07 May, 2012

P90X Day 10: Shoulders & Arms

Every day at the beginning of the P90X videos, you’re reminded to “Bring It”. Today, I definitely heeded that reminder. As I’ve said previously, I have a lot more energy these days, and my P90X workouts are reaping the benefits from that.

Tony constantly reminds us to pick the proper weight. If you’re trying to build up muscle mass, you want to pick something heavy enough for that exercise that you can only do about 8 to 10 reps. If you’re just trying to build lean muscle, you should be looking at around 12 to 15 reps. If you can’t do 8, or can do more than 15, you’re outside the right range for the exercise, regardless.

I’m trying to build muscle mass. Not because I’m trying to look like The Hulk, but because more muscle mass will make it easier to manage my diabetes. This is the whole point of this process. So, I’m looking at the 8 to 10 rep number for everything.

And, for the most part, that’s squarely where I landed. I went through each exercise until I couldn’t do it anymore. One of them was interesting in that it seemed like I could pretty much do it all day long at 15 pounds, but at 25, I could barely do it once. What can I say? I’m a wimp.

Anyway, I “brought it” today, and I was thoroughly and completely exhausted at the end. I’ve never been so glad to make it to the cool down exercises. And I’ve never been so sad when after the cool down exercises were over, the music started up telling me that Ab Ripper X was about to begin.

I’d already left it all on the carpet. I had nothing left. Or so I thought. In some ways, the ab exercises are like plyometrics (you can do anything for 30 seconds). You just tell yourself you can do anything 25 times. And you just grit your teeth and do it. And I did. In fact, I did much better on Ab Ripper X than any time so far. Made it through the whole 15 minutes without pausing, and my form was much better too. But, talk about wiped. I am finally starting to understand why it’s P90X, and not just P90.

Thank God tomorrow is Yoga X. Yoga is hard, but at least it’s not lifting. If you told me I’d have to lift anything tomorrow that’s heavier than my iPad, I think I’d run screaming in terror.

But still, ten days down. 80 days left. Phineas Fogg went around the world in 80 days. I should be able to make it the rest of the way around P90X.

Stay tuned.

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