Day 66 - It's good to be BACK (& Biceps)

It's great to be back in the swing of things.

Coming back full-bore after being on the sick bed for a week is TOUGH. Coming back full-bore doing P90X ... You gotta have Big Cahonies!!!

Chest, Shoulders, and Tri's left half of my upper body still feeling blasted from the workout. Now it was time to get the other side. And, today I got to work on my "now" most favorite exercises: PULL-UPS!

Week 7 I had had to take P90X on the road, so all my "weights" were with the GREEN band (and we all know how much I dislike using the bands because I like NUMBERS!!) I wanna know what I'm pulling/pushing, not a color. But either way, I used my reps from week 7 with the weight #'s of week 6 and added 5 lbs. I know I'm getting strong because I was able to hang with the +5lbs.

I've noticed something about P90X and myself. I definitely like the workouts (A.K.A. THIS ONE!) is that there is NO REPEATS! Every exercise I give it my all, go to or near to failure on each and once I'm done.. I'm DONE! I can go all out on that exercise and get it out of my mind and move on to the next exercise with the thought of : "Crap, I gotta go back and do it all again." Don't get me wrong, I still get pumped on all the other workouts, but I think it's just a mental thing for me.

Another reason why I like this workout is that I'm still doing more pullups than I EVER have before in my entire life. If you look back on my Fit Test Day 1, I struggled to barely pull out 3 wide pullups. Now I'm hitting 8-9 consistently since the starting of phase III. I don't know what happened, but it just hit midway through phase II.

I believe it's due to the fact that I stopped using the chair during all my workouts as a crutch. It makes sense. At the start of P90X, I used the chair on ALL my pullups. I didn't even try to do any by myself, and that started me into the habit of always using the chair and never pushing myself to do them by myself. After I started to work out at my work's gym since I wanted to start the Doubles program and working out at the gym during my lunch time freed up time at home to pull out Cardio X. While working out at the gym, there were guys doing pullups like they were second nature. They'd do 8-10+ at a time. Me...HA, I still used a chair as a crutch. But how "cool" (or whatever you wanna call it) to see someone doing pullups with a chair?

So I made a mental change. At the start of each and every pullup exercise, I will do as many pullups on my own as I can, then after giving everything to pull myself up, I'll have the chair there ready for me to use to bust out the remaining. And that's how it all started. At first it was 4, then it was 5, then 6, then 7, now I do at least 6-7 on my own before I even start to get fatigued enough to pull out the chair. My main goal is to bust out 15. I don't know why, it's just a number that strikes me as a milestone.

Being that I only have two weeks left until my first round of P90X is complete, I still have a long ways to go, but we'll see when I do the fit test on Day 91.

I'll be back tomorrow pushing play.

Day 45 - Rubberband Man

Back and Biceps was today. It was just me, my green band, and my hotel room. I was skeptical at first on if I could use only my green band and get a full Bicep and Back workout.


Since I didn't have a door attachment for my bands I followed one of my MDB (Million Dollar Body) forum buddies advice about putting the band in a open door hinge. I wrapped my band w/ a hand towel so that the hinge or door wouldn't cut or pinch my band. I knew that the band would/can either be too much or too little. In this weird and awkward door hinge time. It was just enough. I did the ISO hold move on every rep, and just did as many in the time alloted for the pull ups. So instead of doing 8-10 or 12-15. I did 16-20. I'm impressed. Got the burn that I'll definitely feel tomorrow.

I have to say that with only one band and a door I got quite a good workout. While I still fancy the chin-up bar, the band is a great alternative. However, after using it during the first part of Phase I and now exclusively during this week, I would highly recommend if a person were going to strictly use just the band to get a complete set. Sometimes the green band wasn't enough, sometimes it was WAY TOO MUCH! So the B-line package of bands would do the trick. Especially if one was to travel alot. Also, get the door attachment. Right now, I've had to use the "door hinge" method to do my exercises.

I, however, would rather use DB's over the bands. Since the "weight"/tension on the bands are never constant, I don't know exactly what I'm lifting. And with me having an engineer mind, I like concrete numbers. I like it when I see one week, I lifted 20#, the next week 25#. W/ the bands, all I can go off of is the # of reps or the size of the loop in the band.Don't get me wrong, I still get a great workout w/ the bands, but I'm a DB man. If you need to get more weights, depending on how much more weight you need, you might want to look into some "Selectable" weights. You know.. those dial-o-matic DB's. Of course there are the SelecTech by bowflex, which are the 5-25, 5-52, and the 10-90. $$$$$, but there are some cheaper ones around town. I know Rebook makes some that 5-25# for about $50/DB. I saw some at Target that went from 5-25 but they were around $60/DB.

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I would like to also add that I've had to eat out for lunch and dinner and I've done really well. While everyone is getting steak, loaded mashed potatoes, sugar and fat loaded desserts, hamburgers and fries... I'm getting grilled chicken, salmon, rice pilaf, sweet potatoes, vegetables, grilled chicken salad. I'm not saying I'm been a saint, a few indulgences like lobster tail, or ordering raspberry lemonade instead of water.

So even though if someone is away from the P90X meal plan, or out with their friends, etc.. You CAN stick to your guns and eat healthy. It's not a matter of "Oh, I'll just eat unhealthy this once." Because that once will turn into twice, then thrice.. Then, your off your diet and the whole world falls apart (joking).

It's a choice. If you can't change the little things like holding out on dessert, getting the right size portions, feeding your body the right fuel. Don't expect any type of gains or losses that you want.
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I'll be back tomorrow pushing play.

Day 38 - The Gun Show II

WHAM-BLAM-THANK YOU-MA'AM!! That's all I'm gonna say about today's Back & Bicep workout.

I was able to workout at my work's gym today. I LOVE LOVE LOVE having a full set of free weights. 15# to light: BAM-> Go to 20#.. 35# to heavy: BAM-> Pick up some 30#. I didn't have the fumbling around screwing/unscrewing my DB's trying to find the right weight. I was able to go from excersice to excersice with no problems.

Another great thing that the gym has are MIRRORS... No, No, of course I don't use them to eww and ahh over my bulging biceps. No way. I use them strictly and only to allow me to see my form. HAHAHAHAHA Whatever.. OH yeah, and don't forget the sleeveless T-Shirt.

I went up in my weights on some moves and stayed where I was on others. I paced myself to were I was in-and-out in about an hour (which is about the same time on the DVD's). I got a really good pump in my biceps and especially my forearms. P90X kicks some major butt!!

I do have to say that I miss watching and working along with Tony on the DVD's. Feels like I'm missing out working with my friends, even though I know it's just a DVD. But I still get the workout that my body needs to transform.

Since there was no repeats, I tried to go to my max Pull ups each and every time I had to do them. On weights, I tried to pick a weight than made my max around 12-13. Not 8-10. My main focus is to tone, hone, and shred the muscles I do have so that when I get this layer of fat off of me, I'll be ahead of the game. Then I'll go for mass.

I do have a comment to make:
There are 3-4 guys that workout at the gym the same time I do... All they have going for them is mass, No Definition at all.... Sure they're chest and arms are pretty big, but that's about it. It's muscle definition that drives women crazy. The ripples, the lines, the grooves. That's what get the ladies. Not a body so big and stiff you have to walk sideways through doorways to get into places.

So why'll they spend 30-40 minutes on bench press trying to see who can outlift who. I'll be over doing my P90X thing, getting ripped. Even though I'm happily married and in no way of looking for any women.
**I know what makes my wife tick and what gets her all riled up--> And that's ALL that matters.


As for cardio. Completed. Done. Check. I've noticed that I start to get alittle bit of that "bonk" near the end of the workout. I'll probably have to eat a half of a protein bar or something so that I have some quick carbs in me to keep me going.

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Steps Taken Today: 14, 183 (not including any workouts)
**Even if I take out an aggressive # like 1000 steps for the bumps
taken when driving to an from work (~1 hr total) that still leaves

13,183 steps today!! WOW!!! I was a walking fiend.
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I'll be back tomorrow pushing play.

Day 31 - Back & Bicep

Did Back & Biceps for the first time last night.. This workout has the potential to give me amazing results on the "Guns". But at the end of it I was alittle bummed and disappointed w/ myself.

I was doing the WOWY thing, which gives you a time limit. A specific amount of time for each workout. You click Start, there's a timer that ticks down, and you click Done when your done with your workout.

I wasted so much time switching out weights, since I have those spin lock DB's, trying to figure out what weight to curl. One exercise I need 20# to get that burn around rep 12, the next is 10#, the next 16# (I have 3#'s not 2.5). With switching out weights, unspinning the lock, switching out plats, spinning back on the lock and trying to get it all done in time, I guess my mind was more into finding the weight instead of doing the exercise. So even though I got a really good pump, I didn't get that feeling that I worked out to my full potential.

I expected this to happen since the same thing happened on the first workout of Shoulders and Arms trying to find the right weight. But, on the flip side, NOW I KNOW what weights I need. So next time, I'll be able to give it my all and do the right weights.

I definitely need to save up some money (which will take forever w/ wife and 2 kids) or start up a "Nicks D.B. Fund" to get me some solid DB's or some of those sweet selectable DB's.

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HOWEVER, on the plus side. I'm LOVING the new meal plan!!!! The new foods, recipes, and finally CARBS!!!!! I brought back the Beef&Broccoli recipe from Phase I cause it was my favorite. It's going to be alot easier staying focused to the plan being that the assortment of food is more inline to what I already eat.

PLUS! My wife (being the pregnant finicky eater that she is) said that the food looks and smells good and that she'll probably eat the food along w/ me. So that'll cut down on having to buy MY food and HER food.
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In addition to Phase II, I am carrying around a pedometer. They say that the normal "office" worker only gets in around 2,000 steps in a day. The recommend amount is 10,000. WOW!! So I'm going to also keep track of how many steps I take a day, and do what I have to do to get at or around 10,000 steps. If that's going for a ten minute walk w/ my son: GREAT!! If that's walking my overweight dog: GREAT! If that's adding Cardio X (since I hate running) that day: AWESOME!!!! I'll keep you guys up-to-date on the step-o-meter.

I'll be back tomorrow pushing play