Day 9 - Plyometric Cardio Circuit

So week two of this is proving to be a little difficult as far as motivation goes. I got home from work and dreaded knew I had this routine to do. I was pretty tired though so I took a nap for an hour. It was a good nap though and probably much needed.

I put the video in and was feeling pretty good during the warmup. I did push it a little since I was feeling good so that's a definite sign of progress. Circuit 1 hit and I started feeling it in my calves (like most of the other Insanity routines). I had to stop at the bonus round of the first circuit cuz my calves were killing me. I don't think I've ever made it to the football sprints comfortably.

Circuit two hits and again I'm reminded of the pain in my shoulders from the day before. Don't know what it is about this video, but the first half kills my calves and the second my shoulders. Too much plank work.

Overall not too eventful on the workout front. Followed the video as best as I can. Didn't cry. At one point I was wondering if I should do the p90x plyometrics video to be sure which routine is harder. Oh well, maybe another time.

Stay powerful folks (and amazing)

Day 8 - Chest and Back/ARX

Crap. I just finished writing this and lost everything from the draft. I'll try to retype what I had.

Sunday was Chest and Back. I tried not to make the same mistake as the previous Sunday so I made sure I ate breakfast. I had the toughest time just getting up to do this. I couldn't start until I had breakfast, then it was pretty hot so I made sure I drank enough water then got caught up in other things. But I finally did get up and start.

I decided not to record my data like last week because I don't know how adamant I am about keeping track of reps. Sure it's nice to see progression on paper, but it also leads to disappointment sometimes. As long as I keep within the 10-20 range for things I'm ok. That being said, I tried to up the intensity on some of the exercises. I was trying to keep pace with my first week numbers, which I did so that's good. I was trying to top my numbers on the dive bomber pushups but I think I tweaked something in my left shoulder. Might have to take it a little easy, but at least it's not broken or anything.

Chest and back is one of my favorite routines. It builds a decent strength base and you definitely feel like you're getting a workout. This is the first workout routine you're introduced to in p90x and I've seen it scare many people away, including me. During this routine I wasn't entirely sure if committing 90 days to this torture would be worth it, but it was.

This video introduces you to 3 of the "kids" as Tony Horton likes to call them. Bobby Stephenson, Scotty Fifer, and Maren.

Bobby Stephenson was one of the fitness models from power half hour and seems like an overall hardworking, good guy. He keeps up with Tony as far as every weight he picks and doesn't take the same breaks and the T man. Seems like a goofy guy cuz he likes to laugh at the corny jokes in the video and just seems to have an overall jovial personality. Tony considers him one third of a set of triplets consisting of him, Tony, and Joe Bovino.

Scotty Fifer holds it down in the back of the video and teaches how to use resistance bands. I particularly got used to watching him because I was a band user during me first round. He seems like a good guy with his crazy blue shoes and bandanna. If Tony needs someone to complete his banter, Scotty would be the guy to finish the sentence. However, Scotty gets minus points from me because Fifer Scissors were named after him in Ab Ripper X. BOO!

Maren is the first girl you'll get introduced to if you're doing the classic program. She likes to make cute faces into the screen, totally humbles the people at home with her pullup and pushup numbers, and it totally German. When Tony does the famous Karen Pot Stirrer stretch, her soup of choice is German Potato Soup. She seems pretty funny when she says how many reps she's gonna do and usually one ups the numbers the guys said they're gonna do. I did find out later that she's apparently been in a bunch of porn movies. After that, watching her in chest and back is not the same.

As I said before Chest and back is a great intro video to the p90x program. It'll definitely leave you sore the next day if you haven't been doing any form of exercise. What I think is the best part of the video as far as introducing you to the program is a speech that Tony says during the stretch. It lets you know that you're embarking on something big and it's gonna be a great journey if you stick to it. He says "Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is your body." This really makes you think about all the damage you've probably done in the past and why you're doing the program in the first place. I'm not sure if they meant for it to be that way, but that's the impact it put on me. I'm glad to hear the speech again as a reminder.

Well that's all I got for now. Stay powerful everyone (and amazing).

Day 7 - Rest

Took it easy today. Hung out with my friends pretty late the day beforehand playing scene it. Did some outlet shopping and bought a new pair of sneakers (Asics). They felt pretty good in-store and were only 50 bucks. I'll see how they are sometime this week. I have a run for the Cancer Institute (5K) coming up in a few weeks. Gotta break them in.

I had a few other top choices including a pair of Nike's. Didn't see too many from adidas though, kind disappointed about that.

I bought some sweat-wicking shirts for running. I thought about when I did a practice 5K run a few weeks ago and when I ran in Spartan Race (Full review coming up soon) and I was drenched in sweat. Maybe I'll have a more enjoyable time if i'm not sweating so bad.

Headed to an old apple picking stomping ground I used to go to as a kid. I like to go to the shoppe and buy some stuff whenever I'm to the south of my place. Bought a peace melba pie since peaches are in season.

Caught the UFC fight at night then pretty much called it a day.

Day 6 - Pure Cardio/Cardio Abs

So, I can pretty much crown Pure Cardio as the toughest routine overall for the month one Insanity workouts. Why they decide to tack on Cardio Abs on the same day in the calendar is beyond me.

Pure cardio consists of 1 circuit of 15(!) moves, each performed for a minute. It can be easier or hard, depending on who you ask because the routine promotes taking breaks when your form is lacking. I'd think if you were able to tackle the entire routine as the video instructs, well you probably don't need to be doing this.

Pure cardio consists of the following exercises:
*Suicide Drills - Kind of like the grade school exercise. Run to a line and touch it, then run to another line and touch it.
*Switch Kicks - Do a squat and alternate leg kicks.
*Wide Football Sprints - For some reason this particular exercise destroys my calves. Face forward and sprint in place on your toes, follow the prompts to turn right, left, or move back, right or left, get in sprint stance, then do a normal sprint in place. Repeat for a minute.
*Stance Jacks - Like jumping jacks, but instead of bringing your hands to the sides, cross over to your opposite leg and alternate.
*Pedals - Do two lunges then sprint in place
*Hooks and Jump Rope - 8 hooks, 4 jump ropes. Alternate left and right
*Power Jacks - Like a jumping jack except do a squat at the bottom
*Level 2 Drills - 8 pushups, plank sprints, jump up, repeat
*Frog Jumps -Touch your hands to the ground between your feet, jump backwards or forwards.
*Power Knees - Hold your hands together and kick your knee up for half the time. Switch to the other side
*Mountain Climbers - Pee pee dance
*Ski Jumps -Jump side to side, bring arms up and down
*Scissor Jumps - Kinda like one of those old 80's dances. Raise one arm and same leg goes forward, then opposite side goes down and back
*Suicide Jumps - Pretty much a burpee. Go down into plank, then jump up vertically
*Pushup Jacks - Pushup, but on the way down, split your legs. On the way up, go back into plank

Before the circuit, you do the same warmup as Plyo Cardio Circuit. It's kind of difficult to gauge if you're making progress on this video compared to some of the other routines. Usually you'll add more weight or reps, but this one is more about survival. I take breaks here and there but that's what this uphill climb is all about.

I decided I'm only going to blog during the week, not weekends. No need to waste my weekend time when I can waste time at work. :)

Stay powerful everyone. (and amazing)

Day 5 - Cardio Power and Resistance

I remember now. When I started Insanity, the first day (Plyometric Cardio Circuit) made me cry, and the second day (Cardio Power and Resistance) almost made me throw up. Sweet.

Cardio Power and Resistance is a 40 minute, 2 circuit routine consisting of a lot of jumping moves and pushups to improve your POWER! I'm still not sure which workout is harder overall between this one and the other two month one Insanity routines, but it's definitely up there.

The warmup for this routine is more jump-centric compared to the others. You start by jogging in place, then do power jacks, log jumps (jump side to side), 1-2-3 heismans, butt kicks, high knees, then vertical jumps. Like usual, repeat this three times until you say "what the hell" and get mad because the workout hasn't even started yet.

Circuit one consists of the following moves:
*Power Jumps - Jump with power
*Belt Kicks - Go down into a squat position and alternate left and right kicks
*Hit the Floor - Hop into a lunge position and touch the ground in front of you, alternate left and right sides.
*V-Pushups - Kind of like a downward dog pushup
**Tricep Dips then One-legged Tricep Dips (Bonus moves) - Face upwards on your hands and feet. Lower your body via your hands
**Tricep Ball Pushups (Bonus move #2)  - Do pushups from a crouched position

Circuit two:
*Hurdle Jumps - Jog in place then hop to the right, jog some more, hop to the left
*Globe Jumps - Touch the floor then jump along the side of an imaginary rectangle (right, back, left, forward)
*Moving pushups - Pushup to the left, pushup to the right
*Floor Sprints - Run while in a plank position
**8 hop squats/8 pushups - As advertised

The first circuit is done three times and the bonus moves are done after the third go around and then the second circuit is the same.

This routine is crazy tiring and should definitely make you a sweaty mess. I didn't put the a/c for this one but I'm not sure if it mattered. If you've ever watched the informercial for Insanity you'd see that guy with sweat puddles on his floor, well that was me yesterday. As far as power is concerned, this routine has you doing a lot of pushups at a quick cardio pace. I'll admit, I had to take a few breaks to catch my breath and let my arms recover from this tough first week, but it should all be worth it in the long run.

Stay powerful everyone (and amazing)

Day 4 - Cardio Recovery

Cardio recovery clocks in at around 35 minutes and consists of a bunch of stretches and isolations in the lunge and squat positions, or at least that's my take on it.

The video starts out with a couple of deep breaths and stretches and then Shaun T has you going into some slow, deep squats. After doing 16 of these you hold the position for a few more seconds. Really does a number on my quads. I don't usually hold it as long as the people in the video and wind up cursing at the tv. This is repeated for lunges on the left and right side. By the end of this sequence I was sweating pretty badly and haven't hopped off the floor or lifted a weight once.

Next up are some Yoga type plie squat moves. Normally these wouldn't be so bad, but after the previous sequence you'd think it was some cruel joke to break your quads. Once these are complete, you concentrate on your ass. Get on all fours, keep your toes on the ground and alternately raise your leg out to the back, then to the sides.

The video finishes up with a few yoga poses (right angle pose, warrior three, and holding your leg standing up...pose). Right angle pose is a low lunge position, put your inner hand on the floor and reach your outer hand into the air. I like this stretch a lot. You can feel the stretching effects and your air passageways feel more open (either that or I'm just buying into this yoga hype). Warrior three, or table top pose and Shaun T likes to call it, is balancing on one foot and making the rest of your body parallel to the ground. Keep balance using your core and concentrate on your breathing. I was having a little trouble with this one because I twisted my ankle a few weeks ago. Same with the standing leg stretches.

All in all, this video usually just comes and goes. I like the fact that it's a short video because everything else is usually 40 to 90 minutes a day.

Day 3 - Shoulders and Arms/ARX

Tony Horton says this workout works the "glamour muscles." The reason being is that these are the muscles that show when you're wearing a tank top. I like this workout a lot because when I first did p90x, this is the workout that made me realize I just might be able to complete this thing. I also like to do this workout before I go to the beach.

Shoulders and arms is pretty straightforward. 5 sets of 3 different exercises targeting your shoulders, then your biceps, then triceps. This video clocks in at about an hour.

First set:
*Alternating Shoulder Presses
*In and Out Bicep Curls
*Two Arm Tricep Kickbacks

Second Set:
*Deep Swimmer's Presses
*Full Supination Concentration Curls
*Chair Dips

Third Set:
*Upright Rows
*Static Arm Curls
*Flip Grip Twist Tricep Kickbacks

Fourth Set:
*Seated Two-Angle Shoulder Flies
*Crouching Cohen Curls
*Lying Down Triceps Extensions

Fifth Set: (Bonus!)
*In and Out Straight Arm Shoulder Flies
*Congdon Curls
*Side Tri Rises

I didn't have any pain in my arms from doing Chest and Back and Level I Drills back to back, so all systems were go. My weight of choice was my dumbells with 10 pounds on them. I was feeling a bit eager though, so I did the first move using 20 pounds. After only getting to 6 reps, I moved down. Nothing more humbling than having weight almost land on your head.

The rest of the video went pretty smoothly. I kept my reps between 8-10 for most of the moves with weights. For some reason I don't keep track of my progress on this routine because I just make sure that I feel the burn out of it.

Well, since I don't have much to say about Shoulder and Arms, might as well talk about ab ripper X.

Ab Ripper X

Ab ripper X (ARX) is a 16 minute, 339(349) rep routine that targets your abs without doing traditional crunches and situps. Out of all the routines you do in p90x, this is the one you'll do the most (and might hate the most).

Ab Ripper X consists of the following moves:
*In and Outs - from a sit down position, move your legs in and out
*Forward Bicycles - Still sitting, cycle forward
*Reverse Bicycles - Still sitting, cycle backward
*Crunchy Frog - Same as in and out except you fake hug your legs going in and put your arms out going out
*Cross Leg or Wide Leg Situps - a situp with your legs crossed or spread out in a V
*Fifer Scissors - isolate one leg in the air and the other just off the ground while lying down. Worst. Move. Ever.
*Hip Rock and Raise - Lie down, shape your legs into a diamond, and do a leg raise. Your lower body rises when your legs are perpendicular to the ground.
*Pulse Ups - Put your legs together in the air and raise your lower body off the ground.
*V-up Roll ups - Do a situp, then your legs raise as your body goes down, then raise your upper body when your legs are around 45 degrees
*Oblique V-ups - Lie on one side at about 30 degrees to the ground. Raise your legs and upper body to try to form a V
*Leg Climbers - Climb your leg
*Mason Twists - Pretend that you're rowing a kayak except your legs are off the ground

I'm not a big fan of ab ripper x because of the amount of times I've had to listen to the commentary over and over. The moves are alright, but after a while it becomes monotonous. Not sure if I need to improve my form on some of the moves, but my hip flexors tend to feel a bit more worked out than my abdominal area. Gotta do what you gotta do though.

Stay powerful everyone (and amazing)

Day 2 - Plyometric Cardio Circuit (No crying this time)

So my plan of working out first thing in the morning didn't happen. I watched Scott Pilgrim vs The World the night before and got home late, but that's ok. I'm not much of a morning workout person anyway. Maybe another day.

I went to work, like usual, and when 5 o' clock hit, I was ready to get started. But, like usual, I decided to procrastinate again. I had laundry to do, which I threw into the washing machine and figured "ok while the clothes are in the wash, I'll pop in the DVD." But then I thought, "Man, I'm dehydrated. I'll drink some water first." So I drank some water, and waited a few minutes, started playing the piano, talking online, etc. and then I figured, "Eh, I'll just wait until the clothes are done in the washing machine and do Insanity while they're drying."

I love the fact that the Insanity workouts are shorter than p90x, but too bad it just gives me more reasons to procrastinate. So anyway, clothes finished in the washing machine and I put them in the dryer and got started.

Plyometric Cardio Circuit is basically 2 circuits of 4 cardio and plyometric exercises. Shaun T makes you repeat the circuit 3 times with increasing intensity But first the warmup.

When you hear "warmup," you think a few easy exercises to get you started on the real workout. Shaun T's warmup for this routine consisted of light jogging, into jumping jacks, into "the heisman" (it's alternating left and right jumps while making sure to engage your core), then 1-2-3's (same as the heisman but you add two steps side to side in between), butt kicks (jog while trying to kick your butt), high knees, and finally mummy kicks (stand like a mummy while alternating left and right kicks and alternating your arms left and right in front of you). Once would probably be enough, but no. You have to do this three times with increasing intensity for 10 minutes. Pretty tiring by itself, but remember this is just the warmup. You go into a few stretches and then get the circuits started.

Circuit 1 has the following four exercises:
*Suicide Drills - Run back and forth like and idiot and touch the ground (while engaging your core)
*Power Jacks - Jump up and down into a squat position (with POWER)
*Mountain Climbers - Kinda like climbing up a ladder or a little kid trying to reach a high shelf that also has to pee
*Ski Jumps - Pretend like you're skiing down a mountain and jump side to side
**During the third round, two moves are added for extra torture, switch feet and football sprints.

Circuit 2 has the following four exercises:
*Basketball Jumps - Pretend like you're shooting a basketball (like the 3-point shootout)
*Level 1 Drills - Stand up, go down on the ground, do four pushups, plank run, get back up, repeat
*Ski Abs - While in a pushup position, jump your feet to the left side, back, then right side, repeat
*In and Outs - While in a pushup position, jump your legs in to a crouching position, then jump back out
**During the third round, 4 moves are added to destroy you: jabs, cross jacks (my favorite move), uppercuts, and the attack move (kinda like the E. Honda hundred palm move)

Little backstory on Plyo Cardio Circuit. The first time I did this workout a month ago, I was wiped out from the warmup. But I kept telling myself to push through it since I made the commitment. I pushed so hard through the rest of the video that I started to cry during the second circuit. Could've been from all the sweat dripping from my face. But it was the same feeling when I ate these super spicy chicken wings. My tear ducts were on cruise control. Don't judge me. It was at this point I realized this program was pretty serious business.

So when I went through the routine, I was able to keep pretty good pace with the video. The breaks are very short so make sure you get a little water in you. When circuit 2 hit, I realized I may have made a mistake on my hybrid schedule. Still sore from Chest and Back from yesterday, those pushups during the Level I drills weren't looking pretty. In fact the whole ending sequence is in a pushup position so my shoulders were dying. Maybe my hybrid schedule is setup wrong. Oh well.

That's pretty much it as far as the workout went. I survived. Some way to introduce you to insanity though.

Stay powerful (and amazing)

Day 1 - Chest and Back/Ab Ripper X

Yesterday I got things started. Good old chest and back. Chest and back features a bunch of push up and pull up variations done in 3 sets of 4 exercises. Once you finish the first round, you do all the exercises over again, except you replace the first move with the second move, and the third move with the fourth move.

Set 1:
  * Standard Push Ups 20(5) 15
  * Wide Front Pull Ups 2(8) (8)
  * Military Push Ups 15 10
  * Reverse Grip Chin Ups 2(8) (8)
Set 2:
  * Wide Fly Push Ups 15(5) 12
  * Closed Grip Overhand Pull Ups (10) (8)
  * Decline Push Ups 10 10
  * Heavy Pants 10 w/ 20lbs
Set 3:
  * Diamond Push Ups 10 10
  * Lawnmower 10 w/ 20lbs
  * Dive Bomber Push Ups 8 8
  * Back Flys 8 10 at 20 lbs

 I decided to try something new and get this workout started first thing in the morning before breakfast. I think I don't have that concept quite right yet because I woke up sometime around 9 and didn't get started until 10:30. So, I was pretty hungry. One thing I learned from doing the first round is to make sure to eat so you have enough energy to finish the workouts. So before I got started, I was on the fence about doing the workout or eating first. Since I had something to do later, I decided to just suck it up. Plus I wanted to see what working out first thing in the morning felt like. Normally I do my workouts after work, but I thought for this round I should try doing the Insanity workouts first thing in the morning.

So anyway, I finally got things going. Had my water ready, turned the AC on and popped in the video. My round 1 and 2 numbers are above. The numbers in parentheses means that I either did pushups with my knees or pullups with a chair. Can't really remember my numbers from my first round but I'm pretty sure they were higher and I wasn't as exhausted, but we'll see as the weeks go by. Afterwards, I did ab ripper X. I'll save my thoughts on that workout for another time.

Stay powerful (and amazing).

The Hybrid

I'll probably explain about p90x and Insanity more in later posts, but if you've talked to me within the past 4-5 months, I've probably bored you to death with it. Anyway, the deal with my hybrid program was that it would follow the p90x layout except I'd be replacing the cardio days of p90x with the more intense workouts of Insanity. And also since you get plenty of leg workouts in Insanity (and the fact I hate the Legs and Back DVD for p90x), I decided to replace that day too. Yoga X was way too long for my tastes as well, so I'm going to replace it with the Tony Horton One on One Fountain of Youth Yoga DVD (Which will be referred to as FOY because that took way too long to type).

So month one is going to look a little like this:
Week 1:
Chest & Back/ARX
Plyometric Cardio Circuit
Shoulders & Arms/ARX
Cardio Recovery
Cardio Power and Resistance
Pure Cardio/Cardio Abs

Week 2:
Chest & back/ARX
Plyometric Cardio Circuit
Shoulders&arms/ARX
FOY Yoga
Cardio Power and Resistance
Pure Cardio/Cardio Abs

Week 3:
Chest&back/ARX
Max interval plyo
Shoulders&arms/ARX
Max Recovery
Max interval circuit
Max Cardio Conditioning/Cardio Abs

Recovery week:
FOY yoga
Core Synergistics
Kenpo X
X Stretch
Core Cardio and Balance
Cardio Recovery

Reasoning behind this schedule:
I decided to follow the p90x schedule because it was structured better. A 7 day schedule worked better and it was easier to expect what was coming on a certain day. Insanity liked to cycle between 4 or 5 workouts, which is cool, but I like to know when and what is going to be sore (which in the case of Insanity was usually everything).
p90x also touts 2 adjustment weeks and then a mastery week before recovery. So what I decided to do was swap out the usual month 1 Insanity workouts with the Max workouts. Hopefully my gamble pays off on this one.
Also I decided to have yoga happen once during the first three weeks. From my experience doing p90x, yoga tended to stretch everything out, but I've gotten to a point where physical soreness isn't too much of an issue. Plus I only have to do a small number of vinyasas.

I'll probably be getting this puppy started on saturday so stay tuned.

Tell me I'm Powerful! Tell me I'm Amazing!

The line above came from Jorge Gurgel in Season 2 of UFC's The Ultimate Fighter. My friends and I thought it was the funniest thing we've ever seen and heard on TV. 5 years later, we still laugh at this piece of TV gold.

In recent months, this line has meant a little more to me. A few years ago, I was obese, medically speaking. My BMI rating was above 30 and I realized I better do something about it. I tried eating better and exercising and was able to get into overweight status. Although I think BMI is a piece of crap for shorter people, it got me off my butt. I do believe at least I'm healthier now.

In March 2010, I decided to start p90x and was able to complete the entire 90 day plan. I was satisfied with the results but decided I wanted to take it up a notch and do Insanity. After a month of doing that I realized I lost a lot of the few strength gains I got from p90x. So, enter this new blog.

Why Powerful and Amazing?

Why not? I'd read a lot of information on people doing both programs at the same time and was going to look into creating one myself. But now that I've gotten a taste of Insanity, I figure I'll just go ahead and do my hybrid program now (before I turn into a super-weakling).  Cuz doing both will (hopefully) make me powerful and amazing.

So my future posts will be about the hybrid program I strung together and if it will produce the results I'm looking for. Also probably some info on a few races that I'm interested in doing and other stuff that I might feel like sharing.