kentcowgill.org/blog

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.

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!

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.

I'm taking a break.

Yesterday I was fairly sore. A little too sore. More sore than I thought was reasonable.

In fact, I had to do a light jog to cross the road on the way to work this morning and my knees kind of hurt. So I started googling.

I thought maybe I had patellar tendonitis based on the pictures and descriptions there - the inside of my legs below my knees was hurting. Right on the big knobby part of my tibias. The tibial tuberosity? Something like that.

Maybe, maybe not.

So I made sure I talked to my physical therapist about it, and he determined that perhaps I was doing the whole running thing a little wrong. Like, here I've been running along on sidewalks and park paths, when in fact my feet are so in line that I could've been running on a balance beam or a tightrope without any changes to my gait. Which probably isn't a good thing. Which was most likely irritating my knees.

I had to run a bit for him, both the bad way as well as the 'right' way, and it felt OK to be running, but later in the evening I was still feeling pretty stiff.

So I figured I'd just play it safe and hold off for the night.

Tomorrow's another day.

I didn't do a single solitary thing yesterday. Walking was enough.

My quadriceps and gluteals were so sore from those crazy walking lunges that I had trouble just moving around. Yesterday. Today I just felt a little stiff. I was also (a little surprisingly) sore from my last pyramid set. All considered, resting on Tuesday was probably wise.

Physical therapy today was fine - my regular sadist was out, so today I just had a physical therapist who I guess had pity on me and basically had me do a lot of stretching, and showing me a few new core exercises.

Which left me plenty of energy for running this evening!

I did the 9 intervals of 60 seconds jogging and 90 seconds brisk walking, and I kept careful count of how many times I got around the park - a little over 5. So after mapping it out, I see I travelled about 1.81 miles. In 22.5 minutes. Which is an average of 4.8 mph. Roughly.

Same boring route:

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Assuming all my jogging and walking speeds were constant with each other, and assuming I was walking about 3.5 mph, 9 sets of intervals made up 1.81 miles. Each set made up about .201 miles, or 1061 feet. Walking at 3.5mph for 90 seconds should be about 460 feet, which means I ought to have covered about 600 feet in a minute. Which is about 6.8mph.

So now I know about what speed I'm jogging. With a lot of assumptions thrown in there.

Continuing on this line of thought, at that pace I might be able to run a 5k (which is about 3.1 miles) in about 27 minutes.

Ok, physical therapy is getting really hard. First the usual stuff - marching bridges, leg lifts, etc. Then I had to do two sets of these horrible, torturous crab walks, wherein my ankles are connected to each other with an elastic tube and I'm supposed to walk sideways all the way across the physical therapy center. And back. Twice. I'm not sure which muscles it is that this really kills me on, but they hurt. If in fact they're still there. I'm not sure, but I may have worked them right off of my body. Ok, they're the tensor fasciæ latæ, and they hurt. A lot. And then this other thing I think my physical therapist invented on the spot to continue the torture - this crazy walking with legs bent, ankles attached with elastic, and wide, sweeping steps.

To top that off, then I had to work on the slide board. The thing that makes you make a motion like you're skiing, skating, or rollerblading. Several minutes worth. Twice. Guess what muscle this motion tends to work? That's right. Same ones as that crazy crab walk. Then these ludicrous walking lunges all the way across the physical therapy center. And back. But while down in the lunge position, hold a medicine ball out at arms' length and twist my torso 90º both ways.

And maybe some other stuff, but I'm too tired to remember it.

Then I get home, eat some dinner, check a little email, and I guess I wasn't feeling beat up enough, so I decided to do my next set of pyramids. 1-2-3-4-5-6-6-5-4-3-2-1. Total of 42 chin ups, 126 push ups, and 210 sit ups. All with really good form, except for maybe about 8-10 of the chin ups where I cheated a little.

If all of the above isn't enough, I'm thinking that if I'm still able to walk tomorrow, I'm going to do 9 sets of the jog/walk intervals from the 5K for beginners running plan, instead of the 8.

This is just insane. Someone needs to put a stop to this.

Heh. I complain about falling off of posting to my blog, and then I'm silent for nearly 6 days. So what's the story? Have I really stopped everything? Have I just gotten lazy in posting again?

Well, a little of both.

I mentioned I was getting discouraged with my inability to hit the targets for the push ups and chin ups. So I'm taking a break. I don't plan to stop altogether. I've been kicking around the idea of doing the pyramid push ups/chin ups/sit ups thing again. For a little while. Just to change things up for a bit.

I've been going to my physical therapy, and I bought a few things (ankle weights, lighter dumbbells) to help me do my physical therapy exercises at home. I also dusted off my stability ball and used that a bit, too.

I've also gotten out on my bike - with all the miles and miles of unridden road around me, I can't stay off my bike on the weekends.

Sunday I rode from my house, to Elmwood Park, River Forest, Oak Park, then up to nearly Evanston, Lincolnwood, Skokie, and then back home. It was about 41 miles, and looks pretty impressive on a map:

View Larger Map

I've already got a route mapped out for next weekend that should take me through Park Ridge, Des Plains, Mount Prospect, Rolling Meadows, Schaumburg, Itasca, Wood Dale, Elmhurst, Melrose Park, and then back home. This one will look really impressive, and will span about 48 miles.

I'm not sure if it's funny or sad - I make a concerted effort over the course of about a month to get caught up and current on posting my workout progress to my blog - and no sooner than I do, but I start lagging behind again. I think I'm leaning more towards sad.

Speaking of sad, there was my performance on chin ups and push ups on Monday. I was finishing up week 5 for push ups, and week 1 (but the hardest column!) for chin ups.

Push ups: 16 then 16 then 14 then 14 then 12 then 12 then 10 then maxed out at 7. Rested about 30 seconds between sets, for a total of 101 in about 6 minutes. I think I was supposed to max out at 35 on the last set. Hah!

Chin ups: 15 then 11 then 9 then 9 then 9, but just barely. Rested about 2 minutes between sets, for a total of 53 in about 10 minutes. The jump from day 2 to day 3 in week 1, column 3 for push ups was definitely doable. Not so much for the chin ups. My progress with these seems to really have slowed down, so I'll just repeat this week. I think. Unless I decide to do something else.

The chart for this "week" (starting with an exhaustion test and a chin up day repeat and a LOT of rest in between) looks like this:

Tuesday I went again to physical therapy. It wasn't so bad today - I had a substitute sadist instead of my regular one. I'm sorry, I think I actually meant to say therapist there. My mistake. At least I could still walk afterwards.

Wednesday it was back to my regular sadist, and then later in the evening it was time for the repeat of week 5 for push ups, and week 1 for chin ups. Thanks to the roll-ins on the swiss ball, and a lot of other really tough core exercises (or at least, that's the excuse I'm going with) the push ups seemed unattainable tonight.

Push ups: 35 then 28 then 25 then 22 then maxed out at 17. Rested about 60 seconds between sets for a total of 127 in about 7 minutes or so. I just checked, and I did better than I did last time I attempted this set. I still collapsed - or at least nearly collapsed - several times near the tail ends of the latter sets. But I at least hit the rest of the targets, minus the max set.

Chin ups: 10 then 10 then 8 then 6 then maxed out at 8. Rested about 60 seconds between sets for a total of 42 in about 6 minutes. Not too shabby, but then again this was a lot fewer to shoot for than I had done on Monday. And I got a bit more than the last time I attempted this day. So that's progress - a little, which is better than none.

But it seems like my forward progress is stalling, and I'm getting a little discouraged.

August 27:

Back to the physical therapist today. Today they did something to my back - it felt like they were trying to dislocate my shoulder blade. But it sounds more painful than it was - it was primarily just a weird feeling. They also had me do a bunch of shoulder stuff, and some triceps stuff. Which I'm hoping won't get too much in the way of...

Push ups: Week 5, column 2, day 2. 17 then 17 then 16 then 16 then 14 then 14 then 12 then maxed out at 20. Rested about 45 seconds between sets for a total of 126 in about 7 minutes, give or take.

Chin ups: Week 1, column 3, day 2. 12 then 12 then 10 (these are getting pretty tough) then 9 (yeah, not too many more, but then I still) maxed out at 8. Barely. Rested about 90 seconds between sets for a total of 51 in about 8 minutes.

And then I noticed that I'm somehow out of Ensure™ bottles, which I was using as a post-workout protein shake. I was pretty sure I had some left. So, it appears that someone absconded with them. It totally couldn't have been me that took the last one and forgot about it. So I had to resort to some yogurt, which - now I'm not sure if it's the brand, or what, but - didn't taste all that great.

August 28:

Physical therapy today. My physical therapist is a sadist. The first half wasn't so bad, pretty much the standard stuff - treadmill, arm bike, stretches, light abs, shoulder, and gluteal work. But then I had to be in a pushup stance and walk my hands up onto a step and then back down. 30 times. And if that wasn't bad enough, then I had to hold a plank on a stability ball for 30 seconds. Twice. And then a set of stability ball roll-ins - uh, it says on that page that they're an "advanced" exercise? Sheesh. Let's not forget that just the day before, I did some triceps pulldowns in physical therapy and then went home to do 126 pushups. And boy, are my arms tired. No desire, motivation, or energy to do absolutely anything at home afterwards.

August 25:

Went to the physical therapist again. They're really tearing up my shoulders and back. Which is good, because that's what they've determined I need help with. I still had a lot of back pain from my work day - the CTA, my stupid Herman Miller Aeron chair (how this thing is supposed to be comfortable I'll never know), adjusting my desk, trying to sit with good posture, and then the CTA ride home all did a number on me.

So about that chair. I used to only slouch at my desk, reclined in my chair, etc. But that's bad. Even though it feels so good. So I'm forcing myself to keep my chair upright, legs and hips at around 90 degree angles - but something's not quite right. It feels bad, even though the Aeron chair is supposedly one of the most ergonomic chairs out there. I guess. Sure doesn't seem at all comfortable to me. Then, I realize that my desk is too high. So I brought in some allen wrenches to lower my desk. Did that, and now my arms are at a more appropriate angle.

But now there's another problem. My monitor height. Which is easy enough to fix, but the issue there is that it's a giant 30" monitor - so it's hard to get it to a height that feels right for the majority of the things on my screen.

It's pretty pathetic - nice chair, decent desk, nice monitor, but it feels like hell on my body.

At any rate, after physical therapy, I thought I'd be feeling pretty beat up - especially with the work on my core muscles (including my lower back) - but it's actually a little energizing. So energizing, in fact, that I felt really ready to jump right into...

Push ups: Week 5, column 2, day 1. 35 then 28 (oh wow, these are really hard today) then 20. I collapsed about 4 times near the end of the last set. Each time I collapsed, I rested at most 2 seconds, and did another 2 before collapsing again. I have no idea why I couldn't do these today. 80 in the course of about 4 minutes. This is the worst I've failed in ... well, ever. It was my triceps that gave out. I think I'll give 5-2-2 a try on Wednesday. But I'm thinking I'll likely have to redo this week.

Chin ups: Week 1, column 3, day 1. 10 then 10 then 8 then 6 then maxed out at 7. Rested about 60 seconds between sets for a total of 41 in about 6 minutes. Fairly tough, but I did it. And hit the target, even on the max out set.

Then I went back and did another set of 20 pushups. Which amazingly enough felt OK. I didn't quite max out, but stopped a few shy of it. Then I typed up most of this entry (starting from the push ups section - not quite the whole thing :) and then did another set of 30. So now I suppose that 130 in about 30 minutes, or so. I forget when exactly I started. After another brief rest and after I chugged down a protein shake, I briefly considered doing some more. But I thought I was pushing my luck.

BTW, it occurs to me that a few (or more?) days ago I mentioned something about "Oh, I don't need to do any ab work since blah blah blah" and yet here I am complaining about the abuse my transverse abdominal muscles are taking at the hands of the physical therapist. Suffice it to say that the crunches I was doing hardly hit all of my abs. Especially not the ones that are apparently weak. I'm doing little more than tensing the muscles and doing some leg lifts, and that's enough to make me sore.

I was sore the next day, so I skipped the kettlebell.

August 21:

Went back to the physical therapist today, they beat up my shoulders and transverse abdominals again. But that's OK - I obviously need the work. Since, you know, they diagnosed that I needed it - what with their poking, pulling, yanking, and torturing. Hopefully my sore shoulders don't interfere too much with my...

Push ups: exhaustion test... I did 40. And a half. But no halvsies. So 40. Which means I don't get to stay in column 3 for the next week - I'm in column two. I think I'll shoot for going through week 5, column 2, and then doing another exhaustion test to make sure I can get into column 3, and then go from there. I'm almost glad I petered out after 40 - had I done that last one where my triceps gave out, I'd have to start with 40 for my first set. Uh, hello? I could just barely do 40! Then I'm supposed to rest a measly 60 seconds and turn around and do another 32? I don't think so.

For chin ups, I'm going straight into week 1, column 3, since it's the target number is the same number as the last time around - just a different amount of rest between sets. So long as by "different", I mean less. Like, half. So without further adieu...

Chin ups: 10 then 10 then 8 then 6 then maxed out at 4. I think. I know I counted to 5 on the last set, but once again I don't remember if that was the last full chin up, or the last one I was attempting (and of course, subsequently failed to achieve). I'm still on the shorter door. At least I am fully aware of and fully admit to my cheating. I'll repeat this day to have it back in sync with push ups.

I'm also strongly considering resting 3 days. For one, I'm not sure when on Saturday I'll find a little time for my workout - we've got a day commitment out in the far west/northwest suburbs, and then we're having a babysitter over to let us have a night out - which we haven't been able to do since a month or so ago, which was the night we misjudged Matthew's antigrump capacity and had to run out of a restaurant with our food in to go boxes and a screaming infant in tow.

August 18:

Push ups: 30 then 22 then 22 then 20 then maxed out at 29. Wow. Rested about 2 minutes between sets for a total of 123 in about 11 minutes. I somehow had it in me to squeeze out the 29 max out set. Boy am I tired. But not too tired to do...

Chin ups: 10 then 8 then 8 then 5 then maxed out at 7, I think. Rested about 2 minutes between sets for a total of 38 in about 10 minutes. Again, these were from the shorter door, so I think I was cheating a little. I recall counting to 8 on the last one, but I think I only got halfway up on 8, so that's why I've got it as 7.

The chart for this week:

August 19:

Three kettlebell circuits. I'm thinking I really need to start thinking about buying a heavier kettlebell. But then I think that I'm certainly sweating, huffing, and puffing by the time I'm done with this one. Do I really need to push myself that much harder? Also, I've only done this (3 circuits) about once a week. I really think I should let me body get used to this increased activity gradually, because I really think I touched on overtraining there for a bit while I had split the chin ups and push ups onto their own days.

August 20:

I finally got myself to a physical therapist. Turns out that in addition to my previously diagnosed sciatica (compression of the sciatic nerve which causes some hip/pelvis/low back pain on my left side and an occasional shooting sensation down my shin - go figure) I also have a hip deflection. Or rotation. Or something. I don't recall. Also, some of my core muscles are a lot weaker than perhaps they ought to be. Like the gluteal meads, transverse abdominals, mid and rear deltoids, and who knows what else. So the therapist put me through some torture, er I mean strength, tests, and had me do some simple exercises which left me a little sore afterwards, and a little tired. Also the fact that Lisa and I took Matthew to the doctor in the morning, which meant that I had to wake up early. And of course the night before I had to stay up late doing all the normal evening things. So I didn't have much sleep. So I was pretty tired by the time the evening rolled around, so I completely skipped my push ups and chin ups. Which makes me sad.