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P90x Review, Legs/Back – Week 2, Day 3, Today Days – 10

Morning!

Well, you might have noticed my review today is for Legs/Back, even though that should have been on Friday – today was supposed to be Shoulders/Arms. Thing is, though, yesterday I did Chest/Back, and there ain’t no way in heck I am going to do ANYTHING with my arms today!! (side note – the Perfect Pushups are super-duper for really helping you get close to the ground without smooshing up your wrists – I really like them).

So! Today I worked on Legs – anytime anything was done with Back, I quietly sat down and meditated upon Krispy Kreme donuts. Okay, that’s not quite true. :) Instead, I did other isometric and bodyweight exercises for the legs during all pullup sequences. It went quite well, I must admit.

My right thigh is feeling better, but I’m taking it quite easy. Today after the kids go to school, the husband and I will hit the gym and I’ll use the seated leg press for additional weight lifting (as well as do 55 cardio minutes).

My favorite part of this DVD, I’m pretty certain, will be the squats, once I can actually, ahem, do them more than 3 inches on the right side. Wall squats are very easy for me, and the single legged wall squat is paradise in motion (stationary position?). Another thing I’m noticing is that my various muscle aches in my legs/thighs seem to be dissipating; my body might actually be getting used to this.

In other news, I was totally wiped yesterday at karate. I didn’t even participate – I simply did my usual leg stretches/balancing etc. but after that first hour (I was supposed to stay for kendo), I heeded the call of the wild, came home, made a beef bone soup and fell asleep 8 minutes afterwards. Wow, I’ve never been that exhausted before – doing P90x doubles (plus 4 loads of laundry, plus matching 5,219 single socks) really can do a person in.

And so starts the day,

Barbara

ps – Even more P90x goodies:

P90x Plus music by Chicago – Jason Scheff thread

Afternoon all,

Just a quickie note – P90x+ features music by Chicago! And Jason Scheff, tenor lead vocalist and bass player, posts now regularly on the Beachbody forums. You can find his thread:

…Hello gang. My name is Jason Scheff and I am the current tenor lead vocalist and bass player for the band Chicago. I’ve been in the band for almost 22 years now having replaced Peter Cetera when he went on to a solo career.

A small bit of backstory… I was a client of Tony Horton’s back in ’89 through about ’92, I believe. He got me in the best shape of my life, at that point. Pretty elite physical shape. Somewhere around 6 or 7 percent body fat and VERY fit. There are plenty of videos floating around YouTube of that era as well as many photos. Well, there are also plenty of videos and photos of the years following that period when I got out of shape.

I’ve gone in fits and starts over the years “kind of” getting in shape for short periods of time but never making the lifestyle change completely and more importantly, making the mental decision to commit.

Through a wild set of circumstances and coincidences, (are there really such things as coincidences?), we’re back in each others’ lives. I’m doing Kenpo today finishing up my 1st week of phase 3 in P90X. I also have completed the music for the P90X+ series that will be out this fall. This is just the tip of the iceberg of what I want to contribute to Beachbody products but more importantly to my commitment to making this 2nd half of my life the best. I’m 45 right now so it’s a great time to get involved with this….MORE…

Nice! Go visit and check it out – some great info there.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – some P90x currently available includes:

P90x Review, Plyo – Week 2, Day 2, Today Days – 9

Howdy!

Well, as promised, I decided to use Pylo as my cardio workout today (I had done the wrong P90x workout yesterday, so did Chest/Back this morning at 1am).

Because my right thigh is quite weak, I did some major substituting of the moves today. 3/4 of moves that required leaving the ground were just not doable (ie, ’bout half the DVD), so I did karate moves/balances/pushups/etc. during those times. Broke out quite a sweat, I’ll admit. If anything, my kicks are getting stronger and my balance is improving quite a lot as well.

Hopefully by next week I should be recovered enough to do the P90x Plyo workout properly.

Like last time, my favorite moves here were the swing-the-leg-over-the-chair routine. It’s just like a crescent kick! I liked it so much I did it again and again and am now feeling it in my thighs.

I’m looking forward to being able to rock-star jump again. :)

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – Here are some other Tony Horton goodies!

P90x Review, Chest/Back – Week 2, Day 2, Today Days – 9

Morning,

Well! Imagine my surprise when I realized that I did the wrong workout yesterday. I was supposed to start repeating the 7 day program; instead, I did the Core Synergistics workout. That meant I missed Chest/Back.

Wah! But never one to accept reality, I chose to do Chest/Back this morning at 1:30am, and will do the Pylo workout (the scheduled one) later on today.

Chest/Back was, as always, great fun, as there’s lots of pullups and pushups (the nirvana of the Ling family). I can easily use a 20 pound dumbbell for the lawnmowers and heavy pants lifts (yay!) but had to drop down to 15 and then 10 pound weights for the back flys. Ah well.

I think I also have to get better pads for my chinup bar – bare metal makes my hands slip. I’m getting better at actual pullups, and love the fact I can use a chair for assistance when failure is reached.

And that be today’s morning workout,

Barbara

ps – Gotta love these P90x Discounts:

“It’s not my fault I forget!”

Morning,

Oh, the joy of raising kids.

Yesterday, I was going over the math homework of one of my children, and discovered that said child had forgotten a basic concept when doing double-digit multiplication – always bump over the second row one to the left!

When I pointed this out to her, she said, Mom, it’s not my fault I forget!

Whammo! Stop the earth, I want to get off – I just kinda sorta sat there in bemusement and then calmly asked, okay then, whose fault is it?

Sheesh.

One of the most important things about parenting, I think, is teaching your child to assume responsibility for their own actions. I stopped yesterday’s math lesson long enough to fully explain just how it WAS her fault, she HAD the ownership, it’s NOT the end of the world, if difficulties exist, you make the effort eradicate them and move on. Wow, was that tiring…but the end result was, she completed the rest of the homework with no problems at all.

Argh. I’m really big about taking ownership these days. It’s so easy to blame others when things don’t go the way you want -academics, maintaining friendships, doing business, losing weight, building stamina, etc….but having the maturity and self-confidence to take ownership of one’s experiences can require a lot of practice and effort. The end results, however, make future challenges much easier to conquer.

“It’s not my fault.” HAH! Husband dear, it’s not my fault that I forgot to open the garage door prior to backing out the car! :)

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – some good math homework help includes:

P90x Plus first reviews in!

Morning!

So! Are you interested in how P90x Plus differs from P90x?

Here’s what I’ve found out so far:

…Now granted, I haven’t actually gotten my shipment of P90X+ in yet, so I will just explain what I know. I have done a bit of studying them so I’m familiar with them for the most part. P90X+ routines just supplement P90X. They work in with P90X. So just like with P90X there are 3 different main 90 day routines you can do, the same is true with P90X+. A typical P90X+ week will work in both the DVDs you get with Plus & P90X. Then a Plus recovery week is mainly just P90X material. It’s basically just an “addon” pack that mixes it up even more & brings it to the next level.

As far as the time goes, these workouts are faster pace (if you can believe that… I though P90X was fast paced). So believe me, even though they are shorter, they’re actually a lot tougher. Probably with the 20 min of abs, each workout will be about an hour… which is nice from the 90 min I usually used to spend on P90X…. MORE….

I’m right now on Day 8 with my nice little P90x, so I’ll simply enjoy that for the next 81 days. But who knows…perhaps in the future….

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – P90x can often be had at a discount at

P90x Review, Core Synergistics – Week 2, Day 1, Today Days – 8

Morning!

At 2:00am today I pressed PLAY yet again, and enjoyed the Core Synergistics workout.

Couple of things about this particular DVD! One, because my right thigh is weak again, I chose to substitute some exercises for those I could not do (in this case, side kicks/balances which actually I needed to practice anywhos).

I loved the work with the weights! And while quite difficult to do were the banana rolls/supermans/etc., I can see how beneficial they’ll be in the future. I sweated a lot during this particular workout.

Finished at 3am, took a shower at 3:02am and was back in bed by 3:11am.

After the kids went to school, the husband and I went to the gym and I did 55 cardio minutes on the treadmill. My legs are feeling that but in a good way. So long as I don’t stress out the muscle in my right thigh, I think I’m back on the road to recovery.

And that’s day 8,

Barbara

ps – Some Tony Horton discounts!

Diet Motivation – Doing it for your family

Morning,

You know, many people like decreeing that you have to want to lose weight for yourself – ie, you just won’t be serious about weight loss unless you can really see how it will affect your life.

I personally do NOT agree.

I think diet motivation is so varied and multi-hued, it can come from a plethora of places! Take, for example, well, my example. Back when I was 170+ pounds, I knew in my heart I was starting to resemble a sweatsuit-covered over-stuffed eggplant….but well hey, I was the master at avoiding the mirror, so who cared? I certainly didn’t.

During this time, of course, I was raising my kids and being SuperMom, SuperWife, SuperEntrepreneur etc. Now, I really spend a lot of time teaching my kids and trying to make them ‘way better than I was at that age (and I might add, I’m succeeding admirably. :) ). But the weight started to affect how much I could participate with them…I got winded ‘way too early, carrying around all that excess weight was wreaking havoc with my ankles and, well….you get the idea.

Well! When the key was finally turned in my mind back in 12/2006 that I needed to lose weight, one of the most important realizations was:

I cannot deprive my kids of me.

That meant, if I continued in my lousy health, I’d just get less and less effective with my children…and they deserved the utter best as they grow to adulthood.

And that meant, I had better get my rear in gear and start taking ownership of my issues.

See, losing weight wasn’t that important to me, personally….because I was used to the status quo and didn’t value any change. No value, no reason to change!

But add my kids and family to the equation, and suddenly, it’s not just about me anymore…it’s about those whom I love.

That was 13 months ago. At 130 pounds today and fitter than I ever was in my 20s, I can now truly see the benefits weight loss has delivered to me and ME PERSONALLY (not just my family). Those include:

  • Gad I’m sexy now and look superb!
  • I can wear anything without worrying about what bulges out
  • I can tackle any physical activity without fear
  • I am proactively walking the walk I tell my kids, and they have actively witnessed me succeeding against incredible odds.

So what about you? Have you neglected your weight loss because it’s not important to you personally? If so, ask yourself – are you giving the best your family deserves this moment?

If not, the time might be….for a change. Take advantage of that.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – when you’ve gotten fit, you can wear:

P90x Review – Week 1, Day 7, Stretching

Morning,

Well, yet again, I got up at 1am and couldn’t fall asleep…so by 1:45am I decided to do my P90x workout for the day, stretching.

Day 7 is the rest day….which for me is quite good, given the fact I pulled my leg muscle yesterday. :( The stretches were quite useful and rather easy to do, although I cannot go into a full pushup position anymore (that will take a day or two of healing methinks). So I didn’t even try – I merely substituted a related stretch during that time.

So! Tomorrow will be Core Synergistics, which should be interesting.

Today is take pictures at the dojo day and put up some more website pix. Oh yes, and actually rest! What a concept! :-)

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – Here’s some nice P90x thingees:

Murphy’s Law in regards to healing

Morning,

You know, I’ve been doing karate now for 2 weeks, stretching now for 3 weeks, weight lifting now for 1 week, P90x now for one week, and I’ve been fine and peachy and been healing really well.

Until.

Until today, when I decided to get a high picture of the karate kata class at the dojo. I rather unintelligently decided to step up high (which in hindsight, I really shouldn’t have had any problem with – after all, I’ve been doing high front kicks now for two weeks) and right then and there felt my right thigh say, Ahem. That was Extremely Unwise.

It hasn’t affected my walking, mind you, but I’m now taking the rest of the day very easy. But isn’t that weird – you’d think that with all my physical activity, if I had to hurt myself, it would be during that….but no oh no, I smoosh myself in order to take a great photo.

Blah.

Oh well, these things happen.

Barbara

ps – Some great digital camera photo thingees are: