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.

P90X Nutrition & Diet

The nutrition and diet one is going out before my regular daily post today, so that I’ll be certain it gets done.

As I’ve mentioned before, P90X is divided into three phases. I’m currently in the first phase, which lasts 4 weeks. Each phase has different goals, and each phase has different nutrition plans as well.

One of the first things you’re supposed to do before even starting P90X is figure out what you should be eating. They have a simple little “rough estimate” caloric intake calculator.

Take your weight in pounds and multiply by ten. This is your resting metabolic rate. This would be how many calories you’d need to consume on a daily basis, even if you never got out of bed.

Take that number and multiply it by 20% (.2). This is your daily activity burn in calories. The 20% is a guesstimate, and based upon averages. If you lead a very sedentary lifestyle, it’s probably less, and if you’re out in the fields working the plow all day long, it’s probably more. It’s just a starting number. You’ll figure out as P90X goes on if it’s too high or too low for you.

Take the two numbers you came up with, add them together, and add an additional 600 for P90X (yes, that’s how many calories you’ll be expected to burn during a P90X workout—obviously, this number is flexible too based upon your size, and what kind of shape you’re in).

For me, the number I’ve come up with after adjustments is about 2,000 calories. And, I have determined that (so far, anyway) that’s probably on the high side too. This puts me at nutrition Level I.

For Phase 1, nutrition Level I looks like this on a daily basis:

Item	Servings	Calories Per Serving
Proteins	5	100
Dairy	2	120
Fruits	1	100
Vegetables	2	50
Fats	1	120
Carbohydrates	1	200
Condiments	1	50
Snacks	3*	100

 

The snacks are supposed to be a single serving of their Shakeology drink, a protein bar, and a recovery drink.

There’s also a complete meal plan with recipes. Here’s a sample day:

Meal	Items	Notes
Breakfast	1 Mushroom Omelet 1 cup fresh strawberries 8 oz. low fat cottage cheese	Omelet: 6 egg whites 3/4 cup sliced mushrooms 2 tbsp. chopped green onion 1/2 Roma tomato, chopped 1 1/2 oz. low-fat cheddar cheese, shredded
Snack	Protein Bar Recovery drink
Lunch	Chef Salad	3 oz. fat-free turkey breast, chopped 3 oz. extra-lean low-sodium ham, chopped 1 1/2 oz. fat free mozzarella cheese, chopped 1/2 Roma tomato, chopped 2 cups chopped romaine lettuce 1/4 cup chopped hearts of palm 1 oz. avocado, diced 2 tbsp. low-fat ranch dressing
Snack	2 oz. soy nuts
Dinner	6 oz. salmon 2 tbsp. Lemon-Dill Sauce 1/2 cup asparagus 1 cup wild rice 1 cup red pepper soup 1 tbsp. Whey Protein Powder	Soup: 2 cups white wine 1 onion, finely chopped 5 roasted red peppers, cored, seeded, and chopped 2 cups chopped celery 1 tbsp. minced garlic 2 plum tomatoes, chopped 1/4 cup tomato paste 2 cups fat-free low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth 2 tbsp. dried thyme 1/4 tsp. each ground white pepper and ground cumin 1 dash salt Protein Powder: Used in protein shake

 

As you can see, you’re eating a lot, even on 2,000 calories! But, I have to admit, this meal plan scares me. That’s a really huge breakfast compared to what I normally have. And, as a diabetic, I tend to shy away from larger meals, regardless. A really really big meal for me these days is around 500 calories. And to be honest, I can’t remember the last time I had one that big. Last week, I had one dinner over 400. Most of my meals are under 300 calories. But I eat several of them, and have several snacks a day. I told my wife a few weeks ago, that in some ways I feel like I’m eating more than ever, because some days it seems like I never actually stop eating. But it’s all in what you eat and how much.

So, I’m not following this meal plan exactly. Tony Horton would be mad at me, no doubt. But I simplified it even further, and boiled all of those calorie numbers above into grams of protein, grams of fat, and grams of carbohydrates. I’m taking so many natural supplements, that I’m not all that concerned about getting in plates of stuff with lots of colors. And I’m pretty good about that, anyway. Much better than I used to be anyway.

The simplified math for me, is 230 g protein, 180 g carbs, and 40 g fat. Per day. That’s a heck of a lot of protein. Normal recommended amount for your average Joe is around 60 g per day. I put in a sample day of mine from about a year ago, and came up with 42 g. But for the last two months I’ve been doing about 120 g. It’s also very low in fat. A typical healthy diet would probably be just south of 60 g fat (depending on your size, of course) per day. Most people do quite a bit more than that. 40 isn’t impossibly low, but you really have to work at it.

For me, the carbs aren’t a problem. I’ve been carb watching for years, and I know about what I can eat on a given day and still stay healthy. Other people will have problems getting their carbs down this low as well.

Phase 2 is a little different. It’s one less serving of proteins, and another serving of carbs. I may or may not increase my carbs at that point. It will depend on how my body is doing. Phase 3 does some serious carb loading. I personally don’t see how I’ll be able to do that, but we’ll see how things are going when I get there.

I'll add some more info later on specific nutritional needs and why the diet is broken down the way it is.

P90X Day 9: Plyometrics Revisited

9 days down. Ten percent complete.

I know. I’ve promised diet & nutrition stuff for several days. The weekend has been far busier than I expected. That’s my only excuse. I will try to get to it before bed tonight, but if not tonight, it will definitely happen tomorrow.

So, day 9 is back to Plyometrics. This is the relatively high impact jump training set, if you recall. If you also recall, I didn’t feel like I was pushed quite as far as I could’ve been last time while doing it. Heart rate was consistently in the upper 140s/lower 150s. Not a bad workout, but I was hoping for more.

For the last several days, I’ve felt like I’ve been getting more out of the P90X workouts. Some of it is that I’ve been pushing myself harder. But I think part of the reason I’ve been pushing myself harder is that I’ve had more energy from this high protein diet I’ve been on (see, I really do need to talk diet & nutrition).

Today again followed the recent pattern. This week’s Plyometrics was harder on me than last week, and I have the heart rate records to prove it. Instead of 140s/150s, this week I was 150s/160s. I like those numbers much better. Technically, I could get up to about 170 and still be “in the zone”, but I don’t like how that feels. It stops feeling like a workout then, and more like something I shouldn’t be doing. Again, I have to admit, that I still don’t think I got quite as much out of today as possible. I started to run out of gas by the end, and slowed down somewhat for the last set or so. Still, it was definitely a hard workout, and I’m pooped.

Tomorrow, Shoulders & Arms. Lots of weights. I have a more complete weight set now, so hopefully I can skip the bands that I used last time.

P90X Day 8: Chest & Back

I plan on two updates today, but the second one may be quite a bit later. That’s going to be the one on nutrition and diet. This one is still workout related.

Second verse: same as the first.

I’m in week 2 now. Weeks 2 and 3 are just like Week 1.

So, that means it’s easier, right? Wrong.

Not sure if I’m just pushing myself harder now, or what, but each of the last few days have seemed like the hardest so far. Today was no exception.

The quote for today: “If you don’t know what you DID, how will you know what to DO?”

For all of the strength training exercises, Tony makes you write down how many reps you did and what weight you used. So, when you hit this workout again, you know what you did. And you know to push yourself, and do at least what you did last time.

Me? I did at least 5 more push ups on every single push up type. I increased the reps or the weight on all of the weight exercises. In fact, one of them was still too easy. Going to have to up the weight on that one again. I also increased number of reps for all of the pull ups save one. Damn you, second round of Wide Front Pull Ups.

Now, I don’t know if I’ll be able to continue this rate of increase. But I know next Saturday, my sheet is going to look even better than today’s sheet. For the push ups, I’m probably going to have to start using push up bars soon. The regular way is just getting too easy. Now, that’s something I never thought I’d say.

Also on the menu today is Ab Ripper X, of course. Not sure if I was just out of gas from putting so much into Chest & Back, or if the 2 day layoff from Ab Ripper set me back a bit. But I struggled today with the ab exercises. I didn’t feel like I did as well with them as I did on Wednesday. I was definitely better than last Saturday, and even Monday, but slipped a bit from the progress I had made on Wednesday. Still, it was a painful and exhausting 15 minutes. Hopefully I will again see improvement next time. There’s plenty of opportunity for improvement on Ab Ripper X. You do it at 3 times a week every week except 4, 8, and 13.

Anyway, I’m sore today, incredibly so. But looking forward to (and dreading) tomorrow’s Plyometrics.

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.

May 4, 1979

“Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher becomes British Prime Minister. She is the first, and so far, only woman to hold the position. She saved a generation of Brits from socialism, and reversed the course of their downfall.

Her election was timely, as a year later, Americans would elect President Ronald Reagan (R-USA). The two of them rekindled the U.S.-UK relationship and are considered conservative icons of the twentieth century, as well as heroes of the Cold War. Thatcher shared Reagan’s belief in the evils of Communism and also shared his dry wit.

But Thatcher is not merely a shadow of Reagan. She is her own woman, and a strong one. The position and direction of the UK at the time of her election are eerily similar to what America faces today. She was able to turn things around, just when it seemed that socialism would take over and steer the UK to its inevitable demise. Britain prospered under her leadership and is still feeling the effects of her efforts today, though she’s been out of office for over 20 years.

Incidentally, her nickname of “Iron Lady” was given to her by the Soviet Army newspaper, Red Star.

Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them. – Margaret Thatcher, February 5, 1976

And The Coveted Chris of Rights Endorsement Goes To…

…no one.

I sincerely doubt anyone covets my endorsement, and I don’t really feel like I should endorse anyone, in any event. I will tell you who I’m going to be voting for in IN’s May 8th primary, and why.

For U.S. President, I’m actually still unsure. I am pretty sure that I’m going to vote for former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA). I know he’s going to be the nominee, and I’ve long since decided I can support him and vote for him in November. But I may still vote for someone else in the primary, just to remind him that I expect him to govern from the right. I will probably vote for Mitt, but I may change my mind at the last moment.

For U.S. Senator, my choice is clear, but not as clear as I’d like. I’ve had issues with Senator Lugar (R-IN) since around 2003. I had to hold my nose and vote for him in 2006, and hoped that it would be the last time. So, I’m definitely voting for Richard Mourdock. Still, this is sadly a “lesser of two evils” vote. I’m nowhere near as enamored with Mourdock as most of the rest of my Tea Party brethren. I’ve been watching him for months, and I am just not sure I believe he truly means everything he says. I think the best we can hope for from Mourdock is that he becomes a reliable conservative vote in the Senate, and otherwise disappears. It seems to me that if he’s making news on Capitol Hill, it’s more likely to be the negative variety. I would really love to be wrong about him. Time will tell.

For U.S. Representative Congressional District 5, again the choice is a little murky. Representative Dan Burton (R-IN-05) announced his retirement in January. This was met with muted celebration. To say that Burton had lost popularity back home would be a huge understatement. Eight people have thrown their hats into the ring on the Republican side to be his replacement. I don’t think anyone knows for sure what’s going to happen here. The only thing that’s a near certainty is that the winner of this primary will be our new Congressman/Congresswoman. I don’t even know who is running on the Democrat side, but it would be a minor miracle if they won. Former Congressman David McIntosh (R-IN-02) is the odds on favorite, I guess. He’s got lots of name recognition, having been a Congressman before, and even having been the GOP nominee for Governor in 2000. He’s got the support of the NRA, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, and the Indiana Right to Life. Still, as a prior Congressman, and prior gubernatorial nominee, he’s hardly  the “fresh new blood” that most of us have been hoping for. And he’s got residency issues, much like Senator Lugar. After careful consideration, I’ve decided not to vote for McIntosh. Of the remaining seven, I like Susan Brooks the best. She’s energetic. She has strong fiscal and social conservative credentials, and she seems like she’ll work hard for CD5. I think she has a steep hill to climb to beat McIntosh, but anything is possible. She could easily finish anywhere from first to fourth in the race, I think. We’ll just have to see how it all turns out.

I won’t bore you with the rest of the down ballot races. There are a couple that I’m still mulling over, but none of them are likely to make national or even statewide news in 2012.

P90X Day 6: Kenpo X

In which I prove that I’ve completely lost it.

If attempting P90X at 45 after having never done any serious workouts my adult life until the last 120 days, wasn’t proof enough.

Day 6 is called Kenpo X. What the heck is Kenpo? I don’t know either. Wikipedia says it’s a name for Hawaiian martial arts with Japanese and Chinese influences. Ok, sure. Seemed like kickboxing to me. Although I did sand the floor and wax on/wax off (Karate Kid reference).

This is another cardio day, like Day 2, Plyometrics. For the cardio workouts, it’s a good idea (not required) to wear a heart rate monitor. This lets you know if you’re not really working very hard, or if, you’re incredibly out of shape, it might tell you that, hey, you need a break.

I’m telling you all this because it’s useful information later.

I have to be honest, this seemed like the least eXtreme of all the workouts so far. I felt like I didn’t get much of a workout at all from it. But this is more my fault and the fault of some external factors than the fault of the DVD. Let me explain.

Initially, I was having a lot of problems with my heart rate monitor. I’d check it and it’d say “0”. Now, since I was pretty sure I wasn’t dead, I knew that the monitor wasn’t reading right, and I needed to adjust it. So, I’d pause the DVD and adjust the monitor until it started reading, and I’d restart. This happened to me at least 4 times.

This is a problem. A good cardio workout is all about pacing and getting into a rhythm. I wasn’t getting into one. When I was checking my heart rate and the monitor was actually working, I’d be in the low 130s. This is ok. It’s better than sitting in my chair typing like I am now, but low 130s is not going to count as an anaerobic workout for most people.

Once I finally got the heart rate monitor working consistently, I had other problems. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not incredibly flexible. I’m also not the most coordinated person in the world, either. On the workout DVD, Tony would say what the combo was, and then immediately start doing it. Usually, I would have to watch a couple and then rewind and start over before I could do them. Even then, I’d be focusing my energies more on doing it right, than on doing it with intensity. Again, I wasn’t getting a good rhythm going and I wasn’t working hard. I did get the heart rate up into the 140s, and briefly hit 150 a couple times. This is a little better, but I was still in the 130s more than the 150s.

At one point Tony checks his heart rate and announces it at 164. Mine at that moment was 119. I can get my heart rate up over 119 just walking up and down the stairs in my house a couple times. 119 is nothing. I knew I wasn’t getting a good workout, and I had the evidence on my shirt as well. A little sweat, but not nearly as much as the people on the DVD.

So, I finished it, and I didn’t feel like I’d gotten an eXtreme workout at all. In fact, several of the workouts I got on the EA Sports Active were far more intense than today’s. I tried to console myself with the thought that after a couple times, the movements would feel more natural, and I’d be able to concentrate on working hard, not just one getting the moves right. And this is definitely true. I can tell I’ve improved dramatically on the Ab Ripper X after just three times.

But, frankly, I still felt a little down.

So, what did I do? Recall the first line of this post…

In which I prove that I’ve completely lost it.

After about an hour of sitting around moping, and even writing up most of this post, I decided to fix the problem. I put the DVD back in, and started it up again.

Yes, I did Kenpo X twice in one day. Second time, no issues with the heart rate monitor. Second time, much more focus on working it, than on watching the moves. Heart rate consistently in the 150s, some times in the 160s. Yes, I did dip down in the 140s for a bit, but rarely lower (the point where Tony says he’s at 164, I was at 139…still room for improvement). I still didn’t finish the workout quite where I wanted to be, but it was much closer. Close enough that I felt good about it, and close enough that I desperately needed a shower and a change of clothes.

I wouldn’t recommend doing something like this for one of the strength training DVDs. You’d likely hurt yourself. But for a cardio one, especially if you’ve got a good heart rate monitor and can see if you’re overdoing it, it’s not awful. But I definitely proved to myself today that I’m serious about getting into better shape and serious about P90X.

Tomorrow can be a rest day or stretches. You know I’ll be doing Stretch X, the final workout in Week 1. Stay tuned.

P90X Day 5: Legs & Back

P90X is all about “muscle confusion” as Tony Horton calls it. That means you work different muscles every day, and even on every exercise. And you don’t even stay with the same muscle groups throughout a single workout. You work one area, and then give it time to rest before going back to the same area.

For today, that means lots of squats and lunges, and mixed within, more pull-ups. None of this is easy. And if it is, don’t worry. Tony’s got you covered. Do the lunges and squats with weights. Oh boy, that’s fun. You should be feeling “the burn” by the end of every single exercise set in P90X. If you’re not, then you need to change what you’re doing. You’re not pushing yourself hard enough.

But, my legs are all right. I made it through all the lunges and squats. I was hurting, but I made it through them. I did find my nemesis today, and it has a name: Wide Front Pull-Ups. If I can get to the point where I can do ten of those, I’ll feel like I’ve really accomplished something. So, I have a goal now. Ten wide front pull-ups.

Unlike previous workouts in the series, where you double up everything, you only do one each of all the lunges and squats. You do two sets each of all of the pull ups though. I’ll admit it. On the second set of wide front pull-ups, I did one. Yes, one. Go ahead, mock me now. But there’s still over 12 weeks in this program. I have plenty of time to improve. I won’t be doing just one at the end.

And, of course, since we haven’t done Ab Ripper X since Monday, that was on the menu for today too. I’m getting noticeably better at the ab exercises, even after just three sessions. I still had to pause a couple times, and there’s still one of the exercises where I’m unable to do a full set of 25 (13 today, closer). But, for most of them, I’m able to keep up, and my form is good enough that I’m feeling it in the right places. That’s the last Ab Ripper X this week, thank God. I need the break. Saturday, it’ll be back, though. I’ll be ready.

May 2, 2005

I really want to get back to doing my “On This Day” series. Today seems like a good day to start. Little Farah’s story is absolutely heart-wrenching. Read it now if you never have before.

This is from Michael Yon’s book, “Moment of Truth in Iraq”, which I highly recommend:

When little Farah heard the American Strykers, she dashed out of the house barefoot to wave at the Americans. Other kids had done the same. The soldiers tossed candy. The suicide-murderer driving the car bomb could have waited a couple of blocks to attack our soldiers, but instead rammed his car into the Stryker while about twenty kids were crowded around.

An Iraqi woman rushed little Farah out of the smoke and flames to sniper Sergeant Walt Gaya who, instead of pushing into sniper position, rushed Farah back to the medics. Major Mark Bieger saw Farah and scooped her up and rushed to a Stryker, but along the way Bieger kept stopping to hug her. Some of Farah’s relatives loaded into the Stryker and they rushed to the hospital where Farah died.

Shortly after Farah’s murder in May 2005, this picture, published all over Iraq and all over the world, had a devastating effect on the terrorists. Farah’s death was not in vain.

Whenever someone tells me that our troops are “baby killers”, “occupiers”, or that we were not wanted in Iraq, I remember Bieger and Farah. And whenever someone tells me that the terrorists there are like our Minutemen, I remember this picture, and know that Farah is dead because of these “insurgents”.

I honor little Farah, who died 7 years ago today, but I also honor American soldiers all over the world who do this kind of thing every day without thought of recognition for it, but because it’s the right thing to do.

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.