Category: Exercise

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:

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

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!

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:

Morning!

Today I got up at 3am and pushed PLAY by 3:30am. Today was Back/Legs and my oh my, did I learn lots about myself.

First off, my right leg is still quite weak from the surgery recovery. Thus, squats done on that leg go down, oh, 3 inches if I’m lucky? I figure that with time, I’ll improve, so I’m not angsting about that nor am I trying to go lower. My left leg, however, is peachy, and I was able to dip down pretty well.

My favorite squats here, of course, are the wall squats – those are rather easy for me to do. The one-legged wall squat was a challenge.

And don’t forget about the pullups/chinups! I adore these exercises (along with pushups) so I had a great time with them. Widearm pullups are nil, mind you, but hey…I’m just starting out.

Ab Ripper X was a nice way to end P90X today. I can do between 15 to 25 reps of each exercise – again, I believe time will help me build up my endurance.

Since today was Back/Legs, I will confess…after the workout, I did go downstairs to use my PreCor Hack/Squat machine. I’m only using 70 pounds (I figure start easy) but it did contribute towards a very lovely burn afterwards.

I completed everything by 5am and was back in bed by 5:05am. After the kids go to school, I’ll do my 55 minutes of cardio on the treadmill and continue with my work at home activities.

And that be my review of P90x, Back/Legs,

Barbara

ps – here are some more great P90x goodies:

Morning,

Well! I just finished the 1.5 hours’ worth of P90x Yoga X, and all I can say is,

My gosh, I’m so non-flexible, it’s ridiculous. Me! The all-powerful warrior mom…I might destroy everyone in my class with weight lifting/strength training, but here….wow!

This lack of flexibility is even more astonishing for me as I’ve been stretching now every day since recovery of my surgery. Sure, I can just about do a split now, and touch my face to my knees in front stretches…but wowsa, that apparently has virtually nothing to do with yoga.

Strength! Flexibility! Holding poses! I’m pretty buff for a mom of 4, but there is a WORLD of difference between quick moves and holding poses for 30 seconds to a minute.

That being said, I will have to agree with what others have said – this is, so far, the most killer of all the workouts. Wow. I’m the pushup master at karate and at home, but those single pushups between upward dogs and downward dogs really get to you!

Needless to say, my form was, well, hmmm, “definitely leaving room for improvement.” But here’s the killer realization for me – I find it extremely difficult to keep my legs straight when they’re in the air. My muscles just wanted to keep bending! It was bizarre, and is definitely something on which I need to work. But! I did manage to last the entire 1.5 hours and went the distance.

Anywhos, Day 4 has been completed! Now it’s time to wake the kids up and get the day started.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – want more yoga goodies?

Morning!

Well, at 4am I made certain to be up, ready, and pushed PLAY again!

Now, today’s workout was shoulders/arms and we used dumbbells. Thing is, when I’m doing a static bicep curl, I can curl 35 pounds in 3 sets of 8 reps. But when you’re doing things from different positions, swinging your arms, lying down and punching the sky, etc., it gets reeeeeal tough real soon!

Yesterday, I treated myself to a pair of 15 pound dumbbells but in today’s workout, I had to drop the weight down to 10 several times. What a great burn! I think I’ll check out my local FreeCycle and see if I can get some 12 pound jobbers as well.

My favorite part to this workout was anything and everything that dealt with the triceps – it just feels weirdly nice after the exercises are completed. Go figure.

And unfortunately, I forgot about Ab Ripper and stopped the DVD at the end – my DVD player is so old there’s no way to skip ahead to get to that point once more. So instead, I did TurboJam Ab Blast (and will remember to keep pressing PLAY after Shoulders/Arms the next time!!).

Today I think I’ll venture back to the gym and try out the treadmill once again – I haven’t been on it since I had surgery a month ago. We’ll see how things go.

Enjoy,

Barbara

ps – More P90X goodies!