6-14-11 Plyometrics and Puddles of Sweat

Starting weight this morning: 253 lbs.

Firstly, I did NOT just lose 4 pounds from my first workout.  I weighed myself yesterday BEFORE the first workout but I decided that I need to weigh myself first thing in the morning to get an accurate and consistent reading.  I was 253 lbs after I pissed this morning.  There you go.

I was a bit nervous before this one because I've heard that it's ridiculously difficult and as someone who has been in 10 minute dogfight Judo matches, that shit sucks and it literally feels like death every second you have trouble catching your breath.  Feeling your heartbeat in your throat is a strange sensation and I haven't felt like that in a long time.

Despite me just getting home from work and wanting to sit down and relax, I decided that I couldn't be a lazy fuck this early on in the program.  I think the most difficult part of doing something like p90x, or any workout program in particular, is finding the mental fortitude to keep coming back for more.  "Keep pressing play" Tony Horton says to me and millions of other people and it's exactly what you have to do if you want to see the results you desire.  You can never prepare to feel like Ali fighting Foreman and getting pounded and ropeadoped for round after round until you actually make the leap and get into whatever workout program you've decided to execute.  After thinking all of that, I threw the DVD in and just hit play and said "Fuck it, I'm just going to do this, get this shit done, and I can relax afterward." And so I did.

6-14-11 DAY 2 - PLYOMETRICS


I shouldn't have been as scared of this section as I initially was.  The primal conditioning mechanism came alive in me and I had flashbacks of my Judo days, jumping and sweating and pushing and feeling like I couldn't do another rep.  It was FANTASTIC.

I don't watch the videos much before I actually do them so I'm never quite sure what to expect.  I suppose this feeling will pass as I do the workouts more and more but for a first time, I feel like I kicked ass.  I only started to truly "dog it" around the the second to last sequence.  Sure, I didn't do every single rep like the participants in the video but I feel that for a 250 pound guy in mediocre shape, I kept up pretty well.  I can think of smaller people that couldn't do what I did for an hour this afternoon.  And believe me, my body was and still is paying for it.  My hips are absolutely cooked as well as the psoas muscle in the front of the groin going up into the abdomen.  I'm going to get up early tomorrow and hit up some good stuff from http://www.mobilitywod.com on stretching out the psoas and getting my grody joints in check.  This isn't the highest impact workout, but it DOES have impact and as you become more and more fatigued it becomes easier and easier to let your form slip and that's when you hips and spine and ankles and knees really start to howl.

If I could offer any advice to other first time plyo players: Try and be as intense as you can be WITHIN the realm of good form and proper mechanics.  If you're flailing around just because you want to try to keep up with Tony and crew, STOP that shit immediately.  You're going to hurt yourself or break something in your house and you're going to feel like a god damn idiot when you're 2 days into p90x and get hurt.  Stretch, hydrate, stay loose, and USE GOOD FORM.  You can get a very good workout from this session even if you don't do everything exactly as prescribed at first.  That's why this is p90x, not p2x or p3x...you don't become a great athlete overnight and you can't expect to kick ass the first or second or third time you do something this intense.  And if you can, then you fucking slacked and you need to step your game up.  If you're someone who doesn't find the prescribed work that hard then you, of all people, know that you need to push yourself to improve and that you need to take it to the next level and get it done.

RESULT


Overall, I'm extremely pleased with myself after this workout.  My back and triceps are extremely sore from yesterday's workout and my hips, as I mentioned before, are sore as hell and it was a task to do some of the exercises today.  Despite all of these distractions and seeming hardships, I did well and kept up better than I could have expected, especially on my first run-through.  We'll see how long that holds up as I become more and more sore and get into the real grind of things.  However, I am VERY encouraged.

Oh, and my compression shorts were soaked through so thoroughly that I think I accidentally fell in the pool and then did plyo.  Holy shit.

Tomorrow is Shoulders and Arms.  Seems like I would be an easy day but I test ran this one earlier and it's definitely no walk in the park.  I'm using adjustable dumbells (plate loaded) and the biggest hassle is being able to change weights quickly enough to keep up with the exercisers.  I will do my best, though, and I plan on bringing it HARD.

See you then.

First post among many. For that, we can only hope.

THE INTRO



Alright, this is the first of what hopefully becomes MANY posts in this blog.  I highly doubt this blog will ever be seen by more than the random passerby in cyberspace but I hope that whomever that person is, they are at least semi-entertained if they decide to read.

I plan on this blog being the main source of my first journey down the road of p90x and it will be chronicled here on a daily basis.  I will fill everyone in on how I'm doing, which workout I did, what weights and reps I managed to do, and everything in general concerning the activity.  I have never kept a workout journal in my life for any athletic or fitness endeavor and I have been going at it pretty well since the early 2000s.  I never felt like I needed to keep one since my memory and my passion for the even was always enough to keep me going, which may explain why I almost always fell off the wagon even if I had been going strong for months straight.  If there is no mechanism for accountability then, as someone who likes to workout alone, I would inevitably quit or take a sabbatical for whatever reason.

Not this time.  This time, I'm going to actually keep a record of what I do and I'm going to destroy this thing.  I'm calling my shot right now, and all 3 people who end up reading this blog over the course of the next 3 months will bear witness.


THE PLAN



So here's how this is going to go down.  I'm going to start p90x in the "Classic" mold tomorrow (June 13, 2011) and Chest and Back is first up on the docket.  In addition to the p90x programming, I will be mixing in some of my own programming.  Not at the expense of any of the p90x sessions (which I will be doing 6 days a week without reprieve), I will also be adding 1 dedicated strength day on Sundays or Wednesdays, depending on the week, as well as at least a couple days of running during the week.

My main background is in traditional bodybuilding work as well as an intermediate skill level in strength and power training as well as some sports conditioning.  I have also ran and completed 3 half-marathons which has instilled, at the very least, a love/hate relationship with running.  Since I do not want to totally forsake these things in favor of p90x and because I don't want my gym membership to lapse while I do p90x, I am going to add a couple of elements of my traditional fitness life and keep them around to help me build my fitness in an even more well-rounded way.

Since I have Wednesdays and every other weekend off, I will be using these free days to engage in my extracurricular activities.  These Wednesdays will very likely be my two-a-day type workouts with a morning run and an afternoon bout with p90x and Sundays will be the day I hit the gym to do a 5-rep schemed strength program that features squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, and power cleans. I am thinking about throwing some rows and stuff in there but with all the back work done during the p90x workouts, I probably won't need it.  I will be closely monitoring myself for signs of overtraining throughout the process as I feel like my plan is extremely ambitious and I would only rate my overall fitness at this point as mediocre.

The point of all this is that I'm really excited about the next 3+ months and it's gonna be a blast even if all I do is talk to myself.


THE REST


In addition to this being about my fitness journey, I may throw in some tidbits about my life in general or any random musings I have floating around the ole' noggin here.  I don't want to be a "hardcore" blogger as I have a lot to do besides this but if I feel like it's worth posting, I sure as hell will.  Also, my language may get a little more "blue," so to speak, in the near future so if you hate seeing the words "fuck" or "shit" or hate seeing the lords name taken in vain, then I am truly sorry.  But not really.


Enjoy the show random readers, I know I will.