P90X - One Week In...

A week ago Stuart and I lost our minds.  We borrowed the P90X program from one of Stuart's co-workers, and just started. We didn't really talk about it, or discuss the pros and cons of starting an intense, 90-day workout plan right in the middle of one of the crazier times in my work year. Glad we did though.  For those of you who don't know what P90X is, here's a link to part of the infomercial:

It's made our lives pretty structured, but its been great to spend time working out together. I leave work between 4 and 4:30, go pick up Corgan, get her home and feed her dinner, cook dinner (from one of my pre-prepped meals) while she's in the highchair eating hers, Stuart gets home about 5:30, we eat dinner, we play with child, one of us puts her to bed while the other cleans up dinner and feeds the dogs, then we change into workout gear, clear all the furniture in the living room, do 60-90 minutes of P90X, put all the furniture back, clean up, and try to relax. It all ends between 8:30 and 9:00.

The synopsis of week one:
Day 1 – Chest and Back, plus Ab Ripper X
This kicked our butts! Pull ups? Really? Who can do pull ups anymore? We made the deal that we would finish the whole thing no matter what, and we did, but we hurt so bad the next day.  It felt great.  I love the way I feel after a good workout.  The achy muscles remind me of how good I was.  Too bad I'm normally too lazy to actually work out.

The Ab Ripper part is kind of a nightmare, and we have to do it three times a week. You do 11 different hellish ab/core exercises at 25 reps each.  Stuart is doing great at this one, but my once-broken tail bone is fighting me every minute.

Day 2 – Plyometrics
This is supposed to be the hardest of the first month videos, and it was a lot of fun.  Think "jump like a cat." This video keeps you moving and up in the air like a cat that someone snuck up on.  Luckily, I started running again about 3 weeks ago so my cardio was where I needed to be to survive. I don't think Stuart was as lucky.

Day 3 – Shoulders and Arms, Ab Ripper X
This was a lot of biceps and triceps exercises, but we don't have enough weights to make it truly effective.  We have resistance bands, but we ended up using canned green beans (1 lb) for me, and pasta sauce (2 lb) for Stuart.  Does anyone have 5 or 10 lb weights we could borrow for a few months? We would really appreciate it!

Day 4 – Yoga X
Good stretch, difficult moves, BORING!  After 45 minutes we called it quits.  The session is 90 minutes, but neither one of us was enjoying it.  It was taking a lot of will power to stay in some of the positions, and it felt great to stretch out our muscles after all the arm workouts, but yoga is not our cup of tea.  We'll probably do 45 minutes each time alternating part of the video.

Day 5 – Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X
I totally blew this one apart! (Sorry Stuart) I love this one. Keep in mind I'm a dancer (no, not that kind), so I've always had strong legs.  It was fun to remember what I can do with them.  It was no kick line workout, but it got the muscles working for sure.

Day 6 – Kenpo X
This was Stuart's favorite.  He's a second degree black belt, so he was having fun turning it into a Tae Kwon Do workout.  I was doing my best not to look like a total doof.  (Yes, that's a word in my world.) We sweated up a storm, but my muscles are adjusting to the workouts, so I'm not crazy sore.

Day 7 – Rest or X Stretch
I did a one-week weigh-in, and I'm a little disappointed.  Before we started doing this, we took all our measurements (which I won't share right now), and took the 'before' pictures (which I may never share), but we forgot to get the 'before' weight.  I had weighed myself a couple of weeks ago and was sitting at 163.9 lbs.  I figured after a week of P90X that would be down a bit, so I went and took my 'before' weight on the rest day.  I gained 1.5 lbs! What the *bleep*! So irritating.  Stuart says its because our water intake has drastically increased (I used to drink almost nothing in a day, and now I'm up to a couple of large reusable water bottles), but I'm not convinced.  I'm down a belt notch, and I feel like I'm doing better, but I gained weight! I know muscle weighs more than fat, but I didn't think that would come into play for a while yet.

Well, we're still going to keep it up, because it feels great to be active.  I'm really riding the endorphin high, and I think my cheery attitude is irritating Stuart. He hates the working out process, and I'm like a giddy little school girl right now.  7 days down, 83 to go!