May 12, Week 1, P90X3, Day 2, Agility X

Okay, second workout in is Agility X and since I just finished Asylum, Vol. 2, for the second day in a row, I'm thinking this would be another cake walk. For the second day in a row, I was DEAD WRONG. Although I could hang for most of the moves, by the end of each move, I was breathing like there was no tomorrow. Heaving like dickens. And, On the last move, the Plyo Line Push Up, I could not hang. I could only manage 4 plyo push ups before I needed Child's pose for a bit.

I have to quit thinking the workouts are easy and just take each day one workout at a time, or else my butt is going to get kicked all over the place.

This is the first day that I actually did only the workout. Actually, that's not true. I did do the Cold Start warm up. The 12 minute warm up burned 56kcals. Then again, I had to do a back up on some of the moves to get them down. So, the 30 minute workout actually took about 38 minutes. Plus a 12 minute cool down. Today's workout burned just over 600kcals. I was very happy with that. I'm thinking to do the Cold Start warm up every time I it's available.

Great workout today!

P90X3, Week 1, Day 1

I watched the introductory DVD, Did the Fit Test, and then did Total Synergistics. (There is a red wavy line under the word "Synergistics", is it not a word yet?)

Okay, I'll be honest, I was thinking, "30 minutes,HA! Piece of cake." Total Synergistics totally kicked my butt. I could not hang with about half the moves till the end of time, or I'd have to take a quick breather in the middle before finishing. Maybe I'm just making excuses, but maybe it was so hard because I just did the fit test and sort of burned out on those moves. Also, I had to take a little longer than the 30 minutes because I didn't know a lot of the moves. So I watched them do it, then went back and did it. I think I took an extra 10-15 minutes or so. But again, to tell the truth, It's a good thing because Tony was moving a lot faster than he has in the past programs (10 minutes trainer aside). 

But Man, was I beat. I started my HRM when I started watching the Intro DVD and then stopped it after cooling down. A total of 2 hours and 11 minutes.  I'm a little surprised at the Wowy gym, though. When I started the fit test, it only gave me 6 minutes to complete it. And for a lot of the moves, the book says, "rest 4/3/2 minutes". And believe me, I took those rests. Took a lot longer, with the rests to finish the fit test.

Here are my Fit Test results for Day 0:

Resting HR- 62
Pull ups- 16
Vert. Jump- 40 cm
Push ups- 45
Toe Touch Flex- 8 cm past my toes
Wall Squat- 2min. 6 sec.
Bicep Curls- 12 reps. 12kgs
In & Outs- 55
HR Max- 150, +1min.124, +2min. 111, +3min. 103, +4min. 97

By the way, I Loved the Shakeology commercial after the Total Synergistics workout. Tony was hilarious!

New Fitness Journey Begins NOW!

Okay, I've been so bad about keeping this BLOG so I decided that as a part of my accountability regime, I'm going to post an entry into this blog every workout.  I used to think that I had to write a ton of insightful stuff in order for my blog to be relevant, but I'm not going to think that way anymore. I'm just going to post my experiences and thoughts about each workout.  
I am sitting at my computer in my workout clothes and not feeling very motivated. Not because I don't feel like working out. Rather, the weather, the temperature, the ash from the local volcano, the humidity, the atmospheric pressure, all that is making my body feel BLAHHHH. But I have been looking forward to P90X3 ever since I purchased it almost three months ago.  I got it while in the middle of P90X2, and was tempted to right into it, but I decided to take a short break from Tony and do Insanity: Asylum, Vol.2. I just finished that last week, so now, it is P90X3 time!
A couple words about my set up. I have to do all my workouts in a small area and I have a double set of dumbbells 2x25kgs and 2x5kgs. I interchange the plates on them so I have a wide range of weights I can use. I have most of the other tools for working out as well.
For the past 3+ weeks, my right ankle has been a little gimpy, but I'm hoping that that wont be too much of an issue. I usually like to do each program I start straight as scheduled and nothing else, but from the looks of it, I might have a little extra since I play tennis and cycle. On the days that I do that, 30 min. workouts are fine. But on the days where I have only my DVD workouts, if I'm feeling good, I will augment the P90X3 workout with a short 20 minute, non-beachbody workout program by Mark Lauren, Your Body is Your Gym.  That is my intention, anyway.
One thing that I am a little wary of is the time. For years, I have usually worked out anywhere from 90 minutes to 2 and a half hours. The idea of a 30 minute workout was awesome, but in doing the longer workouts, I also got a big calorie burn, averaging 1000 per workout. I am guessing I'm going to see a dip in that, probably down to 300-400kcal burn starting cold. I was all about the calorie burn, but I'm thinking I'm going to have to adjust my mind-set to fit the 30 minute workouts.
One last thing. I have had back problems for 20+ years. Two compressed disks in my spine and getting shorter by the day. I hope that my back doesn't become any sort of negative factor in my journey as well.
Enough stalling. Let's get to it. P90X3, HERE I COME!

New Year's Resolutions

It is the year 2013 and everything has gotten off to a good start. I usually hate talking about new year's resolutions, but this year, I'm going to mention them a bit because a lot of people are mentioning them.  Okay, here it is, the brass tack of the issue. I don't make new year's resolutions anymore.  Why? Basically because that are now pointless, and repetitive. Since 2005 I have been making the same resolutions: To keep personal devotions, to lose weight, to maintain an exercise program, and to finish some personal projects. 
Well, since then, I have done all of them. They have become more than a shallow promise to do something that year, all of those "resolutions" have become "ways of life" or "habits" for me now.  I have my personal devotions every morning without fail. In the past five years I can only think of a couple times when I missed having devotion time.
I have lost weight, and continue to do so little by little. But since I have started building muscle over the past three years, I gained some weight, but lost several inches all over my body which is better than just depending on weight to determine health. So, I am still working on building muscle mass and losing fat.
I workout 6 days a week every week. Again, I can only think of a couple times when I didn't workout, and that was because I was away from home in the US and couldn't. There were also a couple times when I was unable to workout because of a sudden change in my schedule that was unavoidable.
Projects! I love my little projects. I have set little projects for myself focusing on my DVD collection and how to organize them. I am getting more efficient at keeping them in order every year. And my collection keeps growing.  Last year, I purchased software that allows me to keep a digital record of all my titles and I was also able to separate movies from TV shows.  I also bought a separate case for Animation and Reality.  The two shows my kids like to watch with me, so they can get them without touching the big cases.
Anyway, since I am always in process, and I am pleased with what I am doing, and how I am doing it, I see no reason to mix it up with new year's resolutions. I'm not the type of person that forces himself to do something new just for the sake of doing something new. If something needs to be changed, I change it at that time. I wouldn't wait till January 1 to start doing it. That would be stupid, and I would probably lose my motivation to do anything anyway.  Happy New year everyone.


Okay, I guess I could make one new year's resolution: Be more consistent with my blog. At least one new blog a week. That's not too much, is it?

Happy New Year!

Mosquito Ninja

Okay, this is a weird post, but I was so intrigued by an experience I had the other day with a mosquito.  First off, let me say that I hate mosquitoes.  I see absolutely no redeeming qualities in mosquitoes.  They are just pests and pains in the butt.  But I couldn't help be impressed with their unique abilities of duck and evade. 

I was in our shower at home getting ready to take a shower when out of the corner of my eye, I catch sight of a mosquito flying by.  Our shower room is all white so I thought it would be easy to hunt and destroy.  I got a beat on it and just as I was about to smash it into the wall, it literally vanished right in front of my eyes. I was so focused on it I didn't think it would be possible for it to escape, but it did.  I quickly closed the shower door to try and contain it.  Luckily I did.  I caught sight of it again and tried to be even more careful, but again it disappeared. This time I stepped back and widened my view and I saw it in a totally different part of the room.  I was like, "How in the world did it get there in a split second, right in front of my eyes." This happened three or four times.  So I took a wet hand towel and just started to swing around until it appeared again.  Finally it landed on the white wall where I smacked it with the towel and that was the end of Mr. Mosquito.

The mosquito is an amazing creature.  I wonder what purpose they would serve in a perfect world.  Because they certainly wouldn't be sucking blood.

SLACKER!!!

Okay, I'm a slacker.  I wrote earlier that I would try to write every week.  That was almost 3 months ago... I think.  I could give a bunch of excuses as to why I haven't written, but I won't because that wouldn't change the fact that I haven't written.  So, I will again say that I will try to write more.  And yes, I am not going to give a timeline, I'm just going to write.

Although I have not been active as a blogger, I have been very active on facebook.  I have also joined two other Internet communities that I have been more active in: Instagram, and Pinterest.  I regularly post photos to Instagram and regularly post interesting photos on Pinterest.  Definitely not as time consuming as writing, but it gets my tastes and ideas out there.  My Instagram and Pinterest accounts are connected to my facebook account so what I post is public notice.

If you are interested in any of these communities, you can check them out on the net.  I saw that Instagram was being bought by facebook for $1 billion.  Wow, that is a big chunk of change for an app.  But there are millions of members so I guess you could justify it.  I just hope that facebook doesn't change the interface all the time like it does with its own interface.  That would be a pain!

I have also been somewhat active on Twitter.  I post comments a few times a week.  Not like everyday, or every hour like some people, but a few times a week.  Not really sure why, just to stay connected I guess. There are people following me there so I guess I like to let them know that I'm still around.  But blogging takes a lot more dedication that I once thought.  My fitness blog on Beachbody.com has also come to a standstill.  I don't really have anything to write with respect to fitness.  I have been exercising for several years now and everything would just seem redundant.  Nothing new, so I don't write.  My most recent post was about the pain in my hands when lifting heavy weights.  I thought it was new, but when I went back and read previous posts, I had posted the same idea just the previous month.  OOPS!

When something comes up, I'll write again!

What a "WASTE"!

Okay, this entree is not what I totally intended, but it seems as this blog is turning into a gripe session about my life in Japan.  Each day, I learn new things about life here that I am more surprised about, and often times disappointed.  This is one of those days.

I collect DVD/BluRay media.  I usually buy USA produced material which, if I am buying a TV series, for an hour long program, has at least 4 episodes on one disc.  Recently, I have been getting Japan produced DVDs for school and use in my classes.  I is upsetting that each disc has only two episodes.  The number of discs goes up unnecessarily as does the amount of plastic for cases.

One thing I totally HATE about all production companies is this "Vol. 1, Vol.2" deal with program seasons.  This gives the broadcast companies the ability to charge double for a single season.  They make money when the show airs on TV through ad revenue, but then they have to bilk the consumer by releasing half seasons at a time.  Aren't they rich enough?

But back to Japan.  One redeeming thing is that they are starting to release slim-box sets, but you have to wait a lot longer for those to come out.

That's it for this rant!