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!!!!!)