P90X
Anybody done it?
I started P90X Lean last Thursday and am totally loving it. Today will be day 4 and I am so sore, but am seeing a radical change in my strength and body shape. I am determined to make it the full 90 days because the transformation pictures are so incredible and the DVDs are only an hour long (the progress bar at the bottom helps/pushes me so much).
The lean version doesn't include Plyometrics, so I've been replacing Cardio X with it. My goal is to lose weight and tone up. Toning up has already begun, and with that comes weight loss, but I want to lose quite a bit, so I've been running on easier days (read: non-ab ripper days).
The only part that has me concerned is the recommended diet. It's high protein, low carb (including complex carbs) diet, essentially the opposite of how I eat. I've been aiming to get more protein, but I am not willing to stop eating grains, nor do I think it is healthy.
Ramble, ramble, ramble. I'm very excited about it and would love to hear what your experience has been with it, especially as a vegan. There's tons of info on it, tons of before and after pictures, but next to zero info on how to get P90sexxxxxy as a veg.
Never fear, I definitely sweated with the single leg wall squats! And yep, felt the calf burn on the calf raises! I really liked those though because swing dancing foot work is about 90% on the balls of your feet so developing those muscles is AWESOME for me :D I'm certainly not saying I breezed through legs workout without so much as a deep breath, but I did feel like it was the first workout in which I wanted and was able to do the advanced/make it harder ideas consistently on my first go - then I certainly sweated.
I'm going to have a chat to a physio about my knee, I think I'm on the right track with how I'm tackling things but want to make sure. I'm also resigning myself to the fact that my left leg is far stronger already from compensating and so my right has a lot of catching up to do... meaning my left leg might end up being more ripped haha. But I'm certainly still doing all the exercises, just often slower or a little modified on the right side. Hopefully that works too :)
And my soreness is pretty much gone today! Weird. Time for Kenpoooooooooooooooo!
ahhhh so you are human : )
I love legs and back, but it is super dooper tiring because you're using two b i g groups of muscles, whereas shoulders and arms is a hell of a workout but less tiring physically because you're using smaller muscles and not throwing your whole body weight around all the time.
That's good you are able to do all the plyo exercises, I must have misunderstood, I thought your dodgy knee wouldn't let you : /
I meant to ask you last week, when you *acquired* your dvds, did you get any of the written material? I was just wondering whether you had seen the fit test, because even if just for mild interest, I think it's a pretty good idea to do it before you start so you've got a comparison point for certain strength/flexibility/whatever gains. I'm much more interested in seeing what improvements I have with that than weight/measurements etc. but yeah, if you don't have it and are keen to have your starting baseline as a measure let me know and I'll forward it to you.
Ooh no I haven't done that. I would be keen to have a look :) Thanks for the offer!
Yea the dodgy knee means squats and lunges on that side can't be as low as I'd like them to be, particularly if I have to move in and out of them quickly. But I just work on doing it slowly and with as good technique as I can. My knee is freaking stupid.
I am definitely human! These workouts are all hard in their different ways. I am just a relentlessly positive reporter :P
Kenpo though...Kenpo I didn't like very much.
kenpo's my least favourite workout and I think it's also the easiest, but you can definitely get a decent enough cardio workout out of it, especially if you use small weights. I dislike the kicking/punching idea but just think of it as moves in a routine, not 'pretending' to actually kick or punch someone. Or at least that's what I told myself at 5 this morning when I was throwing my arms and legs around in the middle of our lounge...
Yea it was kinda... boring? And pretty much if I'm going to be throwing punches and kicks I would rather someone taught me how to actually do them properly so that I could work on form, otherwise I feel like it's pointless because if I'm not doing them properly and learning how to defend myself or something I'm punching and kicking air for no benefit at all. I did the same myself, just used it like a routine of actions rather than visualising hitting people. And it wasn't that much of a cardio workout this time, though I can see it would be better with weights so I might try that. And weirdly, with all the knee intensive workouts I've been fine, kenpo is the first to leave both my knees sore in the joints. I must have been doing it wrong :S
I think that I will go and do other cardio sometimes instead. I wanted to today but it was still raining.
Tomorrow I need to pick a workout to complete the 6 days as I still don't have my bands to do arms and shoulders.
yeah, as with all the workouts I think if you focus on putting in 100% you can sure still raise a sweat, making sure you're punching as hard and kicking as high as you can, and with weights it's good toning too. But if you still think it's too boring you could substitute cardio x, which I think is a combo of yoga/core/kenpo type moves but might be a bit more interesting.
You could do stretch today. It's obviously low/no impact so should be good if your joints are a bit sore, and hopefully your bands will arrive before you need to start at chest and back again.
oh man my niece got me sick so i didnt do kenpo yesterday but from wut i heard of you 2 its pretty easy so i think ill do it 2day regardless of how i feel. its just a head cold not any tummy issues so i should be fine. i agree on the legs section of legs/back! i have pretty strong legs myself so the leg workout was a breeze im not even that sore which was sorta dissapointing. i like the soreness because then i feel like i actually did somethin, ya know? i hope theres a harder leg workout further along :) but the yoga was the hardest at some points than any yoga ive ever done n i used to be a yoga instructor! i have a question tho, are you guys following the food plan and subbing out vegan options for the meats or what?
i have pretty strong legs myself so the leg workout was a breeze im not even that sore which was sorta dissapointing. i like the soreness because then i feel like i actually did somethin, ya know? i hope theres a harder leg workout further along
you should definitely be able to push yourself to fatigue/DOMS in the legs workout. Like I said above, I'd been doing some pretty heavy weighted leg specific exercises at the gym, and my husband was squatting over 200kg and leg pressing over 350kg and he managed to push his muscles to exhaustion every week doing this workout.
i have a question tho, are you guys following the food plan and subbing out vegan options for the meats or what?
We have ignored it completely, and just kept eating lots of veges, fruit, whole grains/beans/legumes, tofu and seitan.
but if you're looking for a more specific programme to follow, this beachbody newsletter has got some pretty good tips and a re-working of the nutrition plan catering to a vegan diet.
hey thanks! i appreciate the link. when i have a bit more tiime im going to work it into my plan. regarding the legs workout i of course worked up a sweat and reached fatigue in a few of the exercises but i guess i was anticipating more difficult exercises, or more requiring the use of weights. next time i do it im prepared to use my dumbbells during the exercises that dont use them. i'll make them harder myself.... its pretty cute when i put the video on and start working out because my 2 yr old daughter imitates everything i do! ha ha i should record it.
I'm not following the meal plan. Just trying to eat well and enough.
Week 2 started today! And my resistance bands arrived so I did the full chest and back and it was AWESOME. I think I actually love that workout. I got some sharp ab pains partway through while doing pushups, think I might have tweaked something just on one side so I didn't do ab ripper x today in order to look after it. I'm sure it's no major thing, just being safe.
I finished out last week with the stretch dvd too, it was really great and I enjoyed it a lot. So, having fun!
Thanks for the fitness test too oww, will have a look at it one evening after a cruisier workout :D
Plyo plyo plyo... second go at and it's still pretty epic! I've subbed out some of the squat exercises that I struggled with for reps of an exercise my physio gave me to strengthen the muscles around my knee and teach my kneecap to track properly, so I'm doing physio and getting a mean workout at the same time! Ultra hard work, good fun :)
First go at Shoulders and Arms today, I enjoyed it :) And Ab ripper X is getting more manageable each time. I still struggle insanely, but each time it's not as bad as I was dreading it would be.
First go at Shoulders and Arms today, I enjoyed it :) And Ab ripper X is getting more manageable each time. I still struggle insanely, but each time it's not as bad as I was dreading it would be.
It's amazing with P90X, because it starts of ridiculously hard, but by the time you finish the program you're no longer sore. You are agile, flexible, fast, light on your feet, and none of the workouts totally wipe you out. I just finished my second go-round and have had to integrate Insanity and P90X+ because Plyo is just so slow paced now and doesn't do enough. You'll be amazed too when that day comes. Which, if you keep with the program, inevitably will.
I cant wait for the day when ab ripper is a walk in the park. There are still a couple of the exercises that I really really struggle with! Every time though, its more manageable. I really enjoy being sore in random places that Ive never felt before! ha
Shaston - still going?
I had a break over new year as I went on a kayaking trip, then decided to start again so that I could sync up with some dancing mates - so nice to do it in a group! This is week 3, but I think we are going to do 4 weeks of the first rotation due to some patchiness as we try to co-ordinate. It's going awesome. And I am totally proud of myself: In ab ripper I did the full 25 Fifer scissors yesterday without stopping and with my hands behind my head so I couldn't get lazy and grab my legs. It feels like a huge accomplishment!
yah theo! You'll love the first recovery week when you get there! : )
I'm in week two of my second round, though I'm a bit broken at the moment after a mishap in shoulders and arms on Sunday : /
I've changed my form on pullups from doing an assisted pullup with chair for support to using the chair to assist up and then lowering myself with as much resistance as I can. Once I pretty much fall straight back down, I'm done. It's dropped my numbers/reps way down but I think is a much better strategy to work towards actually being able to knock off a real pullup on my own. And judging by how my back muscles feel, I think I'm definitely getting a better workout this way.
I've also upped the weights on all exercises by a minimum 1.4kg because I'm switching to using my husband's dumbbells which are much better quality than mine, and the bar alone weighs that, where mine weights next to nothing.
Oh no, what happened on Sunday?
I just finished day 7.....
so far I liked everything except the yoga. i was completely bored and annoyed and turned it off after 35 minutes. I think I will try another yoga video on that day. Sometimes it seems like the workouts aren't doing much, but then the next day I am sore, so I guess it is working.
I really am going to try my hardest to do 90 days. TH really gets on my nerves. I will definitely be turning the volume off after one run through of each video.
I am also taking pictures along the way to note my progress.
Oh no, what happened on Sunday?
I twinged the hell out of something in my shoulder/upper back doing swimmers presses and it hurt like buggery most of the week but came right over this weekend and I was able to do shoulders and arms fine yesterday, so it's all good now : )
And yah, l2a! So pleased you've gotten into it and survived your first week! : ) Do you have any other yoga dvds you could substitute for the yoga x day?
Next day soreness is definitely a good sign, what kind of weights/bands have you got?
We really like Tony, I can pretty much go through all the workouts and add in his little jokes etc word for word now when I do them with the sound off... not sure if that's a good thing or not? : )
So I pretty much decided that I cannot stand this work out. It is just is not for me. I am going back to the 30 day shred, and I am adding in the Ab Ripper X when I can ( I DO like that!). I really want to exercise for 90 days-I think that is what is important!
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