P90X - Almost with a straight face

My wife is getting this for Christmas. My upper body is gradually declining due to years of work in front of a computer and I need to do something about it. Bring on the pain!

Certis wrote:

I'm going to be stocking up on some whey protein powders and such this week to help keep my protein up. I think I've done OK keeping myself limited to "good" fats, but Karla does most of the cooking and I'm not trying to change her dishes too much. I figure if I'm eating well in the morning and during the day, I can handle whatever Karla feels like making. She doesn't really go overboard anyways.

This is my favorite whey.

boogle wrote:

This is my favorite whey.

I use the same stuff now. Switched from Designer Whey to be able to get powder from Amazon.

I also mix this veggie supplement in my shakes.

LiquidMantis wrote:
boogle wrote:

This is my favorite whey.

I use the same stuff now. Switched from Designer Whey to be able to get powder from Amazon.

I also mix this veggie supplement in my shakes.

I had no idea they had vegetable supplements. Is this supposed to give you an equivalent serving of vegetables? Does it have any taste?

I had no idea they had vegetable supplements. Is this supposed to give you an equivalent serving of vegetables? Does it have any taste?

Haven't had it myself but the amazon reviews go on and on about the taste, most of it unpleasantly. "cut grass" seems to be the overwhelming verdict.

I actually miss it if I forget to add it to my shakes. But yeah, one tablespoon is equivalent to a serving of vegetables. It's varied mix of stuff, a lot more coverage than you're likely to get in your diet. You can drink it in water alone but that's one of those suck it up type tasks. I used to use Greens+ but that's not available with Amazon Prime and it's slightly more expensive. It is a bit more palatable though.

That veggie supplement sounds legit. I basically man up after workout and before bed and chug a 2 scoop shake of whey. That is on top of my normal diet.

Just back home after two days traveling. I was able to keep the diet basically in check without tracking, which felt good, but I'm going back on tracking everything tomorrow AM. I did my rest day on Monday out of necessity, and believe it or not, there was actually no way to really do my kenpo workout in the hotel gym, it was that STUPIDLY crowded. I ended up doing a good hard run on a treadmill for about 20 minutes, and doing "kenpo-like" lifts and kicks as best I could. Overall, I figure I got a full body cardio workout for an hour, which is really the point.

I was chanelling Tony. "Change is good! Variety is the Spice of Life! I don't care what you do, just make it intense! Do your best, forget the rest!"

Tomorrow I look at the program again, I think Im doing Yoga for Rest Day 1?

I started P90 (not P90x) today. I've already been tracking my diet at www.sparkpeople.com. I can tell this is going to be an extremely difficult 90 days. I'm having a little trouble coming up with ideas for healthy meals and snacks though. I was actually under on calories and carbs yesterday, and it's looking like I might be again today.

I decided to go ahead and track my diet and fitness on Livestrong also, and join the GWJ group. So far I'm impressed at the options, and info it gives.

WiredAsylum wrote:

My dinner 5 out 7 days a week is, 2 cans of tuna 1 cup of salsa and a ton of mustard. My wife wont let me eat it in front of her.

As gross as this sounded at first, I have to admit it's delicious. It made a nice lunch today.

I will admit I tried tuna and salsa, and it's not vile.

rabbit wrote:

Tomorrow I look at the program again, I think Im doing Yoga for Rest Day 1?

Yep. Yoga tomorrow. Today I took my first full day off since I started. Kind of missed the stretching actually but my schedule wouldn't have allowed it anyway.

So a query:

I know others have asked, but is this worth it v. a gym? There's a local one with a membership special for the holidays that's pretty damn cheap, and I actually enjoy going to the gym myself, no less. Would anyone recommend P90X over that by chance?

Prederick wrote:

So a query:

I know others have asked, but is this worth it v. a gym? There's a local one with a membership special for the holidays that's pretty damn cheap, and I actually enjoy going to the gym myself, no less. Would anyone recommend P90X over that by chance?

I consider that more of a personal choice myself. You can get the dvd's cheap so the cost benefit is huge, but if you LIKE going to a gym then..? I don't like gyms myself but that's just me.

Day 4: Yoga. Wow. I don't remember who said it above but I concur. I want a nap.

rabbit wrote:

I will admit I tried tuna and salsa, and it's not vile.

Yeah buddy! Now add some spicy musstard and put it in a blender and you can drink it

Prederick wrote:

So a query:

I know others have asked, but is this worth it v. a gym? There's a local one with a membership special for the holidays that's pretty damn cheap, and I actually enjoy going to the gym myself, no less. Would anyone recommend P90X over that by chance?

There's nothing magical about P90X. It's a fairly high-intensity circuit training program. You could quite easily come up with your own circuit training workouts to be done at the gym and could likely yield similar results if you stick with it. I believe the draw of P90X is that the workout routine is already figured out, the pacing is presented right there in front of you and you do it at home in your own time. The concepts they tout -- muscle confusion and different phases, etc -- seem to be logically and physiologically sound and the complexity isn't on your side. You pop in the right disc for the right day based on the schedule they derived and if you do it religiously and at the appropriate intensities you should see some sort of results at the end of the program. Changing up your workouts on your own to get similar results is imminently possible but obviously requires more effort.

Or as Green would say: CONFORM!

ColdForged wrote:

There's nothing magical about P90X.

Yep, everything he said. There's no secret sauce here. Everyone KNOWS "exercise and eat right" works. There's pretty general consensus that lifting weights makes you stronger, that cardio burns calories, that stretching makes you more flexible. All the other stuff is kind of just noise.

I mean, sure, thousands of programs and plans and diets and books and "proof" that this or that is "better" but come on, we're a REALLY SMART group of people, we all know that the fundamentals here are "get off your damned ass and do something hard, and don't eat like a f*cking highschool student working on his gamerscore all week."

This is just a pretty brainless way of doing that, without going brain dead from boredom or having to keep track of much, deal with gyms, or spend much money, with a 90-day goal to carrot us along.

No magic.

Prederick wrote:

So a query:

I know others have asked, but is this worth it v. a gym? There's a local one with a membership special for the holidays that's pretty damn cheap, and I actually enjoy going to the gym myself, no less. Would anyone recommend P90X over that by chance?

If you want to go to the gym, I highly recommend New Rules of Lifting. Alwyn Cosgrove has some great programs in there and plenty of them to keep you busy. Although admittedly it may be awkward in a commercial gym as his stuff usually revolves around supersets. Hurray, basement gyms! I'm actually considering getting a new power cage soon. The adjustment hole spacing in mine is rather coarse.

LiquidMantis wrote:
Prederick wrote:

So a query:

I know others have asked, but is this worth it v. a gym? There's a local one with a membership special for the holidays that's pretty damn cheap, and I actually enjoy going to the gym myself, no less. Would anyone recommend P90X over that by chance?

If you want to go to the gym, I highly recommend New Rules of Lifting. Alwyn Cosgrove has some great programs in there and plenty of them to keep you busy. Although admittedly it may be awkward in a commercial gym as his stuff usually revolves around supersets. Hurray, basement gyms! I'm actually considering getting a new power cage soon. The adjustment hole spacing in mine is rather coarse.

If you like that program please check out Starting Strength by Mark Ripptoe. He is my idol, and one of the best coaches I have ever had the chance to train under.

I know Gumbie has been doing the program and has seen great results.

I've got Starting Strength too. Depending on my riding schedule I think I might start a Riptoe bulking program early spring.

I like these for high-protein, low-carb shakes. They taste good right out of the container, but of course they are a little more expensive than the powders.

I'm on week three of P90X, and so far my favorite part of any of the routines has been the diamond push-ups. They hurt like hell when I'm doing them but I've seen great improvements in my stability and strength after having done them a few times.

rabbit wrote:
ColdForged wrote:

There's nothing magical about P90X.

Yep, everything he said. There's no secret sauce here. Everyone KNOWS "exercise and eat right" works. There's pretty general consensus that lifting weights makes you stronger, that cardio burns calories, that stretching makes you more flexible. All the other stuff is kind of just noise.

I mean, sure, thousands of programs and plans and diets and books and "proof" that this or that is "better" but come on, we're a REALLY SMART group of people, we all know that the fundamentals here are "get off your damned ass and do something hard, and don't eat like a f*cking highschool student working on his gamerscore all week."

This is just a pretty brainless way of doing that, without going brain dead from boredom or having to keep track of much, deal with gyms, or spend much money, with a 90-day goal to carrot us along.

No magic.

Thirded. So if you're really wanting to do P90/P90x, go for it. Personally, I find it to be way too involved, and want something simpler. So I'm going back to basics in more ways that one; I'm planning on doing some of the Basic Training stuff again, which essentially involves the following things:

1. Running. Lots and Lots of cardio. We ran 3 days out of the week and walked EVERYWHERE. Unfortunately, I don't have my day structured like that, but I can run every day.
2. Pushups & Situps. That's the core of what we did for strength training. I'm not a fan of pullups; I recognize the value, but am not really a huge fan.

Basic idea is run 3+ days a week, do pushups/situps 6 days of the week. As for food, deny yourself nothing. If you want it, eat it. However, as with most things, there is a catch. Don't eat as much of it But if you want a snickers, have one; just make it fun size, and just one. Same with soda and everything else. Moderation is the absolute, rock bottom thing that will help with losing extra inches/pounds.

Oh, last thought: Don't worry so much about how much you weight. Worry about how well your pants and shirts are fitting. If you have to buy new pants because they're sagging in the waist, you're on the right track regardless of what the scale says.

Yesterday was interval day so about 55 minutes of running in lieu of... what, plyo? Yoga? One or the other. Today in the traditional schedule would be arms and shoulders which would put legs and back on Friday for me. However, a hard leg workout the day before my long run day on Saturday (15 to 20 miles depending on which week... 17 this week for instance) is a recipe for failure. So I moved legs and back to today and will do arms and shoulders Friday. Tomorrow is tempo run day and hopefully my legs won't be too burnt to get through it.

Legs and back today was definitely challenging. I still suck at pull-ups of all flavors. I got through the leg exercises fairly well but a few of the exercises were quite the burners. I predict some major soreness tomorrow which does make me nervous about my run. Guess we'll see.

Ab-Ripper ripped me again. I believe I did better than Monday but I certainly can't keep up on all of the reps.

LiquidMantis wrote:

Hurray, basement gyms! I'm actually considering getting a new power cage soon. The adjustment hole spacing in mine is rather coarse.

Basement gyms do indeed rock. Been working out in an alumni's basement for the past week. Its wonderful.

Yoga Wednesday, after doing Yoga Saturday. Oi. Did fine though. Definitely getting better at most poses.

Back to the top of Phase 1 with back and shoulders. I think I injured something in my right ab area because I had to do the push ups on my knees and some of the sit ups in ab ripper I couldn't even make a token effort on. Definitely one of those "just show up and don't screw the routine" days. Do your best and forget the rest and all that.

Yoga was just what I needed to day. From 5 to 6 I managed to find out I need a new car ASAP (which I can't afford) and I lost my keys in my driveway for 10 minutes in 15° weather. Now I've done 90 minutes of yoga and It's All Good. First time that happened. Usually I fight it like hell but today it just started clicking. Even the stuff I still suck at was sort of a pleasant "oh well" sort of suck.

And Certis: Ow. Sorry man.

Yeah I pulled a muscle doing arms and shoulders Monday, just give it a rest and ice it down afterwards. Definitely want to let it heal up, I avoided pushups for a day or two.

Last time I had a pretty regular workout routine and I decided to "work through the pain" I was in PT for 6 months for a torn back muscle Certainly learned my lesson.

Given the number of injuries that are being reported in this thread there should be a follow up DvD called PT180. You're all going to wind up in physical therapy.