Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Life After P90X?

For a change, I thought I'd have yogurt and berries for breakfast this morning.



Man, blurry BlackBerry pics just look mouthwatering, don't they? :)

I hit the gym last night for 20 minutes on the bike, followed by a super-sweaty chest/shoulders/tris workout. I was definitely feelin' it last night -- I don't know if it was the 20 minutes of cardio beforehand, or if it was my less-than-diligent weekend of eats, but I was hurting for sure. Especially as I tried to knock out my pushups. It felt like a freaking elephant was sitting on my back.

Last night's workout marked the start of week 11 of P90X. Um, yes, it HAS been more than 11 weeks since we started the program. See, both PhillyGuy and I have been less than diligent about following the schedule to the letter. P90X prescribes six workouts a week, in rotating order. Every week involved three strength workouts, hitting the major muscle groups in varying splits (this week, for example, is chest/shoulders/tris, back/bis, and back/legs); 90 freakin' minutes of yoga; plyometrics; and Kenpo.

In any given week, I'd get to the gym 4 or 5 times, reliably. Usually, I'd do all three strength workouts, plus yoga, plus a run or two. I abandoned Kenpo after the first time I tried it -- it bugged my knee and gave me a lot of trouble, since I'm the least coordinated person ever. After Broad Street, I also more or less abandoned Plyo. I've replaced those two days with alternative cardio -- preferably running, but two past two weeks have been hot dates with the recumbent bike. And since my hip injury, I haven't done yoga, either, since most of the poses irritated my poor hip and left me walking around the house like Igor.

And as for the diet? Well, I've stuck to it...sort of. I've added in more servings of carbs. And veggies. Which likely means I've increased my calories. Which is fine. And I've also thrown it out the window when it comes to eating out, which we do at least once a week. Sometimes twice. Which is also fine. But I'm definitely not losing fat at the rate I was when I first started. Overall, I'm down about 7 or 8 pounds from when we started, which is great -- but I know I'd be down a lot more (in terms of both weight and inches) if I was more diligent about the nutrition plan.

So, the end is approaching and I'm not sure what I want to do next. My hip is feeling much, much better -- and I'm pretty confident I want to train and run the Distance Run/Rock & Roll half in the fall. I'm also REALLY missing my weekly yoga practice, so at a minimum I want to keep doing that -- whether it's the P90X quad-killing DVD, or maybe a membership at the local Bikram place.

And I've REALLY been enjoying the P90X lifting routines. In fact, I kind of want to master (or mistress, I guess) some of the moves a bit more fully. It'd be badass to be able to do unassisted pullups. And one-arm pushups. (I can do like 6 or 7 with about 1/3 range of motion, which may not sound like a lot, but seriously, YOU try it!)

So, I guess what I want to do is sort of what I've been doing. Which is half-assedly following this workout plan, while flirting with injury from running.

Sounds like a completely airtight plan, doesn't it?

2 comments:

  1. Half a plan is better than no plan at all!

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  2. I agree that doing something is better than doing nothing. That said, I get the feeling that P90X--if you want the FULL benefits of it--is more for people who really need and want to drop a lot of weight very quickly. That's why I haven't bothered with it and probably why you have cheated some ;o)

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