28 May, 2012

P90X Day 31: Back & Biceps

Ow.

Ok, that’s out of the way. Did Back & Biceps for the first time this morning. It’s a rough workout, but I can see it possibly replacing Chest & Back as my favorite some day. It really works the upper body. It’s also the first of the workouts that I felt worked my forearms to any significant degree. I enjoyed that because I’ve always felt my forearms look like toothpicks. Not that I want to look like Popeye, but anything would be an improvement.

For once, I nailed the weights pretty much perfectly on all the exercises. I was a little low on a couple, but I realized it after 1 or 2 reps and upped the weight. I was still low on Lawnmowers. You’d think I’d have that one right by now, since it’s also part of Chest & Back, and this is the 4th time I’ve done it, but no. Every week I add five pounds. Every week, I think I’ve got it, and every week, it’s still too light. I started at 20 pounds, because that was all I had initially. This week I did 14 reps at 40. Next week, I’ll do 45. I’m trying to get to the 8 to 10 reps range.

Only one other gave me trouble with the weights, and that was the very last exercise. You’re supposed to 4 sets of 8 reps each of strip-set curls. You’re supposed to start with the maximum weight you can do and drop it a bit with each set. I started with 20, and I’m not sure I could’ve done 25. That meant my last two were 10 and 5. 10 might be ok for the fourth set, but it was too light for the third. 5 is just too light, period. Maybe I could go to 12 and 10. If I can get the first set up to 25, then I think it’ll be a good exercise for me.

BTW, I thought of a new goal today. I’d like to eventually match the weights Tony uses on all of the exercises. For most of them I’m about 20 pounds lighter. So, I’m not going to catch him on this round of P90X, that’s for certain. It seems extremely unlikely that I’ll even catch him on a second round, but it’s not totally out of the question. If I can make it to a third round, maybe I can catch him there.

There are some killer pull ups variations on this workout, and it starts with my nemesis, Wide Front Pull-Ups. If you recall, my goal is to be able to do 10 of those. I did 7 this morning without the chair, and 3 with it. Not quite there, but a huge improvement over week one.

And, afterwards, of course, I had Ab Ripper X. “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” Yeah, bite me, Nietzsche.

I don’t even remember what tomorrow brings. The days are starting to run together. Probably Yoga X. See you then.

No comments:

Post a Comment