p90x

[ChadTower]

Gotta be careful with that... if you've never jogged before for distance, you have to start at like 1.5 and work up 10% or so a week.  Doesn't matter what your cardio can handle right now.  It's your knees and ankles that need conditioning now.  That's a common thing for beginner runners and I saw a lot of talk about it on the triathlete forums.  People start out going way too far and end up with shin splints, ankle tendonitis, or a trashed knee because an already weakened knee hit something that ordinarily wouldn't have bothered it (like moving a game).

[ChadTower]

I'm taking the night off.  The Bucs on MNF is rarer than a holiday.   

[ChadTower]

X stretch tonight.  I like this one.  I feel good.

[ChadTower]

Core synergistics.

Am I the only one left already?   

[shardian]

Heh, I think you are Chad.

I got a set of the rubber tube things last week. Me and the wife have been learning how to use them during our nightly workouts.

I realize I am not ready for p90x, because my flexibility is HORRIBLE. I will injure myself for sure. Before I even attempt that, I will be doing Yoga/Pilates for a while to limber up.

[ChadTower]

Heh, I think you are Chad.

I got a set of the rubber tube things last week. Me and the wife have been learning how to use them during our nightly workouts.

I realize I am not ready for p90x, because my flexibility is HORRIBLE. I will injure myself for sure. Before I even attempt that, I will be doing Yoga/Pilates for a while to limber up.

They have another program, Power 90, that is also out there.  A lot of the articles say it's the stepping stone to p90x.

Phase I ends for me tomorrow... I'll get a bodyfat reading then.  I can see a lot of fitness improvement so far.  I think the biggest benefit I have gotten is balance.  I had some really strong areas and some not so strong areas before.  The weak links are disappearing and I can definitely feel the difference.  And even though I had pretty decent cardio before it is definitely much stronger now.  I've never been all that flexible either except in the hips (heavy barbells squats will do that) and that is really improving too.  I can do a lot more things with straight legs that I could never have done two months ago.

[shmokes]

I'm only on break.  Finals will be over the 13th and I'll be back into it.  I can't wait.

[Dartful Dodger]

Amazing you’re at Phase 2 in only 30 days…

I fell off the wagon, I'm back down to once/twice a week.

I've been getting to bed late and because of the cold weather, blah, blah, blah....  I haven't been able to wake up at 5am and drive 15 minutes to work out.

This year I’ve only taken a few long weekends so I'm taking the last 2.5 weeks of December off, so I don’t lose my vacation days.
Next week I'll be back on and hopefully 2.5 weeks without interruption will build up my tolerance for waking up at 5am.

I can't believe you did the stretching.  According to the guide you can either stretch or take a rest day.

Needless to say the stretching DVD has never left it's sleeve.

[ChadTower]

I can't believe you did the stretching.  According to the guide you can either stretch or take a rest day.

After the first couple of weeks the Stretching isn't just on the rest day anymore.  It mixes in with the rest of the stuff.  I did take the rest days until that happened.  It begins to move to Phase II in workout terms towards the end of the third week.

[shardian]

Are you doing pull-ups yet?

[ChadTower]

I could if I wanted to do 3-4 a set.  I started able to do pullups.  Some of the workouts call for over 100 of them, though, so I'm doing them in sets of 12-14 with a foot on a box a few feet forward.

[shmokes]

That's me too.  I can do pullups, but nowhere near the number that the video has in mind.  Not even remotely close.  So I use a chair, especially later on.  But I noticed a significant change in the number of pullups I could do just between the first and second workouts that called for them.  I think probably by the end of the 90 days I'd be able to do all the full sets without the chair.

[Ummon]

I'm surprised they don't teach you to 'kip' your pull-ups. Or do they?

[ChadTower]

Nope, they don't tell people to do that... they want everything done under complete control.  Most people would never get that right and honest.

[ChadTower]

70lb is a pretty big achievement.  Awesome.

Yoga for 50 minutes.  Then it gets into a bunch of stuff I can't do and don't want to try until I'm better at the stuff I can do.

[shmokes]

70lb is a pretty big achievement.  Awesome.

Hell yeah.  If I lost 70 lbs I'd be dead, LOL.  Nice.

[shardian]

If I lost 70lbs, I would almost be back to pre-wedding/kids weight.

...that is ---smurfing--- depressing.

[ChadTower]

I have definitely never had 70lb to lose.  I think I've had about 35lb at the most and that would get me back to single digits bodyfat.

Ironically I was able to do way more pullups at my heaviest, about 230, than I can do now.  I used to do them then in sets of 8 with 25lb hanging from my belt.   

[ChadTower]

So, day 31.  Bodyfat measurement time.  I know I lost weight by the way my pants are fitting but it's not a lot of weight.

Scale says 3-4lb.  Bodyfat meter says 1.5% less than at the start.  Over the course of 30 days, and with the improvements in fitness I'm seeing, I'll take that.     This isn't a starve yourself to lose maximum weight program so these numbers feel right to me.

[ChadTower]

Anyway, I'm blunt about all this because I want people (men) to feel comfortable going. 

Nice job, too.  Sustained weight loss sure isn't easy, especially for someone who has been that way for pretty much their entire life.  I have crazy amounts of respect for people who make the appropriate lifestyle changes to lose massive amounts of weight. 

[Paul Olson]

Finals are almost over, and I think I will give this a try. I have been dieting for for almost 3 months now, and I think it is time to bump up the exercise. I am doing a program called HMR that is affiliated with universities; it is similar to weight watchers I think. I was down 59 pounds wednesday at the 11 week weigh in. If I get off ---my bottom--- and exercise the next few days, I think I can finish the 12 week program with 65 pounds lost. It has been hard to push myself to exercise the last couple of weeks, part of it is due to finals, but I think I am just bored. I am still way overweight, so I will be doing the program for another 12 weeks. My freshman 15 was actually a freshman 50 followed by a sophomore 65. I was at 357 when I started the program. Sadly, not the most I have ever weighed. I was 390 when I quit truck driving about 4 years ago. I dieted for about a year and a half and got down to 235. Then I  put most of it back on; that sucked. I am just under 300 pounds now, and I think my joints can take a bit more intensity now. I should have the DVDs by the end of the weekend, so hopefully I will start soon. I am going to keep to my current diet because the results have been great, I just want to kick up the exercise. If I hit 65 pounds with fairly moderate exercise, I want to see what I can do if I push it.

I really struggled in school the first half of the semester. I think my health was actually getting pretty bad. I couldn't focus on anything really well, and my brain just didn't feel like it was working quite right. Has anyone heard of anything like that? about a month ago, the fog lifted, and I have felt way more capable. I was actually starting to be afraid I was getting dumber..erer. 

[AmericanDemon]

I'm still here chad. My mobo fried and all I have web wise right now is my iPhone. I've still been keeping up with the workouts and been supplementing it with ground fighting twice a week. I'm about a week behind chad right now.

[ChadTower]

What are you doing to incorporate the grappling into your show style?  I've always liked a convincing ground based style as a core repertoire.  If you can pull it off, especially now with the popularity of MMA, it sets you apart from the guys who are all chops/kicks/dives.  And more importantly if done well it's very safe and allows you to really take care of your opponent.

[ChadTower]

I missed tonight's workout... but with good hobby related reason.  There is a new game in the house and I spent most of the day on it.  Lots of worthwhile effort and it is now working fully.  Pics/desc may be coming soon but this is a keeper.  I'm totally stoked.  Long day of work for a very nice nice game.   

[ChadTower]

Plyo done.  Wasn't really into it today but did it properly anyway.   

[ChadTower]

Have to take a couple of days off including last night.  I caught some sort of bug.  Hopefully I can get back to it tomorrow or maybe even tonight if the congestion clears up enough.

[ChadTower]

50 mins of Yoga.  Forget being sick.  I say eff you Jobu.  I do it myself.


EDIT:  Forgot to mention, I can hold Warrior 3 well now and can get into standing splits for a little bit.   

[shardian]

50 mins of Yoga.  Forget being sick.  I say eff you Jobu.  I do it myself.


EDIT:  Forgot to mention, I can hold Warrior 3 well now and can get into standing splits for a little bit.   

....Yeah....we aren't discussing the in's and out's of Yoga with you Chad. I'm still clinging to my man card.

[ChadTower]

....Yeah....we aren't discussing the in's and out's of Yoga with you Chad. I'm still clinging to my man card.

Meh, this crap is hard.  Try it.  I can't see anyone who has actually done Yoga saying it refutes manliness.

Plus Yoga classes are full of hot chicks in flexibility poses.  What's not to like there?   

[shardian]

I've done yoga and it is hard. Best to just leave it at that.

Don't remember seeing any hot chicks in there except for my wife.

[ChadTower]

Look at it this way - a lot of this stuff is the same type of stuff you have to be able to do to achieve advanced belts in most martial arts.  Is that not manly either?  I've never bought into the whole "flexibility is feminine" stuff.  NFL players commonly use a lot of yoga concepts in their offseason training to avoid injuries.  Can't question their manliness.

[shardian]

Yeah, but they don't sit around the bar afterwards and discuss their warrior form, or how deep they can go into standing splits!

[ChadTower]

Yeah, but they don't sit around the bar afterwards and discuss their warrior form, or how deep they can go into standing splits!

Martial artists do.  At least the ones I know do.  One of my friends spent a half hour in horse stance in a bar while people threw peanuts at him to win $20.  Change the name and that's a yoga pose.

[Dartful Dodger]

Tomorrow I do Yoga X for the first time in 8 months.

I did a really good arms work-out yesterday, My arms are sore today, but so is my lower back(in a bad way) I know Yoga will help it, but knowing tomorrow is a Yoga day I'm already less motivated to get up at 5am. Add the cold and potential snow...

[ChadTower]

Kenpo done.

Dartful?  American Demon?  shmokes?

[shmokes]

I'll start up again tomorrow.  My finals are done, but family was sick.  Tonight we totally could have done it, but some people are visiting from Sweden next door (duplex of sorts) and we ended up having dinner and drinking with them till like 1:30am.  So . . . back to it tomorrow.

[Dartful Dodger]

I'll be doing Kenpo tomorrow, I've got the rest of the year off and I'm not going anywhere so I should be done with Phase 1 before January.

[Ummon]

My body building coworker says that P90X is 'really hard', though.  

Well, a lot of body-builders actually aren't very flexible, nor have much if any endurance.

[ChadTower]

My body building coworker says that P90X is 'really hard', though.  

Well, a lot of body-builders actually aren't very flexible, nor have much if any endurance.

Very, very true.  No flexibility and no cardio at all.  If they're big, anyway.

You need a reasonable cardio base for this.  There is a Power 90 program that the forums say is a stepping stone up to p90x.  If you look at the p90x pre-test requirements it gives you a nice idea of where you should be to start with. 

[shmokes]

So . . . wife got sick, and some visitors came in unexpectedly and I've been drinking a lot and smoking a little bit of weed (god . . . it's been a couple years since I last smoked weed) and eating horribly over the last couple weeks.  But I finally got back into it today.  OMG, I am so weak.  I feel like everything I accomplished before is gone.  I'll try to stay on top of it now, lol.