kentcowgill.org/blog

So it seems that nearly every time I write about what I plan to do or what I'd like to do in the near future, I do just about everything in my subconscious power to not do exactly that. And if I just shut up about it, I tend to do what I intend to do.

I actually did Plyometrics Tuesday night like I intended to do, but I think I got a fairly late start on it. Now I know I have indeed been squatting deeper ad jumping higher - my quads and glutes were sore for days.

Wednesday turned into a surprise rest day. It probably had to do with the rest of my family coming into town for Thanksgiving.

Thursday morning I did back and biceps - luckily I was able to do this because we weren't cooking for Thanksgiving, so we didn't have everyone crammed in our tiny little kitchen and making me too self-conscious to work out. Instead, I snuck in my workout before everyone came over from the hotel.

And of course, we had Thanksgiving dinner Thursday evening. Because we weren't cooking, there wasn't any taste-testing the food during preparation all day, and there wasn't any real ability to eat way too much.

I did eat a lot - hey, it's Thanksgiving after all! - but I was still able to come home and later on and do the Ab Ripper X workout. And I improved a bit from the time before, instead of just 332 moves, I did 342. Still not at the top of my game, but still up there.

Friday I did 43 minutes of Yoga again - stopping just before Warrior 3 since there's no way I can do those.

Saturday morning I mixed it up a little. Since I could still feel some residual soreness from Plyometrics, I decided to completely skip the legs part of legs and back. Instead I did all the pull ups and chin ups interspersed with bits of Ab Ripper X. All tolled, I did 76 pull ups and 51 chin ups. That's no typo, that is one hundred and twenty seven chin to the bar moves in a single workout.

For Ab Ripper X I've finally got it to the point where I do every rep of every exercise as on the Ab Ripper video. Even the cross leg wide side ups - I did 50 of those, with a few rests thrown in. And when I say 50, I mean 50 the way I started counting them, which is in reality 25 the way the video counts them. And I'm also counting the V-up roll-up combos differently - I did 13 in my way of counting where the video calls that 25. So I'm finally at the magical 349 that the video counts, which in my way of counting the moves is 362. Whew.

I'm not going to talk about what I want or plan to do tonight. Because I want to do it, and I don't want another self unfulfilling prophecy.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday - all a whole lot of nothing.

No Yoga, no Legs and Back, no Ab Ripper, no Kenpo, no X Stretch.

Granted, I made a few trips to a few stores over the weekend, toting along a heavy car seat with a 19+ pound infant in it. And we got a lot of stuff from the trips to the stores, so I had to carry a lot. So that counts for something.

I just couldn't find the time, energy, or motivation for the regular workouts.

Also, I was running low on protein drinks. But that's just a lame excuse.

This week I'm back on track (again), for now. It might get rough when more family arrives for Thanksgiving. We'll see.

Yesterday was Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, and Ab Ripper.

I did a few more pushups than last time. 106, up from 99. The number of triceps moves I did went down a little, but the weights went up across the board. Shoulders, the same - down a little in the numbers, but all the weights increased.

Ab ripper I was pretty tired, so that number went way down, 332 down from 380. Overall, OK. I think my performance was a little lackluster because I got such a late start. I was still sweating like crazy, but I didn't finish until about 12:25. At night. Ugh!

I'll start Plyometrics tonight at a more reasonable time.

The week is about half way over, and so far I haven't skipped a beat. Unless you count skipping physical therapy (which at this point, is just like an extra "bonus" workout twice a week).

But I did Plyometrics yesterday, Back and Biceps as well as Ab Ripper today.

I hope Plyometrics eventually gets easier. Maybe the reason it hasn't done that so far is that maybe, just maybe, I'm actually doing it a little harder, squatting a little deeper, jumping a little higher, covering more distance each time. Maybe. I'd like to think I am, anyhow.

The Back and Biceps routine is still tough - I just finished up a little bit ago and my arms are feeling like jelly. Of course my triceps are still sore from Monday, but I was almost expecting that. Again, I increased the weight on nearly everything, all except the "static curls", where I increased the reps to 16 "c'mon, everybody does 16 of these". A lot of the biceps moves are hard, and since there are so many of them I'm not increasing the weight a lot. Which is another great thing about my Bowflex SelectTech dumbbells , tiny increments! Instead of going from 25 pounds up to 30 pounds, I can increase only one side of them and get 27.5 pounds. It's a little unbalanced, but I think that's OK.

As far as the non pullup back stuff, I'm increasing the weight a little faster, since I've been starting light in order to take it easy my shoulder, and these back exercises don't hit the shoulder too hard.

Pullups are plugging along. 56 pullups, 19 chinups, up from 45 and 16, respectively. Again, I might've gotten to a higher number were it not for those blasted corn cob pullups. I got 6 of those, but just barely.

Ab Ripper X was good. I did a few extra of a few moves, with a slightly different mix than last time, for another 380 move abdominal/core workout.

I just need to keep this up.

I lied.

Friday evening I didn't do anything.

Saturday morning, though, I did legs and back and the Ab Ripper X. 60 pullups of a couple varieties and 39 chinups, for a total of 99 pullups and chinups. I used 10 pound dumbbells through the exercises Tony says "everyone uses some weight on these", no weight on the "weight optional" moves. I think I'm far enough along to add in weights on the weight optional exercises, but I'll start light. I'm also thinking I can add a little more weight to the "everyone" moves, too.

353 core moves during Ab Ripper X - a nice improvement for directly after another workout. I was hoping to do Yoga X in the afternoon or evening, but Lisa and I went out for dinner (thanks to Michelle for babysitting!) and I felt like having a nice drink with my dinner. Which usually means I won't generally feel up for exercising afterwards - even though I should've - the restaurant we went to had gelato and I just couldn't refuse.

Sunday morning I did the Yoga X up through the side balance poses, and stopped again before Warrior 3 (which, the last time I tried, I just couldn't get anywhere near what they're doing on the DVD). So that's close to 50 minutes of Yoga, and judging by the amount of sweat on my yoga mat, still a pretty strenuous workout. I'm hoping all the plank/upward facing dog/downward facing dog moves don't weaken my triceps too much for tomorrow, since it'll already be time for another chest, triceps, and shoulders routine. I also noticed a lot of extra burn in my quadriceps during all the warrior 1 and 2 moves, most likely due to hitting legs the day before.

And of course I intended to do the Kenpo X routine later on in the evening.

Just once I'd like to follow the exact schedule and not feel like I have to do a lot of catching up on the weekends.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I passed on Kenpo X Sunday night. I noticed a little pain or annoyance in the achilles tendon of my right foot, so I figured I'd rest.

Monday, right back on schedule for Chest, Shoulders, Triceps, and Ab Ripper.

For chest - primarily pushups - and I did about 99, up from around 82 last week. I'm not really firm on these numbers, since I seem to add them up mid-workout, and my sweaty, hurried math hasn't proven to be extremely accurate. I had a big increase in numbers of the floor flys - I didn't try to slide my hands on a towel this time, which helped me do a bigger number. Everything else I increased the reps a fair amount.

For shoulders, there wasn't much of an increase in the raw number, but I increased the weight slightly for nearly every move - including one I shouldn't have (I only did 5 "fly-row presses" after having done 7 at a slightly lower weight last week. I also decreased the weight on the weighted shoulder circles, because I couldn't do all 40 last time.

For triceps, I did 116 moves, up from about 113 last week. No real surprises here. Increased the weight on most moves, increased the reps where I didn't increase weight.

And then right to Ab Ripper X. 380 moves, an all-time high - even more than when doing Ab Ripper alone! I felt like I had extra gas in the tank, so I busted out more than the minimum for the fifer scissors, hip rock 'n' raise, pulse ups, v-up/roll-up combos, and leg climbs. I'm still not up to 50 (!) cross leg wide side ups, but I'm getting there.

Now I just want to try to keep on track all week.

It's been a while since I've updated my P90X progress.

A week ago Tuesday I did the Core Synergistics routine, and it was tougher than I was expecting (considering that the week is labelled "recovery week").

Wednesday I did a pretty solid workout at physical therapy. I think once I got home and ate, I was too tired to do anything, so I'm thinking I missed Kenpo.

Thursday I meant to make up for the Kenpo, but again was tired, so I skipped it as well as the X Stretch routine - which, now that I've actually watched a bit of the video, it looks like it's worthwhile enough to actually do on my "rest" days, even though it's longer than I was anticipating.

Friday, I'm just going to call it laziness, so I didn't do anything then either.

Saturday I think is when started trying to make up lost ground and did two workouts. I did Kenpo X during the day - Lisa was out shopping, and I put on a Kenpo show for Matthew. Apparently Daddy bouncing around throwing punches and kicks is mildly entertaining for him. I think I did another workout in the evening, but I'm having trouble recalling which one.

Sunday I did Yoga X, not wanting to do anything that might interfere with getting back on schedule starting Monday.

Monday, Lisa had an early soccer game so I skipped physical therapy, planning to go Tuesday and Thursday, and in the evening I did the chest, shoulders, and triceps routine. And it left my arms pretty abused by the end of it. I did fewer pushups than in other routines, mainly because there was so much triceps emphasis in this routine that it made the pushups much more difficult. I'm very glad it's going to be a week before I have to do that routine again. I had to modify a lot of the pushups to be able to even do them - especially the one arm pushups (ha!) and the hand-clap pushups - those were both done with my knees on the ground instead of my feet. The slow-motion pushups at the beginning of the routine really took their toll on me.

And right afterwards I did Ab Ripper X. Very difficult. I did fewer reps than when I did it standalone, but a lot more reps than the last time I tried to do it immediately following a workout. The best news is that I've apparently figured out how to fold my yoga mat to make it so my tailbone doesn't hurt any more. Good news is that I had been counting something else wrong - the roll-up v-ups. I had been counting them half as many as the DVD - how i counted, I had done at most 20. But according to the way the DVD counts them, I had done 40. I also had been doing "too many" leg climbs. I assumed I should do 25 of each of those, whereas the DVD only does 12 each. See what I miss by not following the DVD? Regardless, I won't change the way I've been counting them - but instead of striving to get 25, I'll be comfortable doing only 13; because it's a two part move, I don't want to leave the last move half done.

Then I took my day 30 photos. I'm not sure I'm seeing a ton of improvement. I should probably really watch my diet better.

Tuesday, on schedule, I had physical therapy where I did a lot of legs stuff, and then came home and did the Plyometrics. I'm still not squatting as low as I could possibly go during the various squat jumps, but I can at least get through the whole routine and still be able to walk the next day.

Wednesday, I was still feeling the effects of all the triceps work from Monday. I ended up doing Back and Biceps very late - too late to do the Ab Ripper afterwards. This was a pretty challenging day with tons of biceps work, and my new least favorite pullup, the corncob pullup. While holding your chin over the bar in a wide-grip pullup, move your body to the right, then over to the left, back to center, then push away from the bar, then go back towards the bar, and then finally let yourself down. Sweet mercy! (sweat mercy?) I only did five of those. I could've possibly squeezed out one or two more if I got myself off the bar for a few seconds and tried again, but I felt that stopping where I did gave me room to improve next week and the week after that.

Thursday I went again to physical therapy and concentrated on my lower back, leg abductors and adductors, and hamstrings. For good measure I threw in a chest press and pectoral fly, since it had been a couple of days since chest day. I didn't do any of the major leg work I tend to do since I'm doing legs later today. I also didn't do much other core work, because as soon as I got home I ripped through the Ab Ripper routine - 363 core moves. I intended to do Yoga later in the evening, but waking up early after going to bed late the last two days took its toll - I fell asleep early.

Now it's Friday afternoon, and my biceps are pretty sore today. I'm buttoning up the text of this post, and I fully intend to do Back and Legs today, Kenpo and Ab Ripper tomorrow, and at least Yoga if not also X Stretch on Sunday. Or maybe I'll switch Kenpo and Yoga - I haven't decided yet. I'm hoping the sore biceps won't interfere too much with the pullups and chinups I'm supposed to do tonight.

It's time for a confession.

I haven't done an entire Yoga X routine. Partially because it's hard, partially because I was taking it easy on my knees, and partially because at a certain point I just can't keep any traction on the mat because I've dripped so much sweat onto my yoga mat that I'm sliding all over the place.

The first time I tried, I got to about 33 minutes into it. The next time, about 40 minutes. This time, about 43 minutes. There was still about 50 minutes left on the video. There was just no way I could do it - the last moves I did were side planks (I think Tony calls them something else), and getting my foot into runners' pose from downward dog was a joke - I just couldn't keep my foot from sliding.

Maybe one of my goals should be "be able to complete the entire Yoga X routine".

I browsed a yoga accessories website the other day and found "yoga rugs". These things are recommended for "hot room" (bikram?) yoga to help keep traction amidst all the sweat. I figured a $2.75 cotton towel from Target would fit the bill. Not so - I had to scoot the towel out of the way because before I started sweating; it was more slippery than the plain yoga mat. I didn't think to try it again once the sweat started flowing. Maybe I'll try that next time.

But I'm starting to have my doubts about how much actual recovery I'm going to be able to do this week, because Yoga X is definitely not my idea of taking it easy.

Since it's been a few days, and I know I've rearranged my intended schedule a bit, I'm having trouble remembering exactly what I did, and when.

So I'll work backwards.

I just finished Kenpo X. I think I'm getting the hang of the routine, all except the star blocks at the very end where Tony goes super fast and I don't have the coordination to keep up with him. But I only miss a couple of moves, so it's not too bad.

I'm pretty sure this morning I did an Ab Ripper X routine. At least I've got an Ab Ripper recorded for the 2nd of November with 376 moves in it.

Saturday I did legs and back. For the legs stuff, since I don't have a place to write any of it down, I'm just kind of remembering that stuff as best I can. And I'm pretty sure I'm doing more reps, and using weight on more of the moves. For the back stuff (pull ups and chin ups) I am keeping track of those - and this time around I feel pretty good about my results - 50 pull ups and 30 chin ups. That's 80 pull ups and chin ups moves!

Friday was Halloween, and I'm pretty sure I didn't do anything.

Thursday, it looks like I did the shoulders and arms routine. Or I did those so late on Wednesday that the date was marked as Thursday. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's the case.

Which means I didn't do anything Thursday or Friday of last week - not even Yoga. So shame on me.

Next week is my first recovery week; at the end of which I get to take all new measurements ad pictures. I've been weighing myself off and on throughout the last 3 weeks, and my weight has been trending downwards, but isn't consistently lower - if you look at the graph of my weight, it looks like I've taken two steps forward, one step back. But that's OK - at least the trend is in the right direction. And at the lowest, I've lost about 5 pounds from my highest point - at least the highest point I was willing to graph. (Near the beginning of my push ups and pull ups in July I was actually a few pounds heavier, but I didn't have the heart to admit to that weight. And I still don't, so don't ask. I'll just leave it at "a few".)

So to recap for the week - I did all the resistance-centric routines, as well as the plyometrics, Kenpo, two Ab Rippers - I skipped the Yoga and an Ab Ripper. All in all, an OK week.

But I can do better.

So I'm not exceptionally healthier, wealthier, or wiser. But I fell asleep very early last night, and woke up very early this morning. And of course I hadn't gotten around to doing anything right after work like I had hoped - I barely had enough time to spend a little quality time with Matthew before he got cranky, help put him down for the night, and fix dinner. And I can't do the Ab Ripper routine shortly after dinner, so...

The good news is that I woke up super early, and didn't put off this morning what I unintentionally put off last night. I started out with Ab Ripper, and did 370 moves. And then I re-watched part of the Ab Ripper video and realized that I'm indeed counting some of the moves wrong, but so far in the Wrong way. For example, I haven't been doing 26 wide leg side touch sit ups, I had been doing 13. I didn't get much later into the video before I realized I absolutely had to get started on Plyometrics or else I wouldn't have enough time to get ready before our nanny arrived - or more importantly before Matthew woke up.

I'm still debating if I'll go to physical therapy tonight or tomorrow. Regardless of that, I'll be doing shoulders and arms later this evening. I'm supposed to do another Ab Ripper after that, but since I skipped on Monday and the make up was today, I guess I'll just count that as my Ab Ripper for today and resign myself to have yet another week pass where I skip an Ab Ripper routine.

I got the flu shot yesterday, for the first time ever - having an infant at home who just had surgery last week makes it a little more important to keep the family healthy, so I went ahead and got it. I didn't even feel it. I just hope my shoulder isn't sore today to interfere with my regularly scheduled workout tonight. It doesn't seem so bad just yet...

Sure, the date that's listed for this post is 10/28, but it's actually for 10/27. I just got a really late start. After physical therapy tonight, I came home, ate dinner, watched Heroes, and fell fast asleep. I woke up to walk the dog, and noodled around a bit, and decided to start on my Monday routine for the night.

I'm still progressing (as the chart below will show). 120 pushups, 31 pull ups, 15 chin ups, and 78 shoulder moves - whereas a week ago I did 112, 20, 10, and 77, respectively. Note the stair steps in the chart. I'll hit the shoulders more on Wednesday on "shoulders" day (Wednesday), and I'll end up doing more pull ups and chin ups on the other "back" day, Friday.

Also I'm thinking a raw rep count doesn't really tell much for the moves I'm doing with weights, since I increase weight if I'm able to do 12 or more reps. Maybe I'll just multiply the weight times the reps. And since that's likely to be off the chart, maybe I'll divide by 10 before charting.

Did I do the Ab Ripper routine tonight? Heck no. I just did it yesterday, and I really don't want to do that two days in a row. I'll just do it after work tomorrow. I hope ;-)

After much cajoling and self-flagellation, I convinced myself to start Kenpo X tonight, and I finished it.

Yay.

BTW, I can hardly move right about now, still being a bit sore from the Legs and Back routine yesterday.