kentcowgill.org/blog

So much to write, so little time.

Having trouble remembering what I did and when (again) - so I'll work backwards. Again.

So because of all of that, I decided to re-start week 11 this week and I did the Chest and Back routine on Tuesday. I think I did pretty well, 264 pushups (a personal best), 65 pull ups and 35 chin ups. I'm totally blowing off Ab Ripper. And I knocked the scab off my knuckle from Shoulders and Arms. At least I got to use my pull up bar again. Last week seems like it counted for something, because I got more pull ups and chin ups than I did last time I did this routine with a pull up bar. I'm really anxious to see how well I'd do on the old 100 pushups program.

And over the weekend I did Yoga X, again all of it, and came back to Chicago. Believe me, with a 20 pound child and a 12 pound dog, plus a 15 pound car seat, a 50 pound suitcase, and a ... well, I don't know exactly how hevy it is, but I'd have to say my shoulder bag fully loaded is about 15 pounds - toting all that around is plenty workout enough. Not really, but it wore me out anyhow.

Later on Christmas Day I did Shoulders and Arms. Kind of. I had to use the bands again. While I'm glad I had them, I didn't take the time before the trip to fully learn how to use them for the various exercises. I ended up abrading one of my knuckles on Congdon Curls (curl up, hammer down).

Thursday, I had some catch-up to do so I did Plyometrics in the morning, tucked away in about 5 square feet of spare room in the, uh ... spare room :) I couldn't quite get a lot of forward/backward distance with moves like Monster Truck Tires or Leapfrog Squats, so I did the best I could with the room I had. And Lisa was out spreading holiday cheer with Matthew, so I had a few minutes to run through it. She got back near the end though, I had a great time playing peek-a-boo with Matthew as he was on one side of his carseat and I was peeking around the sides as I did lateral leapfrog squats.

I'm pretty sure I skipped everything on Wednesday. I just couldn't find the time with all the errands, visitors, carseat shuffling, and Matthew toting that happened.

Tuesday evening I got out my trusty bands, mounted them in a doorway, and did the Chest and Back routine. On the one hand, I couldn't do too many more of the band pull ups than regular pull ups, which tells me that it's a fair approximation of the real deal pull ups and chin ups. On the other hand, it just didn't feel like an honest-to-goodness pull up and chin up routine. But I managed to pump out 235 push ups.

Tuesday morning, December 23rd, was spent traveling with Lisa, Matthew, Spike, and the luggage.

Monday the 22nd I was busy tying up loose ends and packing.

I'm pretty sure I did Kenpo around the 21st.

I probably did Legs and Back on the 20th, or thereabouts.

It's very likely that I did Yoga X on the 19th, give or take. Of special note, I think I finally did the entire Yoga X routine.

There's a good chance I did Back and Biceps on the 18th.

I very possibly did Plyometrics on or around the 17th.

I find it likely that I did Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps on or around the 15th.

Signs point to that I maybe did a catch up Legs and Back on the 14th.

I have a fair degree of confidence that I did Shoulders and Arms on the 11th.

The odds are pretty good that I did Chest and Back on the 9th.

The week of December 1st was supposed to be a recovery week, and it was. I was sick. Not terribly sick, but enough to make me not want to keep up with everything. I have recollection of doing Core Synergistics, Yoga, and possibly Kenpo, but I'm not so clear on that one.

And that takes me back to where I left off.

Yes, I'm still here.

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth.

Yes, I'm still moving along with P90X.

No, I haven't been fully healthy, so I've missed some workouts.

Yes, I plan to update my progress Real Soon Now™.

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.

I must be counting something wrong.

Granted, I haven't been using the DVD for Ab Ripper X - I wrote out the exercises from the video, in order, and have been doing them sans television, but writing down my reps (since I knew I wouldn't be able to hit 25 reps of each move from the start). I also know that the last move, the Mason Twist, should have me doing 50 reps instead of 25. But I've got 13 moves listed, and 25 of each of those ought to be 325 moves. Add 50 for the Mason Twists, and that's 375 instead of the 349 that I believe is mentioned on the DVD.

BTW, I did 345 today.

The V-up/Roll-up combos still kill me - I could only do 15, and that was with taking a lot of breaks between reps. And the Oblique V-ups are also really tough for me - 20 a piece for those.

But I did 25 reps for practically everything else*.

• 26 for the cross leg wide side ups, since I wanted to do an even number for each side. 24 for the Fifer scissors for the same reason, but couldn't go over 24. And only 40 Mason Twists, because I was tired and even though I'm sitting on an inch of quarter inch yoga mat folded up, my butt still hurts. Like over my tailbone. Possibly my sacrum.

With Matthew in the hospital last week, it was about all I could do to try to keep up with the program. I think I did a fairly good job while doing my best to keep everything else under control.

Monday I had done the Chest and Back routine, but skipped the Ab Ripper.

Tuesday started early at 4:00am. After Matthew's surgery and after his recovery was well underway, I snuck home for a bit to do the Plyometrics workout and take a quick shower before heading back to the hospital and sleeping on the rock hard couch in the freezing Parent's Lounge. I took it a little less easy on Plyometrics because my knees are feeling a lot better these days.

Wednesday I managed to find time to get home for the Shoulders and Arms routine, but skipped the Ab Ripper routine. I should stop making a habit of that. Took a quick shower and headed back to the hospital to sleep on the rock hard couch in the freezing Parent's Lounge. I'm still moving up with weights on these exercises, so I'm not quite at my maximum effort.

So Thursday I went home in the morning for the Ab Ripper routine, took a shower, and went back to the hospital. Thursday night I went home with the intention of doing the Yoga routine, but I got back late and had a few other things to do, and ended up sleeping at home. But on the couch so as to not be too comfortable. I noticed that it was a lot easier to hit more reps on the ab routine without doing it immediately following another hour long workout. I did 317 moves.

I meant to wake up and do the Yoga routine Friday morning, but mornings and me still don't get along very well. The rest of Friday was a blur - I went back to the hospital, helped pack up the room, went over all the discharge paperwork, took Matthew to the car, and had Lisa drop me off at work. I got home, helped put Matthew to bed, managed to wrangle some grub, and practically fell asleep on the couch - but I had to walk the dog, so I did that and collapsed into bed.

Saturday was a nice family day, like nearly every weekend day since Matthew has come into our lives. But I still made time for that pesky Yoga routine in the afternoon. Later in the evening I did the Legs and Back routine, but since that was my second workout for the day, I skipped the Ab Ripper routine. Noticing a pattern? :) 34 pull ups and 26 chin ups.

Now it's Sunday, I've wasted some time creating a nice graph to track my progress with the program, and I haven't done the Ab Ripper routine like I've promised myself I would. And then later I plan to do the Kenpo X routine.

But first things first, I need to let my dinner digest a little more before I attempt the city of hurt that is Ab Ripper X. And then Kenpo X.

I'm sure I won't find anything to get in my way from doing these tonight.

I'm absolutely certain of it.

I think.

8-D

Not much to report - moving along with P90X.

I did that Chest and Back routine again, but started late again and had to skip the Ab Ripper X routine.

Today I did 112 pushups of several varieties - standard, military (elbows in), wide stance, decline, diamond, and dive bombers. I did 20 pull ups (10 each wide and narrow grip), 10 chin ups, and 77 rowing moves, but with heavier weights than last time.

Mental note: sushi is probably not good to have about an hour before a workout. At least not spicy tuna maki with extra wasabi. It didn't come back up, but it definitely didn't taste better the second time around.

And Matthew's surgery is scheduled for 7:30am tomorrow, which means we need to get to the hospital at 6:00am, which means we need to leave by 5:20am to be extra certain we're not late, which means we need to bathe him around 4:30am, which means we need to wake up around 4:00am. Ugh.

And then if I can at all manage it, I need to get myself to physical therapy possibly. But I'd definitely like to make it home for the Plyometrics workout, and of course the Ab Ripper routine to make up for skipping it tonight.

Did I say "Ugh" before?

Double ugh.

I was beat last night and fell asleep early. Too early to be able to do the Kenpo X routine like I was supposed to.

So instead I did it tonight.

My lats are pretty sore, I guess from the Legs and Back routine Friday. Legs are mostly fine. They were a little tender yesterday, but have been feeling pretty good today, if a little stiff after sitting for a while.

I'm nearly 100% free from knee pain. I can still feel a little on certain twists or stretches, but I'm not easing off as much on the workouts as I was last week. I think the stretching and exercises I've been doing for my legs have helped. But I'll likely still hold off any major running undertaking until I'm a lot more confident that I've built up the strength in my legs. Physical Therapy affords me the opportunity to really focus on them with several exercises I'm unable to do at home.

I have to do the Chest and Back routine tomorrow. I hope the soreness fades.

I'm nearly desperate to do anything to keep my mind off of Matthew's surgery on Tuesday, so I probably won't put tomorrow's routine off.

Yay!

I didn't put off doing the Ab Ripper X routine - I just jumped right into it a couple of hours after breakfast. It seems like not doing it immediately after another hour-long workout also gave me the stamina to do a lot more of the reps.

Wednesday I didn't do significantly more reps than I did on Monday (which was 174). But this morning I busted out 270. Two hundred seventy! And no cheating! (It's really hard to cheat on this routine).

Granted, I might not have enough juice to repeat this performance after an hour-long workout (like I'm supposed to be doing M-W-F), but cranking this out today makes me feel really good.

As far as muscle recovery and soreness abatement, I received my The Stick yesterday in the mail, and immediately started rolling over some of my muscles. I hit my legs first because they need some tender loving care. Then on a lark I decided to roll over some other areas - my arms, my back, and then my trapeziuses. eses. Traps. =D I found a surprisingly hard knot in my right trap - maybe this has been the cause of all my recent shoulder pain? So I focused on that for a bit longer. I don't think I loosened it up too much, but noticed my trap was experiencing a different kind of hurt after that. Whether or not I triggered a "good" pain remains to be seen. I'm going to be hopeful.

In about a half hour we're going to pick pumpkins with Matthew - I'll be sure to post some pictures from the adventure to my photos site.

I had another late start tonight, so I only did an hours worth of the legs and back routine. And not a solid hour - although I was tempted to skip ahead when I did fewer reps, I instead used the time for a little ballistic stretching.

Because I haven't done this routine before, I really wanted to take it easy on my legs so I'd be able to walk tomorrow when Lisa and I take Matthew to pick out his very first halloween pumpkin!

And because it was so late when I was done with the hour of the legs and back routine, I decided to hold off on the Ab Ripper X routine until tomorrow.

Now I just need to make sure I don't find an excuse to put it off tomorrow :)

The "back" part of the legs and back routine was just several different pull ups and chin ups of varying grip widths. I did about 53 in total, the second set of which I "cheated" a little and let my feet touch the ground at the bottom of the move. But I'm still counting it as 21 chin ups (underhand) and 32 pull ups (overhand). A lot more than I did 5 days ago. And right at what I did a couple of months ago.

The legs part was pretty challenging as I alluded to before - instead of doing about 25 of every move, I did anywhere from 10 to 15 based on how my legs were feeling. I'll see how my legs are tomorrow. My only concern is that I didn't hit my hamstrings as much as my quadriceps, and I think part of the reason I was having issues with my knees a few weeks ago was an imbalance between the major opposing muscle groups of my legs.

If they're sore tomorrow, then I guess I'll know :)

So I was sore, but I lived.

And the next day I did the full plyometrics workout. Slightly modified to be easier on my knees, but not so much that I didn't have a good heart rate going throughout. And my knees felt fine later that night, and the next day, and the next. Of course, by "fine" I mean "still hurting, slightly sore, still feels like they're recovering". But to me, that's great. More on how great my knees are later.

The day after Plyometrics was Shoulders and arms, and Ab Ripper. I'm still taking shoulder specific lifts fairly easy - like anything involving the deltoids or rotators, and I'm aggressively increasing the weights on mid- and high-back exercises - traps, scapula, etc. And I'm also increasing aggressively for my biceps and triceps. So those are all sore. And of course I also had more physical therapy right after work, and the Ab Ripper routine afterwards. I'm increasing the amount of core reps I'm able to do with Ab Ripper, but not very quickly any more - it's hard work, and a tough uphill climb.

The day after that I did the Yoga X routine. Or at least, a half hour of it. I got started too late, and I worked up a really good sweat in that half hour. Lots of isometric exercise of muscles. Next time around I'll definitely do more of the Yoga, but I was feeling pretty beat.

About those knees - I was walking spike and decided to jog half a block on the way back. And I'm still walking fine the day after. Hooray!

Sore.

That is all.

It's been almost a week - but don't think I've been resting on my considerable laurels. I've done several more workouts for my chest, back, shoulders and arms - I've continued my physical therapy - and I've ventured into the Kenpo X and Cardio X workouts.

I've also measured everything that's appropriate to measure, and figured out that if I'm reading (and probably more importantly using) my skinfold calipers correctly, my body composition is in the neighborhood of about 19%. I still suspect it's higher than that, but since I've measured and calculated that number on a couple of separate occasions with slight variations in the measurements of skinfolds, I feel confident that I can at least use that number as a benchmark. Whether it's high or low shouldn't matter as long as it gets lower in the coming weeks.

So the Kenpo X workout is pretty tough - and fairly rough on my knees. I had to take it a little easy on the kicks. I decided to do the kicks because by and large, my knees were feeling pretty good. Fortunately they continued to feel good the next day, confirming that I didn't do anything terribly bad to them.

And then there was the Cardio X routine. I figured that would be a good one to whet my whistle for the other workouts since it touches on the Yoga and even the scary plyometrics workout. This one was very difficult - I nearly got my heart rate up to where it was on my faster run portions of my run/walk routine. Again I avoided any pain the next day even though my quadriceps felt some delayed onset muscle soreness the next day due to some of the jumping.

So the Cardio X routine was yesterday, and I took all my measurements yesterday, and I took the dreadful "before" pictures, so that meant I was pretty much obligating myself to start the real, full, and actual P90X routine today.

But first I had physical therapy. And not just normal physical therapy (though maybe that's a good thing). Today was the first day of my "step down" program. Meaning I'm done with the normal program, I just get to use their facilities and their expertise as I do all the stuff I can do at home, except for a few machines and devices that I can't quite replicate. I skipped a few of the recommended exercises since I knew they'd overlap with what I was planning on for the evening. Or the later evening.

Got home, had a quick dinner, watched Heroes, and then got busy. I did about 87 push ups of many varieties, about 15 pull ups and 8 chin ups. Yes, that's fewer than I was doing during the 100 pushups routine, but since these were all different varieties and hit all different parts of my chest and triceps, I think this was probably pretty good for a start. I also did roughly 75 rowing type movements with dumbbells. The weight here is still fairly low, especially since I moved to 2 circuits of this routine, as suggested by the videos.

And to the letter of the law with the P90X program, I went straight to the Ab Ripper X routine afterwards. It's still very hard, I still can't do everything, but I'm still working towards increasing what I'm able to do. But at the end of it, I had performed about 174 'reps' of all the various ab/core exercises combined. Really tough ab/core exercises. So don't scoff at the fact that 174 is only half of the 349 total reps that I could be doing. Supposing I didn't throw up mid-workout from the insane exertion.

Next up tomorrow is plyometrics. I'm a little scared - I just hope I can remember to take it easy on my knees and not catch quite so much air during the routine.

Ok, maybe not great - but pretty good.

After physical therapy last night, I felt a lot better. Whether it was the pressure-points on my iliotibial bands, or the assisted stretching, or maybe just a little ibuprofen beforehand, I was able to walk largely without pain last night and all of today.

So I'm stoked!

So I went immediately outside, ran 4 miles at 10mph in the rain, and then my knees exploded.

Just kidding. It's still going to be a bit before I pound the pavement again. I need to be completely free of pain, completely free of pain medication, before I'll consider it. And prior to that, I'll have to go through a lot of strengthening and stretching to make sure my legs are ready for it.

I also might end up finding my way to a local high school and just take it easy running on the track. Assuming the local high school still has a sports program. And doesn't have signs posted warning against trespassing.

In the mean time, I've reviewed the Kenpo X workout from P90X. I'm not sure I ought to attempt it just yet, unless my knees feel like a million bucks tomorrow. And perhaps they will, given the quickness of improvement I've felt in the last 24 hours. But if not, and I'm really itching to do something tomorrow, I may do it while holding some light hand weights and just skipping the leg work.

We'll see - I'm just still happy that I'm able to walk around mostly pain free now.

Yay!

But I did the shoulders and arms workout tonight from P90X. Still a single circuit, but I'm increasing the weight and the reps. Slowly. And then the Ab Ripper X - adding more reps. Man that's a tough abs workout.

Since I last wrote, I've been doing a bit more of the P90X inspired workouts. I had been hesitant to start full bore into it, primarily due to my persistent knee issues, but also due to the fact that from the reviews I'm reading, I just might not quite be ready for it just yet.

And I recall with painful clarity what would likely happen if I start out with something too much too fast. Every time I take a step.

So I've been kind of noodling around, doing smaller version of the workouts, making sure I don't take off more than I can chew. Where the exercises use only bodyweight, I've been probably doing about a fourth or less of what I'm probably capable of, and very gradually working my way up. Where weights are called for, I've been taking it very light. I've also been avoiding the Plyometrics, the Cardio-X, the Yoga-X, and the Kenpo-X - all to avoid further damaging my knees.

But then I read something that made me change my mind a bit - at least with the Plyometrics, I've read that there are versions presented that have lower impact for those with bad knees.

So it sounds like I have less of an excuse to continue completely avoiding them.

I've done the shoulders and arms workout, basically doing various shoulder presses, biceps curls, and triceps work - but only one complete circuit (including the bonus round!). I've also done the Abs routine, and am slowly adding to the reps I do of each exercise. And I've done the Chest and Back routine again, but again with a very limited number of reps, and only one circuit.

I'll probably continue this approach, and try the other workouts I've been avoiding, and then probably launch into the grueling 6 day a week schedule.

It seems my hundred pushups plan as well as the couple of pyramids I did over the last few months at least has me to the point where I'm not sore after these workouts.

And the physical therapy that I've been doing seems to have adequately prepared my core muscles for the "Ab Ripper X" routine. At least the abbreviated version I'm doing.

I go back to physical therapy Monday so they can check in on the progress of the healing of my knees. They're slowly getting better - I can usually walk without limping, and I seem to be able to get up and down the stairs pretty well. But there's a few movements that seem to still jack up the pain so I'm nearly gasping with the suddenness and sharpness of the pain.

Pretty soon I'm really going to have to stop procrastinating and take some measurements so that I have more than just general "get rid of the fat" goals I can shoot for.

So it seems I'm going to wait a while before I can start running again. At least, I hope it's only a while, and not forever.

I think my biggest problem was being on pain medication for my back while I started becoming a bit of a runner. Naproxen sodium masked the pain of my back, and most likely my knees. And then the prescription ran out, and I didn't feel like being on pain medication anymore, so I stopped taking them. And then the knee pain starts. But instead of being just gradual, it hits me like a ton of bricks. And the knee "damage" probably just started because like with most things exercise related, I did too much too fast.

C'est la vie.

My physical therapist seems to be helping me work through the recovery, but it still seems slow.

But that certainly leaves my upper body free for abuse.

So I started doing a little something inspired by P90X, and a fairly decent follow on to my recent spate of push ups and chin ups. I can't really launch into the full P90X program due to my knee issues. For now.

It's been a few weeks (already?!) since I even did my pyramids, so I took it a little easy and did a few each of standard push ups, military push ups (narrower hand position with elbows tucked in next to the body), wide push ups, decline push ups, diamond push ups, and dive bomber push ups. Everything but the standard was a nice challenge, because I had never done them - and honestly I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do them, because I knew that a few of them were tougher than the standard. Yet another reason why I didn't do very many.

I also did a few each of wide grip, overhand pull ups, regular chin ups, and close grip overhand pull ups. Again a fun challenge - I had never done the overhand variety, and thought they'd be substantially harder and possibly out of my reach. But they weren't :)

I also did a few latissimus dorsi, rhomboid, and rear deltoid lifts with light dumbbells.

I'll probably be a little sore from this for the next few days. But maybe not too bad.

As far as my knees, I'll be taking it really easy, alternating compression (from cho-pat straps) and icing, and some easy stretching and very light leg extensions and leg curls.