Blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or bothered by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8

Saturday, February 18, 2012

P90X, Week 1, Day 3

The "Tip of the Day" on today's P90X workout was "Don't smash your face". This comment made me laugh out loud as the trainer worked my arm muscles to the point of exhaustion and had me lying on the floor holding two 20 lb weights over my face. Had I dropped a weight at that point, I mighta just smashed my face in.

The other Tip of the Day was "Don't forget to breathe".

Again, I'm doing the Lean Version of P90X, so Day 3 for me was a workout for the arms and shoulders, and a separate workout called Ab Ripper X. First of all, let me just mention that I woke up with more sore muscles this morning. Not only are my calves still sore from last Tuesday when I did step aerobics, my hamstrings are still burning from Thursdays's P90X workout (Core Synergistics) and now my quadriceps are sore from Friday's P90X workout (Cardio X). This morning, I did 75 minutes of Yoga at the gym with my friend Susan in hopes to stttttrrrrrettttttchhhhh out all those sore muscles. It helped, and it left me energized enough to do some cleaning around the house, which is something I HATE to do, as well as gave me enough energy to agree to not one, but TWO playdates today. Each one of my children got to have a friend over. It's funny how our house has become the hang out; kids love to come over and play, and their parents love to bring them over. I think it's because of the amount of land and woods that we have for them to run around and play. Either that or we are just exceptionally cool =) Even my mother in law's dog came over to hang out awhile.

I put off Day 3's workout for as long as possible, tending to the kiddos, cleaning the house, fixing supper, and then relaxing and massaging my already-existing sore muscles. Once I had worked up the motivation to work out, I locked myself in my bedroom away from anyone who might laugh and make fun of my terrible form. I found today to be extremely difficult. I started with Ab Ripper X, because my abs are my #1 problem area. I had a little trouble with these at first, because the exercises which involved the legs (i.e. bicycles) were excruciatingly painful with sore muscles. I did the best I could, and with time, I got better with the ab exercises. Ab Ripper X was a GREAT workout, and I have faith that this DVD will help me get a 6-pack if I continue to do it as recommended. I know I will be extremely sore -in all the right places-tomorrow.

As for the shoulders and arms DVD, it was long and grueling. I own 5 lb weights and 20 lb weights, but nothing in between. I learned pretty quickly that I need something in between, preferably 10 lbs, for some of the more difficult exercises. At times, I had to put the weights down and pick up other household items (such as Corey's heavy boots) to complete the exercises without straining too hard. I felt pretty wimpy. The seated 2 angle shoulder fly was one of the exercises where my 20 lb weights were too heavy. i did pretty well with the rest of the bicep/tricep/shoulder exercises, because I've done these at the gym on numerous occassions, though not recently. I skipped the Bonus Round, again feeling as though I'd better take it easy with this being my first time doing this DVD. I do not work my upper body nearly as much as I do my lower body, so I didn't want to be in too much pain tomorrow. The Bonus Round consisted of 4 or 5 rather difficult looking exercises which I hope to get to... on another day...just not today!

That's my summation of Day 3 of P90X. Overall, I'm proud of myself for just sticking with it. Shoulders and Arms was one of the DVDs I was most scared of, but after finishing it, it wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. Talk to me tomorrow, though, and ask me how sore I am! If there is one common theme with all of these workouts, it's that I get through them and think that I might not have worked to my full potential, but the next day my muscles are screaming at me and telling me that I worked them too hard.

The diet is still coming along too. I continue to log everything into My Fitness Pal, the Iphone App that I've been using to calculate all of my caloric intake. I can't say I've experienced any significant weight loss yet, as my weight has shifted up and down about 3 lbs over the past few days. I'm not sure if it's because I'm building muscle or what. I really hope that my weight will stabilize and continue to drop.

If you're reading this, thank you so much for taking this journey with me (or reading along). My hope is to look back on these blogs in 87 days from now and to be in the best physical shape of my life and be able to laugh at all my whining and complaining and see how my hard work paid off in the end.

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