P90X Day 6: Stretch X

It’s just stretching, right? How hard can that be?

Hard. This is P90X as Tony says.

I’ll be honest. This might have been the hardest day for me yet. And also the most emotionally rewarding. For a few of the stretches, I was able to stretch measurably farther than I have been able to in years, probably decades, even.

I think I did overdo it a bit at one point. You should stretch to the point where you’re feeling it, but after you get out of the stretch, you should feel good. And at one point, my right hamstring actually felt a little sore between stretches. That’s probably not good. Seems better now, but that did make me nervous for a while.

Anyway, like the rest of the workouts, this is a solid hour, but just stretches. First we did arms, neck and shoulders, then back and legs. A lot of the stretches are ones we did on the Yoga X day, and others are ones that are part of most of the daily warm ups. What was nice about today though is that we spent a bit longer on them, and Tony spent much more time describing and showing the correct position. I found I wasn’t doing a couple of the warm up stretches correctly. But, now I’ll know for next time.

In truth, I kind of wish this had been the first day. It’s definitely a more relaxed start, and would have been nice to have had the direction before doing the stretches on the strength workout days. But I’m sure Tony and the gang know what they’re doing. You need a bit of a break after a week of doing P90X, and while Stretch X is intense, it’s not like doing 7 different kinds of pushups, mixed with 4 different kinds of pull ups, and doing both twice.

Anyway, this completes week one of P90X. I made it through the first week. Definitely not something I could’ve done a year ago, or probably even a couple months ago.

Tomorrow? Back to Chest & Back, and everyone’s favorite, Ab Ripper X.

Next week, I’ll spend a bit more time talking about diet and nutrition. Stay tuned.