Category Archives: Chest Back & Balance

Chest Back & Balance, P90X2

Phasing Back Up With P90X2

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I had to take some time off for the past few weeks. I’m now phasing back up with P90X2. While I thought I’d hit my ultimate goal with my belly, there were a couple of issues cropping up.

Issue one. I started to burn out a little bit.

Issue two. I got ill with a damn summer cold that turned into a sinus infection. Ick.

Issue three. I ran in the 10k Dirty Dash race. I was running in the mountains, over obstacles and through mud pits. Along the way, I destroyed a pair of shoes and some how managed to injure my knee. Which meant – I needed to let my knee recover.

Happiness is – I’m back at it. Sadness is, I figured I’d still be right where I left off. However, after a super strong start where I did more reps, I petered off and ended up getting less reps in moves towards the end. My arms really need to be kept up on to retain strength.

The Abs have retained their strength as the ab ripper portion of the workout was A Ok. Makes me think I need to step up the Ab portion and do more reps in each more or something. Cause in my phasing back up with P90X2, I still intend on reaching that flat belly. I’m still very close to my goal!

Ab Ripper, Chest Back & Balance, P90X2

Chest Back And Balance Oh My

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Another week in phase two has begun. The quest for the flattening belly is nearing completion, but there is work to be done. For today it was chest back and balance oh my. Oh and I mustn’t forget abs too.

I felt better about today’s workout than I did after doing it a week ago. I did get more reps this time around. That’s a good thing. But I did find that my arms were starting to give out at points in the workout. A little concerning. I didn’t bonk.

It was the pull-ups especially wide arm ones where I had the most trouble. As the workout progressed I had to start modifying them. I know it’s because I’ve been pushing myself hard last week with the arm workouts. I’m likely still catching up to the efforts I’ve given them and they want rest.

The ab portion is starting to get a bit easier than it should. My solution is adding additional reps. Which I started today. Hopefully this will accelerate my goal. Not sure I’ll hit it by the end of the week, but I’m making the effort.

I’m off to have my breaky and a Shakeology. Let me know when you’re hitting up the phase two workout that makes you say chest back and balance oh my. If you’re not working out, it’s time to join me! Take a fitness challenge!

Ab Ripper, Chest Back & Balance, P90X2

Chest Back & Balance And Abs In Phase Two Redux

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Today I’m back in the workout saddle. I’m heading back to Chest Back & Balance and Abs in phase two redux. Why? Well, I’m still working on my ultimate goal.

What is my ultimate goal? A flat belly.

The lowest 1/3 of my 6-pack still has about a 1/2″ of remnant fat on it. Not that I was ever actually fat. But for some reason, that’s where it’s accumulated on my person. Since I started P90X a little over a year ago, my initial goal was to get into better shape. I’ve met that goal.

Now that I’m in great shape, my goal is more of a sculpting the body type of thing. The one area that is lacking happens to be the one area that is finally getting erased. Even with the much needed week off, it was still dwindling.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. I noticed the biggest change in my midsection during phase two. Which is why I’ve decided to add in a few more weeks of it. That should get me the result I’m looking for.

The workout itself was good to get back in with. However, I noticed that my arms have lost a little something in a few areas. There were some moves where I got less reps. In others I got more reps. So it was a bit of a trade. What I did notice was my arms feeling super tired halfway through. I was pushing it. Hard.

Could be a need to start doing more arm workouts as well. I don’t know if it’s a tall thing, or if my arms are just weak overall. But I’m now setting a new goal of wanting to get a bit more arm strength.

Breakfast has been had. Shakeology has been drunk. It’s time to get on with my day. Join me tomorrow for the next workout recap. Better yet, join me in getting more fit for yourself! Isn’t it time you worked out your chest back & balance and abs in phase two redux? You know you wanna.

Chest Back & Balance, P90X2

Extra Week In Phase Two Of P90X2

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Doing something I haven’t done before in any of my journeys through a beachbody workout. Usually I’m of the mindset, don’t worry, move on. This time though, I’m adding an extra week in phase two of P90X2.

Two weeks ago I had a half of a week. My body was telling me “Joe, take it easy on me.” Not sure why, but I listened. Oddly though, each time I did do a workout where I was drained or not fully into it, I started hitting personal bests.

Regardless, I decided I’d add an additional week this time around. Today was a little rough with chest back and balance. I didn’t overly push it but I did hit a personal best in one thing. The Impossible/Possible move. I finally got a single rep on it. Previously in the past 3 weeks I had gotten up on the balls but constantly fell. Only to get down in the movement and unable to get back up. Today I did fall again, but then I went down in the move and mustered getting back up once. It wasn’t overly pretty, but I did it finally!

I also got another personal best in plyo stability ball push ups. Those aren’t quite as hard as the Impossible/Possibles. Nonetheless I got a PB there too.

I think the real trick in phase two is the amount of core being work. P90X2 overall works the core more, but the 2nd phase to me is really pushing it. Maybe that’s where the belly fat is coming off at. I don’t have a lot of it. Never did. But now it’s almost gone. There’s a tiny bit left. One extra workout week won’t kill me and may be that push I need to get rid of the soft.

The abs routine, ab ripper X2 is also more prominent in phase two. Going 3 of the days of the week. Which may also explain the decrease of belly size. That is the last goal and it’s sooooooooo close to being gone. Who knows… If I move to phase three and finish without it being totally gone, I may insert another week of phase two before I say I’ve completed journey two.

My P90X2 official T-shirt is in my mailbox. That’s a cool sense of accomplishment. Maybe I’ll snap a pic of me wearing it when I complete this 2nd journey. That could be cool. Anyway, I’m off to eat a hearty breakfast plus a shakeology and get on with my day. I’m mentally prepping myself to continue enjoying this extra week in phase two of P90X2.

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.

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!

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.

Chest Back & Balance, P90X2

Third Time Is A Charm With Chest Back And Balance

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As I mentioned yesterday I had somehow gotten off by a day. Normally I’d let it go, but instead, this time around I decided to get back in sequence. So I put two workouts back to back that would normally have a day off in between. Wow. Kicking off week three I can say that the third time is a charm with chest back and balance.

My goal was to do no pullup with any assistance. I made that goal. However the reps went down a lot. I started strong with my highest unassisted number ever, but by the end I was petering out and still did a few unassisted. There was one, the “Lever” to which I only got 1 done. I went for a second and got half way up. Damn hard that is.

The Impossible/Possible got 3x better. Instead of 1, I got 3. That’s improvement there. Overall I felt a lot better about the workout. The only thing I could have done better with is the Chattaroll and the rest of the bonus. I did do 3 of those as well, compared to 1 last time too. But I couldn’t quite get to the final two bonus moves. I’ll chalk that up to putting to workouts back to back where there should be a rest day.

Looking forward to plyocide tomorrow. Weird to say that. But then I’m feeling good having had a third time is a charm with check back and balance kinda day.

Where are you at in your journey? Join me and start blogging about your exploits here. I’m looking for a few P90X2’ers to start bloggin.

Chest Back & Balance, P90X2

Second Chest Back And Balance Including Abs

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After a couple of extra days to end my first week of Phase Two, I’m back at it and going for full blast. Unlike last week, I pushed for more reps. Which is something that made me think, hmmm… Dare I say it’s harder than last time? Yes, I do. Which means that my second chest back and balance including abs workout wasn’t like last time.

First, I decided that I would do some of the reps with assists to see if I could get the numbers up. This proved to be more difficult. Meaning I didn’t get as many as I would have hoped to get in. By the end of the workout I was pushing it and realized that I didn’t get nearly as many unassisted. Strange.

I was really hurting in the pullup department. Not sure why. This time around it was a major struggle. That’s a slight blow to the ego. Hopefully next week will prove that I can get some of those unassisted reps back. At least I’m gonna push for that.

I did go for some of the bonus moves this week. The first bonus move, I got 2 reps. Yikes. The second bonus move I sat out. The third one, I went for it, got into the move and didn’t get out. Holy cow! Talk about hard at the end of a workout.

The Ab Ripper X2 at the end of the workout this time wasn’t so bad. I’m finally getting to the point that I’m keeping up with the moves, except for Abernome (spelling?) that one is still a little tough to keep up with.

All in all, it was a good workout. I may actually stick with Phase two for an extra week, unless next week goes spectacularly. But at the ending of my second chest back and balance including abs workout in Phase Two of the X2 Journey, I’m definitely feeling it!

Ab Ripper, Chest Back & Balance, P90X2

X2 Phase Two Chest Back Balance Plus Ab Ripper

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Let me start by writing: Holy Cow!

That’s what was running through my head during this workout. I have a very distinct feeling that tomorrow I am really going to be feeling the X2 phase two chest back balance plus ab ripper workout in a very big way.

Today marks the start of the next phase of the journey in P90X2. I’ve been looking forward to it. My oh my. I thought getting started in P90X was hard early last year. Even phase one wasn’t all that big of a deal. Now the burners are turning on and I’m feeling like a noobie all over again.

There are several moves that are like – what the fuck?!? – Especially the L pullups, and the crunch curl pull up (I think that was the name). Wow. Talk about super hard. I’m not good at pullups as it is and unlike P90X, I’m attempting to do as many as I can with zero assist. This means my reps have gone way down.

There’s another move, an pushup type of move with your feet elevated and you’re on a med ball with your hands. I did 1. Yes, that’s 1. I can do decline diamond pushups, but wow, this one was harder.

I am noticing more changes in my body in less time that it took with P90X. Thus I will say P90X2 is way more awesome. Do I think I will see even bigger changes in Phase Two? Uh, yeah. That would be an understatement.

I did take my 30 day pics today. I can’t wait to see the changes as they occur over the 90 days.

For those readers who are on the fence about getting into P90X, or who have done P90X and are looking to get into P90X2 – what are you waiting for? Get with it and then you can explain to someone why you have done the X2 phase two chest back balance plus ab ripper workout and felt good about it, despite starting with low numbers.

Tomorrow marks the next step. I can’t wait. Hopefully my body will be ready.