P90X Day 71: Chest & Back

Day 71 is a milestone day in P90X.

It’s the last time you do Chest & Back.

It’s hard to believe that I’ve reached the last of anything. It seems like I just started this thing a couple weeks ago. Time flies.

As I’ve said earlier, there are a few of the workouts that are only done 5 times. Chest & Back is one of those. Amazingly, I did Chest & Back today for the fifth time, and I still have 5 more of Ab Ripper X left to do.

Speaking of which…

Of course, Ab Ripper X was part of today.  It’s very odd. On my cycle, I do Ab Ripper X on Saturday, Monday, and Wednesday every week. And the Saturday ones are always my worst. I’ve only had two days off from doing it, but it always seems like longer. Monday will almost certainly be better, but I always have problems with the Saturday version. Someday I’ll figure out why.

But not today. Today I’m reveling in the fact that I’ve reached the last time through with this workout. The home stretch has officially begun.

Tomorrow, Plyometrics. Sadly, not the last one of those yet. :)

P90X Day 70: X Stretch

X Stretch is the most relaxing of all the workouts. In fact, the two day set of Kenpo X followed by X Stretch is the easiest two day sequence. Which is fair, because they are days 6 and 7 of the week, and days 1 and 2 make up the hardest sequence.

I like this day. I really do. It still points out to me quite clearly how poor of shape I’m in, but it doesn’t do it in nearly as humiliating a fashion as Yoga X does.

Of course, that means that tomorrow I get back to the hard stuff. Chest & Back, and good old Ab Ripper X.

And that reminds me…

I realized last week during one of the strength training days that I need a change of pace. While there are some days that I truly enjoy, they’re evenly matched by the workouts that just fill me with dread. I still loathe pull ups. Legs & Back is murder. Plyometrics and Yoga X put me through the wringer. And don’t even get me started on Ab Ripper X.

There are only 3 weeks left, and one of those is the Recovery week, so I’m not worried about not finishing. But I am concerned about my plan to turn around and do this again. Several of the workouts are starting to bore me at times, and that makes it even harder to get up for the exercises that I dislike.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m certain that I will do P90X again, but I need a break from it. I need to switch to something else. Several months back, when I was thinking about starting this, I considered doing Insanity, instead. Then I was going to do both, and do Insanity first. Then I decided to do P90X first. Then, after I’d started it, I decided to just do P90X and forget about Insanity.

Ok, so I’m a bit indecisive.

But the truth of the matter is that once I looked into them both, P90X fits my goals better than Insanity. They both are full body workouts, but P90X I describe as Strength+Cardio, while Insanity seems like it’s Cardio+Strength. We’re a fat nation, and just about every workout program emphasizes losing weight, but Insanity makes that the major part of it’s appeal. In fact, if you watch the promo video, that’s pretty much all anyone talks about.

Well, I don’t need to lose any more weight. :) I do still need more muscle mass, though. More muscle mass helps you burn more calories, and my burn rate isn’t where I’d like it yet.

In spite of all of this, I’ve decided that I’m going to move on to Insanity after I’ve finished this round of P90X. I should still get muscle growth out of it. Perhaps not quite as much as I would with another round of P90X, but, as I said, I need a change of pace. I’m going to take a week off in between, so I should start Insanity around August 4. It’s only 60 days, so I’ll finish in early October.

And maybe I’ll discover that it’s just as good for my goals as P90X. It certainly has the advantage of needing less equipment—none—so, that part will be nice. And, it will be nice to be able to give a full comparison of the two. I’m looking forward to that as well.

But that’s still several weeks into the future. Tomorrow, on to the final 3 weeks of P90X!

P90X Day 69: Kenpo X

First, I have a public service announcement.

75 pounds.

75 pounds is how much weight I’ve lost from my all-time high. Yes, I haven’t set any speed records doing it, but I did get the weight off.

Since my freshman year in college, I’ve always had at least a little bit of a pooch stomach. Obviously, when I was 75 pounds heavier, it was more than a little bit. But, no matter where I was in my yo-yoing weight, I’ve never been able to get rid of that pooch. I’ve had it basically my entire adult life. I remember the day in college when my freshman roommate made some sort of mocking statement about it. It was the first time in my life I felt fat. I was probably all of 140 pounds at the time, but the fact that I had that pooch and that others had noticed was all it took to make me feel fat.

Today, there is no pooch. Not even a little bit of one. I’ve been fighting that thing my whole life, and I finally have beaten it. For now. If I’ve learned anything during this process of getting into better shape, it’s that it’s not a one time battle. You keep fighting it every day of your life.

But, for the first time in my life, I’m winning. And you have no idea how good that feels.

Now, on to Kenpo X.

This is the only workout where there really aren’t any breaks. Oh sure, there are three or four places where the word “BREAK” pops up on the screen, and they last a minute each. But, they aren’t breaks. In just about every single one, my heart rate is higher at the end of the break than it was at the beginning. Some break. You run in place, jump an imaginary rope, do jumping jacks, and a harder version called X-jacks. You don’t feel like you’ve taken a break at the end.

In spite of that, this is probably the workout that’s the most fun. I still feel like my heart rate never quite gets up where I’d like it. I’m constantly in the aerobic zone, but rarely in the anaerobic zone. But the time just flies by, and before I know it, the workout is over. It’s nowhere near as demanding or high-impact as Plyometrics is. I still get a good cardio workout, but I’m not just completely exhausted and drained at the the end.

Tomorrow, X Stretch, and the end of week 10. 3 more weeks to go.

P90X Days 62-68

Wow, didn’t realize it had been so long since my last update. It’s not that I haven’t been doing them. I have. Just have been swamped with life, and haven’t had time to do an update.

So, here goes.

Day 62: Kenpo X

I think I’ve said everything that can be said about this one. I am awful at side kicks. If I do it even close to correctly, it hurts. If I want it not to hurt, I have to do it wrong. Hard choice. But at least doing it wrong still gets my heart rate up, and doesn’t hurt. I just need to get more limber in my hips and legs. Eventually I’ll be able to do them right.

Day 63: X Stretch

I really enjoy this workout. Surprisingly, it’s more relaxing for me than Yoga X, just because it’s not nearly as brutal. Still hard, but the only part that really has me even close to whimpering is Bow and the Two Legged Hamstring Stretch. Most of the rest is doable, and enjoyable.

Day 64: Chest, Shoulders & Triceps

You know, way back in the first week, I thought I’d be able to get by with just 2 or 3 different weights. For this week’s Chest, Shoulders & Triceps, I used almost all of my weights. I used 5, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 25 pounds. The only pre-set weight that I have set up that I didn’t use was my 50s. This workout is just brutal in that every exercise is so very different. A weight that works great for one is totally wrong for the next. I have fun on this one, but just keep track of all my weights is a workout in itself. And, of course, it’s followed by my favorite, Ab Ripper X.

Day 65: Plyometrics

I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. Your body is different every day. And it reacts differently. For whatever reason, I actually got my heart rate up to almost in the zone while doing the warm ups. From that point on, my heart rate was way up the entire workout. For once I was having to watch it just to make sure I didn’t go too high. And believe me, I got close. More than once. I considered pausing the DVD for a bit, just to catch my breath. But, I didn’t, and eventually I made it through. But, man, this workout was tough this week. It always is, but this week was brutal.

Day 66: Back & Biceps

This is a fun workout. I wish it was part of week 1. Although the pull up variations on it are just ridiculously hard. But the rest of the time, you’re just lifting, and lifting, and lifting. Again, like day 64, I used nearly all of my weights. I didn’t use the 5 or 8 pounders, but used everything else. I even use the 50s on the two different variations of Lawnmowers. You really know you’ve worked your arms at the end of this one. Ab Ripper X is at the end of this one again. I had an epiphany during the Ab Ripper piece, but it’s going to have to wait for my next post. Too long to put in this one.

Day 67: Yoga X

I’m finally getting noticeable improvement at the yoga. I can almost do the Half Moon and Twisting Half Moon. Almost. I tried to go lower in my Warrior poses this week. Wow, that cranked the workout up to 11. It’s hard to believe you can sweat so much from yoga, but I do every week, and this week I felt like I’d been standing out in the rain by the time it was over. I was completely soaked, head to toe.

Day 68: Legs & Back

Only a couple more times to do this one before P90X is all over. I won’t miss it. Every part of this workout is just murder. First, we have pull ups. Yippee. Y’all know how much I love those. Then we’ve got wall squats. Two of ‘em. You know, those just don’t any easier. Ever. I use weights on all the lunges. I don’t use much, but I do use a little. And even just a little bit of weight turns the lunges into major league workouts for your calves. Then, there’s the Skaters and the Speed Squats. Those don’t hurt, but I can’t keep my balance properly. I need a lot more work on this workout before I’ll be performing it at a level I would consider even close to acceptable.

Tomorrow is Kenpo X again, then X Stretch on Friday. Saturday starts week 11, which officially begins the stretch run. I’ll do more frequent updates starting Saturday. Stay tuned.

SCOTUS Rules ObamaCare Mandate is a Tax--Here’s Why

The short version is this: the states never really took the tax argument seriously, and didn’t prepare an adequate defense.

Here’s the longer version.

The tax argument was something of a Hail Mary pass by the government. They believed that ObamaCare is constitutional because of the Welfare clause, the Commerce clause and the Necessary and Proper clause. But they threw the tax argument in as a last resort, basically saying “just in case you don’t agree with us on these three, we still have this arrow in our quiver.”

The states defense against the tax argument amounted to “Nuh uh. It’s not called a tax in the law, and they never called it a tax before. They can’t call it a tax now.”

SCOTUS’ response was “Nuh uh isn’t a valid argument. And it doesn’t matter what it’s called. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck.”

SCOTUS envisions that the way this will work is that there will be a line on your income tax form that says something like “Provide proof of health care insurance”, and if you don’t, then the next line will be “Otherwise, pay $XXXX”.

While SCOTUS doesn’t say this directly—at least that I’ve seen so far—this is similar to the child care credit. If you provide proof of child care, you get a tax credit for it. Yes, the health care provision works in the opposite direction, in that it’s a penalty, not a credit. But it could have easily been written the other way, to match the child care scenario. Of course the reason it wasn’t is then it would be impossible to argue that it’s not a new tax, which was one of President Barack Obama’s (D-USA) original statements.

The court makes a good point here, and one that it’s really hard to argue against. And maybe the reason the states didn’t prepare a proper defense against this argument isn’t that the didn’t take it seriously, but that there isn’t one.

Still, regardless of what you think of this argument, there’s no doubt that today’s decision is a loss for defenders of personal liberty and freedom in the United States, and a victory for the socialist movement. We must now pin our hopes upon repeal. That won’t be easy, either though. The stamp of approval by SCOTUS will sap quite a bit of the political will for repeal on Capitol Hill. It’s time for the Tea Party to truly show it’s strength, or to quit and admit that the American experiment is a failure.

P90X Day 61: Legs & Back

Yes, I know. Yesterday I said today would be Kenpo X. For some reason I was thinking today was Thursday. Tomorrow will be Kenpo.

This workout is just painful. There's no other way to describe it. I think I mentioned last time that I've come to truly hate the pull ups. Every time a pull up set comes, I look at my worksheet to see how many I did last time. These days that's usually followed by shock and anguish. "I did HOW many? I have to do that many AGAIN?" But I do. In fact, except for being completely out of breath at the end of each one, they're really worse in my mind than in reality. For reverse grip chin-ups, I can now whip out 7 or 8 without even taking a break or slowing down. I think I did 17 of them in one set today.

Despite the improvement, I'll definitely be glad when I can start a new round of P90X and set a new baseline for all my pull up numbers. Yes, I'll use my previous ones as a guide, but I may not force myself to better my current numbers the very first week. I want to focus more on form this next time around "quality over quantity". In the beginning of this round of P90X my form was awful on quite a few of the exercises. It's better now on most, but not always perfect, particularly on the last few reps. I'm going to concentrate on better form next time and maybe sacrifice a couple reps for it if necessary.

Since this was a strength training day, of course it ended with the 16 minutes of Hell known more formally as Ab Ripper X. I've complained that in some ways P90X is too short. You only do Chest & Back 5 times for example. But Ab Ripper X appears on the schedule 30 times. And, I think you do Yoga X 16 times. Yoga X contains Yoga Belly 7, which you can think of as Ab Ripper Yoga X. So, in the 90 days, you work your Abs 46 times. That doesn't include the 6 days of Core Synergistics, btw.

Anyway, the point of all of that in the last paragraph, is that you definitely do ab stuff enough to see and feel improvement. I may not have a six pack, but my belly is rock solid. And I'm doing more sit ups in a given week than I can recall doing at any time in my life. Still, I'm happy knowing that I only have to do Ab Ripper X 9 more times this cycle.

Tomorrow, Kenpo X. This time I really mean it.

P90X Day 60: Yoga X

Day 60. Two thirds of the way home.

A miracle occurred today. During the two-legged hamstring stretch (you sit on the floor with both legs straight out in front of you and stretch your hands forward), I touched my toes. Yes, it was brief, and there’s no way I’m even close to being able to hold my toes on that, but I did actually touch them. I probably haven’t been able to do that since I was in college.

So, even on yoga, I am making slow, steady progress forward.

Not much else to report today. For some reason I was absolutely dismal at the Tree pose. Matter of fact, it was quite possibly the worst I’ve ever done at that pose, and I’ve been doing it for six months now. Oddly, I didn’t have the same kinds of problems with the other balance poses. In fact, my Royal Dancer was probably the best one I’ve ever done. And Tree is the easiest of the three. It was very strange.

Not sure why I had so much trouble. I really pushed myself at the end of the movement segment, trying to get my Half Moon and Twisting Half Moon to look somewhat right. The Tree is the first thing after that. I may have just been tired.

Tomorrow, good old Kenpo X. And Friday is X Stretch, but I may slip in an extra Cardio X on Friday as well. I’m going out to eat with my wife, and I’d like to have a few extra calories to spare.

Polling the President—June 2012

It’s that time again. Time for my monthly look at President Barack Obama’s (D-USA) polling figures.

As always, I’ll start with the RealClearPolitics averages. Today, his approval/disapproval number stands at 48.3/47.5. Last month, he was +0.6, today he’s +0.8. That counts as statistical noise, but does include a rather bizarre +9 poll from Bloomberg. Exclude that poll, and it’s a bit of a dip from last month. We’ll see where things stand next month. This is almost exactly where he stood one year ago. But one year ago was the start of a summer swoon for the President. Two years ago the same happened. A third summer of discontent will send the campaign into a panic.

Right Track/Wrong Track contains considerably less good news for the President. Last month the spread was –24.7. Today, the numbers are 31.3/61.5, which is a –30.2 spread. We’re approaching 2:1 on people thinking we’re headed the wrong direction. Those are dismal numbers for a President seeking re-election.

Next, I move on to the Consumer Confidence Index from The Conference Board. Consumer confidence continues to fall. It dropped from 64.4 in May to 62.0 in June. Again, as I keep saying, the only good news here is that these numbers are better than the mid 40 numbers we were seeing last summer. But we’re headed in that direction again. So far there’s little reason to suspect that the July numbers will be any better than June, but they may not be much worse either. Next Friday’s BLS report may give us the biggest indicator as to where consumer confidence will be headed.

Now, on to General Election numbers. The polling average for former Governor Mitt Romney (R-MA) vs. President Barack Obama (D-USA) are as follows: Obama 46.8, Romney 44.2. Both numbers are higher than last month, and the spread for Obama has increased from 2.0 to 2.6. This is one area where things have gotten a bit better for Obama. And this is the most important average of the bunch. However, this includes a +13 Bloomberg poll. Excluding the Bloomberg poll yields an average spread of 1.3, down pretty markedly from last month. If Bloomberg releases another poll like this next month that is such a significant outlier, I will exclude it from my numbers. For now, though, it stays in.

In addition, the daily tracking polls are looking bad for the President. Romney has led in Rasmussen’s poll for the last 18 straight days. In Gallup, Romney has only trailed one day out of the last 12. You’d have to be an incredible optimist to think this qualifies as good news for the President.

While I personally think that in the end, things will go Romney’s way, the polling hasn’t shifted in his direction as much as I’d expected. But June definitely shows a shift in Romney’s favor. I have been pointing out for several months that the polling numbers were a mixed bag for the President. That is not true this month. The only one that’s not bad news is the General Election average. And the only reason it’s not bad news is the Bloomberg outlier.

Just last month, I said that based upon current polls, I’d give Obama a slight edge in November. That’s been true for several months. I’m officially shifting that to “toss up” as of now. July may be the turning point in the campaign. Either Romney’s momentum fades, or he capitalizes on it, and starts to look like a favorite. A July fade for either campaign will stack the odds heavily against them.

Starting next month, I’ll include some head-to-head numbers in battleground states. Right now, these are the only bright spots for Obama. But just like everywhere else, the trend is in the wrong direction. I will likely do two updates each in July and August, then go to weekly ones starting in September.

P90X Day 59: Shoulders & Arms

Another workout that I haven’t done since week 3. If you recall (and you probably don’t since I haven’t mentioned it in 6 weeks), I had trouble finding the proper weights for most of the exercises in this workout. In fact, I think after week 3 I was still searching.

Well, this week I finally found the correct weights for most of them. And, an amazing thing happened. I enjoyed this workout. First time. Sadly, I will only do it one more time before the end of P90X. Well, at least I’ll know for the next cycle.

Yoga X again tomorrow. I’m going to twist my body into a position and get stuck there permanently before this thing ends, I just know it.

P90X Day 58: Plyometrics

Jump, squat. Jump, squat. Hop. Spin. Hop. Spin. Hop. Hop. Hop.

Now repeat for the next 45 minutes.

Ok, you’ve just done Plyometrics.

No other workout wears me out as much as this one. I feel like I need two showers afterwards, and that my clothes should just be burned. But, it is fun. And it’s fun seeing yourself get better at doing the workout as time goes by.

I still have my hands on my knees after about 15 minutes, but at least now I know that I’m going to make it through the whole way. There were days early one where I’d reach the half way point and think to myself “Oh my God. There’s still 30 minutes to go???” Not any more. I just happily plug along until there’s about 10-15 minutes left, and I’m amazed that it’s almost over.

Today did show me the importance of wearing the heart rate monitor though. There was one period about halfway through where I eased up just a little bit. And after the set, I knew I had, and needed to push it harder. But was amazed that my heart rate was about 15 bpm lower than it usually is at that point. I had eased up even more than I realized. Made me push myself more the rest of the way.

Tomorrow, Shoulders & Arms. Haven’t done this one since week 3 either.