"Somedays, life gets in the way" LesMills Combat: Day 5 of 90

Sometimes life gets in the way.  The other night when I was doing my workout, I moved a ceiling tile so that I could do the weight work.  When I did, a speck of the tile...a speck...dropped into my eye.  I thought it would find its way out of my eye.  Nope.  A day and half later, this evening, there I was in the ER having the eye flushed and looked at.  The doc said he couldn't see anything but that I had an abrasion on the cornea.  I know there was an abrasion...it was from the thing he couldn't find that was scratching the crap out of my eye.  Well, when I got home, I managed to swab the eye and get the speck out.  While all this was going on, it felt like my guts were falling out.  It felt like the flu was coming on.

So I got home tonight and had some chicken soup and had a cup full of trail mix.  You know what?  I felt better.  So I decided to push through.  HIIT: Plyo.  Went up and changed.

I got through the entire thing.  Needed a few breaks but not unusual for week one of a new workout.  I sweat like crazy and finished it.  It felt good.  It felt really good to get through the workout despite the nausea that had started and the eye thing.

HIIT: Plyo is a rough routine on the legs.  Luckily, my legs and plyo have always been my strength.  So it was a good night to push through.  The one thing I don't like to allow is for a program to be derailed.  In P90X and Insanity, I would just push the routine through a rest day, so I could finish on time.

That's the lesson of the day.  Don't stop.  Unless you absolutely have to, you stay with it.  Sometimes life gets in the way.  If you let it, it will stop your progress.  So don't let it. 

"What's Left to Say...Except that Chemicals Really Stink!" Insanity: Days 48-50 of 60

First thing left to say is that there is only 10 days left.  Just like P90X, this program went fast.  It really flew.  Of course, it’s 30 days shorter than P90X…and the routines are shorter for the most part until the second phase.  It more than makes up for shorter routines with routines that just don’t stop for 45 to 58 minutes, depending on the day.

The program is definitely working.  I have seen great improvement in my FitTest performance.  I have also experienced more endurance through the various circuits.  That’s pretty cool.  I would love to be more excited except, I expected it!  This is, after all, Beachbody.  The products are pretty tested at this point.

I have stopped my criticism of the people on the DVD’s, especially Akeel and Frankie.  Akeel seems to have gotten a little more energy and Frankie got a better haircut so they are easier to take in Phase II.  Still is tough watching Shaun T’s fascination with pulling up shirts and touching people’s abs though.

I also have actually figured out the form (which could have used much better explanation somewhere in the program) for many exercises.  Like, when you do the squats, make sure you concentrate on keeping your heels on the floor.  It ensures that your knees don’t swing out over your toes.  The squatting form came in the first couple of weeks but it took a lot of weeks to figure out some of them.  I will give you some examples.

The High Knees.  Anna is a great example of how to do them.  The key is, make sure your chest is up and your chin is high.  Why?  It elongates your abs and makes the exercise more comfortable.  She hops right into that exercise for a reason…she is one of the few doing it right.  Her form looks awkward…but try it.   

You’ll see.

 The 1-2-3 Heisman.  I learned how to do these in P90X.  In Insanity, they’re not the same.  If you try to do them the P90X way, you are way off step and there is NO WAY you are going to do them at a high speed.  It took me a while to get the steps down…I kept falling back on my P90X which I could do in my sleep.

Some of the things I still don’t like is that I don’t know if one person can do the circuits all the way through.  Shaun T doesn’t, because he stops to instruct.  Everyone in the DVD, when the camera is off of them, seems to be taking shortcuts.  Just some examples on this.

The Suicide Squats.  There is a leap in the middle of it.  A LEAP!  Look at the DVD…too funny.  NO ONE in the back is doing them the right way.  The Jump-Punch and Squat, some are squatting and some have lightly bent knees.  The Jab and Squat?  I laugh every time I do it.  No one does it the same way.  It looks like an exercise you make up for kindergarten kids.

The last thing I will say about form is that I wish there was more emphasis on this during the exercises and less on the speed.  Everyone is so focused on the rhythm and tempo that the form on most of them is really terrible.  I wouldn’t care except that I watch the people on the DVD so that I can have proper form…and their form isn’t right.  Oh, and we haven’t been completely told the proper form either.  So that makes it tough.

This weekend was fine.  I had to exercise on my off day…Friday.  I had to go at night and then do Saturday at noontime (only about 15 hrs later).  So…I did AbRipperX and Insanity Fast and Furious on Friday night.  Then I did Max Interval Plyo on Saturday, followed by Max Interval Circuit last night.  I tossed in 25 minutes on the treadmill for kicks.

CHEMICALS REALLY STINK.  I got nabbed once again by the food industry when I assumed a company like Gatorade actually cared about my health.  I have been drinking these G2 Low Calorie drinks with my Protein and Creatine now for a couple of weeks.  I noticed that my fat loss around my mid-section had slowed down.  Fat is processed in the liver and when you are taking in the chemical additives, your body spends a lot of time breaking that down…and less time on fat.  So just for yucks, I looked at the label. There it was, Sucralose!!  Crap.  You know, G2 has only 40 calories in a 20 ounce bottle.  So, to make it taste like the other G2 and still be low-cal, they crapped it up with chemicals.  Thanks a lot.  Now I have a case of it in my fridge that I won’t be drinking.

You know, if it had NO sweet taste, I would drink it.  I just want to drink what’s good for me.  Is that asking too much?

See you tomorrow.

“Holiday Speed Bumps and Getting Back on Track” Insanity: Days 46-47 of 60

It happened in P90X, it just makes sense that it happened in Insanity.  I missed one day of my workout schedule in P90X.  Okay, I didn’t really miss it…something came up that day so I moved it.  I used my off day and moved the workout.  So I still did it.  Same here in Insanity.  I had some personal stuff to do yesterday.  I got caught up in a few things and blew by the workout.  Now I have to pay the piper and do the workout on my Friday ‘off day.’

I love my Friday off day.  If you are going to have an off day during a workout, Friday is the best.  You take it off, sleep in on Saturday and then get a good breakfast in on Saturday and get right back to the grind.

Using the Friday off day to work out means I have to pay for the day I took off.  It’s real too…having to pay for that day.  First, I work out on Saturday about 11AM.  If I do a Friday night workout, that Saturday routine will be about 15 hours after the first one.  That’s not a hell of a lot of time to recover.  Let’s be honest, it’s practically NO time to recover.  Second, Insanity pounds the hell out of your body.  Working out on Friday means I have to do four days in a row.  That hurts folks.  Tuesday recovery day just can’t come fast enough.

Could I skip it.  Yes.  Will I?  No.  I will find some way to get this workout in.

Can it get worse.  Oh yeah.  You know which one I missed?  Max Interval Circuit.  The longest one.  58 minutes of grinding work.

All of this is because Fourth of July happened mid-week and I had a day off to do some things that needed to get done.  I know, “priorities.”  Well, I took care of personal business and now have to take care of my physical business.  The bumps will happen to everyone.  The question is, “How do you make sure you get back on track?”  The other question is, “Will you?”

One place I really need to catch up is my Body Beast 9000 commitment…that really got messed up.  I still owe 300 pushups for yesterday.  In case you are wondering, the Body Beast 9000 is 30 days of 300 pushups per day.  I count the pushups I do in Insanity too.

Oh yeah, you may have noticed the blog got messed up too.  I combined two days into one for this.  Ahhh, holidays.  Gotta love them.

Okay, today is a normal work day Friday.  It will NOT be my day off.  It will be a catch-up day for almost everything.

How will your day be?

“Haunted By Beachbody Body Beasts” Insanity: Day 45 of 60

Today is supposed to be my recovery day for Insanity…not my off day, my recovery day.  It is July 3^rd, the day before the holiday and, unfortunately, a Tuesday.  Having a major holiday at midweek of a workout program can really mess things up.

So Tuesday is my normal recovery day.  I was challenged today to do Bodybeast 9000 by the Facebook crew I do my workouts with.  It actually started Monday but they pushed me into this.  It didn’t take much.  I did about 140 pushups to catch up for Monday and then did my 300 for Tuesday.  It’s not hard, just something you continuously keep your eye on.  It’s a 30 day commitment on top of my Insanity stuff.  Should be fun.

I did not even do the Recovery workout today and here is why.  Wednesday is the 4^th of July.  I will do my AbRipper X, a normal Insanity workout and then go to a family picnic where I will be running around playing for a lot of the day.  I will more than make up for Tuesday.  The Bodybeast also had me burning more than my share of calories on Tuesday.

Okay, once again, a short blog.  It’s a really busy week but I want to keep the old blog commitment.

Watchword for Day 45…just keep going.  You will need breaks.  We are all human.  Being super-human also means being smart.  Take care of your body.

Also, eat a lot of fruit and salad on 4^th of July.  High nutrient density, low calorie density and good fiber as my grandfather used to say.

Happy Fourth of July!! 

“Pounding the Body” Insanity: Day 44 of 60

I did my Day 44 workout, which was Max Plyometrics.  I am doing better each time, which is really the goal.  I have noticed, however, that Insanity is pounding my body.  I finished the routine and sat in my recliner with my recovery drink, mixed nuts and a mango.  I fell asleep.  When I woke up a couple hours later, I was stiff.  Real stiff.  I have been taking my protein in food and powder form.  Also creatine.  And Glucosomine and MSM.  I am still hurting after every routine.

When I start into the next night’s workout warmups, I always feel like I am banging off the rust from the previous night.  I don’t have the bounce in my step that I had in P90X…that is a little depressing.  I am looking forward to finishing this and then observing the after effects.

I’m sure some of it is due to my age.  Beating the crap out of a fifty year old body is not exactly the brightest thing to be doing.  Oh well, I said I was driven, not a genius.  That’s sarcasm.  I’m smiling here.  The part of this that keeps me optimistic is that, after my Off Day, Friday, my Saturday workouts seem to really kick butt.

The good news is that once I get warmed up, everything seems to snap right into shape.  That’s the good news.

I have a heavy workweek in front of me (my real job).  Lots of work and only three days to do it…so my blogs will be short this week.

The watchword for Day 44 is that, “If you hurt, you are not alone.”

"July Workouts in New England" Insanity: Day 42-43 of 60

I started my P90X program this past February and finished early in May.  Then I went right into Insanity.  In my neck of the woods, in Southeastern Massachusetts, we have a very dry climate from the Mid-September/October range to  about late May.  Right around the end of May there is a dramatic shift in climate where it gets exceptionally humid.  You go from needing a humidifier to needing a de-humidifier practically overnight.

Home workout programs, like we have in Beachbody, are very convenient.  That said, you really have to do them for a whole year in Massachusetts to see what kind of lifestyle the ‘home workout’ will really require.

I was doing well in Insanity those first two to three weeks, the air was still dry and exercise was pretty good from the environmental perspective.  About the first week in June, we went to high humidity.  I will tell you that my workouts are now hell.  In addition to moving to the next level of Insanity, which is a feat unto itself, I now have to find a way to deal with more sweat than I thought a human could ever shed from a body.  There is zero evaporation in my basement at this point and puddles form from just having deep thoughts.

This past weekend was just unbelievable.  As I pushed through a third round of Max Interval Circuit last night, I was drenched.  When I did the last circuit and had to do the high kicks from floor position, I left a puddle under my butt on the mat.  When I was doing the Leap Frog Squats, every time I flung my hands up to leap, droplets of water would fly across the room.  I have a mat that is about 6 feet by 8 feet.  I use it to cushion the jumps and to catch the water.  I spend more time wiping the puddles than I do getting a drink.

I really can’t wait for this to be done and I have to think about what the next level is.  I am considering going back to running at the air-conditioned gym for mid-July and August and compliment it every other day with some Insanity/P90X hybrid.  I do know that I have to get out of the basement and into A/C for the summer or I am going to die of heat stroke.

Okay, short blog today.  Time to start thinking about the NEXT thing! 

“What’s Up With All The Contractions?” Insanity: Day 41 of 60

Okay.  Stand with your feet slightly more than shoulder width apart. Bend at the knees and rest your hands on your knees.  Now go into a squat.  Now, contract your core and round your back up.  Now release.  Keep doing it.

I don’t get it.


Contracted hip raises.  What's up with these stupid things?

I AM doing Insanity right?  What the heck is this exercise supposed to accomplish?  I’m not even sure if I am contracting right.  I have listened to Shaun T more than a dozen times and have done this exercise more than twenty times.  I keep doing it because somebody somewhere put this in the routine and it must be doing something, right?  I am doing this completely on faith.  It doesn’t feel like this is accomplishing anything at all.  Every other exercise feels like you are exerting yourself in some way, shape, or form.

Not this one.

Up.  Down.  Up.  Down.  Yawn.  Breathe.  Yawn.  Breathe.

Maybe I’m just not doing it right.  Maybe it’s just filler so everyone can rest…but we’re only stretching here!  I mean, yes, I’m sweating.  But, that’s because the warm-up really revs your metabolism.

There was a movie in the 80’s called Perfect.  It starred Jaime Lee Curtis and John Travolta and was based on a Rolling Stone article that talked about gyms being the disco bars of the 80’s.  it was crap.  The one thing I do remember is a very young, hot, and in shape Jaime Lee Curtis as the fitness instructor who used to be a gymnast.  When I watch Shaun T do these damn exercises, that’s what I think about.  She did them a little differently.  With her, it looked like work.  It also looked like training for some other profession…which was kind of the point of the movie.  Anyway…I am either doing them wrong or they are filler.  Either way…I like to work out.  I want sweat and I want to keep moving.  I want exertion.

I’m just not feeling it with these exercises.

Okay, I took a video of me doing the Ab Ripper  X.  This is for all you late-forty and early-fifty folk who think it’s too late to get in shape.  It’s also for you twenty and thirty-something folk who think it’s too hard a workout.

Why is this in here?  In my Insanity blog?  Because this is how I spend my off-days of Insanity!  I do this.

So this is an Insanity off day!

“Max Plyometrics” Insanity: Day 40 of 60

When I did P90X, Plyometrics were my favorite of all the exercises, with the exception of the old Ab Ripper X.  I loved them.  Insanity’s Plyo is a bit different.  My constant criticism of Insanity has been that the order of the exercises in the circuits do not allow for enough muscle recovery within the circuits.  In P90X, the exercises seemed perfectly ordered to allow for the various muscle groups to be cycled.

The whole Insanity gig is that it is high on Cardio.  That’s my real issue with the order.  You can’t be burning cardio calories if your muscles physically cannot move because you did three exercises in a row that shot the hip flexors (or any other muscle) all to crap.

I proved my theory last night.  There is a circuit sequence that has you do (and my names will not be exactly the same as Shaun T as I am doing this from memory) (1) Reverse hop-squats, (2) Squat Pushups, (3) In and Outs, and (4) PowerJumps.  Now, the hop squats have you in a contracted state with the hip flexors most of the time.  Same for the Squat Pushups.  Then you do the In and Outs and completely fry the hip flexors.  Now, you are supposed to do the Power Jumps.  Even in the DVD, everyone stands around looking at each other because no one can get through the damn circuit.

Last night I rejiggered the order and did (1) and (2) as instructed…but I reversed the Power Jumps and finished with the In and Outs.  I did the whole circuit and got a real good cardio workout to go with the muscle work.  Putting the Power Jumps at (3) allowed me to give the hip flexors a slight rest while going to an exercise that allowed maximum motion to the flexors (and allowed them to stretch from their contracted position) while also using a considerable amount more of the abs, glutes and thighs to get the jumps going.  I finished with the Ins and Outs, which went much better with stretched out hip flexor muscles since now I had to rely on them a lot.

You may find that it’s completely different for you.  You may love the order.  I don’t.  My goal is to get through the routine with as much muscle use and intensity as I can and it works better for me if I order the circuits the way it works best for me.

Tomorrow is my break day, which means Ab Ripper X in the morning and then nothing else until I ‘push play’ on Saturday morning.

Saturday is Max Cardio…this is another circuit I may adjust.  I KNOW.  I sound like some kind of pompous ‘know-it-all.’  I assure you, that’s not the case. (stop smirking)  It’s just that when I did this routine for the first time on Monday, we pushed like crazy in circuit one and then the whole thing just kind of fizzled out slowly.  In my mind, the energy expended wasn’t balanced.  I need balance if I am going to maximize the intensity.  The whole Insanity thing is based on circuit training, which is intensity, break, intensity, break, right?  The intensity should actually kind of ramp up to a peak and then tail off slightly…not drop off.  Anyway, enough bitching.  I will let you know when I adjust and let you know how it works.  That’s our deal, right?

Tomorrow, break day.  It feels good to have that.  The normal Tuesday Recovery Day was (for me) actually taken up with the Fit Test and then I did Fast and Furious (not the current Obama scandal, the exercise).

Have a great Friday!!

P90X: "New Exercise and Plyo...Phase III starts" Day 57/58 of 90

started Phase III yesterday.  The one thing I have come to not like is learning a new exercise set in the Adaptive phase.  I always feel like I lost a day, and I hate that.  My day one of Phase III is Chest and Back.  I never know what to do with the weight...how much weight, how many reps.  I got through it though.


On the plus side.  I have completely mastered the Ab Ripper X.  All exercises, all reps, NO PAUSE.  That took some real work to do.  Getting through the entire Mason Twist and the Pfiffer Scissors sets were always my biggest challenge and the final goal.  Done.  Did it.  I even do the situps in cross-legged position and the leg climbers with only one grab and the knee completely bent.  Feels awesome.


The Chest and Back, as with any new routine, left me feeling tight this morning.  I should have mentioned that a significant change has occurred in the "repair" after the routines...no more "sore."  I now know the areas I am working because they have an odd tightness the next day....like some wound has been spackled or something.  It is pretty cool.  I look forward to my improvements in C&B because the last half of the routine had me so burned out that the reps had practically halved themselves from the first set.  When so many of the sets are maximum reps, how are you supposed to double-down on them when you completely burn yourself out?  Someone is going to have to 'splain that one to me.


Today, my favorite, Plyometrics.  Just can't get enough of that one.  Love the intensity and love the sweat.


I find myself these days struggling to find words for this.  Mainly because it is simply a matter of doing it.  It's not painful but it can be exhausting.  It is not new...because you do the same routines over and over.  "Just push play" and keep going.  That's all I do...over and over again.  You should do that too.


Day 60 pics coming in two days.


Have a great night!

P90X: "From Lean to P90X Classic" Day 37 of 90

Last week I discovered that the workouts were not challenging me enough.  I have been doing the P90X Lean workout.  It is slightly less rigorous than the Classic workout and is designed for weight loss and lean muscle mass.  The workouts were going really well, but it felt like they should be harder.  After much thought and consulting with my Beachbody coach, I upped the routine to Classic starting yesterday.

When I woke up this morning, after yesterday’s Chest, Shoulders and Triceps, my back felt twinge-y.  It was tight in some places.  I obviously worked something really hard yesterday and my body was reminding me that it needed some pampering.  I stretched pretty good today prior to the workout.  Today was Plyometrics.  It would have been Cardio X, Plyo is the next step up.

I have to say, I am proud that I made it all the way through and did all the reps.  It was one of the most demanding routines I have done so far.  I was sweating like crazy, breathing heavy and just really worked out.  Like you just rung out a towel.

THAT was the workout I was looking for.  I can’t wait to attack this week and see how it goes.  Also, if I mess something up, I have my two week chiro visit…he can fix me.

Have a great week everyone!