Tag Archives: pullups

Total Body Ends With A Bang And A Bonk

I’m not fond of waking up tired. Such is the case this morning. I got a full 7+ hours of sleep. Yet someone I was still sluggish. Uncool. Despite that, I still pushed myself into today’s workout. What happened is that Total Body ends with a bang and a bonk. I’ll explain.

Feeling tired is not likely the best way to enter a workout. What is weird is that I started off doing better in my reps. Increasing reps is a good sign. Especially when you’re increasing your weight used too. Such is what was going on today. More reps. Hell, I got a new personal best on pull-ups too. Mind you, pull-ups are not my strength. Yet this makes two weeks in a row with new personal bests in pull-ups.

By the last 1/4 of the workout I was beginning to bonk. My tiredness was catching up to me. I had to pause in-between moves to catch my breath. Digging down deep to find what energy I could to continue on and do the moves. Being careful not to kill the form and hurt myself.

At the end of the final move I collapsed. So tired. Done. Collect the $200, but don’t pass Go. Lying on the floor in a heap of a sweaty mess. Tired to the core in complete exhaustion. Exhausted to the point where I couldn’t do the cool down moves and certainly unable to push on for the ab workout. Unfortunate.

Strange to have such a personal best of a P90X2 workout in a haze of tired. Odd that I increased reps. Easy to believe that I essentially bonked before the end. I must be mental to have pushed myself like that. Which is why Total Body ends with a band and a bonk. How is your journey to fitness going? Getting stronger? Wanna get into better shape with a fitness challenge? Join me! Time for a Shakeology.

Final Base Back And Abs Of Phase Two

Today marks the end of my 2nd phase in the P90X2 journey. I inserted an extra day due to a chance yesterday for a free day of skiing. One can never pass up a free day of skiing, especially when it’s an awesome spring day. As I say, a day spent skiing is a great day. Besides, Tony Horton is a skier and I’m sure he’d understand. As I mentioned at the beginning this is the final base back and abs of phase two.

Things I noticed. I got more reps on the pull ups. Most I’ve done unassisted. While I was an ardent follower of the “assist” method in P90X, I found that while I could do a lot of reps, I couldn’t manage to do a lot of pullups at all unassisted. Maybe it’s harder for a taller person to really do pullups. However, I’m finally working up numbers past 5 reps. That’s great for me. Being that I previously couldn’t do more than 3. Thus that’s a big 50% jump in reps for me.

For the plyo portions I was keeping up. Only had one moment where I had to pause the DVD as I was winded and needed to catch my breath, but I’m pushing it hard too. Despite a slightly weak start in this phase, I’m now feeling ready to take my recovery week then start phase three.

There were a couple of moves in the ab ripper where I lost momentum, or the ability to complete the move due to exertion. Beyond that I completed the rest of it. Hardest one right now is still Abernome and also Phelon. Ooof. But I keep my mind at it and continue to push.

Wrapping up the final base back and abs of phase two leaves me feeling great. Time to eat, and conduct the rest of my day. What have you accomplished today?

X2 Phase Two Chest Back Balance Plus Ab Ripper

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.