Day 1 – Core Synergistics

Finally! I’m back in the swing of P90X! I’m really excited to be working again.

The workout… It kicked my butt all over the place. I had a quote to describe it today: “It’s like I was in a wet T-shirt contest”. My shirt was completely drenched, front, back, and even the sleeves.

I started out fine. I felt confident. I think that made me work harder in the first couple sets, making me exhausted at the end. I’m definitely not in the same shape as the end of last summer (obviously), but I started the workout like I was. But I crashed hard. That’s fine though. I made it through most of the workout. My core really isn’t my strong point physically, and I’m not nearly as in shape for cardio, so these workouts are going to be a good challenge for me.

I am glad I worked hard the last 3 weeks while I was being a counselor. It definitely helped.

This workout really made my shoulders exhausted. I don’t know why really. A few of the moves use some shoulder strength. I think it was all the stabilizing my shoulders had to do while doing the pushup moves along with holding my arms up in some of the ab moves.

I’m just happy to be doing P90X again and working to improve myself.

A reminder: My photos are not retouched or edited in any way outside of cropping them down to a better size for posting on the web. I shoot for consistency in the pictures as best as I can so the comparison pictures later will be reliable and accurate, as opposed to the progress pictures you see in every infomercial.

So, it’s picture time.

Food today: Lunch was two Chicken Sandwiches from Chick-fil-a. Dinner after my workout was a chocolate whey protein shake, a grilled chicken breast with A1 steak sauce, and a low fat string cheese, and a LOT of water.

Starting Point

It’s time! Here’s my testing results for starting my second round of P90X. The only problem is that I didn’t do this testing prior to my first workout. I did the pullups as soon as I finished my first workout (the workout didn’t target the back at all really) and I did the pushups a few hours later (there was a little bit of chest in the workout). Even so, I don’t feel like it really affected my testing results significantly.

 

P90X Results	Start	Day 30	Day 60	Day 90	Goal
Weight	179				165
Pushups	51				70
Wide Pullups	9				15

Goals

I wanted to do this again, because writing things down makes me feel that much more motivated. My goals are a lot like when I did P90X for the first time last summer.

Overall, I want to get into good physical shape. I’m in better shape than when I started last summer. That should show from the pictures from this summer. I’ll do a set of comparisons with this summer’s pictures with those from the start and end of P90X last summer. But it still isn’t ideal, and it still isn’t the healthiest I could be. I played intramural sports again all school year, and I did well. I scored 5 goals in our 7 game soccer season. And I am definitely not a soccer player. I was just in great shape from P90X and ready for the cardio of soccer. Even now, I’m still in decent athletic shape, and still in the upper ranks of athleticism at my school (let’s not forget I’m at Caltech though, which isn’t known for athletes).

In the last few weeks where I’ve been getting back into a working out mindset, I’ve felt pretty good. I want to keep that. Working out has always made me feel good. I want to do these workouts and feel great because of them.

I still want to look better. Last summer, as you can see from the pictures, I definitely changed physically (see HERE). This summer I’m going for a bigger change. That’s the main reason I’ve chosen to do P90X Lean. I’m going to be hitting more cardio-focused workouts to try and burn more calories and more fat. I’ve also decided to follow Ab Ripper X this time. It’s going to be really hard, but I think it will really boost my results. Not to mention that on the Lean plan there are more core workouts. I just think it will really help with cutting some of the fat from my stomach area, and really make a noticeable change in my physical appearance.

I’m a big guy. I’ve got a big frame, and my bone structure is pretty large. There’s not a lot I can do about that. So this summer, instead of doing the Classic P90X plan, I’m opting to do the Lean version in the hopes of shedding the fat that’s keeping me from being as thin as my frame allows and not try to get bulky. I have no issue with gaining muscle while doing P90X this summer, but I’m hoping to develop a leaner look. It’ll be better for me health wise, sports wise, and confidence wise. Just from last year’s results, I became really comfortable with my body. Maybe too comfortable. You’d have to ask the other people in my dorm I guess. I’m just shooting to try and be in the best shape of my life.

So let’s put that all into numbers. Solid numbers make good goals. I’m going to keep it simpler this time. I’m going to focus on weight, pushups, and pullups. Outside of those, I’ll let the pictures do the talking. I think they say a lot about results.

Let’s talk weight. I gained weight again this school year. That’s a given though. There’s no way I can maintain my weight during the school year because I don’t have the time to keep a good workout schedule. But I’m looking for big results again this summer. Last summer I managed to lose 16 pounds. I think that is a good goal to set for this summer too. This year, I weigh 179 pounds, which is 16 pounds less than last year at the start and the same as at the end. So my goal weight is 165 pounds.

Pushup time. My pushups are still good! I obviously lost a little bit of quantity here, but because of the 100 Day Challenge, I managed to gain back some of what I had lost. I’m starting out this summer at a maximum number of 51 reps of pushups in one set. That’s 13 more than at the start of last summer and 16 less than at the end of last summer. So my goal for max pushups is 70.

Pullups are another tough one. I saw great improvements last summer, but I lost a lot of that already. But I learned how to get my best results with pullups last time, so I expect good gains again this summer. I’m able to do 9 reps of pullups in one set now. That’s 4more than at the start of last summer and 4 less than at the end of last summer. This summer, my goal is to max out at 15 pullups.

There is only one big issue I have to face this summer. Due to my summer plans, I won’t be able to start P90X until July 13th. Based on that, I’ll hit week 10 by around September 20th, which is right before I head back to school. So I won’t be getting the full 12 weeks in. The last week is a recovery week, so that’s fine, but I will miss out on one week of workouts. I think I’ll live though, since that is similar to what happened last summer with the Hurricane. Just this time it will hopefully be a more pleasant ending.

That’s it! That’s what I want to do this summer. Let’s see if I can make it happen.

July 8, 2009

Only one more workout to go after this. We mixed up the workout again so that we could start with the Wall Sits and we got rid of Dead Lifts and replaced it with Lunges with dumbbells. It was a really good workout. I think I’m about ready to face P90X again!

 

Superset 1

Wall Sits – 60 seconds

Machine Rows – 10 Reps (110 Pounds)

Superset 2

Lunges – 12 reps (per leg, 20 pound dumbbells)

Chest Press – 12 reps (40 pound dumbbells)

Superset 3

Shoulder Rows – 12 reps (50 pound barbell)

Reverse Curls – 8 reps (20 pound dumbbells)

Superset 4

Skull Crushers – 12 Reps (20 pound dumbbells)

Plank – 60 sec0nds (Left side, right side, regular)

Site Changes

With the approach of my second round of P90X, I’ve decided to give the site a tiny facelift. I’m sure you noticed the big change in the banner. The old one was designed when I thought the blog would be a personal blog that included my workouts. That never happened, and the site has received plenty of interest solely for its workout content, so I decided to make the blog purely focused on fitness and fix up the banner with a new title and image. I hope everyone likes it. I think it better fits the site and its purpose now. It also fits in now with my other blog via the new title. I passed on changing to a new theme, as I couldn’t really find any that I thought gave the blog a truly improved look. This works for me, and I think it is looking better than ever.

I go home at the end of this weekend, and I should be starting P90X soon thereafter. That means initial testing and pictures soon. Stay tuned.

July 6, 2009

New workouts this week. Just from looking at the original workouts, I could tell this week was going to be easier than last week. I still made modifications to the regimen, and I’ll change it again for the next workout. We did deadlifts first, and they really didn’t feel spectacular, so I’ll be replacing them for Wednesday and Friday. Same procedure: 1 minute rest in supersets, 3 minute rest between supersets.

 

Superset 1

Deadlift – 8 reps (135 pounds)

Chest Press – 12 reps (40 pound dumbbells)

Superset 2

Wall Sits – 60 seconds

Machine Rows – 12 Reps (90 Pounds)

Superset 3

Shoulder Rows – 10 reps (60 pound barbell)

Reverse Curls – 8 reps (20 pound dumbbells)

Superset 4

Skull Crushers – 12 Reps (20 pound dumbbells)

Plank – 60 sec0nds (Left side, right side, regular)

July 4, 2009

I decided to try switching up the order of the supersets to see how it would affect the workout. Instead of having the first two supersets have cardio leg-based moves, I switched the second and third supersets, putting a space in between the leg workouts. It made a world of difference. My legs were still completely exhausted at the end of the workout, but it managed to make the workout a little less challenging  “cardiovascularly,” so I was able to do some of the exercises with better form and control because I wasn’t out of breath and gasping for air. It also just made the entire workout seem less torturous.

 

Superset 1

Dive Bomber Pushups – 15 reps

Squat Jumps – 15 reps

Superset 2

Balance Ball Crunches – 15 reps

Side Plank Raises – 12 reps (per side)

Superset 3

Chinups – 6 reps

Alternating Split Squat Jumps – 12 reps (per leg)

Superset 4

Bicep Curls – 10 reps (50 pound curling bar)

Tricep Extensions – 12 reps (45 pound weight plate)

July 2, 2009

Second workout for week 2.  I made sure to eat a hearty lunch of a large salad and half of a sandwich so that I would have energy for today. It definitely helped. I was incredibly sore, but I managed to get through the workout. These workouts are pretty awesome. They’re very simple but somehow they still manage to be exhausting. One more of these workouts, then it’s time for something new again.

Superset 1

Dive Bomber Pushups – 15 reps

Squat Jumps – 15 reps

Superset 2

Chinups – 6 reps

Alternating Split Squat Jumps – 12 reps (per leg)

Superset 3

Balance Ball Crunches – 15 reps

Side Plank Raises – 12 reps (per side)

Superset 4

Bicep Curls – 10 reps (50 pound curling bar)

Tricep Extensions – 12 reps (45 pound weight plate)

June 30, 2009

This is by far one of the worst workouts I’ve had in a really long time. I made a critical mistake that I’ve only done a few times before, and I know better too. I didn’t really eat anything prior to working out. And I don’t mean in the sense of waking up and working out without breakfast. I mean I woke up around 11 AM and ate nothing then tried to workout around 4 PM. Needless to say, bad decision on my part. I had nothing in the tank to give me energy once my initial burst was gone, and it made the rest of the workout miserable for me. I will say that this was a hard workout in the first place but having no food made it much worse. Hopefully the next workout will be hard but not to the extent of today’s workout.

The workout remains the same. Supersets with 1 minute of rest between each set, and 3 minute breaks between each Superset.

Superset 1

Dive Bomber Pushups – 15 reps

Squat Jumps – 15 reps

Superset 2

Chinups – 7 reps

Alternating Split Squat Jumps – 12 reps (per leg)

Superset 3

Balance Ball Crunches – 15 reps

Side Plank Raises – 12 reps (per side)

Superset 4

Bicep Curls – 8 reps (25 pound dumbbells)

Tricep Extensions – 12 reps (45 pound weight plate)

One set of Tricep Pushups – 20 reps ( with 45 pound weight plate)

Stationary Bike – 10 minutes lowest resistance at slow pace

June 28, 2009

Last day of this current workout. Next week is something similar but with some extras.

I also had a third person join us today. The more the merrier. Workout plan looks pretty much the same.

Superset 1

Pushups – 28 reps

Dumbbell Squats – 20 reps (20 pound dumbbells)

Superset 2

Lunges – 15 reps per leg

Pullups – 6 reps

Superset 3

8 Count Body Builders – 15 reps

Plank – 45 seconds

Superset 4

Bicep Curl – 8 reps (20 pound dumbbells)

Shoulder Press – 12 reps (25 pound dumbbells)

One set of Tricep Pushups – 26 reps