Well...sunuva... P15-22X I suppose!!!

Hey everybody!!! Been a while, I know. BUT I am happy to report that as of today, P22X (22!!! Holy Crap!!!) I'm still rocking and rolling and BRINGING IT daily!!!!

That even goes for the last 3 days when I've had a wicked head cold!!! I'll tell ya what, there's not a lot of "quality breathing" during hard workouts when you have a head cold, and I was (still am, a bit) getting winded awfully quickly. But I said "JUST PUSH PLAY" and popped the DVD in and P-n-n-X'ed it anyways!

So that means we've gotten past day 20... which mean you'reall going to be subjected to...

DAY 20 PHOTOS!!!!

This time, instead of the usual "posed" photos, I went with action shots, featuring me, and my workout buddy, my dog Sammy.

So let me first of all talk about week 2 and 3... see I think week 3 is the first week I had the opportunity to truly "BRING IT" to the fullest most effective capacity. Partially, I'll take the blame on that one... Week 1, for non-gym-rat-types... consists of a lot of "figuring out the move and the form"... I mean, I don't know what the hell a trip-six-twist-frog-underhand-cross-flip-two-hut-hut-pullup is. I had to watch a bit, figure out the form on the fly, and try to make it work... and of course, not knowing what it is means I don't know what the energy expenditure per repetition is, and if I do too many too fast it could affect the rest of the hour's workout.

Exception - Ab Ripper X. When you do the same 350ish ab exercises 3 times per week, you can get in the groove on that one pretty quick. Doesn't make it any easier... just means you can get the form right sooner.

Week 2 was really about zero-ing in on the resistance (for those days of the workouts). The cardio-based ones and stretch based ones (Plyometrics, Kenpo-X, Yoga-X and X-Stretch) I settled into nicely... but the resistance based ones were tricky... Especially with the resistance bands. It's not too easy to REALLY determine how much resistance you're pulling, or how much to add to get to the "next level" - so I opted for some adjustable dumbbells (5-25lb, in 5lb increments). Remember, I'm starting at "skinny little git" so 25 is plenty, trust me, for now. I'm sure EVENTUALLY I'll graduate to the 50+ area... Now, switching to the weights in Week 3 was an eye opener compared to the resistance bands, BUT, I was able to zero in on my target resistance levels MUCH faster, and adjust MUCH easier. So that made me pretty happy.

Now a few words on the most pressing thing on everyone's mind at this very moment:

How did "Waiting for Superman" NOT get nominated for an Oscar?????

With that out of our collective systems.... on to.... my thought of the day:

"..."

Yep. It's been that kind of day.

So - let's do photos....

So - here's action shot number one, me in the middle of a 25-lb "out" curl. Not, the bulging biceps, the shoulders of might and magic, the slight smirk on my face, knowing that soon, soon, the world will truly be my oyster, the perky, yet not so large as to confuse them with pancakes nipples, and the two vuvuzelas on the ground behind me, with which I take to the nearby soccer pub and make noises very loudly during goals.... Booyah. Booyah indeed. Next picture... or... just sit and stare at this one for a moment... wow.. those are great vuvuzelas... now, moving on...

WHAT is this??? Down there??? To the bottom right of the frame??? Fallout: New Vegas??!?! Oh yes my friends... the Mojave Wasteland calleth. Oh, and check out that awesome shot of my back muscles. They say the back directly links the head and the ass. They say that. You don't believe me? LOOK INTO MY EYES!!!!!!! (PS - Check that neck vein!!! DAAAAANNNNGGG!!!)

Moving along, here you can see that this specimen is shy and doesn't want to be identified.

So, a segue... many of you know that the focus of P90X is not only on "building mass" but also working on core strength, balance, flexibility, and pretending to be an animal. I am not making this up. Tony Horton, P90X Fitness Video Coach Extraordinaire, has us do things called "The Frog", "The Crane", "Cat Stretch", "Elephant Ballistic Stretch", "Downward Dog", "Upward Dog" (Note - these are yoga poses, not sexual positions... or....are...they.....??), and "Crunchy Frog" ... ok, maybe that last one is not pretending to be an animal so much as pretending to be an appetizer at a Chinese restaurant.

So, as I mentioned before, my workout buddy, Sammy, my dog, is very demanding, and is not tough on me if I don't do the "namesake poses" of hers correctly. For example:

Here Sammy is clearly telling me either 1) my nose smells interesting, or 2) my "Upward Dog" pose doesn't have my chest high enough, or my legs straight enough with my knees off the ground. I'm not 100% sure which one she was telling me here... or possibly both.

Here you can see that once I correct the pose... OR my nose smell is determined to be "not food"... Sammy lays down in the most intrusive "in the way" spot possible and waits for me to continue to the next exercise.

Well, I have one more picture to share with you. I'll tell you what it is up front, and leave you to it for the day. It's a picture of me performing a side-kick from the Kenpo-X workout. There are a few things to note here:

1) The picture was taken in such a manner so as to appear to be head-on to the kick, and yet NOT show my.. er... NUTS, what was I going to say?

2) The dog appears to be satisfied with my form on this kick...

Have a nice day everyone. I'll be in what P90X calls "recovery week" for a bit, but hopefully I'll find time to check in more often that I did since... well... day 14 apparently.

P90X - "Bring It!" "Just Push Play" "Do Your Best and Forget the Rest" "Don't Forget to BREATHE People!!!" (But... I was doing my best, and forgetting the rest.. including breathing... I'm so confused!!!!!!)

Ciao!

P14X... and a little interwebs catchup!

Hey peeps!!! Fear not, I have not fallen off the proverbial wagon or anything silly like that. No no, instead, I have been focused on a couple specific things:

1) Doing my P90X and BRINGING IT!!!! every day...

and 2) (aka, the reason I haven't been updating the Musings as much....)

Fallout: New Vegas.

Yep. What can I say? After a li'l workout and shower and food and whatnot, especially after working all day... I don't mind zoning out in front of my PS3 and a little Fallout: New Vegas action to spoil myself.

So, we're on Day 14, and this is the 1st time I am doing a P90X workout from a hotel!

That's right... x-Stretch in a hotel room. There's enough space in here, and I have the DVD's and my trusty laptop to play them... the only concern is of course, going to inevitably occur... Housekeeping WILL pop in just as I'm getting all bendy and balancy and I'm nearly 100% positive I'll fall on my melon.

I know it will happen, so I can pre-laugh it off. Hahaha!

There.

Ok, well, as promised, you get a day 10 picture. I was going to post all the poses from Day 10 like I did for Day 0, but I figure, nah, the internet has way too many pictures of me missing clothing already, we'll shorten the peep show down to 1 photo.

I resized it appropriately to fit onto most standard paper sizes should you decide to print it out and tape it to the ceiling of your bedroom.

ENJOY!!!!

P9X - 10% completion!!!!

Plyo X - take two - represents the P9X in my efforts. That's 10% OF THE WAY THROUGH P90X!!!

Awesome!!!!

I'm eating better, feeling better, sleeping better - all good things!

So Plyo X is still all the bouncing and jumping and squatting and a HINT of fart-suppression for an hour. VERY COOL

Tomorrow is Day 10, Picture Day, and Arms + Shoulders plus Ab Ripper X

And my doggie really likes Plyo X by the way... she chases my legs during the leg swings over the chair. VERY fun to watch. She also seems to really like the "bonus" basketball exercise at the end when you catch the ball on one side, and shoot the jump-shot on the other... she chases the direction I "shoot" the ball and tries to block the "pass" - very funny!!! I like my doggy!!!

PICTURES TOMORROW!!!! P10X... BUH-RING-ING-IT!!!!

P8X - Week 2 Begins....

P8X, the beginning of week 2...

And a MUCH better way of attacking chest and back then the week one debacle!!!!

For starters I already knew the form of the exercise (not that they're terribly difficult), but that allowed me to basically use the audio of the DVD 90% and the video 10% - allowing me to concentrate on what I was doing, not the demonstration on the TV.

Spot-checking for proper form is one thing, but dividing my attention is another. Kinda made me wish I watched the DVD, just sat and watched, on week 1 just before actually DOING the exercises (or at least watching the set, then rewinding and re-starting).

Either way, I was mostly happy at the end. By the last push-up, I literally went to failure, pushing myself to the furthest I could go. I'm not 100% convinced I did that on the pulling-based exercises (chin-ups, etc), thought I know I pushed hard, I think there might have been 1-2 reps on left on the table... DRAT... mental note, don't do that again. EVUH!

The return of Ab Ripper X afterwards, and that one is now pretty fun.. I'm in the mindset that this pain in the abs (see what I did there?) is coming for me 3 days a week... and I can get through 25 reps off the first 10, and 25-30 Mason Twists - thought I admit, the "Scissors" form could greatly improve with more stretching and flexibility in straightening my legs. Will come with work... and time...

Now I KNOW you're all looking for the snarky funny comments in here, but I honestly got nuthin' today. Day 10 pictures will be posted after day 10, and you'll be able to see me to my Ah-nold impersonation, so that'll be fun...

Other than that, keep it real, and keep BRINGIN' IT!!!!

B

P7X - X Stretch

So I finished week 1 of "bringing it" P90X style.

And what a great way to wrap up. X Stretch made me more bendy then I've bent in more directions (at the same time on occasion) in a long time...

I finished feeling a bit gumby-like.

Some of the stretches were common or familiar a bit. Some we've done before on other days, and some were brand new ways of experimenting with the laws of physics. I kind of enjoyed those the best, to be honest.

So after a week, I've done a bit of food-changing... focusing on protein and balancing carbs while trying to cut the vast majority of the fat out of the regular intake.

Granted, I know carbs can be killer for those using P90X or another exercise and diet plan to lose weight, but as that's not the intention from my perspective, I'm working toward a balance instead.

So, 1 week done out of 12 for the program, and a new fit feeling abides... like the dude...

Interesting to note... toward the end of the 12 weeks, I'll need to hit the "13 week training plan" for the 1/2 marathon later this year...

It's gonna be one of those years!!!!

CIAO!

P6X - Kenpo X

Short-ish post today...

I have a dog. She's partially famous because she went missing a little over a year ago here in Milwaukee, and spent 48 hours away from us.... We searched high and low and printed flyers and put stories and photos in newspapers and websites and Facebook and there was even a mention on the radio for our lost pupper.

We found her - a resident contacted us and told us they spotted her tied up in someone's yard, and we got her back. She's a good doggy with the bestest personality. Here's a picture of her:

That's my doggy woggy!!!!!

Today I almost kicked her in the face.

Well, I had to do SOMETHING, I mean, Tony was telling me to BRING IT!!!! and so I was brining it with the Kenpo X and doing back kicks, and, well... there was my doggy!!!!!

The good news is I didn't kick her in the face or anywhere else. I said "SAMMY! GO UPSTAIRS AND PLAY!!!" and she did just that, whilst I continued on with the Kenpo X.

Which made me sweat. Alot.

In fact, this workout, P6X, was the first one that worked me to shirtlessness. Oh, the Plyometrics came awful close, and the Ab Ripper X almost does it every time. But Kenpo X (a combination of Eastern and American fighting techniques applied to a fitness routine) had me half-nekkid by the half-way point. I also feel for my poor upstairs neighbor who had to listen to the Ki-yaaaaa!! and other grunting noises I was making with all those punches and kicks.

So this is day 6 - and so far, so great.. I love it... tomorrow on the menu is "Stretch X" - which I intend to combine with some ellipticalling (as I haven't done that for a while now, and I miss the "zone" I get in while running).

I know you're all waiting for the next 4 days to fly by so you can see the first 10 days of improvement photos... well... you'll just have to keep waiting... four more days....

P3X, P4X and P5X...OH MY!!!!

Hellooooooooo and yes, I survived a day or two in the land of the no-interwebs. Hopefully you survived a day or two without me. I know it's tough, but I believe in your ability to persevere under such extreme anxiety and duress.

So lets start with P3X, Shoulders and Arms.

Don't get me wrong, this was a FAN-FRIGGIN-TASTIC workout, but I'm still struggling with the concept of resistance bands and proper selection of and augmentation of said bands to provide the proper amount of work to failure in the appropriate number of reps.


Wow, that sounds kinda bad-ass, like I almost know all the lingo!!!! Truth be told, except for the "to's" and "the's" I only know the work "augmentation".... and some of you readers know why I would know all about an "augmentation"....

UH-HUH.....


...you know... for musical chords... major, minor, diminished, augmented. I have musician friends. You know who you are.

Oh yeah, for some reason, that reminds me... HI SINDERZ!

Anyways...

So resistance bands and recording the set properly are still a bit weird to me.

Normally, with say, dumbbells (the weight kind, not the Dan kind) you would record # of reps to amount of weight... like 20 reps at 5 lbs (and then get all excited about your general awesomeness).

With the resistance bands, don't get me wrong, they do their job and provide resistance just fine... but I have to record it like... "10 reps at 'red' resistance band with approximately 1-1/2" diameter loop stepped on by my right foot, and by the way, my leg is approximately 36 inches to the waist.... (etc etc etc)" to accurately grab all the variables at play and truly track what I'm doing.

If someone out there has a better formula and it accurately tracks the workout, I'm all eEars.

So arms and shoulders, check. Good tiring workout... and of course, included MORE Mason Twists with the Ab Ripper X portion... I fell over significantly less this time. I'm down to double digits in falling over, and up to double digits in completing Mason Twists.

P4X - Yoga X

As Tony said "Don't fall on your face, that could hurt"

I think he actually said that when preparing for the Crane pose. Or is that the "Crane-X" pose. I digress.

FIRST AND FOREMOST - MAD PROPS TO THOSE THAT SUPPORTED MY COMMITMENT TO THE P90X PROGRAM AND DIDN'T COMPLAIN THAT I WAS DOING IT ON THE ONLY TV IN THE HOUSE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN TUNED INTO THE NFL WILDCARD PLAYOFF GAME!!!!

Luv ya both!!!! MUWAH! (There will be important cabinet positions for you both when I am elected King of the world... stay tuned...)

So, this being Yoga... my FIRST experience Yoga-ing... Yoging. Yoganizing? "Doing Yoga" (Why do I want to sing Weird Al's Parody Song "Yoda" every time I say that word????)

I didn't know I had muscles there. And by "there" I mean all those places Yoga makes you discover muscles, just before falling over (and for the next 24 hours of recovery from Yoga X!)

Don't misconstrue, I can do some of those poses quite well for some genetic reason (I can only surmise) such as the "Lotus" (or, sit there, close your eyes, and do nothing).

But when Tony says "Now hop into the Warrior 3 position" and all the fitness peeps on the video stand with 90% of their body on a horizontal plane perpendicular to their one leg holding them up by the third toe from the right... well... I tend to fall over. By the thirtyeth or fortyeth attempt, I was able to actually do it. Well, I held the pose for roughly 0.0001202 seconds before falling over, BUT I HELD THE POSE!!!!!! SUCKAS!!!!!

I'm thinking of upgrading my yoga mat from the simple one I have to a Sealy Mattress with a feather top. That way, when I inevitably fall on my face, it will hurt SLIGHTLY less.

P5X - Legs and Back

Some of these workouts were, and I use this word purposefully, GLORIOUS...

I love the wall squats, especially the one-legged ones. That stuff I used to do in High School when I was on the track team. The one part of my body that somehow stayed relatively "in shape" all these years have been my thighs and calves. I have strength, and more importantly, confidence in those muscles. My recent foray into running and "ellipticalling (especially with resistance)" on a regular basis can only have helped to bolster that. Even though it burns, sometimes I think I can sit in a wall squat pose, legs at the right angle, and read "War and Peace" or at least "The Far Side Compendium" end to end without quitting on the exercise. Luv it luv it luv it...

The back part, much of which was worked out with different pull-ups (and mutiple sets of them) was a different story. Now, I'm not ashamed to say I used a chair to help plow through 1-2 extra reps per set on these, but I guaran-damn-tee ya I was putting as much of the "work" into the right muscles as possible to max-rep that workout. I wanna get ripped baby... and I'm gonna get there by BRINGING IT!!!

I really appreciate all the support I've gotten from the readers and friends and family. I know some of you follow this "anonymously" and that's cool... But even a unknown reader is support.

Thanks again, keep it real... and we'll see ya tomorrow after KENPO X!!!! (or as I like to call it - "How to be a complete novice at a martial art, follow a DVD instructor, and not accidentally kick your dog"

G'NIGHT!!!!!

(And, I do have to put in a obligatory GO PACK GO!!!!!)

Heading out of town where there is no internet...

P3X and P4X updates on Sunday... with a P5X update as well!!!!

P2X - Learning the Plyometric System

See, I went into this having never heard the word "Plyometrics" before and (*sigh* - I know I'm about to waste my best joke of the day right here...) I grew up on the PlyoEnglish measurement system, so I knew it would take some time to adjust.

Cuz it's metric.

And I live in America.

Where we don't believe in things like "base-10 measurements"

.....

(crickets...crickets...)

Really? That was my BEST joke of the day?

ANYWHO...

Plyometrics... otherwise known as 1 hour of jumping and squatting and lifting your leg.

Heheh. There's a joke in there too... squatting and lifting your leg...

Seriously, it was a fantastic aerobic workout as well because of the concentration on proper breathing. I'm a little upset that my workout mat is slippery-backed, making it impractical for a "jumping" based set of exercises, and my carpeting is just too thin to provide a cushioned cat-like landing. My knees are in good shape, so they can handle it for now, but I'll want to do something about that sooner than later. I'm thinking either a better mat, or perhaps putting velcro on the bottom to keep it in place. I'd use magnets because I have a pre-disposition to believing that magnets can fix anything. In fact, if MacGyver had discovered magnets, he'd have thrown away both his Swiss Army Knife AND his roll of Duct Tape - I kid you not. Magnets are like natures glue... or... anti-glue... all at the same time. SO AWESOME.

What was I talking about?

Lets see.... anti-glue...glue...magnets...MacGyver... velcro...AH! Workout mat.

This is technically still a workout blog.

So - I got to do (an obnoxious number of times) a Heisman pose. It felt natural... like I was born to win the trophy... ok maybe not... perhaps my body semi-resembling a toothpick with a nose in High School and College prevented that from happening, but hey, that's why I'm BRINGING IT with P90X now!!!! So I can go back to High School and join the football team en route to winning the Heisman in college! Wait... that's not right either.

MAN - I am off my comedic game today.

Better quit while I'm ahead.

Plyometrics. Very cool. Learned two important things.

1) I look absolutely silly trying to do a baseball style pitch lefthanded. I almost fell over 10 out of 8 times. You read that right.

2) My basement ceiling is WAAAAAYYY too short for jumping style exercises. Good thing it'll be a couple weeks before I'm consistently bashing my knuckles and head into it :)

Tomorrow is P3X - AND the return of the Ab Ripper X and those Mason Twists... Oh... those Mason Twists... I won't have nice things to say about that tomorrow either....

GOOD NIGHT!!!!!!

P1X - Chest and Back and a Little Ab Ripper X OH MY!!!!

(Note - this posting is dedicated to everyone's first day with P90X. If you haven't done it, then please understand that 84.7% of the jokes may not resonate...)

Well, hello there Tony... you're so energetic, and you really want me to succeed, and I appreciate that. As my P90X guide for the next 3 months and beyond, it's great to have a high-energy, kinda funny fella as my personal TV trainer....

So chest and back you say? Pushing and pulling? Push ups and Pull ups?

Alrighty then! I'm warmed up (OH!!! Look what you did on those arm circles, you made me THINK you were going into rotation #4, but really you were REVERSING the arm circles!!!! YOU!!!!!!)

So now you've warned me multiple times to "pace myself" on the first go-round cuz we're gonna do this all a second time.

**Authors Note: Having never done exercises in a gym before where I had to deal with "sets" this can be a bit daunting to figure out what "pace yourself because another set is coming" means....

(Fast Forward to 12 Chest/Back exercises later....)

SUNUVA...HOLYCRAP...JELLO-FOR-ARMS... wait.... WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE'RE ONLY HALF DONE??!?! YOU SHOULDA WARNED ME TO...oh.... well then....

So... Set #2 and boy have the reps gone dooooowwwwnnnnn.....

But you know what... fuhgeddaboutit... I did those 12 killer exercises... though quite a few less reps.... the second time too... cuz that's how I **BRING IT**

Consider it BROUGHTEN!!!!!

YEAH!!!! I MADE THAT CHEST AND BACK DISC MY B... what??? Ab Ripper X starts RIGHT NOW??? I'm gonna hate it but love it? What, like Wasabi on my Sushi? Like cloves in my ham? Like pleasuring myself with a cheese grater? (OK, now, to be fair, I ONLY put that last bit in there because Dan's going to read this and I was hoping he'd be drinking something while he read it and did a spit-take all over his laptop. So... here's hoping...)

Ok Ab Ripper X... let's see what you go- OH MY WORD!!!! What... what are these froggy clappy things, and why do I keep falling over when I do them? Has anyone realized that NONE of these exercises are normal movements found in nature? By any animal, vegetable or mineral?

AND WHO THE CRAP IS MASON??? AND WHY DOES HE TWIST LIKE THAT????

ARRRGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

:)

THAT

WAS

...

...

...

AWESOME!!!!!!

So, a protein recovery drink and some time later, I only KINDA feel like I'm going to barf, but I'm sure that'll go away in the next year or so... so that's good.

Tomorrow.. Plyometrics... I'll Bring It... oh yes... (and for the record, I'm quite certain Plyometrics will bring it as well)....

PS

The food in the nutrition plan looks amazingly delicious!!!

PPS

I'm taking pictures daily, but I'll only post them every 10 days (after every 10th workout).

Because nobody should be subjected to seeing me topless EVERY DAY.... :)

P-0-X.... Tomorrow is Day 1 (Warning, some material may be disturbing to the weak-stomached...)

Today is my last day of not "Bringing It" (as the tagline would go)....

So, from 1/5/11 and for the 89 days following, I will be building my musculars as best as possible...

There's really only one thing left to do at this point, and that's to post the "before" pictures...

I assume there'll be much snickering, but hey, isn't that the point? To go from "skinny little git" to something a little better.

Here's to skinny dudes everywhere!!! Hopefully I can inspire some other skinny gits as well ;)

Here we go, in true self-deprecating fashion:

PICTURE ONE!!! The Frontal Shot!!!!!

Ok, so we see here, that yes... I'm skinny, with a "tuft" of chest hair and an apparent love for the Milwaukee Brewers. I'm not that guy with da-beer-belly looking to lose it, just the guy who wants to actually DO SOMETHING about his physique before my metabolism realizes I'm not a teenager anymore. (PS - note to self, take P90X Nutrition Plan seriously...)

On to picture 2, the side shot... or as I like to call it... SCOLIOSIS?

As you can see clearly, I have no clue if there's anyway to properly straighten my spine. Maybe if I add "hanging upside down at night" to my list of exercises... you may also notice my chest is roughly as flat as Taylor Swift singing live (ZING!!!!!!!!!).... Looking to address that in the next 90 days, of course... I'd also like to thank my dog Sammy for her undying support...or...nosiness during the photography... Don't go away, the funny pictures are coming....

Picture 3, the back, or as I call it "MY GOOD SIDE!"

Ok, first and foremost, I didn't have a "wedgie" (not even a leftover from High School)... it's the unfortunate stitching on the Milwaukee Brewers shorts. The only thing to note here really is that I only went through three or four razors man-scaping my back. I kid. Or... do I....???? No, I do. Do I? Hmmm...

Now for the picture you've all been waiting for...

THE GUNS!!!!!! (Well, maybe at this point, the Warhammer-Miniature-Pistole's would be more appropriate)

What can I say...

Yep... really... what can I say....?

:)

New posts will be fast and furious moving forward. Similar pictures will be taken daily. Hoping to make a flipbook when done. And of course, my "before and after" photos should slightly resemble the following when done:

NUTS!!!! Oh well, it's justa couple days...

So, P-0-X was SUPPOSED to be today, I have the pull up bar, the resistance bands, the push up grips, and all sorts of "wicking" clothing...

But no DVD's.

D'OH!!!!

So, we're at P (-2) X today, with plans for a good run, a Rose Bowl victory for the Wisconsin Badgers, and a slight wait until the DVD's arrive..

Stay tuned....