Day 15–Chest & Back + ARX

Yesterday was Day 14 and I did do Yoga in the morning, it was awesome as usual.

Today was also an awesome workout, I worked my chest and back pretty hard. I am still using 105lbs for the bench press, however I feel that I may be increasing soon, but I did increase for incline bench press from 27lbs to 32lbs. I also tried to increase my hang time at the end of my pull ups, this was pretty cool I could feel the burn as I fought to stay up, same thing with some of the muscles on my arms. Needless to say I had an awesome workout and I sure felt it.

Ab Ripper was awesome too, so far still using the same 25lb plate, I actually did mason twist with just my fists to show a friend and it felt so light, like I was doing nothing LOL since I am used to using the 25lbs plate to do it with, it is an amazing feeling and such a great burn.

Tomorrow I will be doing Plyo X.

I also have some more training Thursday & Friday, so it is possible I may not be able to work out these 2 days, however at the same time I have plan for my apparent recovery week which will be next week, a little crazy, so not really recovery LOL however it will be all cardio, but will let you know soon.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 12–Legs & Back + ARX

First off I know that technically I should have written Day 11, however if you noticed I skipped the day I was off and kept the numbers in order last weekend, therefore the days were wrong, figured I would fix that now before I carry it on a lot further.

Alright so first off today is Friday and that alone is a good thing as the weekend has just started WOOHOO! .

Today I had a pretty awesome workout. My back is feeling it and so are my legs, I managed to increase weight on leg extensions from 90lbs to 105, and I also felt like I might be able to go higher next week.

Also I worked the pull up bar pretty hard today, and I know because I can still feel it.

On Ab Ripper X I was able to do about 60 In & Out while holding the 25lb plate. I also added some ab crunches while placing the 25lb plate lightly at the back of my head and oh man, did that ever give a nice burn, then I finished off with the double crunch machine at 135lbs, DAMN! that felt GOOD!

Tomorrow I will take the day off and Sunday I will do Yoga.

May you all have an awesome weekend and thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 10–Cardio

Today I was suppose to do Kenpo X, however I forgot my portable DVD player and to top it off I forgot the DVDs, which I could have used with a laptop.

I was a bit disappointed, I was really looking forward to doing Kenpo X. I did think well I guess I can take the day off and for a while I was dragging my feet around, but I forced myself to go to the GYM and decided to hop on the Cardio bike and went crazy on it for 45min. Worked up a good sweat and it felt great and I am really glad I did not decide to take the day off .

Tomorrow I have Legs & Back + Ab Ripper X and since this is totally modified I don’t need to watch a video .

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 9–Shoulders & Arms + ARX

Again I have to keep this short, but I will say I had a good workout today as well. It was pretty awesome, I was able to increase my weights for some of my bicep workouts, last week I was using 27lbs dumbbells and this week I used 32lbs and it felt really good.

Ab Ripper X has no change so far, still using 25lb plate and it still burns nicely.

Tomorrow I have Kenpo X.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 8–Plyometrics

Unfortunately the person who was going to workout with me today was not able to show up, he had a late meeting.

I worked out alone but that did not mean it was not awesome! Oh man I am so close to following Dominique like use to. I hit it a lot harder than last week, and I was in the zone for almost the entire workout and the GYM was cold and still managed to work a sweat. I can’t express how much I have missed this workout, it is tough work but it makes you feel amazing.

Tomorrow I have Shoulders & Arms + Ab Ripper X.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 7–Chest & Back + ARX

Today was a pretty awesome workout, I really felt it again.

Trying to keep this short…

For my chest, I managed to increase the weights by 10lbs for bench press, from 95 to 105lbs, this felt amazing. Also I made a slight change, I used a machine for chest flies and I set it at 120lbs, oh man, did I ever feel it, that was a lot better, I was able to really squeeze my pecks at the same time, so it felt like I was flexing my pecks while using weight as well.

For my back I was able to increase my reps by 1, and I managed to hang longer on my last reps, this felt really good, I actually felt it burn and it felt so good.

Ab Ripper X also felt really good, once again 25lb plate was my best friend during the exercises, well at least for the ones I can use it with. I am planning on purchasing ankle weights to increase the weight on the legs as well, this should also make a huge difference.

Tomorrow I have Plyo and I have company tomorrow so it will be fun.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 6–Yoga

Like I said before, nothing beats getting up early and doing Yoga. It was fantastic and I no longer feel as stiff as I have been feeling this week.

Today I was not as shaky as I was last weekend and I was able to complete some poses that I had issues with last weekend as well, like the side arm balance, I did not fall. However there are still things I have to work on, like right angle pose or crane. However having something to work on is good because it gives you a reason to keep going.

Tomorrow I have Chest & Back + Ab Ripper X.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 5–Legs & Back + ARX

Yesterday I was a bit out of sorts and really really sore and tired, however I still went to the GYM. I did not workout as hard as I originally wanted to, but hey I still worked out all the same.

I used machines for my legs and I just used the pull up bar for my back workouts, so my back exercises stayed the same, the only thing that really changed was all the leg exercises.

I used the Leg Press machine with 215lbs, also instead of just leg pressing, also used it for my calfs, my back was sore and I did not want to add over 200lbs of weight to be held by my back as well, since with the leg press your sitting down and your back is flat on a back rest, I figured this was the best idea.

I also used the leg extensions with 125lbs and also used Lying Leg Curls with 90lbs.

Between these 3 machines I exercised my legs. They were already pretty sore but it felt good to push them a bit more.

While doing pull ups, I went down in reps a bit, anywhere between 8 to 10 reps instead of 12 to 15, however I kept the slow up and down and making sure it was all the way, I also did my best to hang in place.

Ab Ripper X, I did not want to do anything different even though I was exhausted, so I grabbed the 25lb plate and went for it, oh man as usual, it felt so good .

I will be taking the day off today and tomorrow I will do Yoga and then start the week all over again.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 4–Kenpo X

I will say I have missed this for sure. I am still sore as hell but I brought as much intensity as I could and I did not take a break, so I did the cardio routine during the break, and all I can say is, IT WAS AWESOME!

I also wore my weighted gloves and I really felt it since my arms are also sore, but it felt so good. My heart rate was on the zone and I was sweating even though the room was cold, needless to say it was awesome.

Also I may have someone to do Plyo with every week, the same person who tried it out on Tuesday with me said he thought it was awesome and will do this workout with me every week, probably will be 1 more P90X fan.

Tomorrow I have Leg & Back + Ab Ripper X.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 3–Shoulders & Arms + ARX

Hello All

I will keep it short today, I am pretty tired and pretty sore. My legs are pretty sore today and my arms are a bit sore, together with my chest, back and abs which are still sore. Well all I can say is, it seems to be working LOL.

I left the workout pretty much the same, just some slight changes like for condon curls I used a full bar instead of dumbbells, and for most of the triceps I used a pulley machine with 90lbs. It was a very good workout.

Ab Ripper X was pretty much the same as on Monday except that it hurt more because I am already sore LOL.

Tomorrow I will do Kenpo X, I have not done this workout for about the same amount of time as Plyo, we shall see how I do considering I am sore and I plan to not take breaks.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 2–Plyometrics

Hello all:

First off, today I am really sore, my chest, abs, back and biceps (from the pull ups), and that is so awesome! love it.

I did plyo today as you are aware, I did it at the GYM for the first time, also since I was at the GYM someone else was interested in trying it out with me, that was cool! I had never done any of the P90X with anyone else before. However he lasted close to half the DVD till we started jump knee tuck for the second time and he had to call it quits, I was sad because I was all alone and people just watching, but at the same time I was happy I was doing this work out again. I tried my best to work hard and impress the people that were watching LOL I will say I had a hard time keeping up with Dominique this time around, since it has been about 4 months since I last did a plyo, I could be wrong, I have not double checked it LOL.

I will also say I got so sore, and my heart rate was through the roof, I could feel it, at times I had to modify a bit in order to slow down my heart rate a little, since I do not have a heart rate monitor, I did not want to over do it, but all I can say is DAMN! IT FELT GOOD!!! OH YEAH BRING IT!!!

Right now I am one big walking soreness LOL, but it feels good.

Also I will say this, if you remember before I started the cardio last week I weighed 158lbs, I weighed myself this Sunday before I started this weeks workout and I weighed 159lbs. Now this did not make any sense to me at all at first, all I did was cardio for a week, and I thought maybe there is something wrong with the scale or maybe I ate to much, but I worked out 45min straight none stop every day. Well while I was doing the lateral leap frog  I noticed in the mirror (I was doing this in front of a wall of mirrors LOL) My thighs are getting big and it’s muscle, when I squat down my thighs now have definition and I didn’t notice how thick they look, I actually ended up flexing my legs and was impressed by the muscle I could see, I measured and they have gone up about half an inch, so now I know where the extra weight came from, cool, of course the cardio I did involved my legs all week, how did I not see it before. It seems we consider that cardio will only burn fat, but we forget that we are using a muscle constantly for a period of time, so it will also increase in size.

Well tomorrow I have Shoulders & Arms + Ab Ripper X, we shall see how that goes, considering I feel sore, but I it’s a sore I like .

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 1–Chest & Back + ARX

Hello All

Today was day 1 of the modified P90X and I will say I am sore, which is a good thing .

This is the routine I repeated twice:

• Push Ups – I wanted to keep some regular push ups, they do help out a lot and it’s a good way to warm up. I did these slow. It is better to go at a slower pace than to go fast, the inertia helps you and it’s more of a cardio workout than a muscle building workout. I didn’t do as many as I use to, since it’s been a while and I did them slow, I started out with 25 on the first round and 18 on the last round.
• Wide Front Pull Ups – As mentioned I kept the pull ups the same, they help a lot as I get to use my own body weight. I also did these the same way, nice and slow and all the way down. Using the pull up bar from the GYM the wide is pretty wide so it’s a lot harder, first round I did 8 and second round I did 6, keep in mind I am doing them slow, also the last rep I stayed up as much as I could.
• Bench Press – And so here begins the fun with the weights. I used an olympic bar, it weighs 45lbs and I added 2 plates of 25lbs each, making it 95lbs. I did a rep of 10 and the second time around I did 5 (I did another set further down.)
• Reverse Grip Chin Ups – These are easier for me, however at this point I was starting to feel the pumped muscles. I managed to do 15 the first round and 10 the second round. Again remember I am doing this slow, and I stopped at the top for the last one.
• Chest Dumbbells Flies– I used 17lb dumbbells in order to be able to go slow and steady with the flies. I did 10 reps and the second time around I went up to 22lbs and did 8 reps.
• Close Grip Over Hand Pull ups – Again nice and slow, managed 10 the first time and 8 the second time around.
• Inclined Dumbbell flies – I used 27lbs dumbbells, in the inclined I seem to have more strength. I was able to do 10 reps each set.
• Low Row – I set the machine to 95lbs, I did 10 reps each set.
• Diamond Push Ups – I kept these, they are pretty awesome and help out a lot, also did them slow, I managed 17 the first round and 13 the second time around.
• Lawnmowers – I used 27lbs and both sets were 10 reps each.
• Bench Press 2 – As mentioned before I decided to bench press 4 times, 2 set the first round and 2 the second round. I used the same weight, 95lbs. I managed 8 the first time and 5 the second time around.
• Back flies – I used a machine for this and I set it to 90lbs. I managed 10 reps on both sets.

I then did Ab Ripper X, and I used a 25lbs plate to help me, when I had to place my hands up, I held the plate, also I used it  to modify things like wide leg sit-ups, instead of using my hands to touch my toes, I held the plate and touched the floor with the plate between the legs. The mason twist is also amazing, instead of touching the floor on either side of you with your fists, use the plate, it really burns LOL. At the end I used the dual ab crunch machine, set it up for 120lbs and did 8 reps the first time and then went for it again and did another 8 reps.

Tomorrow I will do Plyo just as it was intended, we shall see how this goes as I have not done plyo in over 4 months I think LOL. I will let you know how it goes and if I can follow Dominique.

Thank you for your time:

Mike   

Yoga X before the main workout

Hello all:

Today I got up at 8am and did Yoga X. I will say that I have not done Yoga in quite some time and I tried to do it just like the last time. I managed, but I was shaky. I had forgotten how awesome it was to do Yoga.

As usual I did a push up before every upward dog. I worked hard even while I was shaky, only twice I fell out of balance actually, during one of the side arm balances and during one of the half moons. I will also mention I was not able to do the right angle poses, before I was able to do it on the right side, but not the left, also I only managed 5sec on crane and also on wheel. I guess I also need to start stretching some more, I was not as flexible either with my hamstrings, but it’s all work in progress, yet again.

I am very happy I did this as I felt amazing when I was done, and I can’t wait till I do it again .

Well tomorrow starts my my first day of my Modified P90X with Chest &  Back + Ab Ripper X, so stay tuned and I will let you all know how this modified project works out .

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Pre Workout Cardio Day 4

Hello All

Making this short, today at work I had to move some tables and they were heavy, plus move some computers, by the end of it all, I was like, man I already had my workout for today, plus my back was a bit tight.

Either way when the time came, I did not skip out and went to the GYM. I cycled for 45min at level 8, I wanted to make sure I did not overdue my knees and did not end up hurting myself instead. It felt pretty good.

Well this weekend I will do Yoga X. And next week I will finally start working out, so far this is my plan.

• Monday: Chest & Back + Ab Ripper X
• Tuesday: Plyometrics
• Wednesday: Shoulders & Arms + Ab Ripper X
• Thursday: Switch between Kenpo X & Treadmill
• Friday: Legs & Back + Ab Ripper X
• Saturday or Sunday: Yoga X

Again all of the main workouts will be modified to include free weights, I decided that for back workout, 90% of it will be the pull up bar. However for chest and legs, I will use weights for about 90%.

Hope you all have a good weekend. Will let you know how Yoga goes, have not done it in a while.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Pre Workout Cardio Day 3

 

Hello all

Today I hopped on the treadmill. I set it up for 40min + 5min cool down time = 45min and I ran at 8.5k/hr, did not want to overdue the first time back on the treadmill. I was wearing knee support but I still felt some knee discomfort and right now my knees hurt a bit, so I may go back to the bike for tomorrow.

Here is a snapshot:

I found it a bit interesting that it told me that all I lost was 388.4 calories, when I remember it saying more for the same amount of time before LOL. Either way the heart rate was not working properly as it was all over the map at one point I was 93 then it hopped to 160 then it hopped 173 and it stayed hopping between them, so the reading was not good.

However I felt the workout was pretty good, I worked up a very good sweat even though it is cold. Half way through the workout I decide to try the incline, I brought it up to 2.5, it was pretty cool, the entire front part of the treadmill went up and I did not think it was really going to make a difference as the floor is motorized and figured that somehow this would help, but boy I was wrong, I left it like that for about 3min and I was starting to get tired, remember that at this time I have already ran 22.5min.

I will say I am getting closer to next week, can’t wait to start this workout all over again and actually do Plyo this time.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Pre Workout Cardio Day 2

 

Hello All

Alright so today was another cardio bike day. I set it up for 45min and level 9. It was tougher to pedal and I went down a almost a kilometer in distance due to it, but instead of going up in calories lost, I went down a bit.

Here is a snapshot:

It is possible this machine calculates the calories lost by using the level and the distance traveled only and does not take in to account your heart rate nor the RPMS. I am sure I lost a lot more than this. At this point, I will be saving money for a heart rate monitor as well.

My legs felt sore, that is a good thing, I am planning on moving on to the treadmill tomorrow. I have felt my knees with slight pain, nothing major, but I will bring some knee  support for tomorrow just in case and see how that goes. Also considering on going to the Running Room (it’s a store for runners) and get them to tell me what shoes are the correct ones for me to wear to avoid stress on the knees.

Thank you for your time:

Mike 

Pre Workout Cardio Day 1

Hello All!

As mentioned this week will be cardio in order to get myself back in track, that way I am able to hit it hard starting next week.

Today I did the bike. The last time I was on the cardio bike, I was able to set it to Level 10 and be there for 50min. However I have not been at the GYM for a bit and one has to start a bit lower and then work our way back up. Therefore I set it to level 8 and gave it a time of 40min plus 5min cool down for a total of 45min.

Here is a quick snapshot of the results:

Sorry the shot is on a bit of an angle, but the ceiling light was reflecting back and you couldn’t see, so I had to get sideways a bit. Also you can see my Zune LOL I was watching Tomb Raider II the Cradle of Life. It’s one thing I love about doing cardio on a machine, being able to watch a movie LOL.

As you can see, the distance traveled was 22.28km and my calories burnt was 399. Now I will also say that at the end I peddled so fast that my heart rate went as high as 173, don’t worry it was just a spike, I did not keep it there long, I only sped up at the end for about 2min the RPMS went as high as 163RPMS. During the entire time I tried my best to keep the RMPS at 100 and during that time my heart rate was going back and forth between 130 & 152, most of the time it stayed within the 140s.

It felt really good to get back to it, tomorrow I will be back on the bike again, as I will be working my way back to the treadmill and then back to some hardcore training next week.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

It’s been a while, but I will be back!

 

First off HAPPY NEW YEAR!! to you all. Hope you had an amazing time during the holidays. I know I did.

Well what has happened in the last little bit. I had some training that took me off course from the GYM, after that I came back doing some cardio for 1 week in December to be interrupted yet again by even more training somewhere else and I knew there was going to be lots of time off during the holidays, so I decided to take it off as well from the GYM.

For a little over 4 weeks I did not see the GYM and I uhm hmm how can I put this, well I indulged myself a little to much, I mean hey it was the holidays and there is plenty of food, cake, cookies and so forth LOL. What did that do to my weight? Well I did increase 3.2 lbs in close to 1 month. So I currently weigh 158lbs. To be honest with you I thought it would have been a lot more, but that is not bad at all, that can be gone in just one week, I believe part of it had to do with me sticking with water and still not drinking anything that contained sugar, considering I was already eating some of that on the treats.

I am currently starting to feel a bit lazy, so what do I plan to do? Get back to the GYM of course.

Alright so what is my plan here at the moment? and what is my motivation?

Well my motivation is that I plan to finally take vacations that will make me travel out of the country to see family and where I am going there is lots of beaches, so I want a 6 pack badly enough.

I plan to head back to the GYM and start again the modified P90X, however I am considering bringing back Plyomentrics, this was one part of P90X that really burnt calories like crazy and the bike in the GYM does not match it.

Today I had training yet again, so I go back to my building starting tomorrow, training will now slow down. So this week, I will do cardio using machines just to get myself back up to speed and starting next week, I will start the modified workout and to top it off, actually manage to pull through and modify Phase 2 and 3, because as you know, I basically stayed playing around by modifying Phase 1 only.

Lots of planning to do this week while I just play with the cardio machines, so make sure to come back to see how I plan to set this up, and while I am at it, I would not mind your input.

Thank you for your time and sorry for the long delay on posting:

Mike