01 May, 2012

P90X Day 4: Yoga X

The good news about the yoga workout: from a heart-pounding/sweating standpoint, it’s a little less intense than the first three days.

The bad news: instead of getting worn out and wishing it was over at 30-35 minutes, you hit that point at about 20-25 minutes.

The worse news: instead of 60 minutes, Yoga X is 90.

Don’t think that yoga is girlish or doesn’t help with strength training. If you truly believe that, you’ll never reach anywhere near your full potential. The stretches allow you to properly workout your muscles on the strength days. In addition, more than a few of the yoga poses require a hefty amount of strength themselves. You will get a workout from Yoga X.

Still, the P90Xperts say you burn about 600 calories during one of the workouts. I doubt it’s anywhere near that high during Yoga X. It’s probably not over 300. That does not mean it’s easy. If you’re like me, you’ll be moaning and/or whimpering long before it’s over.

The mantra for today is “Just do your best, and forget the rest.”

The workout is divided into two parts. The first is a set of more kinetic yoga poses. You move quickly from pose to pose to pose throughout the first 45 minutes, with only the briefest of breaks. By the end of this part, my form was awful, and I was exhausted.

The second part is more static poses. Move into the pose and hold it for a bit. It starts out with some balance poses, then moves on to stretches. This is a little less taxing than the kinetic part, but probably even more painful. Remember, I said a few days ago that I’m less than limber. It was during the last 20 minutes or so of this workout that my tightness here showed itself. I don’t think I’ve ever been happier than when the cool down phase started. Still, I could tell the stretches helped, and I know for a fact I have better balance and am more flexible than I was last Christmas.

4 days in, and I feel like I’m getting the hang of this thing. My diet is improving (18 grams of fat total so far today!), and I’m feeling better every day. Tomorrow is Legs & Back, and another round of Ab Ripper X. This should play mostly to my area of strength, well, except for the pull ups and the ab stuff. Wish me luck, and stay tuned.

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