Day 61 - Legs & Back, with Ab Ripper X!

Well, today was an early morning Legs, Back, and Abs workout.  It's a pretty decent legs and back workout, but I'm sad that there's not another variation for legs to mix things up some.  I know you have to use your legs on a lot of the other workouts within P90X, but I'd still like to change it up sometime.

Legs - I'm in Phase 3 now, so I really want to "Bring It" as Tony Horton says, so I made a point of doing all of the exercises with max effort.  There are some that I'm not crazy about in general, and a few that make my knees feel "tweaky", if that's a word, but I did my best, and noticed the difference in the workout.  The Super Skaters, Lunges, and Speed Squats were all ones that I would skip or not give maximum effort on, because I was shaky, or my knees felt weird, but I figured I'd gone this far, I need to give it my best.  Plus, now that I have the title of "coach", I need to be able to demonstrate or at least discuss all of the moves.  The Speed Squats at the end really get the heart rate going!!   

Back - For this one, it's two sets of pull-ups, wide grip, close grip, chin-ups, switch grip, etc.  Nothing fancy, just hard work, and a great back workout!  I've been using the pull-up bar similar to the one below...

I work out in my garage, and the pull-up bar is setup in the doorway from m house to the garage.  I have it set up so I'm doing the pullups in the house, and looking out to the garage.  It's a standard door height, so when I do my pull-ups, I have to bend my knees, which I don't really like, but do my best.  I have a chair nearby when I start to struggle so I can do a few more reps.  I recently ordered the Chin-Up Max from Beachbody, and am looking forward to using this and see if it improves my workouts.  I use the chair more than I should, and I think the Chin-Up Max is going to work well.

Ab Ripper X - Short answer, a killer ab workout.  My goal one day is to do all 300 plus reps that are in this short workout (A guy can dream, right?).  I'm usually so exhausted by the time I get to abs, that I can't put forth the effort I need to.  I've tried to break up the abs and do them in the evening, but they still are tough, tough, tough!

Kenpo-X tomorrow....stay tuned!

Day 60 - The Dreaded YogaX

So, I previously mentioned that I was on Day 60 of P90X.  For those of you familiar with P90X, I'm on week 9, or the first week in Phase 3, doing the "Classic" version.  As the title above suggests, today's scheduled workout was YogaX.  This is my 3rd (or 4th?) time through P90X, and I cannot get into this Yoga thing.  I know it's important, or it wouldn't be in he Program.  It works on balance, strengthens connective tissue, etc, but I just cannot get into it.  I guess I'm not channeling my inner Zenmaster?  I want to put everything I can into this program, so I can get the most out of it, so I have to conquer my Yoga fears.

One more thing...

Let's get this out of the way.  I recently signed up with Beachbody as a coach.  I've been using Shakeology for 6 months or so, and am on day 60 with this round of P90X.  I looked at the prices, and I wouldn't lose any money by becoming a coach, and had the opportunity to potentially make a little, so I signed up.  If you know me, you know that I'm not the salesman type, so don't expect a sales pitch around here.  If you're interested in purchasing Beachbody products, I would love it if you did it through my websites below.  If you have any questions along the way, let me know....that's the reason I'm doing this.  I'm not an expert on any of this, and probably know more of the "dont's" than the "do's", but hopefully I can help you achieve your goal of personal fitness.


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Welcome and Introductions

Welcome to my blog!  My name is Chris and I am a 40-year old married father of 2 girls living the good life in sunny Florida.  I've always been fit and active, but have slacked off in both in the past few months (or years?).  I made a promise to myself to get back in shape for my family, and more importantly, for me.  Fitness at 40 years of age (and older) is not impossible, right?  P90X is my current weapon of choice.  I'm currently at day 60, have lost around 15 pounds, and am feeling great!  I plan to continue my new fitness life beyond my current run at P90X, and hopefully will have some folks follow me on my journey.  Hopefully, we can help and inspire each other to live a healthy life!  So, be patient with me as I figure out this whole "blogging" thing.