Day 53...X Stretch

One of the few times I've done X Stretch during this P90X and it was worth it. It is nice to perform the stretches without having to do any hard exercises after. Very relaxed and very needed if you're feeling sore or you just need a rest day. I highly recommend X Stretch during the first week of a new phase because that's when your body is generally feeling the most soreness. 

Monday's Meals

Breakfast: Cereal with skim milk

Snack: Granola bar with yogurt

Lunch: Leftover spaghetti

Snack: Didn't have one...I was running out of food

Dinner: Italian sub

Day 35...X Stretch and Week 5 Recap

Steph and I went out last night for a friends birthday and we stayed out later than we expected. As a result I had absolutely no plans to do X Stretch this morning, but surprisingly I woke up early and with energy to spare. So I popped it in and it was nice to do the stretches after such a challenging week. The last time I did X Stretch as the optional choice was the final day of week 1 when my body was in complete shock. So it makes sense that I did X Stretch after doing these harder resistance workouts this week. The only snag I ran into was that my hamstrings were very tight and those particular stretches were quite the challenge. I wasn't able to keep a straight leg with holding my toes, which I normally do during Yoga. 

Today's Meals

Breakfast: Wheat bagel with peanut butter. Juicy juice berry.

Snack: Protein shake

Lunch: Turkey sandwich with an apple

Snack: PB&J Sandwich. Pistachios.

Dinner: 3 Potato and Cheese pierogi and a bowl of peas.

So that completes Week 5! Time for the Recap:

Chest/Shoulders/Tri's- Considering I have to do this tomorrow I will just say that it is one of the most challenging P90X workouts and I hope I'm able improve a little bit this week. Those damn Pike Press' kicked my ass last time!

Plyo- What needs to be said about Plyo? It doesn't get easier. I improved on the MK Lunges; that is a victory in itself. The person who invented Plyo is evil.

Back/Bi's- I joined Jason for this workout and I felt MUCH better about it than the first day. All those curls suck but I was still able to do them...the push ups from the first day were very hard to keep up the rep counts.

Yoga X- I really struggled with Yoga this past week and that makes me angry. I love this workout and it's a shame that I performed so poorly this time. I don't think my head was in the right place...I just couldn't hold a lot of the moves this time, including the warriors. I will try to Bring It this week!

Legs/Back- I increased my pull up rep counts this time and did all the reps on the Sneaky Lunge. Overall I felt good about this one...but the day after my Glutes were hating me. 

Kenpo X- Rocked it! Released some anger, sweat a ton, had a really good workout! From this point on it's going to be about adding hand and ankle weights to increase the intensity.

Ab Ripper X- I can't end this recap without mentioning ARX! The only moves I cannot complete with full reps are Fifer Scissors, Backward Bicycles, Crunchy Frog, and V-Up combos. I am slowly conquering this workout and the definition it's creating on my stomach is all the proof I need to tell me it's working! As Tony says...."Get it up! This is AB RIPP-ER X!!"

Tomorrow begins Week 6...I'm about half way there! The dreaded Chest/Shoulder/Tri workout awaits me and I will try to kick its ass this time! Have a good night!

Day 25...X Stretch

Today was X Stretch so...yeah...exciting. X Stretch is the P90X equivalent of Delaware. If you've seen Wayne's World than you pretty much understand that statement.

The only issue I had today was with my X Stretch DVD...my PS2 was unable to read the disc at the 19 minutes left mark. And if you haven't noticed, there is no chapter select option so you have to skip each exercise manually...which is a pain in the ass. And once I got to where I was again, the PS2 crapped out on me again. There is a small scratch on the disc which I think is a result of the cardboard case that these discs are stored in. So I think I'm going to buy a CD case for them to avoid an future damage since I didn't pay for the stupid warranty. 

Today's Meals

Breakfast: Wheat bagel with peanut butter. Juice.

Snack: PB&J sandwich

Lunch: Turkey sandwich and Creamy Tomato soup from Panera Bread.

Snack: 2 pieces of string cheese and an apple

Dinner: Tuna Sandwich with Grillin' Beans

I have Core Synergistics again tomorrow so whoopee...it's time for more ISO Plank/Chaturanga! Have a good night!

Day 7...X Stretch and Week 1 Recap.

Day 7 is the rest day. However I chose to pop in the X Stretch DVD instead and prepare my slightly sore muscles for week 2. It was an amalgamation of Yoga X and all the stretches you perform before and after the various workouts. Nothing too unfamiliar here but I have to say I am not a fan of the Frog stretch. I can see why its important...you don't want to pull a groin muscle...but that doesn't make it any less painful. Otherwise the workout is about 50 minutes of stretches that cover your body top to bottom and was pretty therapeutic for me because of slight stiffness and soreness I am experiencing in my legs from Kenpo. 

Speaking of soreness, my upper body is finally free of it after the brutal Day 1, which is just in time for me to do Chest/Back again! Yaaay! I am going to try to push harder tomorrow and top my rep counts from last week because I felt like I held back a bit. Decline push ups and Diamond push ups are still my nemesis and I shall conquer them! We shall see...

Today's Meals

Breakfast: Multi Grain Cheerios with cup of Skim Milk. Protein shake (Skim milk and whey)

Snack: PB&J Samich

Lunch: Uncle Ben's Ready Rice Whole Grain Medley with an apple.

Snack: Celery with Peanut butter

Dinner: 4 Potato and Four Cheese Pierogi. Green beans on the side. I treated myself to a bottle of MGD 64 beer because I had a shitty day at work. I HATE being stuck indoors while it's 65 and sunny out. 

Week 1 Recap.

Overall week 1 of P90X was tough, sweaty, painful, and rewarding! Bottom line is that I didn't expect this to be easy. I had heard enough about it from friends and on blogs to understand the commitment that this program demands. There's no way I'm quitting before Day 90.

Day 1 was hard as hell because I don't think I've ever done that many push ups and pull ups...my muscles were screaming at me, and then they just stopped working. Waking up the next morning was unpleasant to say the least and having to jump (quite literally) into Plyometrics that night was not fun at all. Day 3 was nice because of the familiar exercises and having Jason there to push me. Having the nice change of pace that is Yoga is great after you are sick of resistance training, but there's no way I could call it easy and keep a straight face. I absolutely despised Day 5 with all the friggin' lunges and squats and I am not looking forward to doing it again this week at all. Kenpo was fun as hell and tiring at the same time...just a great calorie burner. And rest days? I've rested enough for the last few years. Doing the X Stretch today got me up this morning and kept me in the P90X frame of mind. 

Week 2 begins tomorrow with Chest/Back/Ab Ripper X. I have 3 weeks before the beginning of Phase 2, so I have a lot of work ahead of me and I'm looking forward to it. Good night!