June 10, P90X3, Week 5, Day 3- X3 Yoga

June 10, P90X3, Week 5, Day 3- X3 Yoga

Man, did I ever need this today. I am still sore from Eccentric and now Triometrics.  I was tight in mostly my upper body, but yoga ironed me out a lot. I still feel soreness, but not with every step I take. LOL!

I am wondering, how deep a breath are we supposed to take when holding positions? When I am in a position like Downward Dog, it is easy to take long deep breaths. But in any of those twisting moves, I can barely get in an inhale to save my life. Either I have to come out of the pose a little, or take small breaths.

Either way, today was great.

June 9, P90X3, Week 5, Day 2- Triometrics.

June 9, P90X3, Week 5, Day 2- Triometrics.

If I were to compare an hour of Plyometrics and this workout, I'd definitely have to say this is more intense. Something must be said for doing crushing moves for a minute straight as opposed to just 30 seconds. That being said, the routine started off well. I was thinking that I could handle it all the way through, but boy, was I mistaken.

It seemed like I could handle 20 seconds at a time and for the first 2/3 of the workout, I basically did. I really liked the balance moves again, and some oldies but goodies, like the skater and frog jumps. Mixed in with some new twists on some oldies. And of course, some completely new moves.

I was able to hang with the first 6 moves, but then I started losing it with move, 7. Sumo Kick. With the third speed, I had to slow it down a touch, but I almost kept up. I was like a clod with the first two speeds of Run Stance Squats. Just not used to doing it with the step and skip. P90X runs it with the jump and I felt more at home with speed three.

From move 10. Slater Squat, I could not hang for the whole minute. I had to pause after speed 2, then do speed three. That surfer move is intense and popping up from the floor was much harder than I had anticipated. The last four moves, I could not continue for the whole minute. I had to take a breather before the third speed on all of them.

I was sweating like crazy after this workout, and going down the stairs was seriously shaky. My legs were on FIRE! I was wondering why Tony has X3 Yoga before Eccentric Lower, now I know. Now, I'm really scared of Eccentric Lower on Wednesday, but because my schedule is kind of weird this week, I may have to do it with some lower weights than I wanted.

But for today, I'm very satisfied with my work. I didn't hang all the way, but I was able to see room for improvement which is huge for my motivation.

Have a great week everyone!

June 8, P90X3, Week 5, Day 1- Eccentric Upper.

June 8, P90X3, Week 5, Day 1- Eccentric Upper.

Let me start by saying I really didn't know what to expect from this workout. And in this case, that was definitely a good thing because had I known the strain and pain I was headed for, I probably would have been really frightened and intimidated by this workout. I mean, I really didn't know what "Eccentric" meant in terms of working out. This was totally new for me in every sense of the word.
I skimmed through the moves on the worksheet,"Hmmmm, push ups, pull ups, presses, etc. nothing I haven't seen before, and, huh, only 10 reps per move, easy. No wonder it's only 30 minutes." Famous last words, "Only 10 minutes."

Now, I could go over every move and let you relive the move with me, but that would take longer than you have so I'll just talk about the highlights of this routine for me.

Let me get rid of a third of the workout here and now. All the Push up style moves, I did with relatively no problems. I got through all ten reps basically. However, as I got more and more worn, I found myself, after doing the eccentric half, blasting up became slower and slower. Not so slow that it was the same speed and going down, but number 10 was considerably slower than number 1. Also, I found that in the later sets, I needed to slightly jerk my head up to get myself moving upward. I could not hang with the Plyo Push-ups. In P90X, I could real off 16 in a row of the regular style, but with the eccentric move added, I barely made it to ten, plus I had to take a quick one rep breather which put me one rep behind in the end.

Second third. The presses. I had no frame of reference to choose my weights with this workout, so I just chose weights that I would normally use for the stated move. For example, the Military Press, I would usually start at 17kgs in each hand. So I started with that today. WAY TOO HEAVY!!! The next set of presses, Deep Swimmer's Press, I dropped to12kgs. That worked a lot better. Felt in more control and had better form. Same thing with the curls, I started way to heavy, but by the end of the routine, I was using 7.5kgs. For the fly moves, I ended up using 5kgs. I started off well with the heavier weights, but by rep #4, I couldn't hold the weight up in good form. Especially on the kickbacks.7.5kgs was still way to heavy. Just going up and down, I usually used 10-12kgs. But with eccentric, I think I'll drop to 5kgs next time.

Last third. I just could not hang at all with the pull ups. The first set of standard pull up, I got through okay. But it went downhill from the next set on. I still wanted to get the 10 reps, but broke up the numbers. I went 8-2, then 4-4-4 with the V-Pull ups. Vaulter Pull-ups were 5-3-2. This style too way more time, and I couldn't ride that wave of speed. Had to concentrate on each move and yes, I cheated a lot and kipped up in the later stages.

I did Cold Start. And I hand to rewind the DVD several times to learn some of the new moves. Also, I took a lot of extra time, switching with weights. So the 30 minutes, actually became closer to 50 minutes with all that extra stuff between moves. Burned almost 800kcals. At the end of this workout, my upper body was just quivering. A sensation I had not felt before in quite that way. I felt the pump and burn with all the resistance workouts from P90X, Chalean Extreme, etc. but this was a different feeling. I can't wait to see what happens with this workout next week.

My final feelings about this workout, I have to quote albeit somewhat out of context, Tony. With regards to this Eccentric Upper Workout, "I hate it, but I love it."

Have a great week everyone!

June 6, P90X3, Week 4, Day 6- X3 Yoga + Tennis.

June 6, P90X3, Week 4, Day 6- X3 Yoga + Tennis.

This was an interesting day. For the past three weeks or so, I have done The Warrior before playing tennis, with mixed results. Once feeling winded at the beginning, but gaining focus later on. And once feeling totally energized, and killing the ball. Today, with Yoga before tennis I was more than a little interested to see what results that routine would have on my game.

X3 Yoga, I'm getting used to the speed and pace. I rather like it now. Worked up a good dripping sweat. To begin with, I didn't feel like I was in a Funk Zone like yesterday, but didn't get much sleep so that had a little influence I suspect, but I felt good, albeit a little sleepy. I didn't have time to do Cold Start so I started straight into the routine. I guess I don't really need Cold Start before Yoga anyway, I've just always liked to do it as a warm up. Anyhow....

Today's routine is the best I've done so far, in my narrow-vision-ish opinion. I really tried to extend all the extremities, was careful of my breathing, squaring when I needed to square, and opened when I needed to open. Everything went well, until I got to my nemesis, The Leg Extension Toe Bind. I kept losing my balance, I couldn't hold either of my legs up for more than a moment before I lost my balance. I was a bit perturbed. But I got through it somehow, stepping down and tapping all the way. Felt great at the end, centered and focused. Calm.

That is probably not the best state of mind to be in before a competitive event, but There was nothing I could do about it now.

As the warm up started, I felt really good. A lot looser than I have felt before. However I did have a little trouble getting my hustle on. I wasn't running for shots and wasn't hustling for the first 10 minutes or so during the warm up. I had to consciously tell myself to "MOVE, GET YOUR BUTT IN GEAR!" However, at the same time, I felt extremely focused and was seeing the ball extremely well. Making solid contact every stroke. Overall, I had fewer mishits than usual which made me happy.

Once the game started, I was zeroed in. I roared out of the gate, and took the first set 6-1. But for some reason, I lost focus and I dropped the next four games and was down 0-4 in the second set. But I regained my focus and intensity, and roared back winning 16 games straight. taking the second set, 6-4 the third set 6-0, and going up 4-0 in the fourth before a concentration hiccup and I lost a game. I eventually took the fourth set 6-2. I was up 5-0 in the 5th when time ran out. I think I like doing yoga before a tennis match!

Total calorie burn for the session, 1250kcals went bye-bye! I'm more than ready for the weekend!

June 5, P90X3, Week 4, Day 5- CVX.

June 5, P90X3, Week 4, Day 5- CVX.

I was checking the Classic schedule and CVX is on only one more time next month in the transition week, so I decided to push it more. So I decided to up my weight from 5kgs to 6kgs. I was regretting that decision right off. LOL!

Actually, the first two sets were okay. But once I started that third set, I was saying to myself, "I'm going back down to 5kgs for the next set." But when it came down to it, I thought, "Naw, I'll just finish this circuit and switch weights for the next circuit." But after the break, the first move in the third circuit was done with no weights so and the second and third moves were relatively doable, so I did it as is.

When I got to the fourth circuit, I was almost totally blown so I switched to 5kg Medicine Ball for the first move, 10. Side Reach Jumps. Then went back to my 6kg dumbbell for the last two moves. I honestly don't know if I would have been able to stand back up after the side reach on the first move. The jump was killer with the 5kgs anyway, so I am at peace with that decision.

The other weird thing is that for some reason, all day today, I was feeling slightly out of alignment with the world. I had sort of a pulsating headache the whole day, and I was in sort of funk zone. I suspect that it was because of the atmospheric pressure changes because of the weird weather. I usually would have done my workout in the morning, but I was so out of it in the morning that I stayed in bed as long as I could hoping it would go away, but it didn't. It did get less and less as the day wore on, but doing this workout in the late afternoon helped a lot to get me out of that weird zone. Just an odd day today.

June 4, P90X3, Week 4, Day 4- Pilates X

June 4, P90X3, Week 4, Day 4- Pilates X.

 

I didn't know anything about Pilates before doing this workout. I still don't totally understand the science behind it. I reminded me a lot of RevAbs and breathing to activate the core. But the breathing style was much different than RevAbs. It reminded me more of Lamaze breathing. That in itself made me feel a little odd from the beginning. So I'm glad that Tony was constantly saying, "Men, you think Pilates is for women, think again,You're going to be crying at the end of this."

 

Third workout in a row in which my weaknesses were shown to me on a silver platter. It was a very tough workout for me. I couldn't get my legs as high, as far, or hold as long, or do as many reps. And I couldn't move as fast as Tony and his team were. So I was doing less reps than they were over the course of each move.

 

The breathing thing was also very difficult. Sometimes I couldn't tell if I was supposed to inhale or exhale. Sometime I caught myself holding my breath. Sometimes even though I knew I was supposed to be inhaling, I would exhale. Sometimes I could barely breath because I couldn't get air into my lungs because of the position of my body. It was that hard. That is something I will definitely need to workout. I had no idea I had such a lack of breath control in certain situations.

 

The most difficult move was the double double tap. While in plank, you raise one leg twice in the back, then move the same leg to the side and tap twice then back to plank leg raised then down. Everyone was moving so fast. Tony and team did 10 reps on each side, I could only manage about 7 reps.

 

To be honest, this was not one of my favorites, but it needs to be done because it will fill in a lot of gaps in my regime that need to be addressed. I'll need this wake up call every now and then.

June 3, P90X3, Week 4, Day 3- Accelerator

June 3, P90X3, Week 4, Day 3- Accelerator.

First time to do this workout. From the name I assumed it would be cardio, and I was right. All the moves are basic moves, but again, with a twist. Again, a lot of planking, but moving fast and changing directions a lot.

For the first 5-8 moves, I was hanging pretty well, doing the medium speed, then the fast speed. But about 10 minutes into the workout, I started to loose steam. Some of the moves like the 9. Spin Stops, I had seen before in P90X: PlyoX, but this time it was of 60 seconds straight, not 30 seconds. That is a huge difference. I couldn't hang the whole time, and had to sit one rep out to catch my breath.
Move 10. Plank Walkers was also difficult for me, not only because it was hard and I had to come down on my knees, but because I have a very small space so I could only move about half a meter in any direction from the middle starting point. Move 12. Plank Circles was the same story. But I couldn't had the whole minute.

I officially LOVE the move 20. Donkey Kicks! This is such a great move, and a lot of fun. It was like a move I had seen a lot of hip hop dancers do, but I DO NOT dance. But alas, I could not hang, and had to take 1 rep breathers here and there, but I finished strong with the last three. I think I bothered my son who was studying in the next room with my grunting and groaning.  Brought it hard today!