to figure out. I did have to pause the DVD a few times and rewind to see what to do for some positions, and there were two or three that I couldn't do at all. I'm sure I didn't look all that graceful for the hour and a half, but at least I could manage most of the positions. And I'm sure I'll get better eventually. Also, I love the way my body feels after I do yoga. This was definitely an intense workout--I was sweating like crazy during the first half--but I feel a lot more relaxed now that I'm done. For the first time after one of these workouts, I'm not completely exhausted afterwards. So overall, I'm happy with it.
Again, I didn't eat as much as I was supposed to today. But I did a good job of sticking to the proportion of foods I'm supposed to have. I just had some cottage cheese and half a banana after the yoga. I haven't had cottage cheese in forever, but it's not bad.
Hopefully I'll be able to walk normally tomorrow--just in time to work out my legs again! Awesome. I guess I should get used to being in a constant state of soreness, at least in the near future.
Showing posts with label p90x. Show all posts
Showing posts with label p90x. Show all posts
Monday, July 27, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
The Beginning
My very first post... :-)
This story began a couple weeks ago when I woke up early on a Saturday morning. I was still sleepy, and I didn't feel like getting out of bed, so I turned on the TV. There was this infomercial on about this crazy workout routine called P90X that guaranteed an amazing body in 90 days. At first, I didn't think much of it, but the more I watched it, the more I wanted to try it. Now, I've never bought anything from an infomercial before, but somehow this seemed like a good idea. So later that day, I googled P90X and found a lot of blogs and reviews written by people who had completed the 90 days and had great results. I decided to go for it. I ordered the DVDs.
I'm a second-year medical resident training in pathology. During college, med school, and my first year of residency, I tried to stay active by going to the gym, but it's been pretty tough. Right now, I consider myself to be in decent physical shape--meaning that my strength, endurance, flexibility, etc. are reasonably good--but I've gained weight over the past several years, and I'm now at least 20 lbs heavier than I'd like to be. I don't think I look like someone who is in good shape, and I have lots of clothes in my closet that don't fit as well as they used to. I also don't have the level of energy that I'd like to have, especially given the stresses of my job. I'm the kind of person who needs structure and organization to do well, which might be part of the reason why P90X appealed to me. There's a set workout that you have to do each day and specific foods that you should eat. With some extra willpower to stick to it, I'm hoping this will work for me.
I decided to jump on the blog bandwagon to track my progress as I go through the intense workouts that P90X promises. I'm not expecting to be a supermodel by the end of this, but I'm hoping that I'll stick to it and end up losing some weight and being in better shape. And I'll probably end up talking about myself and my life other than P90X on here, which should be cool too.
I looked through the different materials that came with the DVDs, and I found that there are 3 different workout regimens that you can do. I was torn between P90X Classic, which is the one that's advertised, and P90X Lean, which is a modified version designed for more weight loss and less muscle building (they say many women do this one). The Lean version seemed pretty appealing, but the Classic seems more intense in the types of workouts it has. So I think I'm just going to go with the Classic. I won't use heavy weights to build too much muscle mass, and if I'm working out and sticking to the diet plan, I'll lose weight anyway.
I took the fitness test and did pretty well, which is great. Here are my results:
Pull-ups: I didn't do this one because I don't have a pull-up bar and don't think my doorframes can handle one. When I was younger (and lighter), I could do 6 or 7 pull-ups, but right now I'd be surprised if I could do a single one. I'll be using a resistance band for the pull-up workouts on the DVD.
Vertical leap: 7 in (recommended minimum 3 in to start P90X)
Push-ups: 10 (recommended minimum 3)
Toe touch: +3 in (recommended minimum -3 in)
Wall squat: 1 min 10 sec (recommended minimum 1 min--this one was tough!)
Bicep curls: 20 curls with 15lb weights (recommended minimum 10 curls with 8 lb weights)
In and outs: 29 (recommended minimum 24--another hard one for me!)
So overall, I think I'm ready to start the program. I know that my abs are going to be a problem area, but we'll see how it goes. I've read enough about P90X to know that this is going to be really hard in general. I'm happy about that, though. If I'm going to work out, I might as well make it count!
So as long as I'm not at work ridiculously late tomorrow, I think I'll start Day 1 then. Otherwise it will be on Saturday definitely. I'll also take my initial measurements and (ugh) pictures and post them when I start the program.
That's about it for tonight. I'm going to relax a bit and make a grocery list--and come to terms with giving up junk food for the next 3 months!
This story began a couple weeks ago when I woke up early on a Saturday morning. I was still sleepy, and I didn't feel like getting out of bed, so I turned on the TV. There was this infomercial on about this crazy workout routine called P90X that guaranteed an amazing body in 90 days. At first, I didn't think much of it, but the more I watched it, the more I wanted to try it. Now, I've never bought anything from an infomercial before, but somehow this seemed like a good idea. So later that day, I googled P90X and found a lot of blogs and reviews written by people who had completed the 90 days and had great results. I decided to go for it. I ordered the DVDs.
I'm a second-year medical resident training in pathology. During college, med school, and my first year of residency, I tried to stay active by going to the gym, but it's been pretty tough. Right now, I consider myself to be in decent physical shape--meaning that my strength, endurance, flexibility, etc. are reasonably good--but I've gained weight over the past several years, and I'm now at least 20 lbs heavier than I'd like to be. I don't think I look like someone who is in good shape, and I have lots of clothes in my closet that don't fit as well as they used to. I also don't have the level of energy that I'd like to have, especially given the stresses of my job. I'm the kind of person who needs structure and organization to do well, which might be part of the reason why P90X appealed to me. There's a set workout that you have to do each day and specific foods that you should eat. With some extra willpower to stick to it, I'm hoping this will work for me.
I decided to jump on the blog bandwagon to track my progress as I go through the intense workouts that P90X promises. I'm not expecting to be a supermodel by the end of this, but I'm hoping that I'll stick to it and end up losing some weight and being in better shape. And I'll probably end up talking about myself and my life other than P90X on here, which should be cool too.
I looked through the different materials that came with the DVDs, and I found that there are 3 different workout regimens that you can do. I was torn between P90X Classic, which is the one that's advertised, and P90X Lean, which is a modified version designed for more weight loss and less muscle building (they say many women do this one). The Lean version seemed pretty appealing, but the Classic seems more intense in the types of workouts it has. So I think I'm just going to go with the Classic. I won't use heavy weights to build too much muscle mass, and if I'm working out and sticking to the diet plan, I'll lose weight anyway.
I took the fitness test and did pretty well, which is great. Here are my results:
Pull-ups: I didn't do this one because I don't have a pull-up bar and don't think my doorframes can handle one. When I was younger (and lighter), I could do 6 or 7 pull-ups, but right now I'd be surprised if I could do a single one. I'll be using a resistance band for the pull-up workouts on the DVD.
Vertical leap: 7 in (recommended minimum 3 in to start P90X)
Push-ups: 10 (recommended minimum 3)
Toe touch: +3 in (recommended minimum -3 in)
Wall squat: 1 min 10 sec (recommended minimum 1 min--this one was tough!)
Bicep curls: 20 curls with 15lb weights (recommended minimum 10 curls with 8 lb weights)
In and outs: 29 (recommended minimum 24--another hard one for me!)
So overall, I think I'm ready to start the program. I know that my abs are going to be a problem area, but we'll see how it goes. I've read enough about P90X to know that this is going to be really hard in general. I'm happy about that, though. If I'm going to work out, I might as well make it count!
So as long as I'm not at work ridiculously late tomorrow, I think I'll start Day 1 then. Otherwise it will be on Saturday definitely. I'll also take my initial measurements and (ugh) pictures and post them when I start the program.
That's about it for tonight. I'm going to relax a bit and make a grocery list--and come to terms with giving up junk food for the next 3 months!
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