Finally got a scale, and was surprised.

So I bought a scale yesterday, anxious to see...well, my weight. No brainer, but I waited until this morning after I woke to use it. I've been told it's best to judge weight loss if you weigh yourself right after you wake up so the measurements are more consistent (this is also when you should measure your waist, bicepts, etc.).

I'm guessing, based on experience with my own body that in the first week of May, which was the beginning of my horrible exercise/diet phase, I weighed at least 195. That's somewhat heavy for a guy who's only 5'11", but I've weighed as much as 210 before (granted the muscles in my upper body were bigger). I could have weighed more than 195, but probably no less.

So I took a deep breath at 7 am, took one slow, nervous step followed by another, and waited as the digital reading went up and down, up and down, until it settled upon a weight... 186.6!!! I couldn't believe it, so I tried again. Same thing!!! That means that I've lost about 10 pounds (potentially more) in a little more than 3 weeks! Awesome results.

It's very clear that I've dropped weight around my midsection. I've gone to the next belt loop on my belt, meaning that I've most likely lost at least an inch around my waist. These developments are very encouraging, and though this recovery week isn't as intense as the first three, I still feel like I'm burning tons of calories in the workouts. I'm also putting all of my energy into them. I LOVE the Core Synergistics workout and really enjoy Kenpo too, though I don't feel like I'm getting as much calorie burn out of the Kenpo X (no worries, I'll just add 1/2 pound weights to my hands and I'll burn way more cals). Yoga's not that fun for me, but I'm seeing improvement in my felxibility and muscular stamina which gives me enough motivation to continue with it.

I can't wait until next week when I get a new batch of muscle building workouts. It's gonna be a blast!!

-RB

p.s. - only 4 more days until the 30 day update photos!!!!!

Core Synergistics is AWESOME!!!!!!!

Did the Core Synergistics last night and loved it!!

It's a tough, tough workout, but I love what Tony did with it. He varies the movements throughout the entire workout, allowing you to hit every muscle group in your body. I was somewhat clumsy with it since it was my first time doing it, but now that I know how the moves work (more importantly how they're SUPPOSED to work) I'm sure I'll get better at it next time.

I find the level of creativity that Tony used in these workouts to be very impressive. I can't really see how someone could get bored with P90X, at least within the first going through. I guess if you did a second go at the 90 days how perhaps it could get monotonous, but that's where the P90X Plus comes in and the maintainance part should allow each person to experiment. Do what you want so long as you change what routine you follow from time to time and you can't get bored. Go up in weight, build more muscle. Go down and do tons of reps to really burn out your muscle groups. The adaptations are there for you to use and man it's great.

I've also started following Tony's Twitter and blog because the guy has a ton of inspirational stuff to say. Perhaps I have a little man crush on Tony (ha ha, all guys have a man crush, they just don't want to admit it) but he's an interesting person. I'm still not sick of his ridiculous jokes yet, and I don't think I ever will be.

I'm excited because I've decided to make a ton of lean beef jerky. I'm getting the meat, cutting it, and marinating it tonight, where it will sit in the marinade for about 3 days, and then I'll cook it out on Sunday. MMMMMM. Beef jerky is a great snack because you take the fat off of it prior to cooking, the cooking (or dehydrating) gets rid of the rest of the fat, and you have no limit as to what flavors you can use! I'm going to make a spicy batch and a sweeter, smokier batch and see what my co-workers think. It's also an easy way to get a extra serving or two of protein in each day without having to eat the same old stuff (for me that's chicken and tuna).

Kenpo X tonight and I'm excited for that too. I enjoy that workout quite a bit, and I'm thinking about investing in a couple weighted gloves or some reallllllly light weights (like 8-16 oz) to make that workout more intense. Not for a while though as it's challenging enough for me now with no weight.

Only 6 more days until my first batch of results photos!!!!! I'm soooooo excited!

Well, that's it for the time being.

-RB

p.s. - Remember to BRING IT every day!

Rest Week my Ass

I'm into week four of P90X!!! Exciting, no?

This week is supposed to be the rest/recovery week (there are three of them throughout the program). I guess it's a little less intense than the normal weeks, but c'mon Tony. There's not so much recovery as there is long, core destroying workouts. The yoga X, which you do twice in this week (i'm pretty sure) is always difficult, at least for me. I think there's Kenpo X in there twice as well, and though it is fun, if you really put your energy into it, it's becomes less fun and more exhausting. Finally, a new routine is added into this mix (I think you do this workout twice this week as well) and it's called Core Synergistics.

I thought that it would be a shorter, more ab/oblique/quad/back oriented workout, and it kind of is. I haven't done it yet, but I watched the workout last night so I knew what to expect going into it, and damn, it looks harder than the plyometrics workout (which indeed made me puke the first time I did it). We're talking a nonstop workout that uses every single muscle group in your body. Many of the exercises use multiple groups of muscles, but typically focus on the core groups. There are many varieties of pushups, lunges, banana rolls (which look HARD, google them to see exactly what they are), and squats.

Thought it looks absurdly hard, it also looks like tremendous fun. I can't wait to do it tonight. Oh, I've decided to work out in the evenings now since I'm a terrible morning person and I can't seem to get enough sleep at night. I never fall asleep until after 11 and waking up between 5 and 5:30 just wasn't any fun. So, if I workout at night and fall asleep after 11, I'll be able to wake up at 7 or so and get enough sleep. Yay.

I'm starting to get more limber and my abs seem to poke through a bit more every day. Other than the obvious abdominal area, I want my chest to rip out more, and it seems to be doing so slowly.

Success!

-RB

Day 19, and it was a bit of a struggle.

So I've come to realize one pretty big thing about P90X: You do lunge-type movements A LOT. There lies a problem in this for me... I HATE LUNGE MOVEMENTS! I don't know why, but I've always disliked the motion. Perhaps it's because I'm not good at it? This could be, but I think everyone has physical motions they like (for me it's pushing and twisting motions) and those they don't (lunging and pulling).

This dislike of lunges and pulling motions makes the legs/back workout (which Tony mentions is his favorite) that much more difficult for me to do. I don't like it, period.

There is, however, a very bright silver lining to this exhausted, breathless cloud. My ability to endure long sets of lunges and numerous sets of pullups has increased, BIGTIME. Where I could only do 12 to 13 reps of lunge movements last week, I now do 16-20. Only 4 or 5 reps of pullups towards the end of the workout is now 6 or 7. The results are what motivate me enough to do this pain in the ass (literally) workout.

I did postpone the ab ripper X until tomorrow, for two reasons: 1) I woke up a 1/2 hour late, and getting to work on time took precedence over ab ripper, and 2) my poor ab muscles were still a bit sore from ab ripper X on Wednesday, followed by yoga belly 7 on Thursday. I don't think Tony Horton would mind me doing ab ripper after Kenpo tomorrow. I'd rather do it when my abs are healed back up and ready for more punishment, instead of doing it when they're still recovering.

That's one of the beautiful things about this program. Though Tony lays it all out for you, day by day and week by week, you can still make adjustments to it to fit what your body is telling you. Brilliant planning and research on his part.

So tomorrow is Kenpo X, ab ripper X, and Laundry X for me. Then maybe Party X later, ha.

Funny Tony Quote of the day: "What are you stirrin?" (guy says green bean soup)..."Green bean soup? That's kinda disgusting!"

X-on my brothas and sistas.

-RB

Day 17, Burn the Shoulders and Arms

Yesterday, plyo went better than in the previous two weeks. I keep getting better and better and the moves, and my overall leg endourance is greatly improving. There were only a couple moves (mary katherine lunges and the runner stance 180's) that I couldn't make the entire 30 seconds without a break of some sort. It makes me laugh about the first week, when about two thirds of the moves had me huffing, puffing, and stoping about halfway through the time.

It seems like Tony has arranged these workouts well. The rest/X Stretch day comes in very handy, and by the time the plyo comes around again, my legs feel refreshed and much more limber than the week before. I'm slowly gaining flexibility, but I'm still not flexible at all. At this rate though, that will be completely changed come day 90.

My arms are getting stronger, and I can now notice a bit more definition in my bi's and tri's. I'm doing around 10-15 reps per exercise because I'm not really interested in getting bigger. I don't really believe that your arms won't get bigger if you do as many as 10-15 reps per set, but we'll see come the end of the program. I'm just more focused on definition and getting ripped since I already have a fair amount of size.

I'm still very excited for day 30 when I will take photos and post them. You'd be shocked at the transformation my body has made in only 17 days. Sigh, only two more weeks to go and the photos will be in!

My energy level has been kind of low the past couple days, but I stuck it out through the workouts. I can't seem to go to bed early enough to get up easily at 5:30 in the morning. Seeing as how I won't work out after I get home from the job, I have to do it before. Plus, I feel like you'd get more results this way because as soon as you wake up, you're shocking your metabolism and setting your body to burn more calories over the course of the day. If someone identical to me were to workout in the evening and we were to compare our results, I think mine (at least in regards to the fat/weight loss) would yield better results.

We'll see. I'm also starting to pay attention to the ridiculous things Tony says sometimes in the videos, and I crack up. I know some people think he's annoying, but I get a kick out of him (maybe because his lame jokes and goofy attitude resemble my personality?). I LOVED when he goes "Todays tip of the day, DON'T BREAK YOUR FACE." It was said during those dumbell tricep presses when you're on your back and the weight is pushed up from behind your head to directly over your face. I laughed. I'd never heard him say that before for some reason. Apparently they make shirts that say that too, and I'm probably going to get one, because it's hilarious.

Welp that's all for now, and remember the tip of the day!

-RB

Into week 3!!

So today was my first day of week three, and I'm feeling great about my results already. Visually, it's obvious that I've lost weight (my estimation is about 5-10 lbs based on personal experience, but I'm not exactly sure because I don't own a scale yet). That's cool, but I'm not so much worried about weight as I am physical appearance and overall strength. That being said, let's break down my workout this morning, which was my final chest and back workout for a few weeks (in week 5 it's chest, shoulders and arms I think).

Overall, my muscular endourance has improved VASTLY. Part of it is knowing what to expect and just having the practice of doing the moves. Muscle memory makes a huge difference when it comes to the performance of exercises. I've increased the total number of pushup reps by about 15% roughly since day 1, and though I still can't do many pullups, I have improved in that area too. On day one I couldn't even do multiple reps in the second group of pull up exercises, and the most I ever did in a single set was 4. Now I can do 6 wide grip and 6 reverse grip in their first sets without stopping to rest, which like I said isn't many, but is a VAST improvement. I think I'll be able to do mulitiple sets of around 15 by the end (hopefully).

I CANNOT WAIT to post pics of my results. It's only day 15, and I feel, look, and workout much better than day 1. I think the reason for the bigtime results is the diet plan. I'll be honest, I cheat on it one day a week, either by having a few drinks, having some reasonable fast food (like subway), or by having a big meal. I love food too much to not do this, and by having a little cheat day, it keeps me much more relaxed and focused during the week, when I am STRICT about what goes into my body, how much goes into it, and when it goes into it.

So far, the first two weeks = success. That's all for now kids. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in a comment and I'll get back to 'em.

-RB

"Just let the weight of your head do the work. Mine weighs about 600 lbs., and there's not a damn thing in it." - Tony Horton, while explaining how to do a particular neck stretch, hahaha.

Kenpo X is sweet

Damn I love the Kenpo X workout.  It's fast paced, fun, and you can pretend you're kicking someone's ass (I like to pretend I'm beating up Jimmy Fallon or T-Payne).  Anyways, an interesting thing happened after my workout.  When I took off my wife beater after the workout I noticed an interesting sweat pattern on it (sounds gross, but check it out...)

Keep in mind that this is the front of the shirt.  That pattern could perhaps be the blueprint for a potential six pack?  I hope so.  The fact that I can see (and feel) HUGE results after only 13 days into the program is very encouraging.  Looking forward to stretching tomorrow.

I guess my overall thoughts about the program after two weeks are this...

1) BRING IT - I know it's Tony Horton's catch phrase, but really, to make the workouts worthwhile (like any other workout) you  can't dog it.  Do you want that beach body or not?

2) Be consistent - I found it way easier to do the workouts if I did them at a similar time every day, and for me it's at 5:30 in the morning before work.

3) Stick to the nutrition plan as closely as possible - I pretty much follow the nutrition plan to a T during the work week, but I do relax it a bit on weekends (I like to have a few beers, typically light beer).  I just pay attention to my caloric intake and make sure it doesn't exceed 2400 or 2500 cals per day.

4) Try to make it FUN - I HATE yoga X.  But I do my best to make it worthwhile, otherwise, I might as well sleep in that hour and a half.  Once you see results it's hard to hate doing a workout.

5) Don't worry if you can't keep up with Tony or the people on the videos - They've been there and done it, duh.

I can't wait to post pics of my 30 day progress on here.  It's already amazing how much my body has changed in two weeks, and after another two I hope to start seeing more of my abs again.

Welp, off to a breakfast of 6 egg whites and a small bowl of Multigrain Cheerios. MMMMM

-RB

Yoga X the second time around

Day 11 of 90, awesome!

So I didn't do a post yesterday.  I know, boo hoo.  

Shoulders and arms + ab ripper X went swimmingly yesterday, and I'm continuing my improvements with ab ripper X.  It's pretty exciting!

Yoga X today was wayyyyy better than my first attempt, which to say the least was a complete and epic failure.  I found myself more in control of my body and much, much more relaxed.  I still couldn't do some of the most advanced poses, so I stuck with the less flexibility-demanding versions of the advanced poses.  So far as moves requiring lunging stances such as the warriors and crescent, I found myself able to stay deep in the positions way longer than last week!  A huge motivator.  This improvement made the yoga more fun, and instead of completely clearing my mind like Tony says on the video, I instead focused on one thing: challenging my body to finish each move strong. 

They might be slow movements, but they're incredibly difficult to do for an extended period of time.  I'm confident after the improvements in only one week that by the end of these 90 days I'll be AWESOME at yoga.

It's reassuring to me to see the improvement too, because it's making the yoga less of a struggle and pain in my ass than it should be (considering that I hate yoga, if I can remotely enjoy it that's a victory).

Not really looking forward to working the legs hard tomorrow, but I'm sure I'll see great improvements like the other workouts so far!  Squats and pull ups, let's BRING IT!

Plyometrics not as tough this time, but still a bitch...

So this morning's workout went great, even though I didn't sleep much last night.  I think knowing what's coming in a workout makes it less difficult, at least mentally.  If I know prior that I'm gonna get my ass kicked by a workout, then I can deal with it better when the big boot comes.  I actually made it through a good percentage of the exercises, with good form.  I did have to take quite a few breaks though, and my nemesis, Mary Katherine Lunges were back with a vengeance.

My legs felt less tight and more flexible this time through as well.  Perhaps this is from the yoga since I skipped the stretch to begin my workouts a day early this week.  Who knows, but I think I'll do the Stretch tomorrow evening to loosen up for yoga on thursday.

Anyhow, I've got a few basic measurements here and I plan on getting a scale this weekend so I can keep track of my weight (loss?).

Waist - 33 3/4"  (yikes, I remember my waist being 3" less than that not a few months ago)

Left Bicep  - 15 1/2"

Right Bicep - 15 3/4"

Chest - 42"

I was going to do heart rate too but I forgot to do it first thing.  Maybe tomorrow.

Anyhow, it was an overall great, yet disgustingly hard workout this morning and on to make my guns a bit bigger tomorrow morn.  Yay.

Remember to think like a cat for the plyo, HA.

My First 8 Days With P90X

I guess the biggest reason for starting this blog (I know it's kind of silly to have a blog about a workout program, especially one that thousands of people have done/blogged about, but I digress) is to keep myself motivated.  If people actually show an interest in reading it, then that gives me a ton of motivation.  I mean, there's a lot of pressure in knowing that people are going to be reading about an important life commitment.  Beyond this, I expect BIG results out of myself.  I don't like failing (does anyone?)  and having others invested in my success, even if it's only to read this silly blog for a few minutes a week, will make me work much harder.

So let's begin shall we?

I have yet to get measurements for myself such as weight, waist, biceps, chest, whathaveyou, but I'm going to do them (except for weight because I need to buy a scale) in the morning as soon as I wake up.  I do have day one pictures, but I'm not going to show them until I take another round of pictures on day 30 (hopefully there will be marked results).

Anyways, time to break down this first week of P90X, and it can be summed up in one simple, unexpected adjective... TOUGH.  If someone is looking for a difficult, yet rewarding group of workouts, it's this for sure.  The first workout was chest and back, which I made it through okay until the end where I really pushed myself and, as you should, burnt out those muscle groups for a strong finish.  However, about halfway through my first attempt at the Ab Ripper X, I couldn't curb my need to vomit, and thus, I was ralphing my way to success after the first day, HA.  However, I did feel PHENOMENAL about 15 minutes after the workout was over and for the rest of the day.

The nutrition plan that comes with P90X doesn't seem like it's going to pose too great of a challenge to abide by.  I get to eat roughly 2200-2400 calories a day, and at this phase in the program it's mostly protein, which is what my diet typically consists of anyway.

Now on to the biggest bitch of a workout since 8 hour days of football camp, the plyometrics  (and even football camp wasn't as intense as the plyometrics).  Be prepared to jump and squat and lunge your ass off for about 50 minutes straight (that doesn't include the warmup and cool down time).  Dozens and dozens of difficult, high impact moves that turned my legs into digested, soupy jello (gross analogy, but I think it's necessary to get my point across).  Again, after the workout I found myself puking immediately after, but feeling amazing in about 15-20 minutes.

The rest of the week consisted of me struggling to finish workouts (especially the yoga, i HATED the yoga) and nearly puking at the end of each, but I have to say the workouts are AWESOME, and with the exception of the yoga, they're pretty fun too.

I guess my overall point with this post is a disclaimer to anyone who wants to try this program.  It is NOT, and I repeat, IT IS NOT for the faint of heart.  I had NO IDEA that this program's workouts would be so strenuous.  However, if you can stick with the workouts, there's no doubt in my mind that anyone can get BIGTIME results from this program.  It's only been 8 days for me and I can feel, even see a little bit, a change in my body.  Hopefully I have the guts and perseverance to stick it out.  I'm sure once more obvious results come about I'll become more and more motivated.

I'll post measurements tomorrow and I'll probably post some sort of comparison as I go that shows improvements in strength via increased weight and reps with the exercises.

Welp, tomorrow it's plyometrics, so I should probably get some sleep.

-RB

My Intro to P90X

So I'm sure that all of you have heard of P90X, another workout program that guarantees ridiculously amazing results. I've always had a curiosity about it, and seeing as how my parents had P90 (the version before P90X) and it was... okay, I decided to research the P90X challenge.

Since I graduated from college, my workout/dietary habits have been well, lackluster to say the least. I was already getting sick of working out at the Student Activity Center (SAC) for several reasons: 1) there were too many people there 2) students took awful care of equipment 3) equipment was frequently malfunctioning because of this poor care and yadda yadda. The only perks to working out there were it's cost (free to students during the school year) and well, there's a ton of eye candy floating about, and I'm not opposed to good lookin' college gals.

Now I've been working out pretty consistently for the past 7 years or so, and I've tried several workout types from basic weightlifting, aerobic workouts, yoga, martial art based cardio, running (various forms of running), and so on. Because of this experience, I have developed a rather snooty attitude towards workout programs advertised on t.v. because I simply don't believe them. When I stick to workout programs I conjure myself, I see great results.

However, I was beginning to get bored with my workouts (especially because they consisted of 4 to 6 miles of running a pop, and I HATE running) and it was getting harder for me to feel motivated to do them, hence the two month period this year of crappy diet + little exercise. That's where P90X comes into the picture.

I lost the desire to get big long ago, after a rigorous four month workout plan built me up 30 pounds and put me at 210 lbs, pretty big for a guy only 5'11" right? I wasn't as happy being that big however, because my clothes stopped fitting me well and it became difficult for me to find ones that did.

P90X is hopefully the workout plan I've been looking for to get me ripped. That's all I've wanted for the past few years, and to some degree I've been successful. However, I've never been completely happy with my body and damnit, I want at six pack.

So I started the P90X journey last week and I'm currently on day 8 of 90. I'll keep this blog updated with my progress as I go and hopefully I'll have awesome results pics to show!!!

Do your best, and forget the rest!