Wednesday was a 42 minute run at 5.1 mph, roughly 485 calories burned. Ho Hum
Yesterday was legs and back. Ugh. Back started great with 18 chin ups, and went to hell in a hand basket from there. Legs were OK, I just don't feel like they are getting stronger. I mean the plyo is a great cardio workout, but it's not gonna build huge leg strength. The leg workout is very lunge specific which also is good for cardio. So, yesterday I added the leg attachment on my Bowflex and did leg curls in substitution for some of the moves. I think adding in 5-8 sets a week will help. I'd hate them to stay status quo for the next 2 months so I'm changing it up.
The diet is going well.
Thanks for reading
Billy
Friday, October 30, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Supa Freaky Deeky
That's how my 2nd month on P90X has gone. My truck got a boo boo Friday and ended up in body shop so I was distracted for a bit.
Let's see. Well, This diet is an arse kicker. At 40 carbs roughly a day, the end of the day can be trance-like. I don't dig that too much. I do dig that I'm 166lbs now and am seeing significant muscle separation. It's all about the separation.
Sunday was Chest, shoulders, tri's. I felt kinda weak and that was confirmed when my push ups suffered. Coming off an off week that is expected. I usually can bust out big numbers, but just didn't have that spring in my action. It's the carbs I know, I just hate the knowing part. I got a great pump and got thru it. Ab ripper x I did almost all the reps, I should have, I had a week off.
Monday was Plyo. I was feeling very average on the energy scale, but hung with Dom on all his Dominatory moves, heart rate thru the roof and everything. Surprisingly I get up today and my calves are really sore. By the time I got home from work, it hurt walking up the driveway. That's a good thing.
Tonight I did back and biceps. I said earlier, Tony rushes a bit on this DVD. It's just too quick. You can't do 2 sets of curls back to back, and then 20-25 seconds later bust out some pull ups and work the right muscle. I hit pause and did the sets the right way. Anyway I did 17 pull ups which is a PR (in last 10 years). The tri colored bands I got from Walmart friggin rock. They are 15 bucks and with all three bands are serious resistance - a no brainer must have in my book. I skipped ab ripper X instead doing leg raises and Bowflex crunches 12 sets. Sometimes you gotta change it up. No biggie. Time to go eat my chicken and broccoli and drink da aqua.
Let's see. Well, This diet is an arse kicker. At 40 carbs roughly a day, the end of the day can be trance-like. I don't dig that too much. I do dig that I'm 166lbs now and am seeing significant muscle separation. It's all about the separation.
Sunday was Chest, shoulders, tri's. I felt kinda weak and that was confirmed when my push ups suffered. Coming off an off week that is expected. I usually can bust out big numbers, but just didn't have that spring in my action. It's the carbs I know, I just hate the knowing part. I got a great pump and got thru it. Ab ripper x I did almost all the reps, I should have, I had a week off.
Monday was Plyo. I was feeling very average on the energy scale, but hung with Dom on all his Dominatory moves, heart rate thru the roof and everything. Surprisingly I get up today and my calves are really sore. By the time I got home from work, it hurt walking up the driveway. That's a good thing.
Tonight I did back and biceps. I said earlier, Tony rushes a bit on this DVD. It's just too quick. You can't do 2 sets of curls back to back, and then 20-25 seconds later bust out some pull ups and work the right muscle. I hit pause and did the sets the right way. Anyway I did 17 pull ups which is a PR (in last 10 years). The tri colored bands I got from Walmart friggin rock. They are 15 bucks and with all three bands are serious resistance - a no brainer must have in my book. I skipped ab ripper X instead doing leg raises and Bowflex crunches 12 sets. Sometimes you gotta change it up. No biggie. Time to go eat my chicken and broccoli and drink da aqua.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Lemme call ya back I'm peeling eggs.....
Ya gotta do what the day gives ya. I had an appointment with a customer yesterday at 1:15. We order lunch, I get a salad with chicken on it. We eat and start going over numbers, and numbers, and numbers, his numbers, my numbers - the only numbers moving were the ones on the clock. At 3:30 I'm thinking to myself I need to get my eggs eaten soon, can't do it. More numbers until 4:30. I leave the restaurant and on the way home pull over in a parking lot and start peeling my 3 hard boiled eggs. Those little f@#kers are tough to peel and definitely the hardest I've ever worked for 19.5 grams of protein. This am I had my new, lets call it the Palumbo smoothie - ice, a tablespoon and a half of natural peanut butter, and 2 scoops of low carb Isopure protein powder. When the peanut butter hits the palette at 6 am it's all downhill from there. I've had much worse, but I'll just say I can't wait to not do this breakfast shake anymore. I miss normal cereal.
The cool thing is this diet is like putting you hunger cravings on tranquilizers. You don't get the highs and lows like you do with higher carbohydrate diet. The drawback - low energy, I gotta slam a coffee before my workout and hope it keeps me going. I have found in the past my body has a bout 50-60 minutes of stored energy, after that you hit a wall on this diet. I was 166 this morning, only 11 to go, so I'm heading in right direction. I'm trying not to lose too fast after all i've got 2 months.
I hit 42 minutes last night on treadmill and then did 7 fairly unenthusiastic sets of back on the Bowflex. I think I'm just gonna treadmill it tonight and Saturday, because Sunday it's back to getting punished for 3 weeks and I wanna be fresh.
Thanks for reading
Billy
The cool thing is this diet is like putting you hunger cravings on tranquilizers. You don't get the highs and lows like you do with higher carbohydrate diet. The drawback - low energy, I gotta slam a coffee before my workout and hope it keeps me going. I have found in the past my body has a bout 50-60 minutes of stored energy, after that you hit a wall on this diet. I was 166 this morning, only 11 to go, so I'm heading in right direction. I'm trying not to lose too fast after all i've got 2 months.
I hit 42 minutes last night on treadmill and then did 7 fairly unenthusiastic sets of back on the Bowflex. I think I'm just gonna treadmill it tonight and Saturday, because Sunday it's back to getting punished for 3 weeks and I wanna be fresh.
Thanks for reading
Billy
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Your choice is chicken, eggs, or eggs and ummm....chicken
I've done this before ya know. It was going ok, the diet that is, when I read an article on this new diet by some famous trainer/lifting coach Dave Palumbo. In it he balances what ketosis burns (fat) and keeps it off the muscle. So basically you get the best of both worlds. Confused?
With an Adkins based diet (20 carbs day) you burn fat and lose some muscle. I can attest to this as I did it wholeheartedly last Winter for a few months shagging 20 lbs. I was super low bodyfat - but - my muscles especially in the legs were crap. You pay bigtime to get were your going. With a regular diet your caloric defit causes your body to catabolize and you lose muscle as well but I feel not as bad as on Adkins, but also not as quick.
Palumbo's diet is very rich with omega 3's and some monosaturated fats that hinder muscle loss during ketosis. He also feels that stimulants, namely coffee, promote the release of Cortisol (oids?) in the body that facilitate muscle loss. Lose the stimulants and muscle loss is kept at a minimum. And as I write this, my prediction for the hot diet of 2010 will be keto diets. There all the rage with bodybuilders right now. It filters down after they try it. High fat diets, yum.
At roughly 40 carbs a day I hope this diet can stand up to P90x for 4-5 weeks. There will be some crappy tired days but I feel the payoff will be there. This guy is trusted by many. I really hate the low carb routine. It's not natural, looks weird, isn't the way to "eat for a lifetime" and all that give a guy a fishing pole crap. But....you drop pounds like Oprah on celery stalks - pre Steadman/Gail. My main beef with low carb? Your body has no pop. Muscles are flatter and you don't have vascularity. Carbohydrates promote vascularity and muscle fullness as well as energy. Anyway if it sucks I'll move on, but for now, bring on the Omega 3 eggs and natural peanut butter baby.
I did shoulders tonight. Roughly 17 sets. Nothing crazy to write about. Next week might be tough. P90x changes workouts and this diet will have me in ketosis bigtime, and I'm camping Halloween weekend. Candy, candy, candy...no thanks. Anyone want an egg/sausage smore? Actually that doesn't sound half bad :)
Thanks for reading
Billy
With an Adkins based diet (20 carbs day) you burn fat and lose some muscle. I can attest to this as I did it wholeheartedly last Winter for a few months shagging 20 lbs. I was super low bodyfat - but - my muscles especially in the legs were crap. You pay bigtime to get were your going. With a regular diet your caloric defit causes your body to catabolize and you lose muscle as well but I feel not as bad as on Adkins, but also not as quick.
Palumbo's diet is very rich with omega 3's and some monosaturated fats that hinder muscle loss during ketosis. He also feels that stimulants, namely coffee, promote the release of Cortisol (oids?) in the body that facilitate muscle loss. Lose the stimulants and muscle loss is kept at a minimum. And as I write this, my prediction for the hot diet of 2010 will be keto diets. There all the rage with bodybuilders right now. It filters down after they try it. High fat diets, yum.
At roughly 40 carbs a day I hope this diet can stand up to P90x for 4-5 weeks. There will be some crappy tired days but I feel the payoff will be there. This guy is trusted by many. I really hate the low carb routine. It's not natural, looks weird, isn't the way to "eat for a lifetime" and all that give a guy a fishing pole crap. But....you drop pounds like Oprah on celery stalks - pre Steadman/Gail. My main beef with low carb? Your body has no pop. Muscles are flatter and you don't have vascularity. Carbohydrates promote vascularity and muscle fullness as well as energy. Anyway if it sucks I'll move on, but for now, bring on the Omega 3 eggs and natural peanut butter baby.
I did shoulders tonight. Roughly 17 sets. Nothing crazy to write about. Next week might be tough. P90x changes workouts and this diet will have me in ketosis bigtime, and I'm camping Halloween weekend. Candy, candy, candy...no thanks. Anyone want an egg/sausage smore? Actually that doesn't sound half bad :)
Thanks for reading
Billy
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
A day of rest....
By hitting the treadmill for 42 minutes, the last 5 of which were at 90%. I'm thinking the last month heading into December I'm gonna do harder efforts that aren't in the fat burning zone. I guess i'll flip a coin at that point.
After running on the treadmill with ipod on watching CNN showing the world falling apart (it's nice to pair up music with disaster video) I decided to hit chest.
Sometimes variety is a great tool in varying exercises to make a body part get over a plateau, or to just keep things interesting. P90X does that well. Yesterday was not one of those days. I simply got on the Bowflex and did 14 sets of chest flys and let me tell ya I was jacked up all night from it. For anyone that hasn't done a chest fly on a Bowflex, head to your nearest Dick's Sporting Goods and do a set. It's in the cables, they allow no vertical or lateral momentum, so your always micro adjusting and it bombs what your working.
I have recently had questions about p90x from co-workers and relatives especially concerning what you need. What I use are screw on collar 35# dumbells - probably 50 bucks. I leave these one weight during a p90x workout. Tri color bands sold at Walmart for 15 bucks. Great for filling in if dumbells are not enough or too much. Pull up bar, Walmart 10 bucks. Push up bars, Meijer 10 bucks. Bowflex, great for filling in chest, back, tri's, arm curls, and shoulders to a lesser extent, and great for abs as well. I paid $400 for the Bowflex, and another $100 for additional 100 lbs of rods. I saw one last week for 200 bucks on Craigslist.
Concerning adjustable dumbells. On a first run through p90x I might skip these, I dunno if they would help get better results. I have picked up both select tech 552's and powerblocks at Dick's. Between the 2 I'd go with powerblocks. The hand opening is kinda small but they are well made and weight is changed in seconds. The bowflex select techs are too big (wide). They don't review well on the sites as well. I'd save my money (you could buy a used bowflex for $200 and have $200 left over that you would've spent on select techs and have an entire gym system.
So from the above list, $85 bucks would get you going real well with p90x. If you have to hang a pull up bar between a doorway that may be a bit more. The most important thing you need that isn't on this list and can't be bought in stores is halacious motivation and discipline.
Thanks for reading
Billy
After running on the treadmill with ipod on watching CNN showing the world falling apart (it's nice to pair up music with disaster video) I decided to hit chest.
Sometimes variety is a great tool in varying exercises to make a body part get over a plateau, or to just keep things interesting. P90X does that well. Yesterday was not one of those days. I simply got on the Bowflex and did 14 sets of chest flys and let me tell ya I was jacked up all night from it. For anyone that hasn't done a chest fly on a Bowflex, head to your nearest Dick's Sporting Goods and do a set. It's in the cables, they allow no vertical or lateral momentum, so your always micro adjusting and it bombs what your working.
I have recently had questions about p90x from co-workers and relatives especially concerning what you need. What I use are screw on collar 35# dumbells - probably 50 bucks. I leave these one weight during a p90x workout. Tri color bands sold at Walmart for 15 bucks. Great for filling in if dumbells are not enough or too much. Pull up bar, Walmart 10 bucks. Push up bars, Meijer 10 bucks. Bowflex, great for filling in chest, back, tri's, arm curls, and shoulders to a lesser extent, and great for abs as well. I paid $400 for the Bowflex, and another $100 for additional 100 lbs of rods. I saw one last week for 200 bucks on Craigslist.
Concerning adjustable dumbells. On a first run through p90x I might skip these, I dunno if they would help get better results. I have picked up both select tech 552's and powerblocks at Dick's. Between the 2 I'd go with powerblocks. The hand opening is kinda small but they are well made and weight is changed in seconds. The bowflex select techs are too big (wide). They don't review well on the sites as well. I'd save my money (you could buy a used bowflex for $200 and have $200 left over that you would've spent on select techs and have an entire gym system.
So from the above list, $85 bucks would get you going real well with p90x. If you have to hang a pull up bar between a doorway that may be a bit more. The most important thing you need that isn't on this list and can't be bought in stores is halacious motivation and discipline.
Thanks for reading
Billy
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Rest week
Well I finished third week up and am heading into a rest week.
Legs and back went well on Thursday and to that point I hit my just my back again on Saturday doing 20 sets on the Bowflex and a few with the bands.
During rest week sticking to diet is paramount and filling in with workouts focusing on weaknesses. Those would be 2 back workouts this week probably Tuesday and Friday with 2 days of treadmill at 45 minutes on Monday and Thursday. No stomach for now.
One thing I notice is after 3rd week you want to rest and welcome it. Doing 6 days a week is a lot. I got some trainers instead of running shoes and also have push up bars instead of using dumbells for next month. Push up bars will take about 25% off you best numbers so if you can do 40 push ups on your hands, 30 is what to expect with p/u bars - your mileage may vary. I would like to do 100 of them by end of December but we'll see. I never do as many p/u's as possible of the first set favoring rather to pace a bit.
The next 3 weeks pair up back and bi's and then chest, shoulders and tri's with everything else the same. The back and bi's is tough and if memory serves Tony gets kinda quick on transitions between back and biceps routines so I'll make sure to complain about that. My shoulder is fine, minor pain but it doesn't effect the workouts and I'll need that as next 3 weeks are harder imho.
Thanks for reading
Billy
Legs and back went well on Thursday and to that point I hit my just my back again on Saturday doing 20 sets on the Bowflex and a few with the bands.
During rest week sticking to diet is paramount and filling in with workouts focusing on weaknesses. Those would be 2 back workouts this week probably Tuesday and Friday with 2 days of treadmill at 45 minutes on Monday and Thursday. No stomach for now.
One thing I notice is after 3rd week you want to rest and welcome it. Doing 6 days a week is a lot. I got some trainers instead of running shoes and also have push up bars instead of using dumbells for next month. Push up bars will take about 25% off you best numbers so if you can do 40 push ups on your hands, 30 is what to expect with p/u bars - your mileage may vary. I would like to do 100 of them by end of December but we'll see. I never do as many p/u's as possible of the first set favoring rather to pace a bit.
The next 3 weeks pair up back and bi's and then chest, shoulders and tri's with everything else the same. The back and bi's is tough and if memory serves Tony gets kinda quick on transitions between back and biceps routines so I'll make sure to complain about that. My shoulder is fine, minor pain but it doesn't effect the workouts and I'll need that as next 3 weeks are harder imho.
Thanks for reading
Billy
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Go left, go right......or up?
Had a business sales luncheon and wouldn't ya know pizza was the main course. Great, now I get to be on guard for the next 3 hours while every soul in the building stuffs their pie holes with Dominoes pizza.
Not to worry, I just headed to my truck and whipped out my 16 grain wheat bread chicken sandwich with no lettuce (we were out) and apple (very small). The usual questions "are you dieting" and "your not having 10 slices of pizza with us" repeated themselves. Since my boss order way too many I even took an entire pizza home to kids and wife. Ate my 25 almonds for a snack and did my 45 minutes on the treadmill @ 500 calories.
Chicken breast and veggies tonight, ready for domination of legs and back tomorrow.
Thanks for reading
Billy
Maybe he wanted me to shut up......
Shoulders, Bi's, Tri's was on the menu of destruction last night. After my NO2 drink I was ready to get on with it and for first 3-4 sets of shoulders the pain in my left shoulder was still there. Then it left and life was good. I almost don't care what weight I lift during a workout as long as it's intense. Stay with the kids on this one and you will get a great pump.
Tony keeps things moving fast during this one and imperative is that you write down very clearly what you did last week so you be getting the weight ready and know how much you did. I'm good about writing it down. It's cool to see were you were 6 weeks ago and before a set starts you can mentally get ready by knowing the number to beat.
Onto ab ripper x. I whined and bitched last time about Tony's robots. Maybe God heard me and said to his assistant "get that Billy to shut his pie hole about the abs would ya - just do whatever it takes". Well ABX started and after 25 in and outs I nailed another 25 bicycles followed by another. Couldn't believe it. I wasn't getting the crippling tightness I usually get in my abs. Did Fifer scissors - 25, Heels to heavens - 25, Mason twists - 50. I did the entire ab workout (albeit not as pretty as Adam) to spec - 349 reps in all. Sweet.
And I woke up to see 167 on the scale today. That's a beautiful thing
Thanks for reading
Billy
Tony keeps things moving fast during this one and imperative is that you write down very clearly what you did last week so you be getting the weight ready and know how much you did. I'm good about writing it down. It's cool to see were you were 6 weeks ago and before a set starts you can mentally get ready by knowing the number to beat.
Onto ab ripper x. I whined and bitched last time about Tony's robots. Maybe God heard me and said to his assistant "get that Billy to shut his pie hole about the abs would ya - just do whatever it takes". Well ABX started and after 25 in and outs I nailed another 25 bicycles followed by another. Couldn't believe it. I wasn't getting the crippling tightness I usually get in my abs. Did Fifer scissors - 25, Heels to heavens - 25, Mason twists - 50. I did the entire ab workout (albeit not as pretty as Adam) to spec - 349 reps in all. Sweet.
And I woke up to see 167 on the scale today. That's a beautiful thing
Thanks for reading
Billy
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
You have the cardio x option if your not plyo ready.......
I wanted to exercise my option yesterday in a bad way. Sunday's chest and back got me real sore Monday morning and it got worse and worse as the day went on. I started dreading plyo knowing I was drained.
When I got home I drank (slammed) a half cup of coffee, ate a half piece of wheat bread, some almonds for energy and pushed play. I could tell during first set of jump squats my legs were flat, kinda woody feeling. Often in cycling this will happen and in a group of guys you always know who has crap legs because they'll announce it to everyone. I had nobody to tell this was going to hurt like Hells Bells.
Sometimes when the pain is that rough I go to the "pain cave". A place again, many bike racers will refer to the mental focus spot they go to in order to deal with the cruelty being dished out. The thing is working out 6 days a week things move quick, you have flat or bad days, days blend together, and as wore out as I was hitting play was what I needed to do - don't think about what's gonna happen - just do it. I went through all the moves, broke a good sweat and with a frown I pridefully hung with Dom on jump knee tucks and Mary Katherines. At the end of it I'm sure I used between 5-600 calories and felt better.
Tonight is shoulders/bi's/tri's. I'm looking forward to it as my shoulder is on the mend and I get to see were I'm at recovery wise.
Thanks for reading
Billy
When I got home I drank (slammed) a half cup of coffee, ate a half piece of wheat bread, some almonds for energy and pushed play. I could tell during first set of jump squats my legs were flat, kinda woody feeling. Often in cycling this will happen and in a group of guys you always know who has crap legs because they'll announce it to everyone. I had nobody to tell this was going to hurt like Hells Bells.
Sometimes when the pain is that rough I go to the "pain cave". A place again, many bike racers will refer to the mental focus spot they go to in order to deal with the cruelty being dished out. The thing is working out 6 days a week things move quick, you have flat or bad days, days blend together, and as wore out as I was hitting play was what I needed to do - don't think about what's gonna happen - just do it. I went through all the moves, broke a good sweat and with a frown I pridefully hung with Dom on jump knee tucks and Mary Katherines. At the end of it I'm sure I used between 5-600 calories and felt better.
Tonight is shoulders/bi's/tri's. I'm looking forward to it as my shoulder is on the mend and I get to see were I'm at recovery wise.
Thanks for reading
Billy
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Well that was fun.......
Life got busy for minute....I'm back.
Let's see, last Thursday night I busted out legs and back. I gotta say the first month of P90X is stacked heavy on arms (mostly biceps) and back. Really when you look at the moves we got 1st day chest and back, 3rd day shoulders/biceps/tri's, and 5th day legs and back. So you can see back is getting hit twice a week and bi's I count 3 times (pull ups in back exercises and then bi's with shoulders and tri's). My point is it's easy to have a bad day somewhere in there crushing the arms like that.
My right leg still isn't up to par. I'm really notice during lunges there just isn't the punch from my right leg as in my left. Gotta work on that over the Winter. You will hear of Pro cyclists having disparity between leg strength and it's easy to hide pedaling but lunges are in your face - either you can do it or push pause. Anyway I went full time on both wall squats. Legs is a quiet punishing little 55 minute deal. I find it works the hamstrings, lower back, and butt the most. Every Friday my hammies are sore and that's a good thing. When you think about it legs are half your body and a lot of guys including yours truly until about 10 years ago didn't give them due diligence. It's always a sad and sorry site, huge overly muscled upper body and then you see them.......the tiny little, no shape to them calves attached to legs that look like they were borrowed from a 7th grader. It's called a prison build. Wanna see one on a celebrity? I'm gonna front him out right now because he seems so cool......well........ he is actually, -it's LL Cool J. The dude is stacked on top (in his workout book at Borders) but he is prison build central all day long from legs down. There's just no shape to his legs, sad really. Should I tweet him and let him know? He's gotta know? Right? I got lucky from cycling 4 years and my legs and calves are proportioned correctly.
After legs and back I did ab ripper x and it sucked as usual.
Missed workout Friday - "say it ain't so Billy"!. It is so. Saturday was a busy day (attended a wedding) so Friday I had running around to do. But there's always a plan. The plan was don't blow the diet at the wedding. Kept it whole foods all day and manned up when the chocolates, cake, and crap came my way. So........
That brings me to the 2 hrs of Dante's Inferno today. A missed workout Friday was on the books for make-up today. Treadmill for 45 minutes at 500 calories, following by chest and back, followed by Ab ripper X. A 3 course workput meal of pain, torture, and nausea. Aren't treadmills hells revenge on people with any attention deficit disorder disorders? I think so. We have like 1000 channels and not even the best of the best movies take the edge of counting the minutes. And it's not even like it's painful - 5.1 mph? Pee-shaw. I've done cycling criteriums for 45 minutes at 170-175 bpm on the heart rate monitor. Why the counting then? My guess is 1. Your running 2. And not going anywhere 3. And that feels like it sucks 4. And scenery doesn't change 5. Just the name tread derives painful drugery and work in ones mind.
Chest and back went well. Pull up numbers stayed roughly the same while chest numbers increased again. Which brings me to this point and if your reading this, take heed. You have a body part that, in it's development, basically skipped class, partied a lot, came back to class, and now it is way behind. We all have them. That body part for me is my back (upper). It's not from a lack of work. Has been all my life. My lat's are "OK" but seriously...... they are the "minimum amount of flair", and we are not here for the minimum, are we?. So....I'm tossing in extra back stuff to help my body part that's currently riding the short school bus. You should not avoid this body part or pray to the muscle helper gods that it will be better, but rather learn to love that body part's crappiness by blasting it with more reps, better form, basically doing what it takes. My thing with bodies are they are about nice proportional development, not size.
Anyway after chest and back ARX was up. It sucked and was hard, painful and demoralising. Who the fuck are these people Horton has doing these ab routines? They are like these California Venice beach Terminator ab robots that just never stop, or fail.......they actually smile in pain. My abs will be bad ass at 155#. I know that. However, I'd like to due full reps on all 12 sets soon, goosh I'm kinda close (got 50 on Mason twists) so "take that Tony Horton and your minions of ab crunchy perfection people", but there we go again, do you really wanna do "just the minimum".
A word quickly about diets. This is in reference mostly to stuff I hear from co-workers that are "trying" new diets. Saltine crackers....... are not good for snacking on while losing weight because they are flour, and salt, and fat, and other stuff that fucks you up. Chicken nuggets...... are not a low carb option. I'm not a scientist or nutritionist but common sense tells me "the chicken" didn't have "a nugget" around it at time of death. The nugget is once again...... flour, and salt, and other stuff that fucks you up. Whole foods is were it's at. A whole food is food that wasn't altered by a machine spaying "nugget juice" on the whole food. Eat them and you will lose weight - guaranteed. Diets aren't fun, but only losing .009854 lbs a week with goal weight being realized in the year 2020 sucks more. You (I) did the crime (shoved Cool Ranch Doritoes and ice cream in my face) and now am doing the time (P90X). I'm off my soap box....
Thanks for reading
Billy
Let's see, last Thursday night I busted out legs and back. I gotta say the first month of P90X is stacked heavy on arms (mostly biceps) and back. Really when you look at the moves we got 1st day chest and back, 3rd day shoulders/biceps/tri's, and 5th day legs and back. So you can see back is getting hit twice a week and bi's I count 3 times (pull ups in back exercises and then bi's with shoulders and tri's). My point is it's easy to have a bad day somewhere in there crushing the arms like that.
My right leg still isn't up to par. I'm really notice during lunges there just isn't the punch from my right leg as in my left. Gotta work on that over the Winter. You will hear of Pro cyclists having disparity between leg strength and it's easy to hide pedaling but lunges are in your face - either you can do it or push pause. Anyway I went full time on both wall squats. Legs is a quiet punishing little 55 minute deal. I find it works the hamstrings, lower back, and butt the most. Every Friday my hammies are sore and that's a good thing. When you think about it legs are half your body and a lot of guys including yours truly until about 10 years ago didn't give them due diligence. It's always a sad and sorry site, huge overly muscled upper body and then you see them.......the tiny little, no shape to them calves attached to legs that look like they were borrowed from a 7th grader. It's called a prison build. Wanna see one on a celebrity? I'm gonna front him out right now because he seems so cool......well........ he is actually, -it's LL Cool J. The dude is stacked on top (in his workout book at Borders) but he is prison build central all day long from legs down. There's just no shape to his legs, sad really. Should I tweet him and let him know? He's gotta know? Right? I got lucky from cycling 4 years and my legs and calves are proportioned correctly.
After legs and back I did ab ripper x and it sucked as usual.
Missed workout Friday - "say it ain't so Billy"!. It is so. Saturday was a busy day (attended a wedding) so Friday I had running around to do. But there's always a plan. The plan was don't blow the diet at the wedding. Kept it whole foods all day and manned up when the chocolates, cake, and crap came my way. So........
That brings me to the 2 hrs of Dante's Inferno today. A missed workout Friday was on the books for make-up today. Treadmill for 45 minutes at 500 calories, following by chest and back, followed by Ab ripper X. A 3 course workput meal of pain, torture, and nausea. Aren't treadmills hells revenge on people with any attention deficit disorder disorders? I think so. We have like 1000 channels and not even the best of the best movies take the edge of counting the minutes. And it's not even like it's painful - 5.1 mph? Pee-shaw. I've done cycling criteriums for 45 minutes at 170-175 bpm on the heart rate monitor. Why the counting then? My guess is 1. Your running 2. And not going anywhere 3. And that feels like it sucks 4. And scenery doesn't change 5. Just the name tread derives painful drugery and work in ones mind.
Chest and back went well. Pull up numbers stayed roughly the same while chest numbers increased again. Which brings me to this point and if your reading this, take heed. You have a body part that, in it's development, basically skipped class, partied a lot, came back to class, and now it is way behind. We all have them. That body part for me is my back (upper). It's not from a lack of work. Has been all my life. My lat's are "OK" but seriously...... they are the "minimum amount of flair", and we are not here for the minimum, are we?. So....I'm tossing in extra back stuff to help my body part that's currently riding the short school bus. You should not avoid this body part or pray to the muscle helper gods that it will be better, but rather learn to love that body part's crappiness by blasting it with more reps, better form, basically doing what it takes. My thing with bodies are they are about nice proportional development, not size.
Anyway after chest and back ARX was up. It sucked and was hard, painful and demoralising. Who the fuck are these people Horton has doing these ab routines? They are like these California Venice beach Terminator ab robots that just never stop, or fail.......they actually smile in pain. My abs will be bad ass at 155#. I know that. However, I'd like to due full reps on all 12 sets soon, goosh I'm kinda close (got 50 on Mason twists) so "take that Tony Horton and your minions of ab crunchy perfection people", but there we go again, do you really wanna do "just the minimum".
A word quickly about diets. This is in reference mostly to stuff I hear from co-workers that are "trying" new diets. Saltine crackers....... are not good for snacking on while losing weight because they are flour, and salt, and fat, and other stuff that fucks you up. Chicken nuggets...... are not a low carb option. I'm not a scientist or nutritionist but common sense tells me "the chicken" didn't have "a nugget" around it at time of death. The nugget is once again...... flour, and salt, and other stuff that fucks you up. Whole foods is were it's at. A whole food is food that wasn't altered by a machine spaying "nugget juice" on the whole food. Eat them and you will lose weight - guaranteed. Diets aren't fun, but only losing .009854 lbs a week with goal weight being realized in the year 2020 sucks more. You (I) did the crime (shoved Cool Ranch Doritoes and ice cream in my face) and now am doing the time (P90X). I'm off my soap box....
Thanks for reading
Billy
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Treadmill day
It's boring, boring, boring. But...running on a treadmill does a body good. As said before, Yoga and my back for now ain't happening. Just over 500 cal's burned at 5.1 mph.
It's a good prep for legs and back tonight which is gonna suck (in a good way)
Thanks for reading
Billy
It's a good prep for legs and back tonight which is gonna suck (in a good way)
Thanks for reading
Billy
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Shoulders and Arms
Shoulders, Tri's, Bi's. Just like Tony says, you know exactly what's coming.
This workout went a lot better for me this week. Left shoulder felt better so the distraction wasn't there. I also bumped weight because of my shoulder condition to 35# dumbbells. Since mine take awhile to change, the weight that's on there is there to stay for entire workout. The 35# took me to around 8 reps on most stuff (kinda low) but you gotta improve and move on. Upping your weight is part of the gig.
When that weight is too much specifically later in workout there is a lot of lateral shoulder raises I go to the bands I got at Walmart. Kinda nice really, 3 bands held together and you can use all 3 or remove whatever color you don't want. each color is different tension. For exercises were you need that tightness, these bands at 15 bucks get the job done.
My diet is the same as in past. My wife says I have the gift to eat the same thing day in, day out, and it's true. When I'm in training mode I see food as a tool, not a pleasure. I also feel that my body responds better if it gets consistently the same daily food. It's also easier for me to remember - protein shake, protein bar, chicken sandwich w/ fruit, almonds, chicken and lots of veggies. There is my day. Plenty of food because I eat every 2.3-3 hours. Once I get to my goal weight this diet will change but why mess with something that's working.
Now the dilemma, what to do tonight. In the past p90x 90 days I did it would be treadmill for 45 minutes. I'm curious to try something different. We'll see.
Thanks for reading
Billy
This workout went a lot better for me this week. Left shoulder felt better so the distraction wasn't there. I also bumped weight because of my shoulder condition to 35# dumbbells. Since mine take awhile to change, the weight that's on there is there to stay for entire workout. The 35# took me to around 8 reps on most stuff (kinda low) but you gotta improve and move on. Upping your weight is part of the gig.
When that weight is too much specifically later in workout there is a lot of lateral shoulder raises I go to the bands I got at Walmart. Kinda nice really, 3 bands held together and you can use all 3 or remove whatever color you don't want. each color is different tension. For exercises were you need that tightness, these bands at 15 bucks get the job done.
My diet is the same as in past. My wife says I have the gift to eat the same thing day in, day out, and it's true. When I'm in training mode I see food as a tool, not a pleasure. I also feel that my body responds better if it gets consistently the same daily food. It's also easier for me to remember - protein shake, protein bar, chicken sandwich w/ fruit, almonds, chicken and lots of veggies. There is my day. Plenty of food because I eat every 2.3-3 hours. Once I get to my goal weight this diet will change but why mess with something that's working.
Now the dilemma, what to do tonight. In the past p90x 90 days I did it would be treadmill for 45 minutes. I'm curious to try something different. We'll see.
Thanks for reading
Billy
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Sunday Chest back/Monday Plyo
Good workouts on both days. Mixed in some Bowflex chest stuff in later part of workout to augment some of the heavypants bending over back exercises. Also did some flys on the Bowflex but they aggravate my shoulder.
Later last week I started doing very light lateral raises (3lb) for my shoulder. It seems to help quite a bit. During work Thursday I did probably 20-30 sets of 25 reps. Not enough to get shoulder sore, just enough to get blood flowing and recover that area.
Ab Ripper X is a great 15 min of ab work. I get through about 75% of ea. set and crack. That will change soon enough.
Goal is to be at least mid to lowish 160# by end of month. Gotta watch diet better over weekend, especially Saturday.
Am noticing just like last 90 that at end of 5th or 6th day (of week) I get real tired. Gotta watch the attitude late in the week. Legs and back takes a lot out of you (5th day). Following that up the next day with a good attitude is tough.
Thanks for reading
Billy
Later last week I started doing very light lateral raises (3lb) for my shoulder. It seems to help quite a bit. During work Thursday I did probably 20-30 sets of 25 reps. Not enough to get shoulder sore, just enough to get blood flowing and recover that area.
Ab Ripper X is a great 15 min of ab work. I get through about 75% of ea. set and crack. That will change soon enough.
Goal is to be at least mid to lowish 160# by end of month. Gotta watch diet better over weekend, especially Saturday.
Am noticing just like last 90 that at end of 5th or 6th day (of week) I get real tired. Gotta watch the attitude late in the week. Legs and back takes a lot out of you (5th day). Following that up the next day with a good attitude is tough.
Thanks for reading
Billy
Friday, October 2, 2009
Legs and back.....a reminder
Well I shoulda known. Core Synergistics on Wednesday seemed like a great idea. It was not. Why? It sapped my legs too much and so I paid the piper yesterday when wall squats commenced. Fist time I haven't been able to go the full time on the wall. And I tried....hard. Other than that a great workout. Legs and back is tough. I find the leg excersizes will send your heartrate up and then bam (just like Pam) you gotta do pull ups with high heartrate right afterward. Add in some ARX and I was done.
Tonight I'm gonna run 45 minutes. Oh that's right I forgot. Kenpo also irratates my back because of the twisting. So much so that it distracts and that is a bummer. The treadmill will burn between 5-600 calories and steadystate cardio for 45 min ain't bad.
Forgot to mention I was sub 170 lbs this am. First time in about a year 169.5. That is because I'm eating Breakfast banana protein powder smoothie. Proten bar midmorning, whole wheat toast chick breast and apple, 25 almonds afternoon, and chicken breast with a lot o' veggies for dinner. If you eat small meals at 5 specific times, your hunger is not there and that leads to weight loss. Simple.
Thanks for reading
Billy
Tonight I'm gonna run 45 minutes. Oh that's right I forgot. Kenpo also irratates my back because of the twisting. So much so that it distracts and that is a bummer. The treadmill will burn between 5-600 calories and steadystate cardio for 45 min ain't bad.
Forgot to mention I was sub 170 lbs this am. First time in about a year 169.5. That is because I'm eating Breakfast banana protein powder smoothie. Proten bar midmorning, whole wheat toast chick breast and apple, 25 almonds afternoon, and chicken breast with a lot o' veggies for dinner. If you eat small meals at 5 specific times, your hunger is not there and that leads to weight loss. Simple.
Thanks for reading
Billy
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
