Two day update

Sorry but things have been pretty busy, all due to the holidays coming up soon. The only thing I missed was Yoga this weekend, however I took time to do some of the Yoga I did when my back was messed up in order to stretch my back and try to relax it. So far no issues with my back, all is well and still back at the GYM full time.

Yesterday I did chest and back. Still hitting it pretty heavy, however I am considering doing some research and changing the way I am doing my workouts. I am not feeling as pumped, well by the time I start feeling the pumped action my workout is over. I need to change the way I work the group of muscles out, maybe hit the same muscle more often instead of changing to do different things, it only seems to work well without weights for P90X, we shall see, for now I will continue with what I am doing and once I have time I will check it out.

The abs however I increased the weight, I was using a medicine ball of 6kg which is 13.23lbs. We don’t have a heavier ball so I had to use a weight plate, and there is no 15lbs or 20lbs plate, so I took a 25lb plate, oh man that was so awesome, try doing Ab Ripper X with that, way to cool the burn is insane, loved it.

Today I did cardio and I did the bike for 50min on hill pules and set to level 10, so apparently I traveled 24.06k and burnt 449cal. My heart rate went as high as 153. It was a really good workout, broke a nice sweat.

Tomorrow I will do shoulders and arms.

I will also say that I have a Christmas party from work to go to this Friday, which is in a totally different building so I will not be doing my leg workout on Friday.

So far I am happy with all workouts except for Chest and Back, will research it at some point, either more weight or less types of exercises, we shall see.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

1 Large, but short update LOL

Sorry for the delay, I was busy plus I had been a bit upset at the same time, I lost my wedding ring on Monday and can’t seem to find it. It was to big for my finger since I lost so much weight, I should have been more careful

Monday:

OK so this week I came back full force to the GYM, I started with chest &  back and I went right where I left off and if felt so good, so good in fact that still today 4 days later I am still sore on my chest LOL.

I did my ab ripper x the same way with a 6kg ball and my abs felt so good, I really missed this.

Tuesday:

I did cardio on the bike, I did it for 45min and I really pushed myself again with level 10.

Wednesday:

Shoulders and arms, again exactly where I had left it off, I followed pretty much the P90X routine on this one, since I like this and again ab ripper x with the medicine ball.

Today Thursday:

I did card and I ran on the treadmill for 45min and it felt fantastic.

Well best part of this week so far, no issues with my back what so ever, it’s like it never happened. I am really happy.

What else am I happy about? Well today I went out and purchased a new pair of pants and guess what? I am now a size 30, if you remember I was size 32. They started feeling big. The size 30 does not just fit me, it’s actually perfect, I do not need to suck my tummy in to put them on, so I have enough room to sit down properly and to have a full tummy after eating LOL so basically I have room in them. The last time I saw size 30 was at the end of the high school year, most of high school I was size 28 and by the end I had increased to size 30. Damn that is really something.

So the main lesson here is that you need to keep moving no matter what, sitting still is what gets you fat and eating large portions of food very few times a day. So eat small portions of food at least 5 times a day (eat healthy too and cut things high on sugar like pop) and keep an active life style and this will help you loose weight and maintain it.

Sorry this was not more informative, but soon I will get back to being more detailed.

Tomorrow I have Legs & Back.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Another Cardio Day

Yesterday I did X-Stretch, it has been a while since I have done this DVD. It actually felt good to stretch.

Today I went back on the bike. I bid another 45min, but this time I increased the level to 10, before I did it on level 8. The machine said I traveled 21.16k and I burnt 392cal. It was really tough on the really high hill settings, a couple of times I had to stand in order to be able to continue peddling and trying to make sure I did not drop below 90 RPMs. during down hill I tried to increase the RPMs as high as I could, going at speeds of 140 RPMS, which is why I traveled further this time. Well it said I traveled further LOL.

Tomorrow I will be doing Yoga.

I feel so much better right now and Monday I will start the weights. However next week I have a 9-5 shift, so I will workout in the mornings again, also I have to move a lot of equipment next week as well, so I will be doing double workout basically, but I will take extra precautions and will use carts to carry equipment around when necessary as I don’t want to over due it yet.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

First day back

Today was my first day back after my back incident, it went quite well actually. As you all know this week I am just doing cardio, therefore I started with the bike. I used it for 45min, the machine said I covered 18.86km and burnt 334cal. My hear rate went up as high as 146. Did not have any issues, and I will say it felt fantastic!

I will take this week easy so tomorrow I will do X-Stretch to stretch my muscles that I have not worked out in 2 weeks and make sure my back gets the care it needs, also on Thursday I will do Yoga, so Wednesday and Friday will be cardio days and I will try the treadmill on Friday. So hopefully all goes as planned and next Monday I will be lifting weights again.

I will say I am pretty happy about this

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Time to get back to the GYM

Sorry for not posting any updates for a bit, was not really to happy with me having issues with my back. However my back is a lot better. I have been treating it like a baby. It seems I had really hurt myself pretty bad, and I am glad that I had done all this workout before and therefore my core is stronger than it use to be so I recovered a lot faster, but even though I was feeling better I decided I would not be stupid and wait.

During the time I was with back pains I did a bit of yoga, I researched moves that were good to relieve back pain, some of them are all ready the same ones we were use to like cat stretches, cobra and child pose, plus some that get you to twist your torso. I did them little by little, also discovered that you really need to relax during yoga, a lot. For example when you do cobra, your back muscles are actually flexed and are supporting you, but if your looking for flexibility, you need to breath out, close your eyes and concentrate on letting the muscles go, don’t let them hold you and you will be surprised on how flexible you become and you bend more plus the muscles relax, I didn’t know how much the muscles were helping me until everything you do with them hurts LOL.

I did this every other day and it helped out a lot. Today I actually did the full yoga X. I am trying to prepare my back to go back to the GYM, however this week I will only be doing cardio, and I will do yoga and x stretch in between my cardio. I need more stretching, 2 weeks of not doing anything and I can really feel it when I stretch LOL.

I was able to do the yoga x as normal today, with a push up in-between each upward dog and downward dog, and it felt so good, plus remembering to relax my muscles at certain times, really helped.

After I was done, my back felt a bit tired, so I am glad I decided to cardio it for this week, that way I give it another week for recovery and I start getting my heart rate back on track, plus if I feel that my back is not ready I will do another week of cardio.

I have not weighted myself, however I am sure I gained weight, I have not kept any diet during this time and I ate lots of stuff LOL, so it is also time to clean up a little bit in that department too.

Well I shall let you all know how tomorrow goes for me.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

PS:

I just took my weight, I just had to know and guess what, I have not gained or lost anything in these 2 weeks LOL I still weigh exactly 154.6lbs, must be because my metabolism is still going on high gear and I still have snacks, I try to eat at least 5 times a day. Very interesting considering that the first week I could not even walk, so I spent it either sitting or in bed, plus eating LOL.

Thought you would like to know

A Quick Update

First off I want to apologize for not updating in a while, but first I was busy right after work last week and then I had a bit of an accident.

On Saturday I went to help remove the dock from the lake before winter arrives. I had the frame of the dock on my shoulders, and it was snowing wet snow and the grass was slippery, as I was coming out, I slipped with the dock still on my shoulders and trying to hold myself and the weight of the dock I threw my back out.  I have been at home since then recovering, so no working out or anything. I am feeling much better now and will return to work tomorrow, well I hope, but I wont be working out till I know I wont re hurt my back as I have been lifting a little heavy and I do back at least twice a week.

Well last week was pretty awesome, my workouts were very good, shoulders & arms went pretty well, I pumped up very good.

The cardio day I chose to do the bike, and this time I brought my media player, I watched Tomb Rader for 50min and I can tell you it was awesome I totally had forgotten at times that I was working out, however I found at times I was slowing down as I was getting in to the movie but I caught and increased the speed. I was on the bike for the entire 50min.

Legs and back was also pretty good, I kept the same weight than last time and it felt good.

I will let you all know when I decide to head back to the GYM and workout, but even though it is bothering me that I have not been able to workout and I wont be able to for a bit longer, I have to look out for myself or I wont be working out ever again and that is not something I would like.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Morning Cardio

Alright so as I mentioned before this week I am working out at 7:30am since I work 9-5.

Today I had cardio and decided that I would run on the treadmill. Now again I got up, I did not have breakfast and just went for it. Yesterday it was not big deal, but since today I was working even harder because it is non-stop moving, I felt it. I was slowly increasing my speed, I went to 8K/hr and by the time I reached 15min, I was starting to have some issues, I was starting to weekend a bit and to top it off I told the machine to give me 45min which in turn would give me 45min + 5min cool down a total of 50min and last time I was there for 40 + 5min cool down. Because I wanted to last, I brought the speed back down to a fast walk, I fast walked for 1min and I felt much better then I upped it to 5.5K and I was jogging and left it there. I was able to complete the entire time with no issues.

I was there a bit longer so I burnt more calories but traveled less. I burnt 478 calories and only traveled 3.78K.

Now my protein is Whey Protein and only contains 120cal, and I needed to replenish some more, I picked up a couple of chocolate covered almonds to get the extra bit of sugar, to make sure I lasted all day at work walking around, carrying PCs and what not.

The run was pretty awesome, I was able to workup one heck of a sweat, well imagine being on a treadmill for 50min LOL it’s boring as hell, and yet again I totally forgot to bring my media player, so I had to try and keep my mind occupied, at times I would forget I was even jogging LOL and I would look and 6min would have passed, that was cool.

Well tomorrow I have Shoulders & Arms. Now after work I have to head out and I have a 1hr drive one way and another back, so I am not sure when I will be home and if I will have time to write an update.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Chest & Back

For this week I work 9-5 and I don’t want to be there any later so I went to the GYM at 7:30am. This actually proved to be pretty cool. I did not have any breakfast as I did not have time, but that did not seem to affect me this morning at all.

I did the same exact routine as last week, mostly working with weights and some of the exercises were left as is, to make sure I got the best of both worlds. I lifted the same amount of weight as last time as well, it felt good to bench press yet again. I got a nice pump. I will say I had to do a bit more pull ups than I had expected, there was someone else working out with the same machines as I was, and at a couple of times I did not feel like stopping and waiting therefore I just went and did pull ups instead. I believe next week I may try to add a bit more weight. I started with 91lbs and moved to 101, so I may start at 101 and move to 111.

When doing flies I used the 32lbs weights, last time I use the 27lbs, so I am slowly increasing, that is awesome.

Sorry this was a bit short.

Tomorrow I have cardio and because it will be in the morning I may just run on the treadmill.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Yoga

Sorry I did not post last night, I decided to go out and did not come back till pretty late.

Yesterday was fantastic, I got up early and did Yoga early in the morning and for this I put in the Yoga X DVD, I don’t look at it anymore, I just listen to it, I hear for the cues and I like the music LOL. I really needed it, my back and neck were a bit tight and this seemed to have done the trick for sure, so basically you should not cut Yoga out of the equation even when doing your own stuff.

I did manage to take my weight and measurements yesterday morning as well. And here is what my stats currently look like:

Weight:

	Week 1
Weight	154.2
Body Fat %	8.5%
Lean Body Mass	141.1
Fat Body Mass	13.1
Body Surface Area (BSA)	17.2
Body Mass Index (BMI)	22.8

First off remember that it has been 2 weeks since I last weighed myself. And I lost exactly 3lbs, now the week before I started doing my own stuff, if you remember I only went to the GYM 3 times and was on cardio machines for no more than 35min. Not sure how much impact that had. I will say it is not exactly what I was looking for, yes I want to loose the rest of the fat, but I want to convert to muscle so I hope that now I start gaining some, I don’t know if going under 150lbs is a good thing or not. All I know is that it’s not winter yet and I am damn cold, was never this cold before, I guess the layers of fat kept me warm.

Measurements:

	Week 1
Neck	15
Shoulder	16.5
Chest	40.5
Waist	33.25
Abdomen	33.75
Hips	33.75
Thigh	20.75
Knee	14
Calf	14
Ankle	8.25
Arm	11.5
Forearm	11
Wrist	6.75
Waist-Hip Ratio	0.985185

 

The most interesting here is that I lost on my neck yet again, I had not lost there for a bit, I was stuck at 15.25 for quite a while and some how now I am 15 inches on the neck, and the same thing goes for my ankle, for the longest time I had 8.5 and yesterday I had 8.25.

 

I also want to mention that it has been pretty cold here lately, and cold tends to shrink your skin as the body contracts to try to keep warm, this could also have to do with this situation. We shall see how it all goes from here.

 

So far I have been happy with what I am doing, but I wont know how all of this is working out for me until I have been doing this for a couple of weeks or so.

 

Starting next week, I work 9-5, I only get these shifts every once in a while, so when I get them, I will be working out in the morning, instead. Tomorrow I am back to Chest & Back and we will continue our experimental adventure.

 

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Legs & Back Totally Modified!

Today it was legs & back and I knew that this was going to be a total change. Now don’t get me wrong, the P90X workout is pretty good, and keeps you in shape, but my legs are skinny and it’s time for some mass if possible LOL so I needed to change everything because about 1 or 2 exercises for legs could be translated over.

So I scoped the GYM today while I was working to see what I had at my disposal, there are 5 different types of workout equipment I could use for legs. First thing I decided was I would use only 4 at a time, to A) be able to alternate in order to keep muscle confusion and B) I don’t want to kill myself right off the bat LOL.

Also there are 4 back exercises, so I figured 4 leg ones and do 1 of each. But because I was lifting enough for only 6 to 10 reps I repeated the sequence 3 times. So here is what I did.

• First off I warmed up and stretched up, I made sure both my shoulders and legs were nice and ready before I started, did not want to tear something, this I only did once.
• Leg Press: I started with Leg Press, they kind of can replace a squat. However the other equipment I did not use, which I will use next week which is actually full squats. Here is the Machine I used :

Again from Atlantis, the starting weight on this is 125lbs, I did not know this when I used it, there was weights added and I took off some to test it out, I left two 45lb plates adding 90lbs and that seemed pretty good so I was pushing 215lbs and was doing 10 reps nice and slow.

• Reverse Grip Chin Ups: This time I did them just as is, because last time the wide front pull ups were the ones I did as is. And because I am no longer following the video, I did these the way I wanted to for a while LOL, nice and slow making sure I also use the full range of motion, I ended up only doing 13 reps like this but oh man did I start feeling it.
• Leg Extensions: Again looking for something that will make me lift big, no more than 10 reps. I used this machine:

I used 120lbs, this felt pretty good and again taking my time. If you rush you are starting to cheat, the inertia helps you to lift, you don’t want that.

• Wide Front Pull ups: OK so here I changed it, I used the same pull down machine as last time, but using a wide grip to pull down. I used 120lbs Not sure why I can pull myself easier than I can pull 120lbs on the machine. But I did 10 reps.
• Lying Leg Curls: Now to workout the back of my legs, I used this machine:

The back muscle of my legs is not as strong, so I had to use 90lbs and the most I could do was 6 reps.

• Back Flies: A little switcheroo, I wanted to put in some back flies, basically this replaced the switch grip pull ups, I will bring them back, remember we need to switch up exercises in order to promote muscle confusion. So I used the same machine as last time at 120lbs.
• Standing Calf Raises: Still in search for heavy lifting, so I used this machine: Wow this I was able to set to 200lbs and I still did up to 13 reps, I did not want to go higher due to the factor that I am also working out my back and I don’t want to hurt myself.
• Close Grip Over Hand Pull Ups, That’s right I had two that I kept the same. Pull ups are still good for you and last time I used more machine than pull ups so this would be a good change up in my routine, to make sure I cover my bases. Yet again I did these nice and slow, made sure to go up as high as possible and all the way down, no cheating, and making sure it was slow. I did about 13 reps as well.

I did this entire routine, three times, the last time for the Leg Press I added an extra two plates of 10lbs, adding the final total to 235lbs to push. I kept the rest the same. I will say I am pretty sore, and so is my back, it is feeling it.

This is still experimental phase for me, but at the same time I am happy that this seemed to workout so far.

Tomorrow I will be doing Yoga and that I will follow the DVD, I so need it LOL. I also have time tomorrow so stats will be coming up tomorrow.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Cardio Day

Today was my next cadrio day, I wanted to try another bicycle that I had not tried before. Instead of the pedals right under you, they are more in front of you.

Actually this is the machine I used:

I wanted to be there for 45min, so I decided I would read a Network + Book while I cycled LOL. I set the machine to hill cycle, I think that’s what it was called, it cycles through different settings of hills. It gives you 1 minute of down hill and 1 minute of up hill, I set it to level 8 and so it increases the size of the hill every time until it reaches the top then starts to slow down and up again.

After I was done It said I traveled 20.08Km burnt 353 Calories, my highest heart rate was 160, I put the book down every once in a while to get a heart rate reading.

While cycling I spent most of the time at 100RPM or higher.

Tomorrow I will be doing legs & back, this one I will be changing quite a bit, I want to actually workout my legs which are pretty skinny LOL, so I will be using some machines to heavy lift, and I will toy around with the back exercises and I will be sure to have some pull ups in there, I am hoping to accomplish being sore, as I had not really lifted heavy for the legs. We shall see what happens tomorrow.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Shoulders & Arms

I did not change to much today on this workout, I did change a couple of things, I will say I did not have enough time to research anything today, I was pretty busy.

What I did different was that I used a machine to pull down for triceps and to pull up for upright rows, the laying down triceps I kept the same though. Also some of the curls that require both arms moving at the same time I used a curved bar with 50lbs on it. Trying to keep this short as I am running late, I will also say that since I was not following the DVD and I did my best to increase the weights as much as I could so I could only do 8 to 10 reps, at the same time I did not have to wait for the DVD to go on to the next exercise so I just went on and only took one break in the middle, it was a bit more intense almost none stop with one break, I felt the pump really really good.

My chest and abs are still sore from Monday’s workout and now my entire upper body is sore LOL, that is awesome. When I did the Ab Ripper X today, I decided to make it harder using the 4k medicine ball I used on Monday. So anything that I had my arms raised I held the ball up in the air, the extra weight makes a huge difference and my abs really burnt and of course I used the medicine ball with mason twist again, I could not make it past 45 reps today, I was so sore I fell over, but I did not finish it there, I had to use the double crunch machine with 120lbs 2 x 10 reps, oh yeah, it was an awesome workout.

Tomorrow I have some more cardio:

Thanks for your time:

Mike

Cardio Day

First off again I totally forgot about my stats and I remembered after I ate LOL, no point taking weight and measurements after eating and feeling full LOL.

Today was a cardio day and at the moment I am trying to just use the machines at work in order to give my muscles a chance to do something different and feel sore. I will say that I woke up this morning with my abs, chest and back all sore, also for some reason my biceps are a bit sore, and they are all still pretty sore. My abs hurt if I cough, sneeze or laugh LOL *OUCH!*, but hey it’s a good thing to have a sore feeling, something is happening and that is what I wanted.

Today I decided to run on the treadmill. Last time I did 35min and I had a peak speed of 11k/h, I decided that if I lowered that speed a bit, I would be able to last longer, so I ran at 10k and did it for 45min, and yes the last 5min are cool down. In that time as per the machine, I ran 6.38km and burnt 438.2 calories. I had to use the one that has issues reading the heart rate because the good one was taken. This time I did not get any readings of my heart rate so I can’t say how high or low it was. I will say that I really do need a heart rate monitor to find out on my own what I am really burning. But I will also say I did not expect to last 45min and run 6.38k, that was totally awesome for sure.

Tomorrow, following the classic P90X I have shoulders and arms, I will see what I can change, I mean this is all using dumbbells, but I may want to use the larger bar for my biceps, there is also a bench there it holds your arms like in Full Supination Concentration Curl, except that I am sitting down instead of standing and I can use both arms at the same time. We will see how it goes, if I have time during work I will look and see what I can modify as I want to life heavy and properly too.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Chest & Back Totally GYM Modified, First Attempt

First off it has been a very busy weekend, no time for much as such I did not have time to research some things I wanted to research before today and at the same time I did not have time to take my stats, such as weight and measurements, I know it does not take to much time, but I also forgot as I have been mentally occupied. Hopefully I will have some stats for tomorrow.

Well today I decided while I was at work and had a couple of minutes of free time to figure out what I was going to do in order to modify chest & back to mostly use GYM equipment, this was my first experimentation and it seemed to go pretty good, but as I go I will tweak it to see how I can maximize the exercises.

I did the warm up mostly by memory, I know I had to warm up and stretch my shoulders, back and chest mostly, so I did a combination of the warm ups I have done before. I also decided to leave some of the exercises as is for warm up purposes and because I wanted the best of both worlds, meaning I also did push ups and did pull ups.

So here are the changes I made:

1. Standard Push Ups:
• These I left the same, I used helix dumbbells in order to maximize the range of motion and made sure to do them slow and steady to get a nice pump. Also figured it would be great to leave alone as push ups tend to also stretch the muscles, which is good to promote growth.
2. Wide Front Pull Up:
• These I also left the same as I wanted yet again to make sure I kept doing pull ups.
3. Military Push Ups:
• Here is where the change begins, I use a bench press for this one. I weighed the bar and it weighed 41lbs. Also in one of my researches I learned that when doing push ups you make your chest push about 60% of your body weight. I weigh 157 and 60% of that is 94.2lbs. I added two plates of 25lbs to make the bar 91lbs as a first attempt and to be safe. I was able to bench press it 10 times and still felt I could go for more, therefore the second time around I added two more plates of 5lbs, this made the bar 101lbs and this made a difference, I was able to do 6reps.
• This is the bench I used:It is quite nice as it has safety hooks, if you can’t lift it all the way, no need to worry you can still place the bar half way or at a low level and can do this with out someone spotting you. I did this alone today, I was a bit worried that I may need someone to spot me, but at the same time the large handle like sections would catch the bar if I failed to even lift it a little.
4. Reverse Grip Chin Ups:
• For this I used the Lat Pull Down. I set it to 150lbs, but it seemed a bit to heavy, I did 3 reps like that so I brought it down to 120lbs and was able to do 10 reps, still playing around with this one.
• This is the machine I used for replacement of both pull ups and Heavy Pants (which I will talk about later). 
5. Wide Fly Push Ups:
• For this I did Dumbbell Flies, I used 27lb dumbbells @ 10 reps each.
• The second time around I decided to try Pec/Rear Delt Fly combo machine:It worked out pretty good, I used 65lbs as this would simulate 32.5lbs dumbbells. I may increase the weight next time.
6. Closed Grip Over Hand Pull Ups:
• Again I used the Lat Pull Down machine for this, still set at 120lbs.
7. Decline Push Ups:
• For this I did decline dumbbell presses, I used 27lb dumbbells for this, why so low, well when your arms are wide open it makes a huge different in weight.
8. Heavy Pants:
• Here as mentioned before I used the Low Row. I set it to 90lbs as this would simulates dumbbells of 45lbs.
9. Diamond Push Ups:
• These I left as is.
10. Lawnmowers:
• These I also left the same.
11. Dive Bomber Push Ups
• Again left the same.
12. Back Flies:
• I started the first round as normal and then I used the same machine as above, that I used for wide fly. It actually seemed pretty cool to use as back fly and I seem to have felt it a bit more.

I will say it was pretty cool, it was nice to use free weights for sure, also the act of balancing the bar is usually a very good thing for the muscles, however as mentioned before this is not the end result for me, I am in an experimental phase, and I will continue to tweak this or modify it as I see fit, I may remove something and add something else. What I am looking for is to keep the muscle confusion and keep trying to work the same muscle groups as in the P90X. Having said that, I never really hit the GYM before so seriously before for me to know more about the GYM equipment, therefore I still require to do more research, but I am sure I will find something that will suit me for a Chest & Back routine.

Once I did this, I also did Ab Ripper X by memory, not hard to do after doing it 3 times a week for 6 months LOL. It felt awesome, I had not done it in a week, I hit it hard and made 1 modification. What was it? Mason Twist, I always wondered what it would be like to use some sort of weight when doing mason twist, I had a 4K (8.8lbs) Medicine Ball next to me and I picked it up and used it to touch the floor on each side, man oh man if your doing P90X you need to try this, it makes a huge difference and it felt so good.

Tomorrow I have cardio, I may just use the treadmill and run, but on cardio days I may do different things plus I will be bringing some P90X cardios like Plyo back as this is a definite asset to have.

Thank you for your time and don’t forget to keep coming back to see how I continue to work on modifying P90X for the GYM:

Mike

And more cardio

Today continued my adventure in to the cardio machines, just burning some calories and making sure I at least keep my body going and not let it cool down to much. So what did I play with today? I played with the elliptical machine, but before I get in to it, I actually got the name and model numbers of the treadmill and the elliptical machine, the brand is Precor.

Here is the treadmill I was using yesterday:

It is a Precor 956i:

And this is what the controls look like:

It’s a pretty nice machine.

Now here is what I was playing with today. Precor 576i

And here are the controls:

 

Very interesting machine, I had never used one of these before. It felt a little odd at first, and depending how you step certain muscles will hurt because they are not use to moving in certain directions. I also found that the bottom of my foot was hurting as it was never use to being in the position it was, but then again it probably had to do with me and how I was working the machine. The other thing I found is that I did not burn as many calories, but then again it is what the machine was calculating. I spent 40min on the machine, burnt 327 calories.

The only thing I will say is that the machine does not have heart rate detectors on the handles that move, so in order to get your hear rate reading you need to let go of the moving handles and grab the none moving ones in the middle, once you let go the handles that are moving, the machine seems to get lighter on your legs, and as such you tend to speed up a bit. Not a big deal.

Tomorrow is Friday, so I may or may not go to the GYM as I use to take Fridays off, however Starting next week Friday will be part of my workout schedule.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Some more cardio

Well today I new I was not going to last more than 30min on the cardio I decided to do today, because I had done something similar before and what was that? Running.

So I used the treadmill today. I can’t remember the brand of it, it is pro something. Really nice peace of machinery, however it had some issues.

The issue it had was that it was not reading my heart rate correctly, I was running without putting my hands on the bar, but I put them on the bar every once in a while to check my heart rate, at times it would not read, some times it would be to low, telling me it was 58 or 98 and at one point it said it was 240. 240? what am I a humming bird? LOL, so yeah it had some issues there, but everything else seemed ok.

I did the regular warm up again, then I started a slow pace of 6km/hr then increased to 8km and by 3min I went up to 10km, it was a nice pace and 10min after I decided to go to 11km, it put a nice kick in to it without to much struggle. I will say it is a heck of a lot easier than really running on the street as there were no hills or anything. At least I did not set that up because it is the first time I use the treadmill and last time I ran I had problems with my knees, therefore I did not want to push it. But I knew I was running before at 11.3km because if you guys remember, when I ran the second time and old man followed me on his bike in order to provide me with the speed I was doing. So I knew 11 would be a good pace and try to keep it longer, as the last time I ran, I did it for a little over 16min. Well I did keep it for longer I actually managed to stay on the treadmill for 30min, I was not dying, but I did not want to push to hard either, I did feel my body was slowly telling me I should slow down and so I did, the last 5 min I spent it slowing down a little at a time, every min I would bring the machine down a couple of notches until I was walking.

I will say it felt really awesome, the machine ended up telling me that I burnt 317.6 Calories and I covered 4.8km, not bad. Now I have not been on a treadmill for like 11 years or so, and at that time I never used it that much or for that long. When I got off it felt odd, like my vision wanted everything to move forward and faster since my brain knew it was running but at the same time not going anywhere, very odd feeling for sure.

The other thing I will say is, I could have done better if I would have not been so bored LOL. I did feel a bit bored as I was not moving, I was looking out of a window and watching cars go by and what not but not the same thing. I think I need my media player with me and play a movie, that way I occupy my mind at the same time and I don’t pay to much attention to the timer, which is like watching paint dry.

Well tomorrow I will continue my little cardio adventure, playing around with the different cardio machines. Next week we should be able to start using weights, Oh yeah! :o)

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Just Some Quick Cardio

I hope you all had a really good weekend, we had an awesome weekend. Here in Canada, we celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday, so I ate a lot LOL at least most of it was Turkey, which is lean. However I had not worked out at all for the entire weekend. That’s right, I took it off, wow, it felt weird not to do anything. Well today a friend asked me to help him move a fridge and a counter, so my thought was that will be some workout, I guess I better get some cardio in today.

I did not have lots of time to use the GYM about 45min, so I decided to try the bike today and see how that went. They have a Lifefitness brand, called LifeCycle. Looks something like this:

This is not the exact one, I did not check the model number but it is very similar and it was pretty cool, I used it for 35min. I did not know how to work the settings but I managed to get set to Hill and it cycled through different hill simulations I managed to increase it to Level 8. It kept track of my heart rate, distance, RPMs and Calories. However I never imputed my age so the calculation may have been a bit off. For the heart rate if I would have put my age it would have sounded an alarm, as it stated that for over 30 but under 40yo the max heart rate is 152, I went all the way to 162, which is for 20 years old LOL. It told me that in the 35min I lost 275 Calories, but it’s hard to say, I kept the machine at around 100RPMs with high heart rate so I might have lost more. Oh and I forgot to mention that I started with Tony’s warm up, with raising the knees then jogging in place, jumping jacks, the usual, just to get the heart rate up first before I went on to the bike.

Now the only complaint I have on the bike is that the seat hurt LOL yeah my butt was in pain within the first 5min, imagine 35min LOL I told another person who was working out that the seat hurts and he says, yeah I think it’s part of the workout, and I said “What, to provide you with calluses on your butt?” LOL but the cardio was pretty good no complaint there.

After I went to help my friend out, we moved a fridge down to the basement with stairs that turned, and then went and picked up a counter for his kitchen. So I did some lifting today. I have moved fridges before, but for some reason I found the fridge lighter, I was expecting it to be heavier and I had no problems with my back. If I would have done this 6 months ago, I would have been coming home to take some pain killers for my back. Thank you P90X and Yoga :o)

Well the rest of this week I will continue to play with most of the cardio machines and hopefully I can do more time and I hope I have time to program the machine to get more proper info.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Pictures from Round 2 and a Morphing Transformation Video

Hello all, I know I said I would have pictures up here by yesterday, I did take them yesterday but I got caught up working on a video and totally forgot to post LOL.

So without further delays, here are the final pictures for this round of P90X with some reminders of where I started:

Day 1:

Day 180:

You can slightly see a bit of abs, but with the hair and the loose skin, it’s not that easy LOL. My face has also changed a lot.

Day 1:

Day 180:

Damn what a difference eh! No more looking 9 months pregnant LMAO!

Day 1:

Day 180:

Looking good :o)

Day 1:

Day 180:

Damn I am starting to get ripped! WOOHOO :o)

OK so time for some fun with all this hard work, lets watch this short video I created:

Don’t we all wish that loosing weight was just as easy as standing there and watching yourself loose weight LOL. But it does take lots of time, hard work and dedication.

Thank you all for always being there and like I said before, it is not over, I will continue and I will continue to update you guys when I can :o)

Mike

R290 – Yoga X, Weight & Measurements & End of Round 2 YEAH BABY!

These last few days at work I have been walking a lot while carrying computers and monitors, and I did that because I wanted to, we have carts available, but I wanted the cardio LOL. Today right after work I came home to do my Yoga.

Yoga was awesome as usual, I made sure to give it my all, and work on my form on all posses as this is the last Yoga for this round, as today is the last day, day 90 WOOHOOO.

First off I will say that in this round I did not loose as much weight as before, because I tried to slow down the weight loss in order to let my skin catch up, I am pretty happy with how I look right now, therefore I can afford to loose the rest slowly. I also did not loose muscle in this round,which is Fantastic! :o) Lets see…

Weight:

	Day 1	Day 83	Day 90	Gain / Loss	Total G/L
Weight	172.8	158.6	157.2	-1.4	-15.6
Body Fat %	16.7%	8.9%	8.6%	-0.3	-8.1
Lean Body Mass	144.0	144.5	143.7	-0.8	-0.3
Fat Body Mass	28.8	14.1	13.5	-0.6	-15.3
Body Surface Area (BSA)	18.2	17.4	17.4	+0	-0.8
Body Mass Index (BMI)	25.5	23.4	23.2	-0.2	-2.3

So this week I lost 1.4lbs that you can see on the scale, bringing me down to 157.2lbs. Also I lost 0.3% body fat, bringing it down to 8.6% WOW, now if we look at percentages, it seems like wow, but at the same time it depends how much someone weighs right, 8.6% from 120lbs is not the same from 157lbs. I still have 13.5lbs of fat and most of it is still in my mid section, plus my skin is still loose, not as loose as before, but my abs are not as defined, they sure are hard as a rock tho LOL.

Well looking back since I started in April with 207.4lbs I have lost a total of 50.2lbs, HOLY CRAP!! OH YEAH BRING IT!!!. That is huge! and in just 6 months, and to consider that all I lost on this round was 15.6lbs. Plus you have to consider that I also did not loose muscle this time. I can’t be happier and I feel FANTASTIC!!!

Measurements:

	Day 1	Day 83	Day 90	Gain / Loss	Total G/L
Neck	16	15.25	15.25	+0	-0.75
Shoulder	15	16.5	16.5	+0	+1.5
Chest	41.75	41	40.5	-0.5	-1.25
Waist	36.5	34	33.75	-0.25	-2.75
Abdomen	38	34.5	34.25	-0.25	-3.75
Hips	37	34.5	34.25	-0.25	-2.75
Thigh	21.5	21	21	+0	-0.5
Knee	14	14	14	+0	+0
Calf	14.25	14	14	+0	-0.25
Ankle	8.5	8.5	8.5	+0	+0
Arm	11.5	11.5	11.5	+0	+0
Forearm	11	11	11	+0	+0
Wrist	7	6.75	6.75	+0	-0.25
Waist-Hip Ratio	0.98648649	0.985507	0.985401

I lost a bit around my mid section again, that is awesome. So my belly alone, I lost 3.75 inches around my belly in this round. Now looking back at April, I started with 44” around my belly, that means I lost 9.75” around my belly, that is a lot! And I will take a picture with the measuring tape around me set at 44” so you can see the difference, it is HUGE! :o)

Well I will be taking a week off, well kinda, I will be doing cardio, mostly I will be testing the cardio machines at work, so we will see how that goes, I will also be researching and adapting P90X to suit my needs now, which is to gain muscle big time. I plan to have 3 days of weight workout, 2 cardio days and 1 yoga day, so basically keeping the P90X idea. I also plan to try the MC2 when it comes out, if I can afford it as I am saving for a trip.

Well I don’t have pics for you guys today, and I may or may not have them tomorrow, but I will try for Sunday to have them. So please come back because we are not done yet LOL, also I still plan to blog a bit about what I do now till I get the MC2, so make sure to keep visiting me :o)

Thank you all so much for always coming by:

Mike

R2D89 – Core Synergistics

HHmmm some how I messed up my day count somewhere by about 3 days, because today is suppose to be day 89 and tomorrow is day 90, not sure what happened and at which point, should have been on one of the times I missed some workouts. Sorry.

Well today’s workout was awesome, I tried something new with one of the exercises, so let’s check it out.

Core Synergistics:

Results Chart:

01 Stack Foot/Stagger Hands Push-Ups	N1	75	K1		+5
02 Banana Rolls	R	all			+0
03 Leaning Crescent Lunges	R	24	W	10	+0
04 Squat Run	S	60	W	10	+0
05 Sphinx Push-Ups	N1	35	K1	35	+10
06 Bow To Boat	R	8			+0
07 Low Lateral Skaters	R	20	W	0	+0
08 Lunge & Reach	R	20	W	22	+0
09 Prison Cell Push-Ups	N1	17	K1		+1
10 Side Hip Raise	RL	35	LL	35	+0
11 Squat X-Press	R	30	W	10	+0
12 Plank To Chaturanga Run(sec)	P	30	C	30	+0
13 Walking Push-Ups	N1	44	K1		+0
14 Superman Banana	R	All			+0
15 Lunge-Kickback-Curl-Press	R	20	W	10	+0
16 Towel Hopping	S	60			+0
17 Reach High & Under Push-Ups	N1	20	W	10	-10
18 Steam Engine	R	50			+0
19 Dreya Roll	R	14			+0
BONUS ROUND
20 Plank To Chaturanga Iso	S	30/30			+0
21 The Halfback	R	All			+0
22 Table Dip Leg Raise	R	75			+5

Reading this chart:

• Last column is the difference in reps since the last time I did this workout:
• Green = More Reps than last time
• Red = Less Reps than last time
• R = Reps
• S = Seconds
• N = No Knee
• K = Knee
• P = Plank
• C = Chaturanga
• W = Weight

First thing you will notice is that I was able to add back the 10lb weights, which makes a huge difference on some of the workouts. The shoulders for sure get more tired and it makes it hard during push up segments. Now what was new? For that you have to look at what sticks out on the chart, there is a red –10 reps on Reach High & Under Push ups. The reason why, is, as you can see I added 10lb weight, I used the weight as push bar and lifted it when reaching high, very awesome exercise indeed, this really put the X into it, and I am surprised I managed to do 20 of those, but wow it felt AWESOME!!!

This was one heck of a workout, I put a lot of power in to it, because it was the last, as tomorrow all I have is Yoga, then I will take weight and measurements and will also try to take pictures.

So don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the end results of Round 2, I will also at some point work on a new video as well, but this weekend here in Canada it is the Thanksgiving weekend so it will be busy, not sure when I can get this done.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

R2D84 – Kenpo X

Today’s workout was at the GYM right after work, I made sure to put in as much intensity as possible as this is the last Kenpo X for my round 2 of P90X and oh yeah I took good advantage of it, no breaks and as much intensity on the cardio during the suppose to be break time. Needless to say it was pretty awesome.

Well tomorrow is a break or stretch, I will break it, and Wednesday I am suppose to do Core Synergistics, however I have a technology exhibition to go to in the afternoon and  I wont be back on time to workout, I was thinking about doing Core Synergistics tomorrow but that is to soon to do core again, so I will have to do it on Thursday and than Yoga on Friday.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

R2D83 – Core Synergistics

Well I managed to get it done early, well around noon actually, I was on the phone all morning, first had to call my mom and second tech support for my internet my modem keeps resetting itself and I already did all the troubleshooting possible, however you still have to do stuff when on the phones, but I have been there doing the same job so I don’t give them shit, just let them do their thing. So I have intermittent issues, and it may not be fixed till Wednesday or maybe later, so if I don’t update it’s not because I forgot but because I could not. Any way, lets see how today went…

Core Synergistics:

Results Chart:

01 Stack Foot/Stagger Hands Push-Ups	N1	70	K1		+5
02 Banana Rolls	R	all			+0
03 Leaning Crescent Lunges	R	24	W	0	+0
04 Squat Run	S	60	W	0	+0
05 Sphinx Push-Ups	N1	30	K1	30	+10
06 Bow To Boat	R	8			+0
07 Low Lateral Skaters	R	20	W	0	+0
08 Lunge & Reach	R	20	W	20	+0
09 Prison Cell Push-Ups	N1	16	K1		+0
10 Side Hip Raise	RL	35	LL	35	+10
11 Squat X-Press	R	30	W	M	+0
12 Plank To Chaturanga Run(sec)	P	30	C	30	+0
13 Walking Push-Ups	N1	44	K1		+0
14 Superman Banana	R	All			+0
15 Lunge-Kickback-Curl-Press	R	20	W	0	+0
16 Towel Hopping	S	60			+0
17 Reach High & Under Push-Ups	N1	30	K1		+0
18 Steam Engine	R	50			+0
19 Dreya Roll	R	14			+0
BONUS ROUND
20 Plank To Chaturanga Iso	S	30/30			+0
21 The Halfback	R	All			+0
22 Table Dip Leg Raise	R	70			+5

Reading this chart:

• Last column is the difference in reps since the last time I did this workout:
• Green = More Reps than last time
• Red = Less Reps than last time
• R = Reps
• S = Seconds
• N = No Knee
• K = Knee
• P = Plank
• C = Chaturanga
• W = Weight
• M = Medium Resistance Band

I had a pretty awesome workout today, only thing was since I am at home I did not have access to the 10lbs weights so some of the exercises were without weights. Now I did compensate working harder and making sure my form was good. Also what a start 70 Stack foot/Stager hands push ups, now these it seems that every change you have a couple of sec break in between and at the same time, I did pause for like 5 sec before continuing half way through and I started before they did in order to do this many. Some of the reps stayed the same on some of the other push ups because I ran out of time. It’s hard to do more when you hear Tony already counting for the next exercises LOL.

Tomorrow I have Kenpo X and that will be at the GYM.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

R2D82 – Yoga X

There is nothing like Yoga in the morning, to make you feel awesome all day long. Again it was one awesome yoga session. Making this really short, tomorrow I should have Core Synergistics, if for some reason I can’t do it in the morning because there is someone sleeping, I may not be able to do it in the evening as I have plans, so here is how this last week may go down, as on Wednesday I also have some plans; there are 2 technically rest days on a recovery week, so if I don’t workout tomorrow I will push the workout for Monday, and Wednesday I have a Technology exhibition to go to in the afternoon which may take way past end of work day, therefore I will take Wednesday off and push the workout for Thursday meaning that I will also workout on Friday, or lets just say Yoga on Friday so no biggie everything will get done, the days will be just shifted a little. Then I will do my best to provide Weight, measurements and pics for the end of round 2 and will created another transformation video including both rounds, but this may take some time as next weekend here in Canada is Thanksgiving weekend.

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend because I am :o)

Thank you for your time:

Mike

R2D81 – Weight & Measurements

Weight:

	Day 1	Day 76	Day 81	Gain / Loss	Total G/L
Weight	172.8	158.6	158.6	+0	-14.2
Body Fat %	16.7%	9.2%	8.9%	-0.3	-7.8
Lean Body Mass	144.0	144.0	144.5	+0.5	+0.5
Fat Body Mass	28.8	14.6	14.1	-0.5	-14.7
Body Surface Area (BSA)	18.2	17.4	17.4	+0	-0.8
Body Mass Index (BMI)	25.5	23.4	23.4	+0	-2.1

OK so this is where IF I really wanted to loose more weight faster, nutrition would come in to play, as you can see all I lost was half a pound and I gained it back in muscle, which is cool, however muscle takes long to build so it’s a slower pace and you can tell because you know I worked my butt off and I have been sore quite a bit this week, meaning something is working and I am hitting it hard, but I am happy that I stayed at the 158.6, I don’t really want to be dropping to quickly as I mentioned before, not good for my height. Also my body fat is 8.9% WOW that’s amazing, however the loose skin does not make it seem so, I look thin but not totally ripped because the skin is not tight enough. I would also like to have my body fat measured professionally to see what it really is, I want to see how close I really am to being accurate.

Lets take a look at the measurements:

Measurements:

	Day 1	Day 76	Day 81	Gain / Loss	Total G/L
Neck	16	15.25	15.25	+0	-0.75
Shoulder	15	16.5	16.5	+0	-0.5
Chest	41.75	41	41	+0	-0.75
Waist	36.5	34.25	34	-0.25	-2.5
Abdomen	38	34.125	34	-0.125	-4.0
Hips	37	34.5	34.5	+0	-2.5
Thigh	21.5	21	21	+0	-0.5
Knee	14	14	14	+0	+0
Calf	14.25	14	14	+0	-0.25
Ankle	8.5	8.5	8.5	+0	+0
Arm	11.5	11.5	11.5	+0	+0
Forearm	11	11	11	+0	+0
Wrist	7	6.75	6.75	+0	-0.25

I lost that half a pound again in my mid section so that is cool, exactly where I want to loose it LOL, Also I made a correction, my wrist only lost 0.25 of an inch and I had put it as 6.25 last week, in reality that should have been 6.75, which would make sense, and I did not loose more there, thank God.

As mentioned from last week, my wedding ring is falling off, and the belt I had bought when I started this round which I used on the first hole is now on the 3rd hole, so I am getting thinner, but I need more muscle to compensate for the weight loss now.

Well tomorrow starts my last recovery week and I start with Yoga X, I am off tomorrow and my wife works so I am home alone, I will do my Yoga early and then do house chores.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

R2D80 – Legs & Back + Ab Ripper X

Today I worked out at the GYM, I had a very good workout and I manage to accomplish better form on one of my exercises so lets see how it went…

Legs & Back:

Results Chart:

01 Balance Lunge	RL	25	LL	25	+0
02 Calf Raise Squat	R	25	W	27	+0
03 Reverse Grip Chin-Ups	NC1	20	C1	-	+0
	NC2	18	C2	-	+0
04 Super Skater	RL	25	LL	25	+0
05 Wall Squat (sec)	S	90	-	-	+0
06 Wide Front Pull-Ups	NC1	18	C1	-	+0
	NC2	18	C2	-	+2
07 Step Back Lunge	RL	20	W	22	+0
	LL	20	W	22	+0
08 Alternating Side Lunge	R	24	W	17	+0
09 Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups	NC1	16	C1	-	+1
	NC2	16	C2	-	+1
10 Single Leg Wall Squat (sec)	S	30	-	-	+0
11 Deadlift Squat	LL	20	RL	20	+0
12 Switch Grip Pull-Ups	NC1	16	C1	-	+0
	NC2	16	C2	-	+0
13 Three-Way Lunge	RL	5	LL	5	+0
14 Sneaky Lunge	R	20	-	-	+0
15 Chair Salutations (sec)	S1	30	-	-	+0
	S2	30	-	-	+0
16 Toe-Roll Iso Lunge	RL	20	LL	20	+0
17 Groucho Walk	R	40	-	-	+0
18 Calf Raises	R	75	W	27	+0
19 80/20 Cyber-Speed Squat	RL	30	LL	30	+0

Reading this Chart:

• Last column is the difference in reps since the last time I did this workout:
• Green = More Reps than last time
• Red = Less Reps than last time
• R = Reps
• S = Seconds
• NC = No Chair Assist
• C = Chair Assist
• RL = Right Leg
• LL = Left Leg
• W = Weight

It does not seem like lots of improvement, but there was yet again improvement; before I forget, I am still sore from Monday’s workout, so that is awesome. OK so what improved? First off it has been pretty tough for me to do 16reps on pull ups and for this workout I try to do 20, well today again not only did I just take 1 break between the 20, I did it in such an amazing form it looked amazing an easy LOL, there is a mirror right in front of the pull up bar, so I can see myself doing pull ups, and I pulled myself so high up that my hands touched my chest and then all the way down and did that 10 times then break for 5 sec and 10 more reps, damn it looked cool, not just my chin above the bar by my neck and shoulders too LOL, that was way to awesome OH YEAH!! BRING IT!!!

Now I will say I could not do the same thing with wide front, I could not touch my chest with the bar, well I am sure some day I will be able to, but I am happy I managed to do this, as I did not realize this is the last set up pull ups for this round of P90X wow I have 10 more days left.

Ab Ripper X:

Results Chart:

	Day 78	Day 80	Difference
In & Out	90	90	+0
Seated Bicycle	F25 R25	F25 R25	F+0 R+0
Seated Crunchy Frog	25	25	+0
Crossed leg/Wide Leg Sit-Up	25	25	+0
Fifer Scissors	25	25	+0
Hip Rock 'N Raise	25	25	+0
Pulse-Up	25	25	+0
Roll-Up/V-Up Combo	26	26	+0
Oblique V-Up	RS25 LS25	RS25 LS25	RS+0 LS+0
Leg Climb	RS12 LS12	RS12 LS12	RS+0 LS+0
Mason Twist	80	80	+0
Total Crunches	445	445	+0

Reading this chart:

• Last column is the difference in reps since the last time I did this workout:
• Green = More Reps than last time
• Red = Less Reps than last time
• F = Forward
• R = Reverse
• RS = Right Side
• LS = Left Side

Today I did the same for the Ab Ripper, I wish I would have pulled it to 100 in the in and outs, I totally had forgotten that this was the last Ab Ripper for this round of P90X, I thought I had two more weeks. Oh well. However when I went to the double crunch machine I did 2 sets of 10 reps with 120lbs each, and that felt so good.

Well today was awesome, if I would have remembered this was my last weight workout for my 2nd round of P90X I would have tried very hard to blow all reps out of the water but I still did awesome and I managed to get pumped, my back and abs were really feeling awesome!

Tomorrow I have Kenpo X.

Now I did mention I have 10 days left of this round, I plan to take a break from P90X and research some bodybuilding techniques, then I plan to try and use the P90X muscle confusion schedule and I will combine them, so basically it will be a modified P90X to be done completely at the GYM, the problem for me is that using my body as weight is not making me bigger, for push ups and pulls ups, I will have them as a warm up, but I want to get bigger so I want to go with the 8 to 10 rep with bigger weight, and for that I need to bench press and use weights for my back, so we shall see how this all works out, I will try to keep everyone updated on this as I work on it, then after some time when the new MC2 comes out I will do that routine and see how it works out.

Thank you for your time:

Mike