This is my last week of P90X before the FINAL Recovery Week!

Starting weight: 177lbs
After week 13: 153lbs.

Here’s how the week went.

The Workouts:

Day 85:
Yoga X

Ah man, first day of my final week of P90X and I get to do Yoga. I was honestly exhausted yet again today and I needed to be able to be calm and relax throughout this workout. I thankfully gave myself that opportunity by shutting the lights and doing my best to not think about my workload right now and it helped quite a bit.

I noticed from the opening warm-up that my knees were very sore and my right leg was in a lot of pain. I really think that this is a result of having to sit down at a desk so much lately. It pisses me off to think about this, but it’s true. When you sit at a desk for hours on end and don’t get up to stretch or give your legs some movement, they get very tight and very achy. This pain really fucked with my ability to do today’s workout comfortably and I needed to skip Warrior Three and just stay in Crescent Pose through the whole sequence.

Everything else with the exception of Standing Leg Extensions was fine, but my right leg was very tender and I was happy when this was all done.

Yoga Belly 7 was as good as usual today, but my lower back was also sore, again from having to sit at a desk for hours at a time. This made the 3 part Touch The Sky very difficult but still bearable.

Overall it was a good workout, but I’m worried that my mind doesn’t have the capacity to be too focused on P90X even while in my final week – a recovery week at that..

Day 86:
Missed Workout

Just like last week, I’m finding myself missing a workout due to an increased workload and exhaustion. I’m gonna need to find a way to cram these all in if I plan on finishing my P90X goal in time for Shuffle this Friday..

Day 87:
Core Synergistics

I hadn’t done this workout in a while and I was excited and a little threatened by it. It’s pretty difficult and being aware of my fatigue I was definitely worried. I did the workout at about 7:30 this morning and I was feeling so gassed that on 3 occasions I felt like I was going to faint. This is very likely a combination of fatigue, the time that I was doing the workout, and a lack of nutritional fuel. I am beat. Absolutely drained. And it really showed in today’s workout. I don’t know that I’ve given up in the way that I did today. On certain moves and exercises I felt myself saying in my head, “You can’t do it”, where in the past I would’ve just continued until my body gave out. It was fucked. And I finished the workout pretty upset.

In all honesty my performance today was far better than my early goes at Core Synergistics, but having it in your head that you’ve come so far makes you want to do the best you possibly can at all times. Today was definitely not my best. I need sleep very badly.

Day 88:
Kenpo X

I started my Kenpo workout today at about 10:30pm. It was the last day of Remix before they breakdown the building and I had to come home to do some fucking work. I’m so pissed. I did the workout with the same mentality as last time – breathe through your nose to limit fatigue and keep a stable heart rate, and while it worked, I was clearly more tired than I’ve been in the past 2 or 3 weeks. Again this is all do to my workload, etc, etc.

There was nothing relieving, strenuous, challenging, or anything about today’s workout. It just felt like something I had to get done to get my mind off of a lot of bullshit. Well I guess that brings it into the stress relief category, but whatever.

I’m not at all happy right now.

Day 89:
Core Synergistics

I have been working way too much lately and it’s really starting to effect my energy badly. I got up to do this workout and had planned on popping in the X Stretch DVD first, but I was so tired that I decided to just get this out of the way and keep it moving in order to get all of my work done.

Thinking that I was gonna be pretty gassed through this DVD, I started to shock myself early with how high my energy was. I was feeling 100% better than my last Core Synergistics workout and was really keeping myself focused and minding my midsection through the exercises as you’re supposed to.

I found myself having a lot of extra energy today. Knowing how little I’ve been able to sleep and how tired I probably SHOULD have been, it was a real shock but also a real motivator to be able to do today’s workout at the level that I did it at. I was determined, struggling through my last reps but not wavering, and really, really went in on it.

I’m feeling really good, but I am definitely feeling really tired. My work is killing me right now..

Day 90:
Yoga X

This is basically it guys. My last workout of all of P90X! I can’t believe I’m done and I cannot believe I actually made it especially with how crazy this week has been.

Tonight I did the good old, all lights out yoga thing and really focused on my breathing and remaining calm considering how much is going on in my life right now. I just finished 80+ drawings for a short film, have been working on some corporate programs, and have been managing all the sales from the Ideall online sale. I am exhausted beyond measure and needed this workout really, really bad.

When I started I was getting annoyed because my socks were slipping and sliding everywhere. I know, it sounds funny, but it was annoying as shit. So I took them off for a while. I noticed that the sweat that was building up from my body and feet was making it really difficult to keep good footing on the mat, but I went through 90 percent of the workout like this and it was hard as FUCK! I put my socks back on near the end after Chair Pose I think and continued through the workout as normal. I had to chill through the Warrior Three section as usual because of pain in my legs and feet, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that my orthopedic situation is one that requires me to be mindful of these things to avoid injury. No big deal, just what my situation is really. When I got to Yoga Belly 7 I was really determined to go hard on it and not hold back at all. I felt great and knowing that it was the last bit of pain that I would be going through in P90X was amazing! When I was done that section I felt like I was ready to go to bed. lol. I finished the rest of the stretches, sat through the ohms and called it a night. … then I continued working. lol.

Can’t believe it’s over. I’m so fucking happy!

Day 91:
Rest or X Stretch

I didn’t really “rest” today because of how much work I had to do. But I sure didn’t “stretch” either. I kinda wish I had.

The Diet:

My diet this week was probably the worst of my whole P90X experience. There was sandwich meat so old in my fridge that I had to throw it out, I ran out of milk and didn’t buy more, I was noticing myself not eating until noon somedays, and my energy was so low I could feel my body shaking from fatigue. I haven’t had eating issues like this in a long time. I am honestly just swamped with so much work that I can’t find a second to get a meal in. My dishes have piled up, my apartment is an absolute mess, and I am feeling so weak. These past few days have been horrendous. I have consumed more energy drinks and coffee than I have water because I can’t afford to fall asleep for longer than 4 hours a night.

There’s not really anything more to say. My diet this week hasn’t been bad in terms of what I have been consuming because I haven’t really been consuming too much at all. Just a lot of cereal, my shakes, bread, eggs, juice, and veggie burgers.

I’m disappointed in myself.

Closing Thoughts:

In any working week in my whole life, I have never done as much work in as short a period of time as I did this week. 4 of the 7 days I went to bed at 6am or later and nearly everyday I was up at 8:30am to work. I had 82 drawings to do by Monday morning. I missed a funeral, I missed Shuffle, I missed out on the last night at Remix. All I have been doing is working and working and taking what feel like short naps. I am incredibly weak and exhausted. But I got all of the work done, and I am finally finished P90X as well. I can’t even really register the fact that I’ve finished the program right now. I’m too out of it. My arm is feeling like it’s reinjured (carpal tunnel) from all of the drawing, my neck is ridiculously tense, and I lost 4lbs in 2 days from not eating how I’ve been accustomed to eating. This is NOT how I recommend anyone function on P90X, but I was able to do it.

I’m sorry.. but I’m completely out of it and need some rest. That’s as good as a “Closing Thought” as I can give for the type of week this has been.

Stay tuned for the Day 90 Results and the complete wrap-up.

Welcome To The Legends League.

Read The BS of My Life / P90X:
Intro
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Day 30 Results
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Day 60 Results
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12

This is my last week of P90X before the FINAL Recovery Week!

Starting weight: 177lbs
After week 12: 159lbs.

Here’s how the week went.

The Workouts:

Day 78:
X Stretch, Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Ab Ripper X

I really needed to stretch today. My body has been feeling really, really sore, partially because I haven’t had 2 consecutive days of straight rest in 3 months and because I haven’t been doing X Stretch on my rest days or going for any massages to iron out the kinks. So I decided that I’d do X Stretch before my actual workout today to get myself warmed up, relaxed, and ready to get into my last attempt at Chest, Shoulders & Triceps.

Like last week, the resistance workouts that I’m doing this week are the last time I’ll have to do them over this 90 Day duration so I’m hype about getting them done and really pushing myself to get great results. Last week I absolutely murdered myself getting through the resistance workouts and I was really stoked about doing the same today. Unfortunately, this workout was tough and I really didn’t make too much progress although I did outdo most of my results from my previous Chest, Shoulders & Triceps workout.

There are a ton of exercises in this workout, so I’m not gonna go over all 24, but I’ll say this – by the time I got to exercise #16 – One Arm Push-ups, I was so tired that I could only do ONE. That’s on both sides. I did ONE on my knees with my right arm, and couldn’t even do a single one with my left arm. I was very disappointed, but I knew it was because I was fatigued from upping both reps and weights on all the previous 15 exercises.

At the end of it, I was happy. But I wasn’t thrilled. I equalled a lot of my numbers from the last time I did this workout, and reached my highest numbers for a lot of the other ones, but I just didn’t feel the same type of satisfaction that I did last week doing Chest & Back or Shoulders & Arms. Maybe I’m being too hard on myself. Who knows.

Once I was done, I felt pretty exhausted, but I didn’t want to take a break to get into Ab Ripper X. So I got right into it. And today was the best I have ever done in this workout, ever.

Here’s how I did:

In & Outs: Easy
Bicycles (forward): Difficult, took no breaks.
Bicycles (backward): Very Difficult, took no breaks.
Crunchy Frog: Very Difficult, took no breaks.
Cross Legged Sit Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
Fifer Scissors: Very Difficult, took no breaks.
Hip Rock & Raise: Hard, took no breaks.
Pulse Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
V-Up Roll Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
Leg Climbs: Hard, took no breaks.
Oblique V-Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
Mason Twist: Hard, took no breaks.

Yeup. I did it. I completed Ab Ripper X from front to back without stopping, taking breaks, or skipping reps. I took the exercises that I usually had problems with and approached them a little differently to get them done. For example, for Bicycles and Crunchy Frog, the fatigue in my legs caused me to take breaks, but when I focused on smooth movement and calmed breath, I was able to get through them. For Fifer Scissors, arguably the hardest exercise for me, I bent my knees slightly to give myself greater range of motion in my hips and allow me to have my leg nearly vertical. Then as I switched I calmed my upper body and acted nonchalant about it rather than gritting my teeth throughout the exercise. Once I got past Fifer Scissors I knew that all I had to do was get through Oblique V-Ups in order to do the whole workout without breaks, so when I got there, I was just determined. By the time I was at Mason Twist, I was so hype to get it done that during the bonus 10 seconds of Mason Twist, I did it double time for the extra oomph.

Today was great. A little bitter. A little sweet. But I did it.

Day 79:
Plyometrics

Damn. I remember the day after I first did Plyo. I couldn’t feel my legs as I walked, and even walking DOWN stairs was painful. Weeks later I was still struggling, but got a message from someone on facebook saying that by Phase 2 it would get easier. And it didn’t. I just got stronger and more used to the pain. And today I finally got to my FINAL day of Plyometrics. I was hype.

Obviously I was enthusiastic about this workout. Like I’ve said in the past, this is the hardest DVD in the whole program and knowing I’d never have to do it again over this 90 day project was encouraging. I knew I was going to try to push myself, but I was also worried about gassing out too early, so I was smart about when I threw in the modified version of moves. I really only did the modified version of 180 Run Stance Squat Reach Pick-ups, or whatever those are called. I find that I get so fatigued doing those that I end up doing really poorly at the end of the sets, so instead I used the modified move to keep good form and maintain the same intensity throughout the move.

I can really say that I did today’s workout with a huge amount of confidence and partial relief. And as much as I feel like I still get tired and gassed during Plyometrics, my heart rate is a good 30bpm slower than it was when I used to do this workout. My legs don’t feel like Jell-O the following day, my breathing is more focused, and the pain turned to discomfort and the discomfort turned into me understanding how good this workout is for me.

When I was done I felt amazing. I kept up really, really well and even when I was feeling ridiculously gassed I didn’t pause the DVD or take an extended break. I just kept going through it as long as my heart rate was low enough for me to not have to worry about getting a heart attack. lol.

Last Plyo is done. I’m feeling fantastic.

Day 80:
Missed Workout

Man. I was so busy and exhausted today that I missed my workout and decided to do 2 workouts tomorrow. I have a feeling I’m gonna regret this.

Day 81:
Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X, Yoga X

Back & Biceps:
Damn, today did not get off to a good start. I needed to get Back & Biceps done early if I wanted to have enough energy to do Yoga tonight, and I started a good hour and a half later than I had anticipated. But I got into it as soon as I could and got to work.

I noticed today that I was really, really tired. In weeks passed I wasn’t working as much as I am right now and I was sleeping more, so my energy during the workouts was higher. Now, my confidence is high and my enthusiasm is there, but physically I’m exhausted. As much as I tried to gain 3 extra reps on each exercise or push my weights up by 5 lbs, it was very, very difficult, and I found myself having to use lower weights in some cases or do strip sets to make up for low reps. This really brought my confidence down a bit, but I knew I was pushing myself to my limit and I couldn’t ask for much more. It was more the fact that I knew this was my last official Back & Biceps workout that had me bummed about the whole thing.

Ab Ripper X:
After Monday’s performance, I was stoked about doing Ab Ripper X today. Here’s how I did:

In & Outs: Easy
Bicycles (forward): Difficult, took no breaks.
Bicycles (backward): Very Difficult, took no breaks.
Crunchy Frog: Very Difficult, took 1-2 breaks.
Cross Legged Sit Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
Fifer Scissors: Very Difficult, took 3 breaks.
Hip Rock & Raise: Hard, took no breaks.
Pulse Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
V-Up Roll Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
Leg Climbs: Hard, took no breaks.
Oblique V-Ups: Difficult, took a break but completed 25 reps.
Mason Twist: Hard, took no breaks.

I felt confident about being able to finish Ab Ripper X front to back again today, but clearly I wasn’t able to. I like that I still struggle a bit with this workout because it gives me motivation to continue with the program and get stronger.

Yoga X:
I waited until the evening to get into my Yoga workout because I was tired throughout the day from Back & Biceps and I had an interview with Pound Magazine’s Latin American chapter today for Ideall Clothing. As soon as I got into it though, I tried to look at it as a moments rest and clarity from all the hectic things going on this week.

I shut out all the lights in my place, turned off the fans and did Yoga X today without looking at the screen at all. I was focused on getting through every move, breathing, and clearing my mind for the hour and a half duration of the workout. I was very tired and very stressed throughout the week and I needed to be calm for a minute on my own, and today really did that for me. I mentally counted each push-up to downward dog movement, knowing there is a total of 24, and that helped me not feel fatigued as each sequence passed. The heat in my apartment was a factor today, but I enjoyed it as if I was doing hot yoga. I was sweating to the point that the inside of my hands were getting wrinkled. It was crazy.

I felt a lot of pain in my right leg again today and noticed my knees have been really sore, probably from sitting at a desk all day and not taking breaks. This affected my ability to do Warrior Three comfortably, and I decided to just stay in Crescent Pose throughout the moves that follow Warrior Three. I also had to stay in Prayer position during the Standing Leg Extensions because it was putting too much strain on my feet and shins. I knew I would be exhausted tomorrow for Legs & Back and I didn’t want to push my luck.

Getting into Yoga Belly 7, I was a little nervous since I had already done Ab Ripper X earlier today. It was fine, and although I was fatigued, I did really well and kept up with the performances of the past few weeks.

I honestly can’t believe that I chose to do all of this in one day. A couple of weeks ago I had to do Legs & Back and Kenpo X in one day and it knocked me out for hours. lol. Today’s workout was honestly 3 times as hard as that. I can say I’ll never do this to myself again, but I’d probably be lying.

I’m feeling tired. But accomplished. And excited to be done this week.

Day 82:
Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X

I was pretty excited that this was my final Legs & Back workout of my 90 Day project. I hate working on legs, and with the increased work I’ve gotten over the past week or so, my knees have been very painful and shaky. I woke up today sore as hell from my insane day yesterday, but I knew that if I worked out in the evening I’d be okay. I got into it and tried as usual to beat my previous weeks numbers.

I noticed right away that I was pretty exhausted. There were a couple of things to factor into this feeling of being tired. My sleeping has been cut down because of work, and my eating habits have been less consistent because of work and this combination makes for depleted energy when working out obviously. I started to feel a little discouraged after the first set of lunges and I could hear things moving around in my left leg as I performed the first exercise.

My numbers in the pull-ups weren’t extremely different from last weeks. I did a rep less here and a rep more there, and ended up with nearly the same totals. I did do my best to outdo myself, but like I said, I was exhausted today.

After I was done I got into my final Ab Ripper X workout of P90X!! Here’s how I did:

In & Outs: Easy
Bicycles (forward): Difficult, took no breaks.
Bicycles (backward): Very Difficult, took no breaks.
Crunchy Frog: Very Difficult, took no breaks.
Cross Legged Sit Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
Fifer Scissors: Very Difficult, took 2 breaks for 1-2 reps each.
Hip Rock & Raise: Hard, took no breaks.
Pulse Ups: Very Difficult, took no breaks.
V-Up Roll Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
Leg Climbs: Hard, took no breaks
Oblique V-Ups: Very Difficult, took no breaks.
Mason Twist: Hard, took no breaks.

I was worried that after yesterday and working on legs today I would be in a lot of trouble with Ab Ripper X, but I actually did pretty good. Without revealing too much of my future plans I think I’ll be able to do this all out every time without breaks in a few more weeks.

Good workout today.. I’m feeling things come to a close and I’m a little upset but a lot happy. ;)

Day 83:
Kenpo X

Man, Kenpo for me today was a break from work. And I needed it. I focused on 1 thing today: breathing only through my nose and not gasping from my mouth. I thought about this as I started the first sequences and got into the first break. Fighters don’t breathe out of their mouths until they’re tired, so I wanted to see how long I could just maintain good breathing patterns before getting physically tired. I got through the whole thing without having to breathe through my mouth. During the breaks I took a deep breath here and there, but not during the actual routine. This made the workout a lot easier and actually had me feeling like I hadn’t done anything. lol. The intensity of everything was perfect for my day, but I’m concerned that this workout is just getting too easy and I need something a little more.

Day 84:
Rest or X Stretch

I was way too busy with my online sale to do X Stretch today, but I needed to. I hate missing this..

The Diet:

Man, my diet has been lacking lately and it’s really showing me how I used to eat in the past and WHY I ate like that in the past. I’m too busy working that I forget to eat.

In terms of the kinds of foods I’m eating nothing has changed. At all. I’ve added a lot of cereal and fruit into my diet which has been great, but my vegetables have been dropping a lot. I’m supposed to be eating a lot of carbs right now but haven’t been doing that either. I think I just got into such a good swing in the first month that I’ve been slacking on the dietary changes moving into Phase 2 and 3. It’s not that I’m eating bad things now, I’m just not following what I’m currently supposed to be pushing up towards in this Phase. I really gotta get it together..

Closing Thoughts:

This week was a ride. My workload is just getting out of hand and I am tired. I am really, really exhausted and knowing that this was my last resistance week I was wanting to push myself to do really well. Unfortunately your body can’t always respond to what you demand of it and fatigue slapped me in the face a lot. On Monday I was terribly depressed and couldn’t seem to leave my house and it set off a trend throughout the week of me just being the gloomy guy that I am sometimes. Like I said, I wanted more out of this week, but I didn’t have it in me to push how I wanted to. It’s an honest statement and I can’t make any excuses for myself.

Yes, I am working more often.. but I feel a loss in confidence in a lot of things.. I hope this changes very soon.

Welcome To The Legends League.

Read The BS of My Life / P90X:
Intro
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Day 30 Results
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Day 60 Results
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11

Week 11 is DONE! HA! Only 1 more week of actual strength training and then I’m in my last week of P90X, which is a Recovery Week! Do you have any idea how stoked I am?! Man, I’ve worked super hard to get to this point, and this week was ridiculous considering I knew I wasn’t gonna have to do these workouts again for the duration of these 90 days.

Starting weight: 177lbs
After week 11: 159lbs.

Here’s how the week went.

The Workouts:

Day 71:
Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X

This here was my very last time doing this workout. *tear. I’ve grown pretty fond of this Chest & Back DVD. It’s simple shit, push and pull, and nothing that I’m gonna feel funny about doing in the gym later. There’s a lot of push-up variations and a lot of pull-up variations, then you’ve got 3 other exercises involving weights – Heavy Pants, Lawnmowers, and Back Flys.

My goal for today was to do 300 total push-ups, and 50 total pull-ups. Last time I did this workout I did 273 push-ups and 45 pull-ups, so while the pull-ups seemed attainable, doing 27 MORE push-ups was a stretch to say the least. My plan was to gauge my fatigue and go for as many as possible even if I needed to take breaks.

Here’s how I did:

Standard Push-Ups:
Round 1: 35
Round 2: 35

Wide Front Pull-Ups:
Round 1: 15
Round 2: 10

Military Push-Ups:
Round 1: 25
Round 2: 25

Reverse Grip Chin-Ups:
Round 1: 10
Round 2: 10

Wide Fly Push-Ups:
Round 1: 30
Round 2: 30

Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups:
Round 1: 12
Round 2: 8

Decline Push-Ups:
Round 1: 25
Round 2: 20

Heavy Pants:
Round 1: Reps 20 / Weight 25lbs
Round 2: Reps 20 / Weight 25lbs

Diamond Push-Ups:
Round 1: 20
Round 2: 20

Lawnmowers:
Round 1: Reps 15 / Weight 30lbs
Round 2: Reps 20 / Weight 30lbs

Dive-bomber Push-Ups:
Round 1: 15
Round 2: 17

Back Flys:
Round 1: Reps 15 / Weight 20lbs
Round 2: Reps 20 / Weight 20lbs

My final push-up count: 297
My final pull-up count: 65

Although I fell 3 short of my goal in push-ups, I beat my pull-up goal by 15 reps. I’m not gonna lie, knowing that I could have done 1 extra rep in 3 of the push-up categories to hit my goal ate me up a bit, but I tried my best. I also feel like knowing this was my last time doing this workout really motivated me to push myself to my absolute limit and it felt great to know I worked as hard as I possibly could today.

Moving on to Ab Ripper X I was confident and knew that not wasting any time between workouts would be the smart thing to do. So I got to it right away.

Here’s how I did:

In & Outs: Easy
Bicycles (forward): Difficult, took no breaks.
Bicycles (backward): Very Difficult, took 2-3 breaks for 1 rep each.
Crunchy Frog: Very Difficult, took 2-3 breaks for 1-2 reps each. I hate these.
Cross Legged Sit Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
Fifer Scissors: Very Difficult, took 3-4 breaks for 1-2 reps each.
Hip Rock & Raise: Hard, took no breaks.
Pulse Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
V-Up Roll Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
Leg Climbs: Hard, took no breaks
Oblique V-Ups: Very Difficult, took 2-3 breaks for 2-3 reps each.
Mason Twist: Hard, took no breaks.

It seems like my Ab Ripper X workouts are going pretty consistently similar. I have trouble areas where my legs and hip flexors are involved: Bicycles, Crunchy Frog, Fifer Scissors. Everything else with the exception of Oblique V-Ups is tough, but I can manage the pain and discomfort. I feel like if my flexibility in my legs was better, I’d be able to kill this workout. But knowing that it’s hard to get through makes it more appealing I guess.

Day 72:
Plyometrics

I wasted no time this morning getting into Plyo. It’s grueling and is the hardest DVD in the program, so it’s easy to try to avoid it, but I’ve learned from experience that waiting throughout the day to do a workout like this only makes it harder when you finally get to it.

My goal going into Plyo today was to go at 110%. This is the second last time I have to do this DVD and knowing that made me feel a level of confidence and accomplishment.

I noticed early that the lunge sequence and the Prayer Squats, both part of the warm-up, had me in a bit of discomfort. I don’t know if this was from how hard I worked my legs last week or from being early in the morning, but I felt beat very soon into this. I tried to keep the mentality that I was in a class and I did my best to smile and laugh through the pain and make fun of Tony Horton to keep my mind in it. lol.

When the workout actually started I was feeling good. My heart rate was relatively low through the first round and I was feeling a good level of confidence. Going into the second round, I noticed my quads starting to get tired and the intensity of my breathing was increasing. My heart rate and breathing don’t concern me as much as the pain in my quads because you need the strength to get through all of the rounds. By the time I got to the third round I was regaining some confidence and really pushing myself. I did Jump Knee Tucks with a really high level of intensity and my breathing was getting to a shallow gasping point. I kept going and kept pushing to try to get the most out of the workout. By the time the DVD was halfway through I was feeling a great deal of confidence. I was less tired than I had been in the past, was working very hard and sweating buckets, but I felt a lot more energy than ever before at this point. The fourth round starts with Rock Star Hops, which I used to hate, but I didn’t seem to mind them so much today. I pushed and pushed and got through them. The move that I actually hate doing a lot is Military March, and today it was grueling. I notice my breath kind of hiccups as I do this because of the high intensity. You get fooled into thinking that because of the low level of impact you’re gonna be okay, but really it’s tough as hell. Going into the fourth break, I was starting to feel tired, but my confidence was really high knowing I was almost done. The first move in the fifth round is Run Squat with 180 Jump. I hate it. At this point the fatigue was making my form waver a lot and I had to do this move modified. I was jumping at first but then had to resort to the leg switch and the ‘not-so-low’ squat. I was in a lot of pain, but still did my best. Finally, the sports bonus. This is easily my favorite round of Plyo because it’s fun and you know you’re almost finished when you get to this point. I was really hype about getting through it and I pushed really hard through each sequence, especially Football Hero. When I was done, I felt amazing.

A lot was happening with me emotionally today, and being able to get in a good workout helped me clear my mind. I was able to address the issues and fix the problems much better once I was done working out. The release of physical energy and tension resulted in a level of clarity that helped my emotional and mental states gain some much needed focus. It hasn’t been more evident than in these last 2 weeks that exercise and emotional and mental well-being go hand in hand.

Day 73:
Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X

Once again, this is a workout that I’ll be doing for the last time today. *another tear. Like Chest & Back, Shoulders & Arms is a workout that is really simple yet really effective. I plan to take this workout to the gym with me once I’m done P90X, for sure.

My goals for today: push yourself to your absolute limit. I know, this is what you’re supposed to do every day on P90X, and I have been doing that. But knowing you’re never gonna do this workout again keeps you motivated to get it in just a little bit more.

I’m not gonna go exercise for exercise on this day’s review, but know that by the end of today I felt absolutely exhausted. I really gave it my absolute best and I feel like it showed. After every workout I take a couple of photos – one with my shirt on, one with my shirt off. And I can definitely say that I’ve never seen my body look how it does right now, especially after this workout. It was intense and I was really just killing myself to get extra reps in. I was doing strip-sets after I was tired, I was talking back to the DVD telling Tony to shut the fuck up, and I could feel the muscles in my forearms especially, on the verge of busting out of my skin. Fucking insane.

For those of you who are familiar, this workout ends with Side Tri-Rises. It gets crazy intense because everyone is trying to outdo each other and Tony gets the most reps in. My goal at the end of this workout was to do more Side Tri-Rises than him because he says, “If any of you do 26, I’m coming to your house!!”. I did 26 with my left arm and 29 with my right. Fuck that. lol.

When I was done I took no rest and went right into Ab Ripper X. I was determined to make today better than 2 days ago. Here’s how I did.

In & Outs: Easy
Bicycles (forward): Difficult, took no breaks.
Bicycles (backward): Very Difficult, took 2-3 breaks for 1-2 rep each. Did about 18 total.
Crunchy Frog: Very Difficult, took 3-4 breaks for 1-2 reps each. Did about 15 total
Cross Legged Sit Ups: Very Difficult, took no breaks.
Fifer Scissors: Very Difficult, took 2-3 breaks for 2-3 rep each. Did about 15 total
Hip Rock & Raise: Hard, took no breaks.
Pulse Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
V-Up Roll Ups: Very Difficult, took no breaks.
Leg Climbs: Difficult, took no breaks
Oblique V-Ups: Very Difficult, took 2-3 breaks for 2-3 reps each. Did 20 per side.
Mason Twist: Very Hard, took no breaks.

Well, as determined as I was to do really well today, I forgot one very important factor – I did Plyometrics yesterday and my legs were fatigued. This meant that anything involving my weakest point – legs and hip flexors, was ridiculously hard. lol. Honestly, my abs were killing me today while doing this workout and I felt like they’re really getting to a pretty good point of strength. Although the workout was really hard, I’m really, really happy with how I did today and know that I couldn’t have given it any more effort than I put in today.

Things are getting interesting..

Day 74:
Yoga X

I put a lot of focus and determination into getting a good workout in today. I was concerned that the past issues with Yoga X were gonna continue through to the end of my P90X project and I didn’t want that, so I was very intent on having today go really well.

I took a nap prior to working out because I was exhausted and feeling burnt today. As soon as I got up I started the workout.

Trying to clear my mind was admittedly hard, but I did what I had to do to not think about designing and work. I focused on the movements and making them difficult and for the first time, I counted how many push-ups are done before every downward dog throughout the whole DVD. If you’re familiar with the program you know what I’m talking about. The answer is 24 by the way.

I knew that if I skipped past the Warrior Three sequence and any of the static postures my mind would be separated from the workout, so I didn’t do that tonight. Instead, after doing Warrior Three, I went back into Crescent Pose for the remainder of the sequence. I held it for about a minute and a half on each side. That was honestly one of the hardest parts of today’s workout.

When I got to the static postures I stuck through Standing Leg Extensions even though my flexibility is really shitty, and I did pretty good at Crane today. As usual, my favorite and least favorite part of Yoga X is Yoga Belly 7. Here’s how I did today:

Touch The Sky:
Good form, good height. No problems.

Boat:
Good form good height. Again, no problems.

Half Boat:
Steady, but my leg tends to drift down. I held it up and while I appeared shaky, I’m was in control for he duration of the pose.

Scissors:
Again, because of my hip flexibility, my leg drifts down when I try to keep it straight which actually makes this exercise harder than if I could just hold it straight in the air. I stuck it through and had no issues other than the difficulty.

Torso Side Twist:
My first set felt really long and I started to notice the pain in my side. I breathed through it and made it to the next side no problem.

Deep Torso Side Twist:
This was tough, but with the increase in strength in my abs it wasn’t excruciatingly difficult.

3 Part Touch The Sky:
:20 – Good height out of my shoulders, but my legs were already drifting.
:40 – Better height out of my shoulders, legs were drifting and getting shaky from trying to keep them straight.
:60 – Shoulders very high, legs and butt off the ground and really pushing for height. The pain was intense but I stuck it through.

—

I was really happy with today’s workout. I felt I accomplished my goal of staying mentally focused and getting the most out of the session. Today gave me a lot of confidence going into my last week of P90X and into the Final Recovery Week where I’ll be doing Yoga 2 more times.

Day 75:
Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X

My goal with my legs was form, control and added weight. I know that this workout is predominantly quads and hamstrings early in the DVD and calves later on, so getting through the upper legs is generally the grueling problem area for me. I did my best to stay focused and move methodically through the discomfort. This helped. I find that when I rush I’m not doing anything for myself but getting numbers out, so having control was important for me. My other great motivation was the fact that I’m finding the lower part of my stomach underneath my waistline is getting strong and I feel it mostly after working legs and doing Plyo. That pushed me to work harder today for sure.

It kinda sucks that there’s no worksheet for legs because I can’t track my progress the same as with the other exercises. I know that I’m using more weights, lunging deeper and showing more control, but it’s nice to have the numbers in front of you in order to push for more week after week. This is one of the rare things that I don’t get about P90X.

Now onto the Back exercises. Last week I did 110 Pull-Ups in this workout, and as usual I was determined to beat my previous week’s numbers. Knowing that the numbers were that high was definitely a little intimidating, but I mentally break down the pull-ups into mini sets so I can imagine myself getting through them. For instance, if I want to do 15 pull-ups I think about it as 3 quick sets of 5, or 4 quick sets of 4 that will bring me over the 15 rep mark. That way I know I can do it and it’s not as daunting.

Here were my numbers for today:

Round 1. Reverse Grip Chin-Ups: 20
Round 2. Wide Front Pull-Ups: 15
Round 3. Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups: 16
Round 4. Switch Grip Pull-Ups: 12
Round 5. Reverse Grip Chin-Ups: 16
Round 6. Wide Front Pull-Ups: 12
Round 7. Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups: 14
Round 8. Switch Grip Pull-Ups: 12

That’s a total of 117 Pull-Ups! Not quite as much of an improvement from last week as I would like, but it’s still better than my last performance and I can’t be too upset with that.

I went onto Ab Ripper X without a break since that’s been working well for me lately. Here’s how I did.

In & Outs: Easy
Bicycles (forward): Difficult, took no breaks.
Bicycles (backward): Very Difficult, took no breaks.
Crunchy Frog: Very Difficult, took 2-3 breaks for 1-2 reps each.
Cross Legged Sit Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
Fifer Scissors: Very Difficult, took 3-4 breaks for 1 rep each.
Hip Rock & Raise: Hard, took no breaks.
Pulse Ups: Very Difficult, took no breaks.
V-Up Roll Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
Leg Climbs: Hard, took no breaks
Oblique V-Ups: Very Difficult, did 20 per side.
Mason Twist: Hard, took no breaks.

Ab Ripper X is always tough after doing Legs & Back because your whole body is just exhausted. I was sweating like crazy and tired as hell today, but I had to get it done. I needed to take about a 30 minute nap before I did today’s workout because I was really fatigues and I noticed throughout the DVD that I was feeling really, really gassed and faint like I used to in Phase 1. I’ve been really busy with client work these days so I think all the working and running around is getting to me, but I need to pay close attention to my diet so that I know that I’m fueling myself enough to be pushing as hard as I have been with this weeks workouts.

Overall I was impressed with today’s performance. I only have to do this godforsaken workout 1 more time and I’m through! Can’t wait!

Day 76:
Kenpo X

I had a bunch of things to get done today, so I did Kenpo as soon as I woke up this morning. I gotta say, this is arguably the best time for me to workout because my mind is so groggy that I just do what I gotta do to get shit done. lol.

I’m not gonna go on too much about this workout. You all know that I love it. Today was no different.

My goals were the same as in the past: keep my heart rate high by increasing the intensity of the moves, don’t hurt my right leg with the kicks, and keep up during the breaks.

This was all accomplished and my workout was fantastic. Not much more I can say about it. Oh, my landlord was right by my window doing some paving in my back parking lot. He must’ve heard me working out and Tony Horton’s weird comments. lmao. That’s all.

Day 77:
Rest or X Stretch

I’ve been feeling like shit lately, but had a great day with my daughter today. When I got home I had plans to do X Stretch, but got caught up working. Another missed day of X Stretch can’t be good for my body. I need a massage badly.

The Diet:

I put emphasis back into my diet this week and how I’ve been managing what I’m eating. Like I said in last week’s update, I haven’t been recording all of my food the way that I was in the early stages of P90X because I got into such a good routine of eating that I was used to my portions and when I should eat, etc. As I got busier with work, the eating stopped being in the forefront of my mind and so I was eating less frequently and having bigger meals which resulted in some stomach cramps and bloating. This week was much different.

My diet is still comprised of the same types of foods – chicken, turkey, whole grain breads, non fat butter, no condiments, soy milk and fruits – but the amounts are getting a little bigger and I’m not locking myself into the same old same old all the time. I need to be able to adjust my extreme lockdown style of a diet so that it’s livable when I’m off P90X, so I ate out a couple of times this week in order to get used to making the right decisions outside of my own kitchen. I ate mostly salads, grilled chicken, still whole grain breads, and drank lots of water. On Tuesday, me and my girlfriend went for sushi and I ate a dumpling without asking what it was made of… wait for it… wait for it… it was BEEF! *gasp* I told the waitress I was deathly allergic. lol. It was kind of fucked up because it tasted so salty and tasty and foreign but familiar. And I didn’t think that they’d put a beef dumpling in a vegetarian Bento Box. But I guess so. lol. It was an honest mistake, but I was kinda pissed inside. Whatever. Not the end of the world.

My vegetable intake has dropped pretty drastically over the last 2 weeks. I’m just not intrigued by the lettuce in my fridge and actually had to throw out some carrots and a whole head of lettuce that went unused. This isn’t good because I’m not the greatest at remembering to eat fruits and vegetables. The fruit situation is fine because I love having my shakes, but the vegetables, I just never crave for.

I feel like I’m in a great place with the diet. I don’t feel restricted. I feel like all of the choices that are being made are mine and I’m not looking to a guide for what I should or shouldn’t be eating. I know what’s good, I know what’s great, and I know what’s garbage, so I keep track of it and do my best to stay away from things that are gonna make me feel and look like shit. Thinking like this has become really easy as the past 3 months have gone by and I hope to continue on this path after I’m done these 90 days.

Closing Thoughts:

Ah man. I don’t know where to start. This week was pretty hectic. Between work and personal business and some great time spent with my daughter and 3 hour commutes in the heat to get Winter shit finalized and tears and hard as hell workouts and disappointments and questioning my talent, I don’t know where my mind is right now. I really don’t.

I’ve been through the quarter life crisis. It feels like I’ve been through it a few times actually. And every time it’s telling me that I’m not doing what I’m meant to be doing.

I had a lot of suicidal thoughts this week. A lot of pistol to the head type thoughts. And I don’t need pity. I understand them. But understanding them doesn’t make it easier to deal with. I’ll write about that another time though.

Knowing that my P90X project is almost done is quite the relief. I’m confident in my ability to do almost anything now, and it’s given me a great starting block to get to where I’d like to be physically and mentally. Has it put me into the best shape of my life? Yes. Has it brought me to the prime shape I’d like to be in? No. But I’m close. To be honest, looking how I do now is a great confidence builder, but it doesn’t help when it’s being countered by an extreme lack of faith and confidence in other aspects of my life. Yes, I’m busy with client work and putting my ‘talents’ to good use. But whether they’re being put to the right use is the question. I can’t just pave a trail for myself without laying out the plans and finding the money to make it happen. But it needs to happen soon before I go insane. There’s just too much in my life that feels like it’s not going right for me to be happy. And it’s not that it’s going wrong per se. It’s just definitely not going right.

I struggled a lot this week with the truth that I’m going to be 30 in a couple of years. And in my eyes of done a lot of failing. Being that guy has gotten really old to this guy. Honestly.

Welcome To The Legends League.

Read The BS of My Life / P90X:
Intro
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Day 30 Results
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Day 60 Results
Week 9
Week 10

I just finished Week 10 of P90X. It was a fucking rollercoaster emotionally and while I had my heart set on trying to gain some weight back, I wasn’t able to break 160 by the end of the week.

Starting weight: 177lbs
After week 10: 159lbs.

Here’s how the week went.

The Workouts:

Day 64:
Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Ab Ripper X

Today was somewhat of a return into a mentality that’s prepared for the intensity of the program. I feel like I had been breaking down last week and got really tired of succumbing to it, so today I was focused on kicking myself around a little bit.

Chest, Shoulders & Triceps is definitely a workout that feels kind of old school in the sense that you’re pushing your muscle to it’s capacity. It’s old fashioned hard work with not a lot of cardiovascular strain but definitely a lot of exhaustion and fatigue happening.

My goals for today were to match or outdo my old numbers in the push-up department and raise my weights but do less reps in the exercises requiring weights, and I feel I did pretty good at this.

Like all the P90X DVD’s, when you decide to really, really push yourself, you end up gassing out a lot sooner into the workout. I was aware of this, so I didn’t get down on myself for struggling through some exercises because I knew that I was pushing myself to my absolute limit.

I wasn’t able to do many One-Arm Push-Ups, or able to perform the Clap Push-Ups off of my knees, but I can definitely tell you that today was the toughest workout in terms of how much energy and determination I put into it, since I started P90X.

I hit the ground tired, MANY times today. I crumbled and shook through a LOT of push-ups. But I did my absolute best to get every single possible rep out of myself, and for that I’m really proud. I noticed that I almost got to the point of emotionally breaking down, but I had to gain focus and say out loud, “Now is not the time”. I know, it’s corny.. but it worked.

When it was time to do Ab Ripper X, I approached it with the same type of determination that I feel I had in the beginning of this whole insane project. I had trouble with Reverse Bicycle and Crunchy Frog as usual, but I made it all the way through Fifer Scissors, Pulse Ups, Oblique V-Ups, and Mason Twist without any problems, which was a huge personal accomplishment. I don’t feel like I’ve tackled A.R.X. quite like I did today, and it felt amazing considering I had been feeling beat up about last week’s experience.

I felt amazing today, and I want to continue on this vibe for the rest of the week. We’ll see how that goes..

Day 65:
Plyometrics

I was slightly worried, with good reason, about getting into today’s workout. I had a rude wakeup call last week when trying to tackle Plyo, and I was kind of hesitant to get started. One thing that I kept in mind from the past couple of months is that the earlier in the day that you choose to do these workouts, the less excuses you will find to avoid them and the less time you’ll have to think about how difficult they’re going to be. I had a few meetings today so I needed to get this done to avoid getting home late and not having the energy to really give it my full energy.

When I started out I was worried about how my legs were gonna feel even after the initial warmup lunges and prayer squats. My knees had really been hurting me over the last few days and I was actually considering switching to Cardio X today to avoid injury. Obviously I didn’t, and while I noticed my legs getting sore through the warm-up, I stuck with it and continued on.

After the first round of exercises I was feeling okay and shockingly energetic. I kept in mind that there are about 5 breaks in this workout and if I could just keep getting to the next break I would be fine. I noticed that doing some of the exercises where you temporarily leave the ground is easier when you jump higher. I know, weird right? Well it’s true. I think the small break that your muscles get while they’re airborne is enough to make up for the pain that you feel when you land. But that only takes you so far.

After the second round I was feeling way more tired, but my confidence was up. The 2 squat moves in the beginning of this round really work your quads out, but having gotten through them was a big mental accomplishment in terms of feeling like I was okay to keep moving forward.

Following the second break, you get into Jump Knee Tucks aka “The Mother of P90X Moves”. I kept in mind that my homey Drex does a lot of these while training at his MMA gym, so I stayed confident and did them with the mentality that I know he works hard to get to where he is at physically and I should be doing the same. I definitely did these with more intensity than I have in the past, and was breathing pretty heavily afterwards.

The 4th sequence is one of my least favorites because it starts with Rock Star Hops and ends in the Military March, which doesn’t look intense, but it always seems to make me short of breath. Like the Jump Knee Tucks, I performed the Rock Star Hops with more intensity than I ever have and it felt amazing. I was finding that focusing more on what muscles I was using to do the movements was helping me get through it all. And by the end of this sequence I knew I was almost done.

Run Stance with 180 Jumps is also one of my least favorite moves in the whole workout because of how painful my quads get. I needed to do them semi modified at times in order to get through the whole 30secs but I did them and felt confident in my efforts. I still can’t do Hot Foot because of my flat feet and the pain that I get in them, so I stuck with the skipping version like the dude with one leg does. After that was all done I felt amazing mentally, but really exhausted and short of breath physically. I checked my heartrate and it was sitting at about 168 which is pretty good considering it felt closer to 190 in my chest. lol.

The bonus sports round is always a fun way to end the most horrific workout of P90X, and today was no different. I was really impressed with how well I did today since my legs had been in really bad shape, but by the end of it all I realized that today was the best Plyo performance I had put in for the entire 60 some odd days I’ve been doing this thing. I weighed myself prior to my workout at 161lbs, and was still about 160 when it was done. Not quite the same as when I used to do this workout and lose 3lbs in one sitting, but it still feels good to know you’ve worked hard. lol.

I’ve only got 2 more goes at this thing, so I gotta make ‘em count.

Day 66:
Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X

Whoaaa nelly, today’s workout was pretty sick. It seems that all of the thoughts that I was having regarding my strength depleting was related at least in part to the fact that I just came off a Recovery Week. But not this week. Man. It was a good day. (No Ice Cube. Or P-Rod.)

The goals for today – use 25lbs dumbbells where I used 20’s in the past and continue to do all my pull-ups free form. Also, jump up to 40lbs on both Lawnmower variations.

I did all of this and got an amazing workout. The only place I didn’t jump to 25s from 20s was Static Arm Curls and Crouching Cohen Curls. I was feeling gassed from all of the other bump ups that I needed a bit of a break in those sections. I also used 20lbs for In-Out Hammer Curls, but that was a jump up from Week 7 where I did 15 reps of 10lbs. Today I did 9 reps of 20lbs, which by that time in the workout, felt like more than enough.

My pull-ups were all done freeform. Here’s how I did:

Wide Front Pull-Ups: 15
- I took 1 quick break, but this felt amazing.

Switch Grip Pull-Ups: 8
- I had to break when switching grips, but I was impressed by my ability to get them done freeform.

Corn Cob Pull-Ups: 4
- These are incredibly hard. A lot harder freeform than using some assistance so I didn’t feel too bad about only doing 4.

Towel Pull-Ups: 12
- Being able to do this many Towel Pull-Ups felt so amazing. So amazing.

Chin-Ups: 12
- I was really, really gassed by this point and I noticed my form was wavering. The 12 count was more like 8 and 4 really shitty ones.

Max Rep Pull-Ups: 5
- I took an extra minute break before doing Max Rep Pull-Ups just so I could get my “max reps” in. But even after catching a breather and having some water I was only able to do 5 Pull-Ups. That’s gotta say something about how beat I was by this point in the workout.

At the end of Back & Biceps is Strip-Set Curls where you choose 4 sets of weights and do 8 reps at each weight declining from the heaviest to the lightest. Having my new set of weights, I was pretty excited about this. In the past I would do 3 sets using 20s and 1 set of 12 using 10s – kind of shitty. The plan today was to use 25, 20, 15 and 10lbs weights. The 25s were pretty tough by the end of the workout, the 20s were also kind of hard but not so bad, then I had to pause the DVD to remove plates from the 25s to make 15lbs. This slowed the effects of doing Strip-Set Curls and actually made the 15s really easy after an extra bit of “rest” from changing the plates. By the time I got to the 10s I felt like I could have thrown them across the room they were so light. I did 15 reps and called it a day.

Once I was done, I felt really, really jacked. My arms were throbbing and I didn’t feel too exhausted. It was great. I was gonna jump straight into Ab Ripper X, but instead I took about 5 minutes to hydrate and catch my breath.

When I finally got to Ab Ripper X, I felt that I knew a lot of my past mistakes and learned a lot from Monday’s workout, so I was prepared to put in another good performance. Straight away, In & Outs and Bicycles were fine. I struggled a tiny bit with Crunchy Frog, but not as much as in past weeks. Fifer Scissors felt tougher than 2 days ago and I had to take 2 breaks – once at Rep 16 and once at Rep 24. When I got to Cross Legged/Straight Leg Sit-Ups I wasn’t sure which version to do. I decided I would do the Straight Leg variation for the first 12 and Cross Legged (harder) for the last 13. I felt like this was a good decision. Hip Rock & Raise and Pulse Ups were both tough, but I didn’t take any breaks or waver at all. My stomach just felt very tight and sore. V-Up Roll-Ups is one of my favorite moves of A.R.X. and today I was really focusing on keeping nice form on the V-Up. I felt like they were a little tough today, but I made it through without slowing my pace or losing form. Oblique V-Ups is one of my dreaded moves of the workout, but today I stuck with it and was able to get my 25 reps out on both sides with a couple of quick breaks. I’d like to be able to do these a bit slower, but they are tough as hell. Next was Leg Climbs. I’m reasonably good at this considering my lack of flexibility, and I do the bent knee version to add tension. Today was moderately tough. Some days it feels a little too easy, other days it feels awkwardly hard. Last move of A.R.X. is Mason Twist. By now I have no fear of this move and can get through it from front to back. My focus today was on keeping my legs straight with my toes pointing forward like I was in Boat position. I wavered a bit and my legs bent here and there, but I made it all the way to the end. Usually I crash at the last rep just like everyone on the DVD, but today I was fine. It felt good as hell to get this done.

Today’s workout was amazing. It definitely helped my mood from last night and earlier today. Right after I was done I was looking forward to doing Yoga tomorrow. Can’t wait for that.

Day 67:
Yoga X

Man, things have been mighty interesting this week. I’ve been really down and depressed and knowing that I had to do Yoga today was somewhat of a consolation. As usual, I did the workout in the evening to try to relieve some of the stress of the day, but I didn’t do it quite as late as I’ve done in the past couple of weeks.

Once again I noticed from the beginning that this workout was markedly easier than it had been in the past. My body seems to be growing accustomed to the workout, and having done this particular DVD over the last 2 years (roughly), it’s not nearly as hard as it used to be. I found that I didn’t really start to work up a sweat as early as normal, and because I wasn’t struggling so much my mind began to wander quickly. It’s important during this particular workout to focus on your breathing, clear your mind, and relieve yourself of stress – at least for me it is – and when it isn’t really too difficult, it’s hard to do these things. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still relatively tough, but in comparison to the intensity of the other workouts, this DVD has lost a lot of flare for me.

Knowing how badly I hurt my right leg a couple of weeks ago, I was weary about getting into the Warrior Three section. I did Warrior Three, then fast forwarded through the rest of the sequence that subsequently hurt my leg. I did this on both sides and noticed that because I forwarded through it, my mind was immediately disconnected from the workout. When I got to the standing leg extensions in the static postures, I also forwarded through it because of my leg, and once again found that I was losing interest in the workout momentarily. In the past I would give it my full effort to perform these moves, but since I hurt myself I’ve been apprehensive. I think that the next time I do Yoga X I’m just gonna give it a shot because I’m starting to get bored quickly throughout the workout.

My favorite and least favorite part of Yoga X is Yoga Belly 7. Knowing that these are my last few weeks of the program I’m really trying to get my Tyler Durden on, but my lower abs just aren’t coming out of hibernation. lol. I’m also a little on the fence about gaining another 5lbs back and how I should go about doing that, so it’s been a bit weird, but regardless, I’ve been really trying to attack Yoga Belly 7 and Ab Ripper X lately.

I’m pretty used to this workout and at this point it’s a matter of the amount of intensity I put towards all the moves. Here’s how I did:

Touch The Sky:
I get pretty determined when I do this move, so there’s no slacking whatsoever. Good form, good height.

Boat:
Again, good form, good height, a lot of focus on a straight back and pointed toes. I use Adam as a point of reference in this section.

Half Boat:
My legs and hip flexors are weak, so I’d love to be able to get my leg that’s straightened parallel to the thigh that’s bent, but I can’t physically get it that high. Either way, my form is good, it’s just the height that I’d like to improve.

Scissors:
I find doing this in Yoga Belly 7 is far easier than doing it in Ab Ripper X. I focus a lot on flexing the buttocks on the side of the leg close to the ground to keep my form and it works pretty well. This exercise is really difficult for me, but I’m able to perform it.

Torso Side Twist:
I’d say that this and Deep Torso Side Twist are the most grueling of the 7 moves, but focusing on breathing and not thinking about the pain is key. Today I really put a lot of focus on closing the gap between my thighs and my chest and not allowing my legs to drift away from my face. This made it a lot more difficult, but that’s the point right?

Deep Torso Side Twist:
At this point my sides were just killing me. I’ve noticed that with the increased intensity that I put into Ab Ripper X, the cardio workouts become a lot more intense on my core. Once again, focus on closing the gap between my thighs and chest and thinking about my breathing was what got me through this.

3 Part Touch The Sky:
:20 – Good height out of my shoulders, but my legs were already drifting and knees bending.
:40 – Better height out of my shoulders, legs starting to really get shaky, and the pain was getting pretty intense.
:60 – Shoulders very high, really pushing for my but and legs to get height, but a lot of pain and shakiness overall. Once again, looking at Adam as reference and a means to remain focused and calm through the intensity.

—

Today’s workout was alright. I skipped the OM’s at the end because I wasn’t feeling very zen’d out today. I was upset with not feeling too tired after this workout, but I got it done and was, at very least, satisfied with the Yoga Belly 7 section. I don’t know what I’m gonna need to kick myself back with this workout, but it’s gonna have to happen soon. Hopefully my plans to continue to try to do the Standing Leg Extensions and the entire Warrior Three sequence will be of some help in the coming weeks. We’ll see.

Day 68:
Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X

I’ve never liked this workout. It hasn’t felt all that intense to me, I hate working on my legs because they’re weak and scrawny, and I’ve never been able to get a lot of pull-ups done without assistance. But today before I started the workout I had a plan. Do 15 reps of each pull-up in the first round and 10 reps of each pull-up in the second round so that you can get 100 total reps done by the end of the workout. Prior to today my highest total rep count for pull-ups in this workout was 85. So I wanted to beat it by at least 15 total reps. The other thing I had planned was to use 15lbs weights for all the weighted exercises.

Since there’s no worksheets for the leg portions of this DVD, I can tell you that I was able to use the 15lb weights and it made a pretty big difference in intensity. It’s not a lot of weight, but it’s enough for someone with weakling legs like mine to feel a difference. It definitely made the leg portion of the workout more intense and got me into each exercise a little bit more considering I like feeling challenged.

Now for the pull-up results. Here were my numbers for today:

Round 1. Reverse Grip Chin-Ups: 19
Round 2. Wide Front Pull-Ups: 15
Round 3. Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups: 15
Round 4. Switch Grip Pull-Ups: 12
Round 5. Reverse Grip Chin-Ups: 15
Round 6. Wide Front Pull-Ups: 15
Round 7. Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups: 12
Round 8. Switch Grip Pull-Ups: 7

That’s a total of 110 Pull-Ups!!! I was so stoked!

There were definitely reps that were shaky and I was inching up to my chin on the bar, but fuck, I’m proud of myself. My advice to anyone struggling with the pull-ups is take breaks and get maximum reps out. If you feel gassed after 9, come down and get back on when you’re ready. That’s what I did today and I feel great.

At the end of the workout my right knee was feeling a little bit uneasy, but it was alright. I didn’t take too much of a break and went straight into Ab Ripper X.

In & Outs: Easy
Bicycles (forward): Difficult, took no breaks.
Bicycles (backward): Very Difficult, took 2-3 breaks for 1 rep each.
Crunchy Frog: Very Difficult, took 2-3 breaks for 1-2 reps each.
Cross Legged Sit Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
Fifer Scissors: Very Difficult, took 3-4 breaks for 1 rep each.
Hip Rock & Raise: Hard, took no breaks.
Pulse Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
V-Up Roll Ups: Difficult, took no breaks.
Leg Climbs: Hard, took no breaks
Oblique V-Ups: Very Difficult, took 2-3 breaks for 2-3 reps each.
Mason Twist: Hard, took no breaks.

I’ve been feeling really good about my progress through Ab Ripper X even though on paper it looks like I still need to take a lot of breaks. In actuality I do, but I’m performing the moves with a lot better form and more focus nowadays which makes the workout more intense than me flailing around how I was when I first started this thing. My obliques and love handles were really sore from yesterday’s Yoga Belly 7, but I felt great after doing today’s workout, pain and all.

This was definitely the most rewarding and satisfying Legs & Back workout since I started P90X, and I’m stoked to see how my numbers progress over the next 2 weeks.

Day 69:
Kenpo X

Holy, I’ve been pretty busy over the last couple of days, so getting a workout in was tough but also pretty important. Kenpo is always a lot of fun and great for stress relief, so I really thought of today like I was going into a class at a gym somewhere and I was getting myself stoked about getting this one done.

The Kenpo DVD starts with my favorite stretch sequence of the whole P90X program – The Saunders Cycle. (don’t know if I spelled that right). It’s just 2 movements that you do on each side that makes you feel amazing, and today was no different. As a matter of fact, I’m gonna go do it right now. I’ll be right back. ..

Man, that was great.

Alright, so today’s goals were as follows:
• Keep a high level of intensity throughout the whole workout.
• Focus on getting right leg kicks higher than last week, but careful not to overdo it.
• Keep heart rate as high as possible by running with knees high during break.
• Do X-Jumps as high as possible with legs spanning out as wide as possible during break.
• Get in a very low horse stance for Elbow, Blocks and Vertical Punches Sequences.

I was able to keep to all of today’s goals and it resulted in an amazing workout that was intense but didn’t have me half dead at the end. It went by super quick and I sweated off 2lbs of weight in the process.

I’m honestly not at all fed up or tired of Kenpo. It’s so much fun, it keeps you engaged, the people in the DVD are great and the pace is perfect to end off an intense week. After Yoga, Legs & Back, and Kenpo, I’m definitely gonna need to get a good session in with X Stretch tomorrow before getting into Week 11 of this thing.

It’s crazy. I’m almost done!!

Day 70:
Rest or X Stretch

I needed to stretch so badly today but had too much work to get done and ended up at my workstation all night putting in hours. It was great, but not as great as being able to have stretched. I’m gonna be sore tomorrow..

The Diet:

My diet is getting ridiculously repetitive and boring. I still eat a lot of egg whites, cold cut turkey and chicken, chicken breast, chicken dogs, whole wheat bread and non-fat butter, soy milk, and so on.

Big fucking whoopty do.

The eating part is starting to really drive me crazy.

One thing I noticed is that my desire to snack has dropped down a lot. Where I used to snack once a day, I don’t get the urge to anymore. My baby carrots sit in my fridge all week until I’m forced to boil a bunch of them and eat them with some chicken. My soy nuts are semi-stale in my pantry, and my head of lettuce used for all that salad I was once eating is about ready to be thrown out from sitting in the refrigerator for so long.

I’m starting to get really tired of the lack of time to cook plus the lack of funds to continuously buy groceries plus the left over food I always end up with when I do cook myself some Filipino food or chicken. I was really trying to refocus on my diet this week and I felt I was doing pretty good, but I know that I’m not in as clear a routine as I was when I first started this thing, though I’m not eating any bad foods.

A couple of semi-eventful things that went down this week:
• I had Dip n’ Dots ice cream with my daughter on Sunday
• I tried to eat 10 slices of borderline expired cold cuts over the course of 30 minutes and ended up taking The Browns to the “SuperBowl” a couple of times in a row.
• I’ve started to eat Special K cereal, which, to someone who hasn’t had a lot of sugar in his diet, is deliciously flavorful.
• I figured out how to make my shakes taste like Creamsicles!! This was the best one! If you wanna try it, here’s the deal:

8oz Vanilla Soy Milk
2oz Mango Nectar
3-4oz OJ
1 Banana
Vanilla Whey Protein Powder

Put all that in a blender and it’s delicious. You might have to play with the amount of OJ to make it work, but man, it’s worth it.

Other than that, the diet is the most boring part. Unfortunately, it’s also the part that keeps you in the shape you work so hard to get to, so I need to get back on my diet grind. Hopefully next week will prove more useful.

Closing Thoughts:

I’m so close to finished it’s insane. I don’t know anyone that’s made it through P90X even CLOSE to this far. I’m excited, I’m a little uncertain, some days I’m happy that I’m almost done, other days I’m upset with my physique, and most days I can’t wait til it’s over. This is crazy.

Knowing that I’m almost through with this insane project is pretty motivating. I’m most definitely in the best shape I’ve ever been in, and on most mornings I wake up happy as hell at how I look. It’s odd that even at this level of fitness I’m unhappy with my appearance on some days. That obviously strings from more psychological issues and expectations of self, but the thing with this workout is it’s not quite the same as being in the gym and saying, “Okay I really wanna focus on this and on that”. Because you’re on a program, you’re focusing on specific muscles in the way that the program is built, not necessarily in relation to what you want to work on. I’m starting to consider what my plans will be when I’m done P90X and I’m at a great starting block to start to shape my body to the point that I envision it. That, to me, is crazy. I never thought I’d be saying that. I actually never thought about that before. I’m at a physical point in my life where I can basically choose how I’d like my body to look thanks to this program. This shit, is seriously legit.

To be completely honest, I haven’t had a week like this week in a very long time. Emotionally I was an absolute mess. I don’t wanna get too far into things, but my mind was putting me in places I didn’t need to be. Shit was just very, very spiraling and I had nowhere to turn. I’ve really began to realize the extent of my mind and how comfortable I’ve gotten with it. The person I am and the things I’ve been able to do are all thanks to the mentality I have towards things. Unfortunately, the person I am not and the things that I have restricted myself from doing are also a result of that mentality. But I’m growing to find ease in the way this brain of mine works. And this week I took some great steps to get towards the place I need to be… no matter how far away it is from everyone else.

I know I’m being semi-cryptic, but this week was just a lot to deal with. I’ll put it in writing one of these days.

3 more weeks to go and this shit is over! Who’s with me?

Welcome To The Legends League.

Read The BS of My Life / P90X:
Intro
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Day 30 Results
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Day 60 Results
Week 9

This is it.. the LAST Phase of P90X.. As far as I know, I’ve made it further than anyone in any of my social circles with the exception of 1 dude whose name I can’t attach to a face, but apparently he finished the whole program. I’m feeling admittedly exhausted and I needed a lot of drive to get through this week.

Starting weight: 177lbs
After week 9: 157lbs.

Here’s how the week went.

The Workouts:

Day 57:
Chest & Back, Ab Ripper X

Today was my first day back into P90X off of my Recovery Week. In comparison to the first recovery week one month ago, this was a fucking vacation. I was able to relax, gain some clarity, and keep up my focus on my diet. I went into todays workout with a little bit of a cocky attitude. I had been here before, and the workout was familiar. But knowing this was my second last time doing this workout before this project was done, I was very motivated to push myself.

My goal for today was to do all of the pull-ups free form, without any assistance. If I needed to jump down off of the bar, I would. But after breaks I would continue. I also was focused on using weight that would challenge me. I purchased a set of screw on dumbbell weights yesterday and was excited to be able to up my resistance.

One thing that I can say about having purchased the new weights is that it definitely required more time between sets using weights. Having to change the plates was a bit frustrating, but for the price comparison, it makes total sense.

I really pushed myself today, going for more at every turn, and I am very happy with my results. I did a total of 273 push-ups, 45 free form pull-ups and I upped my weight in every weighted exercise. I was really, really tired and got this random feeling of exhaustion and mental breakdown partway through the workout. It was really strange, but I felt entirely depleted both emotionally and physically. But I kept on..

Next up was Ab Ripper X, and I was not planning to take any rest time after Chest & Back to get to it.

Something really foolish told me that this would be a relative breeze. Maybe having done well in it for the last Phase put me in a place where I was confident in my ability to complete it with ease. This was not the case. I needed a lot of breaks, and was in a lot of physical discomfort for many of the exercises. I took so many breaks during Fifer Scissors that I’d guess I completed about 15 reps tops. Pulse Ups were brutal, Hip Rock & Raise was difficult, and even doing the Leg Climb was way harder than the last time I did this workout. The biggest shock for me was the Cross Legged Sit Ups. Having gone from doing the straight leg variation and being able to do the cross legged version, I was sure these wouldn’t be so hard. But holy fuck they were tough to get through. What frustrated me the most about this was that it showed how much relative strength I had lost in my stomach in only a week. True or not? If my stomach was getting stronger, wouldn’t these moves continue to feel routine? Is a week enough time to lose this much strength? I don’t know. I finished Ab Ripper X very strong, completing the whole Mason Twist sequence and I was feeling super jacked when it was all over, but something had me feeling unsure again about my strength.

Maybe its a result of having come off of a recovery week. Maybe its because I just did a workout I hadn’t done in a month. Or maybe I’m just not getting much stronger and I just look a lot better. I guess we’ll find out in a few more weeks.

Stay tuned…

Day 58:
Plyometrics

Getting into today’s workout, I knew not to be brave about the whole thing. If there’s any guarantee in this program, it’s that Plyometrics, at any athletic level, is gonna beat you up. So I was mentally prepared for this to happen.

I got into the workout with confidence through the lunge sequence and the squats, but when the actual tough stuff started coming in, it really started to beat me up. I had to do modified moves a couple of times and felt so gassed during some exercises that I could feel my quads wanting to cave in. When I thought about the whole situation, it occurred to me that it had been 2 weeks since I had last done this workout, so it made sense for it to be difficult. But damn, these guys got this muscle confusion thing down to a science.

One thing I can tell you is that it’s not difficult in the way that it was in the beginning. By any means. There are times when I’m doing some jumps and my fingers hit my ceiling, so I know I can’t be that out of shape. It’s just that my body hasn’t had the chance to grow accustomed to this workout in the same way as it has with Yoga or Kenpo because there are breaks when I don’t do Plyo.

I was a little disappointed in my performance today, but that’s if I compare it to what I’ve been able to do in the past. Overall I did very well, but I’m gonna need to get back to my old form if I plan on feeling a good level of accomplishment by the end of this Phase.

Day 59:
Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X

I’m always really stoked about this workout. Something about it makes me feel like I’ve put in a lot of work and have something to show. That’s sort of the thing with these resistance workouts in the program. You only really do 2 in the week for your upper body, so when you do them it’s refreshing in an old school, working out in your room, kinda way. You feel ripped and you feel tired and you look like you’ve worked your ass off, and that’s the kind of thing dudes sometimes need to feel like their workouts are doing something. Let’s face it, the visible results after doing Yoga X aren’t comparable even though it makes you feel like a trillion bucks.

Anyways.. part of my excitement today was about the fact that I had more weight to play around with and I’d be able to push myself even further. And I did this today. On the exercises that required a set amount of reps, I did as much weight as I could do with a level of discomfort on the last 3-4 reps. On the exercises that didn’t require a set amount of reps, I pushed for a weight that would allow me to struggle through 8-10 reps. My goal now is to gain a little size back and higher weight / lower reps is the key to that.

I’m really happy with my results from today, and I’m thinking that I may need to grab some more weight soon so that I can really push on my last Shoulders & Arms workout. Strangely, as good as I was doing, I got the same feeling I had a couple of days ago with the exhaustion and emotional breakdown. It felt like I was so tired that I crumbled to my knees, with my hands on my face and I needed to cry. It was really strange. My body is really, really, really tired from these workouts, and not having more than 1 day rest is seeming to wear on my mental and emotional just as much as it’s working on my physical. It’s really tough. And I’m not sure about how these next 4 weeks are gonna be.

Next was Ab Ripper X, and since Monday was a bullshit run through it, I was determined but feeling shaky.

Something that I forgot was that after doing leg workouts like Plyo or Legs & Back, doing A.R.X. is really hard. Because you’re required to hold your legs up and do pulse ups, etc, the strength and endurance in your legs is really important. And today I was reminded of that.

Once again I struggled through this workout. Bicycles was tough, but I actually made it all the way through Crunchy Frog (something that doesn’t usually happen). Hip Rock & Raise was okay, but I had a LOT of trouble with Pulse-Ups. Fifer Scissors, as usual, was difficult as shit, I did the straight leg version of the Straight Leg/Cross Leg Sit-Ups, I got through V-Up Roll Ups, struggled bad through Oblique V-Ups, and made it through the Leg Climb and Mason Twist no problem.

This is really getting frustrating. You would think by now that I’d have a good enough handle on this workout to do it with ease, but for some reason I can’t. I felt really, really exhausted and on a couple of occasions today, felt like I was gonna throw up. I’m working really hard but I feel like I need something to help me get passed this last month. It’s getting very difficult.

Day 60:
Yoga X

Today marks the 60 Day point in my P90X project. Whoopty freakin Do. I did my workout really late because I had meetings today, so I didn’t get started until about 10pm.

Honestly, today’s Yoga X DVD was BORING AS FUCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!! Holy shit. I noticed right from the jump that I wasn’t sweating or laboring as early as I’ve been used to and I was unsure if this was because I wasn’t working myself hard enough, if it was because there was a cool breeze coming in through my window, or if it was because I’m really getting used to this DVD. Then by the time I got to arguably the hardest part of the workout where you reach your arm underneath your leg while in a deep side lunge and clasp your other hand behind your back while looking up, and it felt like it went by super fast, I knew that I was just bored and used to it.

I mean, you guys have seen my past posts about this workout. I love it. But today just really shocked me. I found myself thinking about Ideall Fall/Winter 09 and Spring/Summer ‘10 products and randomly coming up with graphics and design techniques. I was just not into this at all. I pushed really hard during Yoga Belly 7, which was nice, but still, nothing excited me about today’s workout.

I noticed that my leg was still messed up from my last Yoga workout where I strained my calf, so I skipped through the sequence after Warrior 3, and also through the Standing Leg Extensions. I didn’t want to injure myself this close to the end.

So much for feeling relief during Yoga. My mind just wasn’t in that space today..

Day 61:
Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X

I fucking hate this Legs & Back routine. Today I went for sushi with Stace and I think I have an allergy to shrimp because I started getting really woozy and ended up crashing for 3 hours at around 6. I got up, still really tired and knew I had to do this god forsaken workout and I was not happy.

My goal today was do all the pull-ups freeform. That’s my goal for the rest of this Phase actually. No more assistance from the stool. Just straight pull-ups.

This workout starts with Chair Lunges – which I hate – and today’s feeling of hatred didn’t change. It’s uncomfortable and I keep my foot on a wood table that just creeks and squeaks when I move, so it’s also annoying. I mean, I got through them okay, but it’s just a shitty way for your workout to start.

I ended up really pushing myself today in form and in controlling my movements and I noticed that my legs were very Jello-ish on a few of the moves. I even lost my balance a couple of times. lol. It’s weird, when you have your work sheets to tell you what you’ve done and what you’ve been able to do in the past, it’s easier to progress and push yourself to do more the next time around. But doing more just keeps you in that state of discomfort and controlled struggling. Today was a perfect example of that. I was really like a baby goat out there. lol. But it felt good. I struggled bad through the wall sits, not making it through the whole thing and falling to the ground at one point. I got up as soon as I could and continued through, but I dropped again. It was a serious, serious struggle. The Single Leg Wall Squats were the same thing. I was all over the place and in real pain. I felt really disappointed in myself and angry that I couldn’t do it. Not a good feeling. On the back side of things… my pull-up count today was 84, which I’m pretty happy with, but I want to be able to do 100 for this full workout. That’s what I’m gunning for before this is all over.

At the end of the Legs & Back DVD I had to take a seat because I was absolutely gassed. I found myself really short of breath and gasping for air for about 15 seconds. I drank a lot of water and was trying to calm down, but again, I was getting that feeling of wanting to cry and breakdown. I can’t explain it.. It’s just a level of complete exhaustion where it feels like my body is begging for rest. It’s pretty unreal. But I’ll talk more about that in the closing thoughts.

Next it was on to the ever dreaded Ab Ripper X. This fucking workout has been pissing me off all fucking week, so as usual, I was trying to outdo myself on it.

Once again, this is sounding like a skipping record, but I had trouble through Bicycles, Crunchy Frog, Pulse Ups, Fifer Scissors, & Oblique V-Ups. But I got through everything else okay. Mason Twist has actually gotten surprisingly easier over the last couple of workouts, but that doesn’t mean shit when I struggle through 5 of the 11 moves.

I’m pissed. And tired. And just want this all to be done.

Day 62:
Kenpo X

There was quite a bit to get done today. It was my niece’s birthday and I was really wanting to see my family, it was my brother Gavin’s birthday and we had plans to have dinner and drinks this evening, and it was the Caribana parade, so I knew traffic was gonna be hectic. Knowing all of this, I decided to do my workout in the morning and get it out of the way before running around.

As I’ve said quite frequently in the past, Kenpo is always a relief. It’s a good way to let off some stress and Tony Horton isn’t lying in the intro when he says that before you know it the workout is done. It goes by very, very quickly and I always enjoy my Kenpo day.

Today I felt myself getting pretty rickety. I wasn’t tired. I was doing all the jogging, skipping, jumping jacks and x-jumps during the breaks, I was performing all the moves with intensity and focus, my breathing was fine and my endurance was up, but I just felt rickety. On some kicks my balance was wavering. During the Prayer Twist in the warm-up, I was nearly toppling. And my legs felt weak. My assumption was that it was a result of 2 things: Plyometrics on Tuesday and Legs & Back from yesterday. I had kind of forgotten about the genius way these workouts are set up to keep you pushing yourself to your absolute limit, and today I got a cruel reminder.

Once the kicks started to come into the workout, I realized that my right leg really hasn’t totally recovered from the Yoga accident that happened last week. While throwing the Ball Kicks, my lower hamstring down to the top of my calf was feeling really, really strained and I needed to drop the intensity as well as the height of the kicks to comfortably move on. I considered turning the DVD off, but I’m not one to succumb to injury until it’s too late, so I continued with a lot of concern on that right leg.

I got through the rest of the DVD just fine, but again, I noticed through some of the drag/punch sequences that my form and balance was a little shaky. Again, I think this has a lot to do with the 2 leg related workouts from the week, but it wasn’t very encouraging throughout Kenpo.

When the DVD was done I felt like a million bucks. It’s just a good way to end a week of working hard and pushing yourself. I’ll see how my legs feel tomorrow, but as of right now, they’re not in a good place.

Day 63:
Rest or X Stretch

It’s 11:14pm and I haven’t done the X Stretch DVD. I know I should and I may just end up doing it before I workout tomorrow because my knees started to really hurt me last night while I was out for my brother Gavin’s birthday. Tonight they’re both really bothering me and I can’t even put my feet up on my coffee table without bad discomfort in both knees. I’m gonna ice them later on because this is not a good time for me to fall out of this thing because of injury. Thankfully tomorrow is an upper body workout, but if my legs still feel like this by the time Plyo comes around on Tuesday, I may need to reconsider doing Cardio X insteady. We’ll see.

The Diet:

Man, this “The Diet” section is getting dumb boring. You guys know wassup. I eat a lot of egg whites for breakfast and have added shredded turkey, 2 chicken dogs and 2 pieces of whole grain bad with nonfat butter to my 1st meal of the day. My post workout shake consists of 8 ounces of low fat Vanilla Soy Milk, a banana, mango nectar, a handful of strawberry slices, ice cubes and whey protein. I’ve been eating homemade jerk chicken breast – arguably the fattiest food I serve myself. I have salads with low calorie Italian dressing, eat tuna straight out of the can, and snack occasionally on soy nuts, but most often on sliced turkey and chicken with mustard.

Here’s the worst thing about this week – I bought these little chocolate squares from Le Gourmand in Toronto so my girlfriend could try them with me. My homegirl Zaki told me that they were great, so I thought I’d pick them up. It says that 1 serving is 9 of these chocolate thins, and they are fucking addictive!! I ate 3 at a time on at least 5 occasions this week. Not good, I know. No excuses.

Other than that, it’s been the same shit. Same shit. Same shit. No changes here.

Closing Thoughts:

It was a rough, rough week for me. On 3 occasions, while working out, I found my mind and body so exhausted that I collapsed to my hands and knees close to tears. It has been fucked. There’s a lot going on in terms of planning for my next steps creatively, and as excited as I am, I feel that I need this damn project to be over before I can take full control of my wants out of my life. My determination towards this BS of My Life shit has ironically become the bane of my day to day living and I schedule my whole day around getting my workouts in. I don’t want to fail myself here, and I need to get through this, but I’m feeling very frustrated and it’s deterring my thoughts about this whole P90X shit. I don’t feel stronger although I feel healthier. It’s like there has been a decline with my relative strength according to my weight. I mean, on paper this doesn’t make sense because I have proven that I am stronger by being able to perform more reps or push more weight, do more push-ups and get through more pull-ups, but my day to day strength doesn’t seem changed. I don’t know, maybe it’s just a mental thing because I’m a lot more slender than I was before. Who knows..

I haven’t felt this sick of any project that I’ve put myself through, ever. The Sober 165 lasted 75 days I believe? And the Beer Weight Experiment was only 30 days. To think that I have done 63 days of this project and still have 4 more weeks to go is a lot to deal with especially when you’re so focused on your next steps. I really feel that my overall emotional spiraling has a lot to do with how much time I’ve invested in this project. It’s insane. People really don’t understand how much I put into doing this and it’s become a very awkward struggle.

I’ll be back next week, hopefully with new spirits. Trust me, after this week, I’m gonna need them.

…

I think my closing thoughts about this week are best summed up in my Day 60 Results post. Read the entry HERE.

Welcome To The Legends League.

Read The BS of My Life / P90X:
Intro
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Day 30 Results
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Day 60 Results

I was on a Recovery Week this week, and it felt like a fucking vacation. I can’t wait to get started on the final phase of P90X next week!

Starting weight: 177lbs
After week 8: 159lbs.

Here’s how the week went.

The Workouts:

Day 50:
Yoga X

After last week’s Yoga fiasco I was determined to get a good quality workout out of today. First, I shut off the lights in my living room and left only the light in my kitchen on. I worked out in the evening, so this made my apartment pretty dark. I usually do the Yoga DVD now without ever having to look at the screen so I’m less distracted, but today I wanted to focus a lot on my breathing, and synchronizing my movements with my breaths as they say, so I brought the volume down quite a bit. I noticed right away that by doing this, the workout seemed to get me way more relaxed, the postures were way more effective, and my energy throughout the workout was a lot higher. I didn’t break into a sweat until a little later than usual, and I was really paying attention to my positioning through each move. This is not to say it wasn’t as difficult, it’s just that it was under way more control than usual. I plan to do this for all of my Yoga X workouts from now on.

By the time all of the moving postures were over I was tired, but not exhausted how I used to be. I felt strong and confident in what I had just accomplished. I can get through all or most of the static postures with relevant comfort with the exception of Plough (I can’t put my feet on the floor), and Crane (I can’t hold it for the full minute). But today I toweled off my elbows and knees and was able to hold Crane for about 30secs. I think the moisture on my skin ends up making it more difficult than after toweling off.

I really needed this workout bad. It was really calming and got me in a good mental state about the Recovery Week.

Day 51:
Core Synergistics

Now that I’ve done this workout a couple of times, I was excited to get to it today. I knew what I was getting into and I was aware of where I struggled in the past. This is obviously an overarching theme with P90X and it makes perfect sense to continue to push yourself in the places you have trouble with, within the exercises, and also within your lives. (exit cheesy exercise/life metaphor).

The one thing I can say that I absolutely hate about this DVD is Tony Horton. He is fucking annoying as a motherfucker in this DVD and I feel like telling him to shut the fuck up. But that’s another important thing about doing P90X, you gotta do it for yourself and kind of tune him out strategically like tuning out muscleheads and dudebro’s at the gym.

Here’s the rundown of Core Synergistics and how I did:

Stacked Foot/Staggered Hands Push-up:
Stack toe of right foot on heal of left foot. Stagger hands, do 5 pushups, switch feet and hands. Repeat.

Reps: 20

Banana Roll:
Start on your back with extended and off the floor, arms extended overhead with shoulders off the floor. Hold for 5 count. Turn onto right side, maintaining arms and feet off of the floor. Hold for 5 count. Turn onto stomach. Hold for 5 count. Turn onto left side. Hold for 5 count. Turn onto back. Hold for 5 count. Reverse motions until you are onto your back again. That is 1 pass. Repeat for 2 passes.

I got through this no problem, but I still need to push the ground going from stomach to side.

Leaning Crescent Lunges:
Lunge to the right holding low-weight dumbbells, lean to 45 degrees, perform an overhead press keeping body inline.

Reps: everyone does 24
Weight: 10lbs.

Trust me, you don’t need a lot of weight to feel this in your core. It’s tough with too much weight to keep your body straight during the press. Got through it slightly out of my comfort zone.

Squat Run:
In low crouch, one leg in front of the other, swing arms in running motion while holding light weights. Continue for 30secs, switch feet, continue for 30 more seconds.

I did this with 10lbs weights and it is tough. I can get through the whole thing, but you start to feel your arms swinging slower and slower and your core needs to be engaged to keep your body from jerking left and right with your momentum. Felt great though.

Sphinx Push-up:
In plank position, drop elbows to the ground and rest on forearms. With hands forward, push up to straight arms and lower elbows back down to ground keeping body straight.

Reps: 8

I love this exercise, but it is definitely harder than it sounds, especially in the context of the whole workout. I wanna be able to do 10, but in the time you’re sort of ‘given’, I can’t do it yet.

Bow to Boat:
Bow: Start on stomach with hands reaching back holding ankles. Pull and kick out legs so thighs and chest lift off ground and back arches. Boat: Sit on floor in L shape, lift legs off ground and hold arms out forward and parallel to legs, balancing on your butt and keeping your back straight. You perform Bow for close to 10secs, switch to Boat, hold for 10, alternate for 1 minute.

This exercise is hard. I’ve done it a few times and I do enjoy it, but it’s difficult. I really start to feel it in my quads going back and forth from holding them up in Boat to stretching them out in Bow. Fucking hell.

Low Lateral Skaters:
Legs wide, fingertips on ground, slide to one side to perform a side lunge. While in lunge, kick the straightened leg up off of the floor. Place it back into position and slide to the opposite side, alternate movement.

You do this for about a minute. I really felt it in my hamstrings today while in the lunge. I’m feeling my legs get a bit stronger and my feet didn’t really drift out of position as they used to.

Lunge & Reach:
Holding a dumbbell with both hands, reach down to your right ankle in a lunge, then reach up across your body to set the dumbell on an imaginary shelf above your head. Repeat for 2mins.

Reps: 8 per set.
Weight: 10lbs

You do 30 second sets on each side twice. Today it felt difficult for some reason, but I got through it. I wanna push myself to get to 10 reps, but that might cause me to move a little faster which wouldn’t be smart considering control is what keeps the core engaged. I absolutely love this exercise.

Prison Cell Push-up:
Push up, bring right knee into chest, push up, bring left knee into chest, push up, jump to your feet, raise arms into the air, jump back and repeat.

Reps: 8

By this time in the workout, I’m gassed. My heartrate is up and when I get to about the 6th rep, the pace of the exercise is slowed. I want more out of this, but honestly, I push myself to the point where I drop onto the floor and I still can’t get 10 reps of this damn exercise down by this point into Core Synergistics. Fucking pissed at myself.

Side Hip Raise:
On your side, feet stacked on top of one another, elbow under shoulder, resting with forearm out, other arm on your hip. Raise hip up as high as you can and lower back down.

Reps: 15 per side

This exercise is dope. It doesn’t look like much, but it feels great. I’d like to be able to do at least 18 by the time I’m done P90X. (One more month!!!)

Squat X-Press:
Straight legs out further than shoulders, bend over in a squat and lower hands (weights) down to ground. Raise body, straighten legs and extend hands overhead to make a huge X.

Reps: 30
Weight: 10lbs

I think I can do this with 15lbs, but without weights I’m not sure. I gotta buy a new set of weights asap.

Plank to Chaturanga Run:
In a plank position, run with feet, pulling knees up to chest while maintaining a straight body. Every 10 seconds switch to Chaturanga run (low pushup with knees coming up to elbows). Alternate for 1 minute.

I cannot do the Chaturanga Run. It is dumb hard. I do the Plank Run for 10 seconds, try for the Chaturanga Run, usually crash, then have to continue doing the Plank Run for the full minute. I’m feeling an awkward level of plateauing of my strength with P90X, and I’ll get into it a bit in the Closing Thoughts.

Walking Push-up:
In plank position, walk forward with hands and on toes for 4 steps forward and 4 steps backward. Repeat for 1 minute.

One of the hardest parts about this exercise is synchronizing your hands and feet in a way that it’s possible to move for 4 steps in either direction. When you put your right hand forward, inch your left toe upward and alternate. This may be self explanatory. But maybe I’m an idiot sometimes. lol. No problems with this exercise here.

Superman Banana:
A Superman is the stomach down part of the Banana Roll. A Banana is the back down part of the Banana Roll. Alternate from Superman to Banana in brief 5 counts for a minute.

This used to be really difficult for me, but now I’ve grown accustom to the level of difficulty of it and the way I need to control my body in order to get through it effectively. Tony’s fast paced switching from Superman to Banana had me killed the first time I did Core Synergistics, but now it’s kinda fun.

Lunge Tricep Curl Press:
Step into a deep lunge, do a tricep kickback, straighten upper body, do a curl, do an overhead press, reverse curl, stand up, repeat on other side for 20 reps.

Weight: 10lbs.

I like this exercise a lot. I could do with another 5lbs of weight, so hopefully I can get some new weights this week. There’s a lot going on in these movements but you feel great during the whole sequence.

Towel Hoppers:
Place a rolled up gym/hand towel on the ground, hop back and forth at a medium to fast pace for 1 minute.

This used to be really hard for me, but today I went all out, thinking about doing Plyometrics, and got through it okay. It’s a lot on the heart and lungs, but just pushing yourself to get passed 1 minute will get you there. I always have a fear of landing on the towel and rolling my ankle and then bashing my face off of my wall or something, but thankfully, that hasn’t happened yet. lol.

Reach High & Under Push-ups:
Do a pushup, lock ankles and turn on your side reaching your hand as high as you can, then back down under your torso, raising your hips, then back up high. Return to plank, alternate sides and repeat for 1 minute.

I can get 8 reps in of this exercise during the 1 minute duration. Stability is the key in this whole workout and you really get a sense of that during this exercise. Sometimes you feel yourself falling back or forward and not keeping your balance is what’ll make this move ineffective. Sidebar: by now I’m sweating like a hog.

Steam Engine:
Hands behind your head like a prisoner, bring left knee up and touch right elbow to left knee at your chest. Alternate sides for 50 reps, increasing speed.

No problems performing this exercise, but I’d like to be able to do it a little faster than I am now. My breath was getting short and I was definitely starting to feel tired by this point.

Dreya Roll:
Stand up tall at the end of your mat with hands over head. Roll back onto your butt and up onto your shoulders, pointing toes straight to the ceiling. Roll back forward to your feet and stand, raising arms. Repeat for 1 minute.

I hate this Dreya Weber bitch. She acts like she’s the shit and looks like the female version of Dolph Lundgren. Tony Horton would love to bang her and you can tell in every video she’s in. She’s so fucking annoying. Anyways, this move was apparently introduced by her and it’s pretty hard. I can do it with a greater level of ease and control than when I first started out doing Core Synergistics, but I admit, it’s still a little tough to get back up off of your feet without using a combination of the momentum from your roll and your hands.

Plank to Chaturanga Iso:
In plank position, hold for 10 sec., go down to chaturanga, hold for 10 sec. Repeat for 1 minute.

This exercise doesn’t sound hard but when you’re exhausted from the whole DVD, it’s tough. I made it through the full minute today, something that I don’t think I’ve been able to do yet.

Halfback:
Run like you are hopping into four monster truck tires, 2 on either side of you, then run backwards with high knees for 6 steps. Repeat for 1 minute.

I actually really like this exercise. I was able to get through it, and it’s not the most excruciating thing you have to do in P90X, so this was fine.

Table Dip Raise:
In table position, (butt facing the floor, body parallel to the ground with torso straight, bent at knees, arms straight and directly under shoulders), raise right leg straight as possible and do 5 dips, switch legs every 5 dips.

I was able to do 30 reps today. For me, this is a lot. It’s really hard by this point in the DVD to keep your arms steady because they’re so fatigued, but it feels good when it’s all over with.

—

Today’s workout felt amazing. I’m feeling the slower pace of the recovery week and I’m attacking each day individually. I do my best to think about my breathing to ease the pressure, and it’s been really helpful. Kenpo tomorrow..

Day 52:
Kenpo X

I love this workout. I know I’ve said it a bunch of times, but at this point it’s my favorite because I feel like I know it very comfortably.

I didn’t have any problems today and I was really focusing on striking with a lot of force, but not “banging my joints” so to speak. I wanted to up my level of intensity in order to get more out of the workout and it really paid off. Knowing the workout tends to get you to slack a bit, but with this DVD, it’s easy to just push yourself to do more and more, and work harder and harder. I still do all the jumping jacks and X jumps, which shows how much my cardio has improved, and I really don’t have a hard time with Kenpo at all.

Today was a nice release and I’m relieved that I’ve got a day off tomorrow.

Day 53:
Rest or X Stretch

I wish I had stretched today, but instead I chilled out. Last night was some bullshit and I needed to deal with some things.. so I did.

Day 54:
Core Synergistics

This workout is slowly becoming one of my favorites. Today I was more determined to get my reps up and concentrate on my form, and I feel that I did really well. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get as many Sphinx Push-ups or Prison Cell Push-ups done as I wanted to, but that comes from pushing yourself more in other exercises. I find the more you try to do in one area, the more difficult it gets to do more in the next area. Makes sense though, right?

I’m loving this recovery week, and can’t wait to get into another Yoga session tomorrow.

Day 55:
Yoga X

I really needed to get this workout in today and release a bunch of tension that had been building over the last couple of days. I did the exact same thing I did earlier this week and turned out my lights, focused on my breathing, and got to it right away. Everything was really relaxing, and I noticed myself pushing to improve every aspect of my poses. I got through the first 40 minutes or so just fine. Then I got to the Warrior Three section. Now, usually I try for Warrior Three, but skip passed Half Moon and Twisting Half Moon. But lately I’ve been able to do Warrior Three and Half Moon. Today I tried for it again. I really pushed myself to stay on that 1 foot even though I knew it wouldn’t be good for me because of my flat feet. I felt a bad burning sensation in my calf and foot and still stayed there until it got too much and I had to stop. When I switched sides I decided that I would do the same and push myself to just get through Half Moon. The same thing happened and I did it for as long as I could before crumbling. It was tough, but I did it.

After all the moving postures and the static stretches, I got to Yoga Belly 7. I really feel like I killed it earlier this week and was trying to do the same again today. I worked super hard and got a great workout out of it, pushing myself through every section, focusing on my breathing, and trying to keep up with “Adam” from the DVD. I was stoked about how well I did, and continued onto the last leg of stretches before ending the workout.

This week was amazing. I feel rejuvenated, well rested, and strong. I have 1 more phase of P90X to go and I’m finished, and having this Recovery Week to relax and reflect a bit has been amazing.

Day 56:
Rest or X Stretch

I didn’t stretch today, but noticed that my right calf was feeling like it was torn on my way home from my daughters. I was really getting shook and was massaging it and really favoring it while I walked. The last thing I wanted to do was have to stop because of an injury, especially this close to the finish, so I got home, wrapped it up, and rested. Hopefully I’ll be okay for Plyometrics on Tuesday.

The Diet:

Damn, at this point you guys know what it is with my diet. But as far as this week, this is what it looked like.

I, as usual, ate a lot of egg whites. I bought about 500g of turkey and cajun chicken and would tear pieces of turkey up to throw into my eggs in the morning and eat them with whole wheat bread and nonfat butter. The cajun chicken I would eat in sandwiches, or in piles just by itself. I also bought frozen strawberries, which make my shakes taste amazing! I wish I was doing this the whole fucking time. lol. I made a bunch of homemade jerk chicken and on one day, went to Tim Hortons and had BBQ chicken wraps. Holy, I forgot how good BBQ sauce tastes. Again, I’ve been eating veggie burgers in tomato sauce to act as meat with whole wheat pasta, and I’ve continued to eat apples nearly daily. They still don’t sit well in my stomach, but the wife promises that after some time I’ll develop the necessary enzymes to break them down comfortably.

Nothing terribly exciting has changed in my diet, but I don’t really mark anything down anymore. I’m in such a routine that I keep mental note of how many carbs I’ve eaten in the day and how much more protein I need to take in.

I am considering eating a little more heavily to gain some weight back, because as indicated up top, I’m under 160lbs now. I mean, I fluctuate from 159 – 161, and I know that was my goal, but holy shit. I don’t wanna be a disappearing act. lol.

I’m convinced that these eating habits are gonna stick with me, but that’s easy to say while I’m on the diet. Hopefully I can be smart about it all and be mindful of what I use as fuel for my body when this is all done.

Closing Thoughts:

This week was a rough one. Some personal shit went down that really had me pissed and frustrated and unhappy and crying and angry all over again, I hurt my leg and am worrying about getting through next week, I dropped to the lowest weight I’ve been in years, and I’m getting increasingly, increasingly upset with what I am surrounded by.

Last week was filled with work and busying myself with projects, and this week was sort of the same, but the difference was that my mind was being hammered with the thought of personal issues while I was trying to work on things. I needed to get a set of Fully Wholly’s done for the Kultura show at Kapisanan Philippine Centre while thinking about shit that was out of my control. I was expected to show up to the show, but was doing a workshop at Will’s program, then my anxiety got the best of me and I didn’t go at all. I’ve really gone through quite a few emotional rides this week and I’m thankful that it all happened during my recovery week.

Some exciting new thoughts have come about and I’m drifting into a world that I feel comfortable in. I can only hope that things workout how I have them envisioned.

More to follow.. thanks for paying attention guys.

Welcome To The Legends League.

Read The BS of My Life / P90X:
Intro
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Day 30 Results
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7

I just completed Week 6 of P90X, and it was one of the best weeks so far. I really put myself into a different mentality this week and it paid off.

Starting weight: 177lbs
After week 6: 164lbs.

Here’s how the week went.

The Workouts:

Day 36:
Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Ab Ripper X

I gotta admit, I’m the most excited about this Phase of P90X because of the way that the workouts are set up. Day 1 and Day 3 are pure strength training style exercises and you don’t repeat any of them. You just plough through 24 exercises and move on to Ab Ripper X. So, today I was stoked about getting my second shot at Chest, Shoulders & Triceps.

Obviously my goal today was to outdo my first attempt at this workout. So like every other week, I took a quick look at my workout sheet before I started to get an idea of how hard I would have to push myself to advance my results. Some exercises I did more, others I did less as a result of doing more of something else and being tired. Some of the exercises that I feel I really pushed myself in today were: Slow motion 3 in 1 Push-ups (added 5 extra reps), Chair Dips (added alternating leg raises), Floor Flys (added 8 extra reps), Y-Presses (did 5 less reps but doubled the weight), Clap Push-ups (did 8 vs. 20 using knees last week), and Front to Back Tricep Extensions (did 12 less reps but doubled the weight).

I feel amazing when I’m doing this workout. You feel strong, you’re working hard, and the people in the DVD are not fucking around. I think what I like the most about this workout is that the people in the video switch their weights when they get tired instead of stopping, they clown Tony Horton a bit, and one of the guys is just a maniac. It motivates me to push a little bit harder, take mid-set breaks, and add reps even after I collapse from fatigue. For some it’s annoying, for me, it so happens to be perfect motivation.

Next I moved on to Ab Ripper X.

After last week’s semi-slack results and discipline I really wanted to put a lot of effort into this one and I really, really did. I can honestly say that this is the most physical pain I’ve felt from this workout since I started P90X. I still suck at Fifer Scissors, but everything else just about got annihilated. I advanced from doing the Spread Leg Sit-Ups to doing the Cross Leg Sit-Ups, I really pushed myself on the Hip Rock & Raise and the Pulse Ups, and I slowed down the Leg Climbs to really get a burn out of my stomach. I did take breaks when my body would crash, but I never paused the DVD or skipped any exercises. The last exercise, The Mason Twist, I was really looking to do well in, but the fatigue just killed me and my legs hit the ground after 30. I got back in around 35 and pushed until the end.

Today was the best day I’ve had so far with P90X. I’m really feeling my confidence in my strength pushing up and I’m feeling the results of proper form during the exercises versus just trying to get through the DVDs.

Tomorrow is the dreaded Plyometrics DVD. I’m feeling a bit doomed.

Day 37:
Plyometrics

I fucking killed Plyo today. I’m sorry, but I’m fucking proud of myself. This, to me, is the hardest workout in the whole series. Your heart rate is certain to peak, your legs will feel like mulch, and you’ll feel like vomiting by the time it’s over. And my mentality today was that Tony Horton was either a) Training me for a fight, or b) Tony Horton was egging me on to fight. *I know, this sounds weird. But trust me, after 6 weeks of listening to the guy every day you get a bit sick of him and his Hollywood ways.

So I wanted to break down to you guys what is involved in this damn DVD and how I did today in comparison to past weeks.

What happens in this DVD is you do a group of 4 exercises, all of them usually :30sec except for the last one which is a full minute. When you’re finished them all, you repeat the sequence. Then you get a :30sec break and move onto the following group of 4 exercises, and you repeat those steps. Here is the full workout:

Exercise Sequence 1
Jump Squat:
Feet shoulder width apart, low squat, jump at the peak, repeat for :30sec.

Set 1) I had no problems with this at all this week.
Set 2) Still no problems.

Run Stance Squat:
One foot slightly staggered, 3 low squats, jump switch feet on 4th squat, repeat for :30sec.

Set 1) No problems here at all. I found that focusing on the front leg and hip flexor helped give the back leg a break before switching.
Set 2) Started to feel it, but was confident and kept good form.

Airborne Heisman:
One foot on the ground, the other with the knee bent towards the chest, lateral jump switch feet and position, repeat for :30sec.

Set 1) I try to think of 1 exercise per sequence as a mental break. This is that exercise.
Set 2) Relief.

Swing Kick:
stool/chair in front of you, swing right leg over, left leg over, left leg back, right leg back, repeat for 1min.

Set 1) This usually gets pretty tiring, but I kept psyching myself up to keep going.
Set 2) I keep in mind that one of the people in the DVD is doing this on a prosthetic leg. That’s about enough to keep my pace up.

FIRST BREAK
I got to the first break no problem this week. No pausing the DVD or feeling gassed. I also noticed that not drinking a lot of water during the break actually helps. Instead, I take a small sip and keep it in my mouth and breath through my nose. Then I swallow it slowly as I calm my breathing down for the next sequence.

Exercise Sequence 2
Squat Reach Jump:
Feet shoulder width apart, low squat, touch floor, jump at the peak, repeat for :30sec.

Set 1) This set was relatively easy. I was jumping and touching my ceiling (8 feet) no problem.
Set 2) My legs started to feel a little shaky by this point, so I was still leaving the ground, just not touching the ceiling.

Run Stance Squat Reach Pick-up:
One foot slightly staggered, low squat, jump switch feet, repeat for :30sec.

Set 1) Just like the first sequence, I put a lot of focus on my front hip flexor as I jumped and landed to help keep my mind off of the pain in my quads. It worked really well and I got through the first set pretty easily.
Set 2) By the second set I was starting to really feel the pain in my legs. I pushed through it, keeping in mind “You can do anything for 30 seconds”. The pain was really burning, but I made it.

Double Airborne Heisman:
One foot on the ground, the other with the knee bent towards the chest, lateral jump with 2 steps, switch feet and position, repeat for :30sec.

Set 1) Again, I think of this move as a rest move. Even though I still perform it with intensity, mentally, I keep my mind as clear and calm as possible to act as a mid sequence break. That usually helps with the pain in my legs, but my breathing still gets short.
Set 2) Same as set one. Got through it okay, but was feeling tired.

Circle Run:
Towel folded into a small square on the ground, run clockwise around towel with shoulders and head stationary for :30sec, counterclockwise for :30sec.

Set 1) I tried to go really fast in this sequence and started to lose form a little bit after 15 seconds or so, so I slowed down a bit and went for form over speed. Got through it with no physical pain, but my heart rate was very high.
Set 2) By this set I was feeling pretty gassed, but pushed through with a lot of mental confidence and got it done.

SECOND BREAK
Again, I got to this break without having to pause the DVD which was a huge accomplishment for me. I was jumping and skipping around like I was about to fight, getting myself amped to get through the 3rd sequence. I knew I was getting tired though, and I could feel my legs getting more and more sore. The next sequence had me a little shook.

Exercise Sequence 3
Jump Knee Tuck:
Feet together, forearms parallel to ground, jump straight up, touch knees to hands for :30sec.

Set 1) I hate this move. I stuck with the video on the regular paced jumps and tried to follow on the double-time jumps, but I got gassed and had to stick to the regular speed.
Set 2) After doing the whole sequence and coming back to this, I felt like I dreaded it a lot. Again, I was only able to do the regular speed jumps, but I got it done.

Mary Katherine Lunge:
Low lunge, hold, jump switch legs and position for :30 sec.

Set 1) I’m pretty good at this move. I find that it just takes a little determination. I got through this set without issue, but I was feeling tired and short of breath.
Set 2) The second set was a bit difficult in terms of control. I was very tired and gassed, so while I was able to finish the set, stabilizing myself was the hardest part.

Leapfrog Squat:
Feet wider than shoulder distance, in low squat, leap forward twice and backward twice while holding position for :30sec.

Set 1) This move is my mental break move in this sequence. It’s difficult, but not grueling, so while I do it, I try to keep my mind elsewhere to take a midsequence break. Set 1 wasn’t so bad.
Set 2) I was feeling burnt from the jump knee tucks and my breathing was getting short. These were still the easiest moves of the sequence, but I was getting tired.

Twist Combo:
Feet together, hands positioned like holding ski poles, jump, switch foot position to right, center, left, center, repeat for 1min.

Set 1) I find that this move is only really tough on your breathing, like running in place is when you’re tired. I got through set 1 just fine.
Set 2) You can amplify this set by jumping a full 180 degrees but I always opt to stick with the conventional move so I can have the energy to make it through the rest of the sequences. My breathing was still intense, but my legs were catching some wind.

THIRD BREAK
I kept telling myself that I was gonna make it through the whole video in good shape and psyching myself up to continue. The next sequence is one of my least favorite and I hate it with a passion, so getting motivated before starting was necessary. I continued to take small sips of water and toweled off.

Exercise Sequence 4
Rock Star Hop:
Feet together one arm straight out, jump, kick feet to buttocks, swing opposite arm in circle, repeat, :15sec each side.

Set 1) I hate this move, but I got through the first set just fine. At this point in the DVD you’re tired all around, so it’s really necessary to just keep going through the fatigue and pain.
Set 2) After doing the whole sequence once, another set of these just sucks. The difficulty isn’t so bad, it’s the fact that you feel like you need to sleep and rest your whole body that kills you.

Gap Jump:
Jump over an imaginary gap, leading with your right foot, turn around, lead with left, turn around, repeat for :30sec.

Set 1) This is my mid sequence mental rest move. It’s the fun part of the sequence, it gets your head out of the intensity of the rest of the workout for a bit. Although I was tired, I got through this set easily.
Set 2) Again, no problems with this set.

Squat Jack:
Perform jumping jacks with hands behind head in low squat, jumping feet from shoulder width to wide, keeping knees stationary for :30sec.

Set 1) I remember the first week of P90X, I wasn’t able to do this. But now, as hard as they are, I’m alright with them. This set wasn’t too tough.
Set 2) By set 2 my heartrate was making me feel more tired than my legs on this move, but I got through them just fine.

Military March:
Stand with joints flexed, right arm directly upward, right arm on the ground, left leg kicked forward, left arm swung backward, slowly march, alternating position for 1min.

Set 1) This sounds easy. But by the time you get to this move, doing it slowly and keeping good form surprisingly is harder than it seems. I kept good form, but I was really feeling tired by this point.
Set 2) By this point I was gassed from the workout, and getting to this move is no consolation. I did them in good form, but again, was really, really getting exhausted.

FOURTH BREAK
This is where you start to feel really knocked out and ready to quit. But these are also what many people refer to as “The Championship Rounds”. You’ve gotta make the decision to keep going even when you’re gassed and stop only when your body quits, not your mind. I was tired, but in the best shape at this point in the workout than I’ve ever been.

Exercise Sequence 5
Run Squat w 180 Jump:
One foot slightly staggered, low squat, touch floor in front, jump 180 degrees, touch floor again, repeat for :30sec.

Set 1) This move will put your legs on fire. I was trying my best not to have to do the modified version and got through it by a hair.
Set 2) By this set I was exhausted. My legs were burning and shaky, but I didn’t do the modified moves, and pushed through the set.

Lateral Leapfrog:
Legs in horsestance, leap to the left, hold, leap to the right, hold, repeat for :30sec.

Set 1) No problems here. This move is my mid sequence mental break, and is pretty easy to perform.
Set 2) Again, no issues.

Monster Truck Tires:
Right knee high, jump to right like leaping into a monster truck tire, lift left knee high, alternate move and repeat for :30sec.

Set 1) My body was dying for the workout to be over, but this wasn’t too, too difficult. I got through the set, with my breathing being pretty heavy and my heartrate was pretty high.
Set 2) By the second set I was feeling pretty gassed, but I was in really good spirits which made this set actually a little more fun than anything else.

Hot Foot:
Stand on one foot, jump left, right, forward, backward for :30sec, switch feet, repeat for :30sec.

Set 1) Because of my flat feet, I can’t perform this move without feeling intense pain in the arch of my foot more than in my calf. So I opt to do skipping versions for a full minute. This keeps my heart rate up, but takes the pain out. I got through the first set no problem.
Set 2) No issues here.

FINAL BREAK
I was feeling pretty amazing by this point considering I had done my best week of plyo since I started P90X. I was definitely tired, but mentally I was so hype about what I had just completed, that it didn’t really matter how zonked I felt.

Exercise Sequence 6 (Bonus round)
Pitch & Catch:
Perform a pitching motion and catch position in horse stance, repeat for :30sec on each side.

Set) I love this whole bonus sport section, and the Pitch & Catch is the easiest of all the moves.

Jump Shot:
Perform a catch and jump shot motion, catching from left, shooting with right, repeat for :30sec on each side.

Set) In my opinion, this is the most tiring bonus round move. I got through it fine, but my breathing was getting heavier and the fatigue in my legs was kicking in bad.

Football Hero:
Lateral jumps from left to right 4 times, highstep backwards for 8 steps, repeat for 1min.

Set) By this point, I was having fun and enjoying every second of this move. I was so stoked that I had just finished Plyo with that much determination, that fatigue didn’t matter.

—-

So that was my full Plyometrics experience. If that makes any sense to you guys who are considering doing P90X, you’ll get an idea of what you’re getting into as far as the most hectic workout in this series.

Day 38:
Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X

For some reason I thought today was Shoulders & Arms. I guess I’m still kinda stuck in Phase 1 of this thing. It was actually Back & Biceps, which I was really happy to realize as soon as I got home today. The bad part was I got home at about 8:30pm and hadn’t eaten anything except for 2 slices of an apple since 1pm. My mind was telling me to just workout, but my lady was telling me to eat something so that I wouldn’t die working out on an empty stomach. So I cooked some food up, did some laundry, waited an hour, and got to working out at about 11:00pm.

Honestly, I was tired as fuck today. But I want to see more results, so I really, really pushed myself to the absolute peak of my energy.

Here’s where I feel I excelled this week:
Wide Front Pull-Ups (equalled last weeks reps plus 10 more reps with a stool).
One Arm Concentration Curls (dropped from 15 reps to 8 but doubled weights).
Crouching Cohen Curls (1 short of last week, but added 5 more reps with half weights).
Strip Set Curls (last week I used 20lbs/10lbs/10lbs/20lbs, this week I did 20 the whole time. I only have 2 sets of weights and I need to buy a couple more).

By the time I was maybe 5 exercises in, I could feel that feeling of your muscle stretching your skin to its capacity and you feel like your arms are gonna tear open. This workout is fucking great. It’s easy on the heart, unlike most of the P90X workouts, but it’s a lot to deal with on the strength side of things. But I feel like I did amazing today.

Right after I was done I went right into Ab Ripper X, no breaks.

I was tired. Of the sleepy and exhausted sort. And I know that this DVD is only 11 moves, but they all suck.

Here’s how I did:

In & Outs: No Problem.
Bicycles (forward): I hate these. My legs always kill from doing them. But I got through it.
Bicycles (backward): Had to take a 2 second break after 8 or so. Then again at like 20.
Crunchy Frog: My legs are too weak to ever get through these at the DVD’s pace. Had to break at 15.
Spread Leg/Crossed Leg Sit-Ups: I’ve got these down. Graduated to the Crossed Leg and haven’t turned back.
Fifer Scissors: My nemesis. I put the backs of my hands under my butt to be able to do this, and I was alright today. I kind of felt like I was cheating, so I took them out for the last 5 and it was hell. But I got it done.
Hip Rock & Raise: All good. I needed a bit of a break around 18 or so, but got all 25 done.
Pulse Ups: These can go fuck themselves. I needed a break at around 7 and then again at like 18. These I hate. A lot.
V-Up Roll-Up: I went in on these today, getting my lower back higher off the ground for the V-Up.
Oblique V-Ups: Ever since I discovered that I was doing these wrong, they’ve been hell. I got to 12, needed a break, then to 17 and finished through to 25.
Leg Climbs: I went for the bent leg variation today to make it interesting. I couldn’t get all the way up my leg a couple of times. Whatever though. It’s harder, but I’m trying to see some fucking results.
Mason Twist: I made it to 24, feet hit the ground til 34, finished til the end.

I’m telling you. If you still haven’t tried this whole thing, do it. You’ll see how hard it is.

I’m happy as fuck about today. Can’t wait for Yoga tomorrow.

Day 39:
Yoga X

I was really, really determined to make this Yoga X experience better than last weeks, so, trying to do something I hadn’t done before, I shut off all the lights in my house, and did the yoga DVD in the dark, with only the light of my television. And it was amazing.

This was my best Yoga X experience yet. The ambience was nice, I waited until the evening to workout, and there was minimal noise outside of my house. I did all the sequences, including putting in a strong effort with the Warrior Three section, and just did the modified move when it came to Twisting Mountain Pose.

When I got to the balance postures, I had some trouble with Crane and Standing Leg Extensions, as usual, but tried my best. I also noticed a lack of flexibility when doing Plough, but my workout was going so well that it didn’t really matter.

The effort put into tonight’s workout was ridiculous, and the payoff was well worth it. I’m really, really pleased with the way I feel right now.

Day 40:
Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X

I definitely never look forward to this workout. It involves my 2 biggest weaknesses, and makes me feel a little incapable of a lot. After last weeks painful experience, I wanted to regain some confidence in myself during Legs & Back.

I’m really feeling like I’m at a bit of a stand still with this workout. I was able to perform all the leg exercises just fine, but the pull-ups involved for the back workout are frustrating me. My goal as always was to do better than my previous weeks. But it’s getting a little fucked up. Here’s what my results were for the pull-ups:

Reverse Grip Chin-Ups:
Last Week Set 1: 15 w stool
This Week Set 1: 17 w stool
Last Week Set 2: 17 w stool
This Week Set 2: 8 freeform

Wide Front Pull-Ups:
Last Week Set 1: 17 w stool
This Week Set 1: 8 freefrom
Last Week Set 2: 20 w stool
This Week Set 2: 8 freeform

Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups:
Last Week Set 1: 17 w stool
This Week Set 1: 7 freeform
Last Week Set 2: 22 w stool
This Week Set 2: 15 w stool

Switch Grip Pull-Ups:
Last Week Set 1: 12 w stool
This Week Set 1: 14 w stool
Last Week Set 2: 20 w stool
This Week Set 2: 15 w stool

I know, freeform pull-ups are harder. But I know I’m not getting my full potential out of these pull-ups, partially because my chin-up bar is screwed between my door frame. It limits my range of motion and I feel stuck in a little box, doing pull-ups on a bar that’s basically at my forehead.

If I can give you guys any advice about this, I would say, do your best to get a pull-up bar that lodges into your doorframe, but has it’s grips on either side of the door.

I gave it my all today with the legs workout, but I know I can do much better with the back.

Ab Ripper X was next.

Right away I could feel how wasted my legs were, struggling with the first 3 moves. I had to take a few breaks because my legs were just giving out. The moves that I’m comfortable with: Cross Leg Sit-ups, V-Up Roll Ups, Hip Rock & Raise, etc, were done just fine, but I really felt a bit out of it today. Fifer Scissors was tough as usual, and I was only able to do 15 Oblique V-Ups on each side. By the time I got to Mason Twist, I was in a bit of a bad mood and my legs gave out at rep 25. I pulled my feet back up and kept going, but I didn’t feel the same satisfaction that I’ve grown accustomed to after finishing Ab Ripper X.

Today was kinda shit. The legs workout was the only thing that had me feeling semi-good.

Day 41:
Kenpo X

After yesterday’s workout, my legs, hips, bum, and lower back were hurting. Kenpo is super fun, so I was excited to get it going, but I knew it would be a bit of a challenge.

Turns out that after getting started, I was fine.

Honestly, getting to the end of a P90X week and doing Kenpo is a great experience. It’s enjoyable and difficult, it goes by quick, and the people in the DVD are great. My one complaint about today was that I was feeling a lot of pain in the joint of my right arm. I’m pretty good at throwing a punch, but I think that because of Wednesday’s workout and my recent increase in art related work, my arm was just killing me.

The workout itself was great, and was a perfect close to the best P90X week I’ve had so far.

Day 42:
Rest or X Stretch

I decided to take today to rest, but really needed to do X Stretch. My back is feeling very sore and I need a massage badly.

The Diet:

My diet for this week was the same basic platform as last week, except I didn’t do enough grocery shopping. I ended up eating a lot of tuna, which I’m feeling really sick of, and eating more bread, which I’ve now kept in my freezer to increase it’s shelf life. I’ve been drinking a little too much coffee I think (about a cup a day), and haven’t been cooking as much as earlier weeks.

This week was the first week that I didn’t precisely record how many of each food group I was eating. I would mark it down while I was at home, but if I left home and had anything to eat, I wasn’t writing it down when I returned home. I would just make a mental note of it. Because of this, I think I fell short some days on my protein intake, and had too much dairy on other days. No big deal, just an observation.

I’ve definitely gotta get more groceries next week.

Closing Thoughts:

There was a definite increase in intensity in this week’s workouts. I did my best to really push for more everyday and do as much as I possibly could every second of the workouts. I feel really confident in what I was able to do and am very proud of my outputs this week.

On a personal level there were also some good improvements. I’ve really just needed to get out of the trap of my house a bit. I’ve been secluded for almost 2 months, and it’s not healthy, so being out and about and seeing friends and interacting with people was a great help in my overall mood. I’ve been slacking a bit on things like cleaning my house and doing laundry, but I’ve been busier in terms of work and making some money again. Things are looking really good, and I’m feeling a great deal of general confidence thanks to the mental clarity and the physical results from P90X.

I’ve been included in an upcoming artshow to do a new Fully Wholly collection, which I’m very stoked about, and have been working on a book that is nearly finished. I can’t ask for too much more right now.

Best week I’ve had in a while. I am very grateful.

Welcome To The Legends League.

Read The BS of My Life / P90X:
Intro
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Day 30 Results
Week 5

This was the first week of Phase 2 of P90X, and I gotta tell you, it was the hardest week I’ve had thus far in a number of ways.

Starting weight: 177lbs
After week 5: 168lbs.

Here’s how the week went.

The Workouts:

Day 29:
Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, Ab Ripper X

This workout is incredibly intense. There are things that you have to do that I would never expect to be doing, and while it’s super difficult, it adds a definite element of fun and variety to what I’ve been doing for the past month.

You do 24 exercises throughout the whole workout, and they are fucking insane. Some of the more difficult ones for me were Plange Push-Ups, Pike Presses, Side Tri-Rises, One-arm Push-Ups, Weighted Circles, Slo-Mo throws and One-arm Balance Push-Ups. I know, that’s a whole lot of exercises. But fuck, this shit was super freaking hard. I found myself kind of boggled that you’re expected to do this shit, but I tried my best and from getting through Phase 1 of P90X, I was confident that I would only get better at these exercises as time went on.

Next was Ab Ripper X.

After not having to do this video for a week, it was admittedly difficult as hell. The Split-Leg Sit-Ups have become very easy to complete, but the Oblique V-Ups and the Mason Twist had me absolutely killed today. I also found something that assisted with the Fifer Scissors. I placed the backs of my hands underneath the lower part of my back to help me keep my legs up. I was able to get through the whole scissor section, and although it was made easier by doing this, at least I did it instead of skipping this whole section or doing it with my legs bent.

Today was tough. And I’m gonna just pray that I’m okay tomorrow. lol.

Day 30:
Plyometrics

After doing yesterday’s Chest, Shoulders & Triceps workout I woke up leaner than I think I have ever been as an adult. My body felt lighter but I felt super strong. And I weighed in at 165lbs. This shit is incredible.

So it was on to doing Plyometrics. (insert dreaded movie music here). Honestly, this video is out of hand. Today was the first time when I really took into consideration that Tony says, “If this is too much for you, you have the Cardio X option”. See, there’s a DVD called Cardio X that you can do instead of Plyo, but I choose to always do the Plyo DVD. Well it fucking killed me today. I was falling from the pain and panting like a wuss the whole time. I mean, I know this is good for me and that it’s gonna improve my cardiovascular health, but fuck. It’s just too much sometimes. I was in serious pain from my hips down, and even while doing the modified moves, I was struggling really, really bad. I can see how the increase of intensity of the resistance workouts of Phase 2 can help create a greater degree of difficulty in all the Cardio workouts that you have to do in between.

Day 31:
Back & Biceps, Ab Ripper X

This is another brand new workout that is introduced in Phase 2 of P90X. It’s 24 exercises, and like Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, it’s intense as shit. Honestly, after doing Phase 1 of P90X, I’m pretty used to my heart rate being pretty high even during the resistance and weight training because the breaks are usually pretty short and you have to repeat exercises. But with these 2 new workouts, it’s just 24 different exercises and it seems to give your cardio a bit of a break. Either that or I’m just getting better at handling it.

Like the Chest, Shoulders & Tri’s workout, there were a number of things that I a) was having trouble with, or b) found that I had weights that were too light or too heavy. I only have 10lbs and 20lbs dumb bells so I end up really pushing myself to get 8 reps in, or going to far and doing 20 reps. This means I’ve definitely gotta get more weights – thumbs down. The exercises that I had issues with were: Lawnmowers (not enough weight), Reverse Grip Bent-over Rows (not enough weight), In & Out Hammer Curls (too much weight), and Strip-Set Curls (not enough weights). The problem with the last exercise is that if you don’t have a variety of weights you’re gonna get screwed. You’re supposed to start with a pretty heavy weight, do your set, then grab a weight that’s a little lighter, do your set, and so on until you’ve gone through 4 sets with decreasing weights. Since I’ve only got 2 sets of dumb bells, it was too easy on the second and third sets and didn’t give the type of effect I know it should have. This totally sucks, but I’ve gotta buy more weights.

Overall I like this workout. It’s a bit relaxing to get to do something with not so much cardio involved, and feel like you’re just throwing weights around. It’s a nice change from how hectic all the other days kind of seem. But then again, you gotta do Ab Ripper X when it’s all done.

After Monday’s struggle with Ab Ripper X, I was feeling determined to get it done proper today. Those plans, though thought through with good intentions, seemed to come crumbling down pretty quickly. lol. This video, no matter what anyone tells you, is difficult. You need a LOT of core strength and a LOT of grit to get through all of the moves with good form. I think that with the addition of these intensified workouts, Ab Ripper X just gets harder to do or something. Today, as usual I struggled with Fifer Scissors and couldn’t even do the whole Crunchy Frog section. I had to take a 2 second break during it. AND IT’S THE FOURTH MOVE FOR GOD’S SAKE! The Oblique V-Ups have been getting more and more difficult as I improve my form. I think that during the first 2 weeks I was doing them with poor form and it made it easier to complete the 25 reps on each side. But now that I’m noticing what I’ve been doing wrong, they are hard as hell. Lastly, as always, is the Mason Twist. I’m usually pretty good at getting through the Mason Twist, but these last 2 times, my feet have hit the floor and stuck there. Today I had to keep them down between the 25 and 40 mark, and then struggled to keep them up for the bonus section. Like everyone in the video does, I always crash and fall over after I’m done this DVD. And today just completely killed me.

Day 32:
Rest Day Swap

Today I attended a funeral for Jeff & Hannah Roche. I went to High School with Jeff and he was the best friend to one of my best friends older brothers. Needless to say, working out was less important than showing support to those who needed it and paying respect to the recently married couple who were taken too soon in a tragic, tragic accident.

Find Peace Jeff & Hannah.

Day 33:
Yoga X

After yesterday’s crazy ride of emotions and drunk reminiscing, I woke up in a bit of a daze today. I decided I would wait until pretty late to get into doing the Yoga DVD, and didn’t start it until about 8:30.

I did something today that I thought would help the overall circulation of air in my house but it actually kind of fucked with my workout to tell you the truth. If you’re familiar with these update posts, you’ll know that in the past my place has gotten really hot while I’m doing these P90X DVDs and I get to a point where I find myself really short of breath. So today I decided I’d turn my fan on in my living room while I did my workout so that I could keep things relatively cool.

For the first little bit of the DVD it was actually really nice. I was calm and relaxed, and everything was going really well. But then by the time I got to the points in this workout where I’m usually pretty gassed, it started to feel like the intensity of everything had kind of gone away. And I don’t know if it’s because I’m used to just being so tired and sweating buckets, or because I got an unusual break yesterday from working out. Either way, today’s Yoga X workout was less than satisfying and I ended up pretty disappointed when it was all over with.

A few things about the workout that I noticed. The flexibility in my hip flexors and legs is still pretty bad and I’m not sure why it’s not improving. I have a great deal of difficulty keeping my legs perpendicular to one another when doing things like the standing leg extensions. It sucks, but it’s the truth. Also, doing Prayer Twist has somehow gotten more and more difficult for me. Maybe I’m thinking about it too much, maybe I’ve got vertigo, maybe my floor is uneven. Who knows. But I always fall over like a newborn goat every time I have to do it. lol. I still have a great deal of difficulty with the whole Warrior Three section. I just fast forward through it because my feet get pretty sore from trying it.

The one positive of today’s workout was Yoga Belly 7. I’m pretty determined to get my stomach in not-so-inner-tube shape, so I go into any ab related exercises pretty focused. I’m noticing, much like doing Ab Ripper X, that with increased focus comes increased intensity and pain. Hopefully it all shows in the end…

I left my house and checked my homies Kev, Barry and Clyde and their girls and we went to see Nana for his birthday. It was a little slow and I trekked down to Skybar to see Los, Skam and Will. Will gave me a lift back to the crib and we got some conversation in. I miss that dude. .. but that’s about all on that. lol.

Day 34:
Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X

Ah fuck. I hate this workout. I hate it. I might actually hate it more than I hate police officers. lol.

Right off the bat this workout had me a bit squirmish. The first exercise in the whole thing is Single Leg Chair Lunges (or something like that), and I couldn’t get 25 reps out of my left leg, doing only 20. Then I switched to my right leg and I was only able to comfortably get 14 reps before feeling like my leg was buckling. I kept it moving and continued the workout. Once I got to the Super Skaters I could feel how dead my legs were. They’re already my weakest physical point, but today they just seemed like they couldn’t deal with this workout. Every other exercise afterwards went as normal, but with some discomfort in my right knee, which has bothered me in the past due to my flat feet. When the whole workout was done, I got to the cool down and my right leg was struggling so much to stay straight for one of the stretches that I overcompensated my focus on it and my left leg gave out and buckled. My right knee felt fucked and I was pretty bummed.

I took a bit of a break before getting into Ab Ripper X to make sure my knee wasn’t completely fucked up, but started as soon as I figured it wasn’t all that serious.

I gotta say, today’s bout with this DVD was a lot better than the past 2 runs at it. I still had difficulty getting through the whole Crunchy Frog section because I had just completed the Legs & Back DVD, and Fifer Scissors, as usual, was problematic, but I really put in work for the rest of the workout. The thing I had in mind throughout this whole thing was getting through the whole Mason Twist sequence since I had had trouble with it this week. I tried to keep my mind focused on punching the ground next to me rather than on the pain in my legs and core, and I got through it just fine.

Today’s workout was pretty shitty. I don’t feel confident in my ability to get through the Legs & Back DVD, and it feels like I’m getting weaker or like the recovery week took a lot out of me. I think that there’s more to this that I’ll get into in my closing thoughts for this week actually, so skip down if you wanna know what’s good.

Realtalk: I actually said, “I hate this shit” out loud while I was doing Ab Ripper X today. That shit is so fucking hard yo. Try it.

Day 35:
Kenpo X

I’m finally at the end of this fucking week. It seems like this week has lasted forever. I was with my daughter today, so I had to wait until the evening to get this workout in. I woke up with my legs feeling like Jello from the Legs & Back DVD and was really not looking forward to getting to Kenpo X today. Honestly, I find the timer at the bottom of the screen for all these DVDs makes a huge difference in making it through them. And with Kenpo X, once I get to the 2nd break I start to feel really comfortable.

Thinking that today’s workout was gonna be hell, I did my best to stay upbeat and have fun today. The Kenpo DVD is one of the more fun workouts to do and I didn’t wanna be dulled out during a workout that would be grueling. But as soon as I got through the initial warm-up, I could tell that I was gonna be good today.

I actually think that today’s Kenpo workout was the best I’ve done in the 5 weeks of P90X that I’ve completed. I didn’t pause the tape at all, I did all the jumping jacks and X jumps during the breaks as well as the running and skipping to keep my heart rate up, and I did every single move in the whole DVD without difficulty. I found that once again, having the fan on in my living room helped circulate the muggy air in my apartment and made it a lot easier to breathe in general throughout the workout. Apparently that’s important. lol.

There’s not much to say about today other than I’m happy this week is over, but I’m bummed that I won’t be getting another rest day for 7 days.

The Diet:

Now that I’m in Phase 2 of P90X, the diet has changed slightly. I’m allowed 1 more serving of carbs, but 1 less serving of protein.

This, has been tough. The diet is what I’m finding is helping me actually see the results of the work I’m putting in. On days where I may go over my protein intake, I notice I’m bloated or feel heavier the next day. On days where I fall short, I find that my energy the following day is depleted. It’s tough to stick right to it, and now that I’ve been going 5 weeks eating basically the same foods over and over again, it’s really, really getting frustrating.

I made some jerk chicken early in the week so that I could have some variety, knowing full well that it didn’t really fall into the category of things I should be eating in terms of the ingredients used, ie sugar, oil, soy sauce. I figured a little bit out of the lines isn’t gonna hurt anybody, and fuck, I’ve been killing myself for the past 4 weeks. I also had some of a popular family desert from my girlfriend that was fucking delicious, but I did truthfully, feel guilty about it even though it was just a 2×1 inch square.

I know, I’m a bit mental about the diet. But I wanna know what kind of shape P90X can really get someone into, and I don’t feel like I’ll fully know this if I don’t try my best to keep the nutritional guide as a guideline for how I eat.

Now here’s the real kicker of this whole week, and I think it’s what has reflected into my weight, my ability to get through the workouts comfortably, and my energy levels. I drank 3 out of 7 days this week. And trust me, I’m feeling it around my gut. Considering I was feeling lean and Tyler Durden-ish at the beginning of the week, it sucks to feel bloated and back to square one at the end of the week. My lowest weigh-in this week was 165lbs, and I truly feel like these last 3 days have added to me weighing in this morning at 168lbs.

More focus will be placed on what I eat, and more importantly, what I drink, next week. Trust me.

Closing Thoughts:

Damn it this week was tough. The combination of the increased intensity in 2 new workouts and how that effected the rest of the workouts, having helped Zaki move on Tuesday, spending the day with my daughter on Wednesday for Canada Day, going to a double funeral on Thursday and getting so drunk I don’t remember how I got home, realizing I puked for the first time in a long time, going out again on Friday and having some beers and then again on Saturday just chilling outside with the wife, has had me kind of fucked up. I mean, I don’t regret any of the days or nights that I went out except for the funeral where I know I over drank.

I’m starting to get pretty depressed and upset with where my life is at right now. I’m realizing that I need something very bad. And that necessity is really emphasizing all the things that I know I don’t need in my life. But I’m frustrated and I’m confused as to how to deal with it all. I really feel like I need to runaway or some shit. Like on some childish shit. I don’t want what’s around me anymore. I want it all gone and I want to start fresh. But I haven’t pushed for that new beginning yet. It’s like I’m lost and need to find my footing before I decide which route is necessary to take to get to my very well known destination.

These workouts can only do so much for my body and for getting my mind off of things. And they do. They DO do so much. But they don’t solve anything. I feel like I know what the solution to all of my issues right now is but I am very afraid to face that decision. It makes me feel worried. It makes me uncertain. And it shadows other decisions that I’ve made about my life, so it’s confusing.

The BS of My Life needs to cleared up as I said. I need to stay on top of things. Everything in my house should be kept orderly. I need to complete tasks as they present themselves. But I haven’t. This week I have not at all. My laundry piled up. My apartment got increasingly messy. My dishes are not done. And my belongings are semi-scattered. But this is comforting to me. Because amid this heaping pile of “Things to Do” is a heaping pile of “Important Things to be Done” that I continue to avoid. If I take care of the tasks at hand I am forced to take care of the tasks that have always needed my attention. And this week I have neglected that. I am admittedly falling apart. And while the workouts get more and more difficult and I plough through them with determination and focus, I cannot seem to find the strength in me to do the same where it really counts.

Welcome To The Legends League.

Read The BS of My Life / P90X:
Intro
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Day 30 Results

After completing 30 Days of P90X, I’m incredibly happy. My body is in the best shape it’s been in about 5 years, and my energy level is great. The amount of focus that I’ve been able to place on my dietary habits and how I eat for purpose rather than pleasure has been amazing, and my desire to drink has dissipated considerably due to a focus on my physical health, and a drive to continue to better my conditioning. This has obviously helped me save a bunch of money, and put me into the position that I want to be in for the years of my life which approach. A position that allows me to be at the best physical and mental starting block possible for my 30’s. (No, I’m not 30, but I will be in a few years.)

I’ve heard a bit of feedback regarding the program saying that it’s only meant for people who are already in reasonable physical condition and the diet is not healthy. Firstly, I can say this – The program is difficult as fuck. But they provide you with modified moves for every workout so that you can accomplish what you are capable of in a manner that allows you to slowly improve over the 90 Day period. I can say this truthfully because even after completing 30 days of the program, I still do modified moves, and I still do modified pull-ups to get the most out of my workout. My response to anyone who claims that it’s too hard or that it’s not for people who aren’t in remotely good physical condition is that they need to stop making excuses. There are exercises in this program that I started out doing 4 or 5 reps of that I can now do 18-20 in. And there are days where I feel like I want to just quit, or I feel like shit, or I’m tired, or I’m hungover, and I don’t want to do the workouts, but I do them anyways and I bust my ass doing them. A lack of motivation and discipline is no reason to say that this program does not work. I’m seeing results and I stick by it based on someone who is following the regimen. In regards to the diet, I understand that having such a skewed level of protein in comparison to everything else causes people to freak out a little bit, but I haven’t felt much effects from closely following the nutrition plan. After the 3rd week (during my recovery week) I got a little bit more lax on the diet and decided that if I was feeling a need to have some rice, I would have it. If I wanted it 2 times in a day, so be it. I am seeing results following the guidelines, without any drawbacks, so I’m not about to stop using it as a nutrition plan.

Here are my Day 1 – Day 30 Before and After photos:

Day 1: 177lbs.

Day 30: 165lbs.

—————

The rest of The BS of My Life Project has to do with ridding myself of the Bullshit in my life. This, honestly, has been more difficult than doing P90X. I’m finding that after not working for nearly 4 months now, my desire to socialize and my tolerance for being around particular types of individuals has really squirmed down to about zero. My anxiety has gone through the ceiling and my mental confidence is in a very, very weird and unbalanced place. I find myself fighting with whether my life is about my artwork and writing and pursuing those things or if it’s about being at an ad agency pushing products and being an art director. Whether it’s about the city and the lights and the busyness, or if it’s about seclusion and calm and the beach with a book and pen. Some people call this a quarter life crisis, but I’ve been through that already. I’m not sure what this is to tell you the truth. An awakening of sorts maybe. Or a realization of the importance of my crafts and how they can help others reflect on their own lives a bit. (Maybe that’s a little presumptuous. Or maybe it’s true.) There’s a very big level of uncertainty that comes with trying to clear my life of the excess baggage. No, it’s fear. It’s a fear of what I am uncertain of. It’s a fear of what the results of not having what I am used to, although it may have been poison, around anymore. And that fear is putting a procrastination stamp on me just moving on with my life.

I feel a disappearance coming on. And it’s an important one. But we’ll just see how I feel in another 30 days or so.

Welcome To The Legends League.

Recovery Week 1

This week is a recovery week that helps transition you into Phase 2 of P90X. From the looks of it on paper, it’s a pretty calm week that doesn’t involve pushing a bunch of weights around, and I’m actually really looking forward to it.

Starting weight: 177lbs
After week 4: 166lbs.

Here’s how the week went.

The Workouts:

Day 22:
Yoga X

I just finished Day 1 of my first Recovery Week and I feel great. Doing Yoga on the first day of the week is pretty refreshing after getting accustomed to doing Chest & Back / Ab Ripper X on Mondays. I got through the DVD with a great level of comfort (note: comfort and ease are 2 totally different things), and I noticed that I was actually getting more out of my legs than usual. I’m going deeper into certain poses and my flexibility and calmness during this workout has improved 100 fold.

I can tell that I’m still working hard as fuck because I still sweat like an animal during this workout and am still shaking like crazy when doing a lot of the poses. The biggest difference though, is the ability to remain calm of mind throughout it all.

The biggest difference from this workout in comparison to every other time I have ever done Yoga X was my ability to do the “Yoga Belly 7″ section cleanly and with a strong effort. When it got painful in my stomach, I was pushing myself crazy hard and fighting to get the most out of my body. It was an amazing feeling. I’ve never completed this section with this level of intensity in the near year that I’ve had this DVD. I’m really happy about that.

Today was an incredibly necessary workout for me both physically and mentally. Doing Yoga X always calms my mind of all the bullshit that’s going on around me and it helps me get a little bit centered at least for 2 hours of my day. With the way that I finished todays workout, I’m stoked to be doing Yoga again in a couple of days, just to see my results.

When I was done today I weighed in at 168 lbs – the lowest I’ve been in a long time.

Tomorrow is the introduction of a new workout, and I’m pretty excited. We’ll see how that goes then.

Day 23:
Core Synergistics

I was really excited to get this workout going once I watched a quick run through of it on YouTube last night. I had been on the road for hours today and wanted to make sure that I wasn’t too tired to get this DVD done, so as soon as I got in, I got it going.

Now, I thought I was ready for this. But honestly, I was definitely not. I found a lot of people online saying that this was their favorite of all the P90X workouts, and I can see how that might be. It engages all of your core muscles in one grueling stretch of exercises. But for someone who had never done it before, I found myself gasping for breath, collapsing during exercises, and sweating like a dog. This workout is TOUGH.

Some of the things that are a lot harder than they look on TV/YouTube: Sphinx Push-Ups, Jail Cell Push-Ups, Dreya Roll, and Superman Banana. I’ve only got 1 more day this week to do this DVD right, so today was a HUGE wake-up call.

Note To Self: P90X only gets harder as you think you’re getting stronger.

Figures that right when I’m in the mood for a “Recovery Week”, I get rocked by Core Synergistics. Believe me, it’s not to be taken lightly.

(I’m still light headed as I type this out…)

Day 24:
Kenpo X

Let me just start this update by saying that today was the worst day I’ve had in a long time, emotionally and mentally. More on that at another time.

I didn’t get started on my workout until 9:30pm so I was pretty out of it, but that’s no excuse for how difficult today’s Kenpo was. I’m used to this workout, but I’ve been noticing that as the weather gets better outside, the temperature of my actual apartment raises and the humidity in my place is unreal. Last night while just chilling in my place I was sweating like a dog from the mugginess, so while I workout, I think that my lightheadedness is partially do to the lack of fresh oxygen in my house.

Near the end of today’s workout I started to worry that I was gonna faint from not getting enough air, and I had to pause the DVD and walk into the hallway of my building, which was FAR cooler than the inside of my place. I stayed out there for about 15 seconds and got back to Kenpo.

My biggest difficulty with today’s workout was the kicks. My legs are getting more and more fatigued as this project wears on, and at the end of the DVD, I felt a bad strain in my calf and the inside of my right leg. I had to calm it down a little bit in the intensity department, and make sure that I didn’t injure anything.

I feel like absolute shit emotionally, and I can’t say that my physical is feeling markedly better. My fat loss seems to have peaked, and the results are slowing down. I think the initial loss had a lot to do with the change in diet, and now it’s a matter of getting more lean and toned. I’m working on it though..

Tomorrow is a much needed Stretch day. Can’t wait.

Day 25:
X Stretch

I worked all day to finish my new Fully Wholly collection entitled, “Because The Kids Don’t Play”. While finishing the final piece, I caught word that Michael Jackson had suffered cardiac arrest and was taken to hospital. After an hour of twittering and following CNN, confirmation came in that he had passed away. A true Legend has left us. And I’m deeply upset about it on many levels.

I opted not to bother with the X Stretch DVD and went down to support my brother Mensa doing a retrospective on MJ at Octopuss out here in Toronto.

Day 26:
Core Synergistics

I’ve got a bit of a bone to pick with this workout. It really fucked me up two days ago, and had me swearing it was the hardest workout in this project thus far. After today, I feel a little bit redeemed.

Knowing what you’re in for while doing these DVDs makes a huge difference. Your mental preparation is very important in getting through this I’ve found, and I can see why many people quit in their first week.

Right away, the Stacked Foot Push-ups were far easier, Banana Roll was more controlled, Bow to Banana was attacked, Sphinx Push-ups were tackled without breaks, and the Jail Push-ups, well those were still killing me. lol.

I found myself catching a couple of confident second winds today and really getting determined while pushing through this workout, trying to really do what they say and engage my core. Thinking clearly that you’re in a recovery week while you’re in it, really helps. It gets you thinking that this time is yours to adjust your body into the new stage of intensity it’s about to get into, and this kind of thinking definitely got me through today.

Minus Tony’s, now repetitive and annoying comments, this workout may end up being one of my favorites. I’m really happy with how today went.

Day 27:
Yoga X

I got to working out tonight pretty late. I started at about 8:30pm, which, if you’re doing the Yoga DVD, will take you til about 10pm to complete. I noticed a couple of things today. I needed to focus very hard on my breathing in order to get through the whole DVD comfortably, and my overall strength was far less than usual.

I know that factors like this depend on a bunch of things, including when in the day you work out, how much food energy you have, etc, etc, but I really felt pretty out of it tonight.

I wasn’t able to do the “Warrior Three” segment because of pain in my foot, and I even noticed that during Tree Pose, my foot was struggling to stay up against my thigh. It was a little awkward mentally, but I’m thinking that it has a lot to do with the fact that I’m in a recovery week and I haven’t done any strength training in a bit. You would think that that would actually make me stronger and better rested, but I think it’s making me a little lethargic at times.

I got through the bulk of the DVD and finally reached the “Yoga Belly 7″ section where you work your abs out in a few static positions. I felt really determined and focused in this part, and feel like I did pretty well.

I’m hoping that this coming week will give me a nice lead into my next opportunity to do the Yoga X DVD and handle it in the way that I know I can.

Day 28:
Rest or X Stretch

Today was a rest day or a day to do X Stretch. I opted to prepare some homemade Jerk Chicken to cook for me and the wife tomorrow rather than do X Stretch. Tomorrow marks Day 1 of Phase 2 of P90X, and introduces a brand new workout – Chest, Shoulders and Triceps. I’m pretty excited.

The Diet:

This week more than any, I’ve felt a little mental over the diet. If you’re a regular on my blog, you’ll know that I’m missing Red Meat like a starving Hillbilly and it’s driving me nuts. I’ve switched up the cold cuts for canned tuna which I eat plain and drained out of the tin and I’ve added some crackers into the mix.

Here’s what a day generally looks like, (I’m not sure it’s really gonna differ from the past weeks though.):

Breakfast:
6 fried egg whites with Frank’s Red Hot Sauce.
Glass of water
Cup of coffee with Splenda and low fat milk.

Post workout:
Protein shake with ice cubes, a banana, whey protein and 8 oz Soy Milk.

Lunch:
Half a tin of drained tuna
2 pickles
Half slice of Havarti cheese
Water

Snack:
Baby Carrots
Sliced olives
5 Mini Breton crackers

Snack 2:
Half tin of drained tuna
5 Mini Breton crackers

Dinner:
Whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce
Lettuce salad with low cal Italian Dressing.

Snack 3:
Cashews or Soy Nuts
Water with Orange Juice and Ice.

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The lack of variation in my diet is what I think is driving me so bezzerk. I need to switch things up and introduce different foods into my day that will keep me from going absolutely insane. It’s getting to the point where I’m starting to dread some of the meals and I think that’s what provoked me to say fuck it and cook up some bomb ass chicken for me and my girl to enjoy. That, and the fact that I love cooking for her, but that’s beside the point.

The above sample is just an example of what I may eat throughout a day. I don’t want the impression to be that there isn’t any variety. I do eat brown rice still, and veggies and soup, etc, but I am very, very conscious of the caloric intake and the amount of fat and sodium in everything. I wanna continue to use the P90X Nutritional Guide as a GUIDE, but I need to snap out of it and start to add MORE variety is all. And that’s definitely my plan for the coming month.

Closing Thoughts:

This week was cool. Getting a bit of a break was really nice and it allowed me to begin to mentally prepare for the increased intensity of Phase 2 of P90X. I’ve watched the workout that I’m set to do tomorrow and it’s pretty crazy. There’s one handed push-ups and slow motion push-ups and all this crazy Throw The Bomb shit. I’ve got a feeling it’s gonna be pretty grueling after a week of rest, but I’m feeling good. I love how this workout plan is set up to give variety to your muscle memory as soon as it begins to grow accustom to anything. I hate the term, “Muscle Confusion” so I won’t go there, but the shit is legit. My body looks and feels way different than it did a month ago, and I can’t wait to see the results after another Phase of this shit.

On a social level, I went out to Shuffle a couple of days ago and it was actually really nice to see a few folks. The biggest turn off to the whole thing was seeing a lot of people who have added me on facebook as friends, but acted all fucked up when I said hello in person. Today I finally got to deleting everyone I’ve never actually met from my account.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Fully Wholly’s and where I can go with them. I’ve got a couple of plans, but at this point they’re just that – plans. I want my career as an artist to be brighter than my career as a designer, and I feel like the Wholly’s can help me find that liberation in my creative ideas that I’ve needed my whole life. I hope this all can happen..

This week was easier on a physical than it was mentally and emotionally. I’m getting pretty fucked up about being in Toronto and being amongst certain folks and I find myself hermitting in my house a lot. My anxiety has shot through the roof, and honestly, working out has been the only thing besides working on the Fully Wholly stuff that has really kept me sane. My hope is that with the reintroduction of resistance training that will come next week, my confidence and energy level will raise back up and some of that anxiety will fade. But I do still toy with the idea that maybe it’s not me that makes me anxious, and I’ve gotta change something else to make things better.

Welcome To The Legends League.

Read The BS of My Life / P90X:
Intro
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3