Monthly Archives: June 2012

Ab Ripper, P90X2, Shoulders Arms & Abs

Powering The Shoulders Arms And Abs

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Strange morning. I woke up smelling fire. No, the house wasn’t on fire. However there’s a lot of fires going on right now in the west. I can smell the burn miles away. Had me wondering if I’m taking in a lot more CO2 or something. Not jumping out of bed yet but I got my butt up and began powering the shoulders arms and abs workout today.

It’s a little toasty temperature wise, so I wasn’t planning on pushing myself overly hard. However, I noticed that I was getting new PBs in the routine. Higher weights, some higher reps, and in some cases higher reps and weights.

Maybe when I try too hard in a workout I’m over psyching myself or something. If some of the past couple of weeks are any indication, I seem to be finding more personal bests when I’m not pushing myself to get them. Very weird.

I’ve got some musical things to attend to after I have a nice organic breakfast and a Shakeology. Time for me to sign off after powering the shoulders arms and abs workout. Have a great day and see ya tomorrow for Yoga X2!

P90X2, Plyocide

My Plyocide

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A spark of difference this morning. When I woke up, I wasn’t nearly as tired. This has me thinking if there was something specific in my diet or world that has changed ever so slightly. I’m curious if the effect of a large fire spewing a ton of CO2 or ash into the air would have an effect on my sleep. Especially if I’m downwind of it. Hmmmm… This morning was my Plyocide.

While I wasn’t feeling 100% awake, I got into the workout and felt much better about it than I have in the past couple of weeks. If it’s not the fire issue, it might be a change in the diet. I haven’t changed much of my diet recently so it’s hard to say. Could very well be a heat factor too. It’s been warm, but not overtly hot like it was the past two weeks.

Either way, the workout of Plyocide today went extremely well. I wasn’t pushing myself to max anything out, but I kept up very well. That’s a bonus in my book.

Normally this would be my last week of phase two. However, since I took a half week with it last week and because I seem to notice the most change in my abdominal area during phase two, I believe I will do an additional week of it. I may do two more weeks of it – if only to hit my goal of a perfect flat 6 pack belly. So close. So. Close.

Time for a kickin’ breakfast sided with a Shakeology. I’ve got a hunger thanks to my Plyocide workout today. Follow it up with some music making. In the meantime, I’m going to throw down a challenge to you. Want to feel better than you ever have before? Want to get in great shape? Eat healthier? Then join my fitness challenge! Do it now and get ready for your hot new self.

Ab Ripper, Chest Back & Balance, P90X2

Chest Back Balance And Abs Oh Yeah

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You know, I dislike waking up in the morning feeling like I’ve slept but I’m still exhausted. I attribute that to sleeping in the heat. There should be AC, but there isn’t. Bummer. I sat wondering, is it smart for me to get into a workout? Mostly because I took the 2nd half of last week off with my body saying – time for a rest. I had to really push myself this morning. I got through chest back balance and abs oh yeah!

Once I got into the workout it started to flow. Despite feeling like I didn’t want to do a workout, my body was actually experiencing some PB’s in several of the moves. I still can’t explain that. I’m really not feeling like I should be able to do that. When I’m mentally tired and my body is saying it’s tired and yet I’m getting more reps in multiple moves – weird.

I even got through the bonus with one extra rep in one move. The rest were a tie. By the end of the workout I was sweating and feeling like I needed a rest. There is no rest for the wicked as after the cool down stretch it was Abs time.

The abs went well today too. Motoring through and getting every rep. Even through the haze in my head saying, dude you’re tired. I didn’t just manage, I got it without issues. Even the Phelon twist which is normally tiring, I got all the reps without trouble. I can’t explain that.

Either way I pounded through chest back balance and abs oh yeah! Time for a hearty breakfast along with a Shakeology to boot. Then it’s time to get on with the musical day.

P90X2, Plyocide

Plyocide Has Plyodied

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Today will be a rather short post. The title essentially says it all. My plyocide has plyodied. I had a tough one today.

My brain is wondering if my body is telling me – dude, I need a week off to recover. I’ll have to see how I’m feeling after the next workout in a couple of days. Mostly because tomorrow is a recovery day.

The gut feeling is my sleep pattern is off and that is what is truly affecting the workouts. I’ll know in a couple of days I suppose. Till then: Keep Pushin!

Ab Ripper, Chest Back & Balance, P90X2

Maintaining Chest Back And Abs

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In the saddle of a Monday with a workout to kick off the day. Booyah. As I started today, I was ready for a workout. Once I got into it, I felt, maybe I’ll only do half of it. Instead I got all the way through it treating it like I was maintaining chest back and abs.

What I mean by that is, I didn’t push for personal bests. Instead I felt more like I needed to maintain what I’ve got. There were a couple of moves today where I actually did achieve a PB. I’ll chalk that up to the fact that I wasn’t trying overly hard in most of the other parts of the regimen.

I did manage to get up and do an impossible/possible today. I did manage to do a few plyo med ball pushups. More than last week.

I also didn’t push myself as hard with the abs portion. For some reason, that made it a little easier as well. How odd.

I wonder how I’ll approach this workout next week. Will I push it for an entire round of PB’s? I don’t know yet. I’ll figure that out when I get there. For the time being I’m happy about maintaining chest back and abs. Enjoying the journey of P90X2. Time for some breakfast and a Shakeology!

Base Back & Abs, P90X2

X2 Base Back And Abs Punched

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I got my yoga X2 on yesterday. Didn’t post it, but it got done. This morning I woke up a little early, not sure why. Thus I’m getting my X2 Base Back and abs punched early. This is likely the hardest of workout of the 2nd phase of P90X2.

This is lots and lots of pull-ups interspersed with lots and lots of plyo moves. Work it, then push it, work it, then push it. Omph. Based on my numbers from the last journey through P90X2, I can say that I started off stronger, then ended up a little weaker.

Meaning, I did more pull-ups at the start. By the end I was doing slightly less. While I didn’t hit my PB in pull-ups, I do feel like I brought it as best I could. I did end up using heavier weights in the one move that has weights. Not only did I use more weight, I also did a couple more reps of that move – plyo lunge press.

The ab workout is getting easier, though a couple of the moves seem to be getting harder. I’m not sure how that works in my head. I know my abs and core are getting way stronger and that is the real concept here. The Phelon Twist is probably the one move that I’m still struggling a little with.

This concludes the first week of phase two. Overall I’ve seen improvements from the last time through. That is the goal. To Improve. While I got my X2 back back and abs punched today and I’m a little beat, I’m looking forward to next week. If you’re up for a challenge, contact me to get on the next fitness challenge group (space is limited). Time for Shakeology and breakfast.

P90X2, Shoulders Arms & Abs

Shoulders Arms And Abs Happy When I’m With You

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Late morning start. But then again, I’m a musician – what do you expect? Here’s the funny. My coach and my upline coach are also musicians. Today my workout was my upline coach’s workout in P90X2. Jason Scheff. That’s the Shoulders Arms and Abs Happy When I’m With You workout. I added the title after it because of two reasons.

Reason one. Jason actually says this to Tony in the video. Reason two. It’s the title of a song I wrote a couple of summers ago and is in a movie.

Despite the not so great Plyocide workout a couple of days ago, I’m back on a roll with the program. I increased weight over my first journey stats. That’s a big deal. Shows me I’m getting stronger still. Love it!

Add to that, the fact that I have a proper sized stability ball too, makes some of the moves hard. Better still, I’m getting more out of them. Bonus.

I’m feeling awesome. Especially since I got through the workout with flying colors and smashing the abs too. Plus in case you missed it, the title I gave earlier is a song that can be purchased. I’m saying Shoulders Arms and Abs Happy When I’m With You. That’s right, I’m up. Join me for a fitness challenge!

p.s. time for a Shakeology.

P90X2, Plyocide

Plyocide Mess

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Oh my. I definitely pushed it hard yesterday. This morning, after being up until 4:30 a.m. I woke up feeling some spots on my body that I don’t recall ever feeling before. Yet I was going to push on any way. That led me to a Plyocide mess.

What do I mean about that? Well…

Essentially I started the workout in an exhausted state. Not enough sleep. Plyocide is definitely not a workout you can do in a tired state. At least not effectively. I started up and got through the first portion. At the end of the first part I felt like pushing it any further would have been a dangerous thing to do.

What did I do?

I stopped. Heart pounding. Sweat dripping. Exhausted. Yikes.

We all have days where things aren’t as effective. Today was such a day for me. Tomorrow will be great to get on the foam roller!

Chest Back & Balance, P90X2

Chest Back Balance And Abs Starts Phase Two

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Hell yeah! That’s my feeling this morning. The week of doing recovery and mobility mixed with yoga has come to a close and the real workouts begin again. Chest Back Balance and Abs starts phase two for me today! 2nd phase, in my 2nd journey through P90X2. Slammin’.

Here’s my goals in this phase. One, I plan on doing the moves without assistance. I also wish to do as few moves as possible without modifications. There’s still a couple of moves I’ll have to accomplish via modifications due to a lack of equipment. Like the push-ups on 4 med balls. I haven’t yet brought myself to buy more med balls. I will soon though.

Doing the pull-ups without assistance today had me wondering what the fuck. Mostly because there are so many pull-ups. About half of today’s workout was pull-ups. Yikes. I started off strong. But by the end of the hour I was barely able to do more than 1 pull-up in some of the breakdowns.

With push-ups I did much better. However, there is one move where I was unable to do even one push-up. That was a push-up on a med ball with my feet on the stability ball. Holy hell. I didn’t do one. It was damn hard just to get my giant hands on the med ball then even attempt to get my feet onto the stability ball without falling over. I’m guessing that possibly I need to pump the stability ball with more air as it’s a little soft. I was finally able to get up on the balls as per the move. That is a huge step forward I suppose as that took a while to make that happen. It’s not easy. Thus next week my goal is to at least get up and do one push-up.

The other “bonus” is that I did the bonus round. Mind you I wasn’t able to kick serious ass. The very last move was a pull-up move and I did 1. But at least I did those moves.

Here’s my breakfast post beachbody workout:

Huevos Rancheros

Yum!

I sided it with some Shakeology. Now I’m feeling ready to tackle my day. Chest back balance and abs starts phase two and puts me just over the 1/3 mark of completing my 2nd journey. I’m going to be starting another fitness challenge – so get on board and join me.

Balance + Power, P90X2

Balance And Power To End Phase One

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What a week. Well, what a week and a day or so extra. Ended up having to wait until today to do Balance and Power due to attending the dirty dash and some X2 Golf. This third week was pretty amazing all things considered. Alas though, with Balance and Power to end phase one of my 2nd journey through P90X2, I’m looking forward to the next section.

What makes this past week amazing is the personal bests I experienced. Especially with two days where I went into the workouts tired. Today I wasn’t exhausted going in, like I was with Total Body and Yoga. No, I was a little off, but not terribly. I’m beginning to think it may very well be getting too hot at night while I’m sleeping. Yet again, like the last two workouts, I hit some PBs, or Personal Bests.

Sphinx Plyo Rollup is one move I did more of. Decline Sphinx Plank is another move where I doubled my last week’s output! That’s impressive. Several of the moves saw increased weight as well. All of this is higher output than my first journey through P90X2. So close to my “beachbody” I can smell it – ew.

As this phase closes down, I ought to take a pic or two to see if there’s any inner phase changes. I’m sure there are. The last super piece to my fitness puzzle right now is the little remaining belly that is left. I’m gonna work it as much as I can to get it gone in last 60 days. That goal is the remaining goal at the moment.

With Balance And Power to end phase one, I’m now going to make a hearty breakfast with a shakeology and set out for a quick hike up a mountain with my dog. Then it’s time to mix one of 3 remaining theme songs, pick out about 20 tracks for a sports network, then it’ll be time to play some music and have some fun. In the meantime, join me in a fitness challenge. Get in shape and love your life!