Day 35 – X Stretch – Measurements & Weight

Again stretching is very good, I am slowly becoming a bit more flexible and I love it. Today I was able to do back hero a bit. I figured out that the reason I can’t do Camel is because my arms don’t  go back as far to be able to place both hands on my feet at the same time, if I put my hands on the floor, towards the sides, I am able to do it. So that is cool, at least I can work on it some more now.

OK so the exciting thing about Fridays is getting my weight and measurements taken. So let see…

Weight and Stats:

	Day 1	Day 28	Day 35
Age	36.0	36.0	36.0
Height	69.0	69.0	69.0
Weight	207.4	198.4	195.4
Body Fat %	33.4%	27.0%	25.8%
Lean Body Mass	138.1	144.8	145.0
Fat Body Mass	69.3	53.6	50.4
Body Surface Area (BSA)	2.1	19.5	19.4
Body Mass Index (BMI)	30.6	29.3	28.9

Awesome I lost 3 visible pounds or what you can see on the scale. Lets look at the Body Fat %, I went down 1.2%, this took my body fat down 3.2lbs, that’s AWESOME!!! And I gained .2lbs in muscle. Not a lot of gain, I am planning on purchasing Whey Protein, probably by next pay, so that should help the muscle gain. Cool part is that my main goal is to loose weight right now and it is happening.

Comparing from Day 1, I have lost 12lbs (Visible on Scale). Looking at Body Fat %, I have lost 7.6% body fat, giving me a lose of 18.9lbs of fat and a gain of 6.9lbs of lean body mass or muscle. YEAH BRING IT!!

This is fantastic and only 5 weeks in to P90X, WOOHOO!!

Measurements:

	Day 1	Day 28	Day 35
Neck	18	17.25	17
Shoulder	17	15	15
Chest	45.5	45	45
Waist	44	42	41.5
Abdomen	44	43	42.5
Hips	41	40	40
Thigh	23.5	23.75	24
Knee	14.5	14.5	14.5
Calf	15	14.5	14.5
Ankle	9	9	9
Arm	13.5	13	13
Forearm	11	10	10.5
Wrist	7.5	7	7.5
Waist-Hip Ratio	1.073170732	1.05	1.0375

Again I lost a bit on abdomen and on the waist. Also lost a bit more on the neck again, which is great, last weekend I had to lower the pressure of my CPAP machine, which is great, it means if I keep this up I will get rid of my sleep apnea. WOOHOO!

Alright so this has been a pretty good week yet again. I am very excited, I can’t wait to see how things will  be by the time I reach 60 days :o)

Tomorrow I start Week 6, Chest, Shoulders & Triceps + Ab Ripper X

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 34 – Kenpo X - HEP! HEP! HEP!

Break? Who needs a break, I don’t LOL, Yeah so no break for me at all on this routine. First off I was really excited as I wore my new 1lb weighted gloves. Wearing gloves alone when practicing any sort of martial arts or boxing seems to make the workout pretty exciting, now add a little weight and things get even more exciting. Needless to say that the intensity that I brought to this workout today was insane and awesome at the same time. To top that off, unlike the other times, there was no one sleeping that I had to keep quiet for, so I was able to let it all out and yell, and I even talked to the screen, every time Tony said, if you need a break take it, I was like “Hell NO! BRING IT!!!” LOL

By the time I was 20min in, I felt my shoulders and biceps a bit, I just ignored it, then it was numb LOL. As I mentioned before I took no breaks, therefore I did what they did, run in place, jump rope, jumping jacks and Xs. At first I was thinking about watching out for my right calf but it seems I did not have any issues, that was awesome.

During the block sequence, towards the end of it, I was also feeling my shoulders a bit. Then at then during the last (Over 100) punches, somewhere around the last 20 or so I really felt the burn thanks to the extra weight. I will also say I sweated more as well, they may not be to heavy but they seem to do the job, since the inertia alone doubles the weight, especially for hooks and upper cuts, it seems to create a sort of centrifugal force, the more intensity, the more you can feel the pull.

Over all it was an awesome workout, I totally brought it big time, I am really pleased, and loved the idea of the weighted gloves. Now I will be in search for heavier gloves, as I don’t really like wrist weights, especially for throwing punches, they feel odd. I will try to find some and get them for at least when I am in the 3rd Phase, or the end of this Phase if I can.

Tomorrow I just have the X Stretch, which will be great, I need to stretch as much as I can.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 33 – Legs & Back + Ab Ripper X

Yeah so that is Week 5 Day 5 down baby!! YEAH!

Today was pretty good, even though I am still exhausted mostly mentally when I come home. But I concentrated on Bringing it. I have not done this routine in a bit, but I felt I brought it.

Lets see…

Legs and Back:

Results Chart:

01 Balance Lunge	RL	25	LL	25	25	+0
02 Calf Raise Squat	R	25	W	40	30	-5
03 Reverse Grip Chin-Ups	NC1		C1	14	15	+0
	NC2		C2	12	15	+3
04 Super Skater	RL	25	LL	25	25	+0
05 Wall Squat (sec)	S	70			90	+2
06 Wide Front Pull-Ups	NC1		C1	12	15	+1
	NC2		C2	12	15	-1
07 Step Back Lunge	RL	20	W	40	20	-5
	LL	20	W	40	20	-5
08 Alternating Side Lunge	R	25	W	0	25	+0
09 Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups	NC1		C1	11	15	-1
	NC2		C2	13	15	+1
10 Single Leg Wall Squat (sec)	S	20			30	+14
11 Deadlift Squat	LL	5	RL	5	5	+3
12 Switch Grip Pull-Ups	NC1		C1	10	15	+0
	NC2		C2	10	15	+0
13 Three-Way Lunge	RL	5	LL	5	5	+0
14 Sneaky Lunge	R	20			20	+2
15 Chair Salutations (sec)	S1	30			30	+5
	S2	30			30	+5
16 Toe-Roll Iso Lunge	RL	20	LL	20	20	+0
17 Groucho Walk	R	25			25	+0
18 Calf Raises	R	75	W	0	70	+0
19 80/20 Cyber-Speed Squat	RL	25	LL	25	25	+0

Reading this Chart:

• Last column is the difference in reps since the last time I did this workout:
  • Green = More Reps or Seconds
  • Red = Less Reps or Seconds
• Second to last column is the goals I had set for myself.
• R = Reps
• S = Seconds
• NC = No Chair Assist
• C = Chair Assist
• RL = Right Leg
• LL = Left Leg
• W = Weight

Alright so the –5s that you see there, are not a bad thing, I used 40lbs on dumbbells, I did not use them on all exercises, considering that some I was not able to complete before I did not think 40lbs extra on my legs was going to be a good idea all the time LOL, Also I got tired holding the weights down for so long, so I did it a couple of times on the ones I knew I would be able to handle it. Which was great because I know any little bit extra like that, helps me big time.

For the wall squats if you remember I had cracked the wall LOL. So I was able to use part of the door this time and it was a lot better, and I was able to to do the single leg ones for 20sec for each leg this time, that was awesome.

For the Pull Ups, I had said I was going to switch to the bands, well I tried but it was way to light, I figured I was going to have to add all 3 bands together to get somewhere but then I figured maybe the door would not be able to handle it, considering that I am pulling in a angle and not downward like the pull up bar. So I had no time to experiment, I went back to the pull up bar. What did I do this time? Every time I felt I could not do anymore, mostly exhaustion, I would pull all the way up, remove the leg and slowly go down, try to stop exactly half way as long as I could, then do it again, and finally I started to feel it a bit, I think this is what I will do from now on.

All in all it was pretty good, I felt I brought it and that is what matters.

Ab Ripper X:

 

Results Chart:

	Day 31	Day 33	Difference
In & Out	50	50	+0
Seated Bicycle	F25 R25	F25 R25	F+0 R+0
Seated Crunchy Frog	25	25	+0
Crossed leg/Wide Leg Sit-Up	18	20	+2
Fifer Scissors	25	25	+0
Hip Rock 'N Raise	25	25	+0
Pulse-Up	25	25	+0
Roll-Up/V-Up Combo	9	10	+1
Oblique V-Up	RS25 LS25	RS25 LS25	RS+0 LS+0
Leg Climb	RS7 LS7	RS8 LS8	RS+1 LS+1
Mason Twist	45	50	+5
Total Crunches	336	346	+10

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

Oh man, they do 339 crunches on this video, and I did 346, I know that I am still low on Leg Climb, and again remember Roll-Up/V-Up I am counting them every 2 as 1, so technically I had already surpassed it but oh well, my bad for wrong counting to start with LOL But I am pretty proud and I feel it so good on my abs, they burn really nicely.

Masson twist, oh YEAH BABY, I was able to complete even the 10 bonus ones, true I was trembling mad and struggling to keep it, but I fought those ten and I fell side ways and I could barely get back up LOL It was awesome. If I keep working it this hard, for sure I’m on my way to loosing this fat on my mid section, YEAH! I am so excited.

Tomorrow I have Kenpo X, and I will be using my new 1lb gloves, so come back and check it out to see how that went.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 32 – Yoga X

Today I felt really good doing Yoga, again I did push ups before every single downward dog, did my chaturangas nice and slow and this time I never touched the floor, before sometimes my chest would hit the floor and then I would get back up in to upward dog but this time I never touched the floor it was awesome, YEAH BRING IT! LOL. Was also able to do toe lock for about 10sec at a time before I lost balance, which was great. I was able to keep my leg in the air longer during the really tough half moons. With plow I was able to slightly touch the floor with my toe for a bit, so I am getting there. Crane no change here but I used my toe on the floor and kept removing it and only lasting a couple of seconds and placing the toe down, I am sure I will get it at some point. Oh I am slowly starting to torso twist a bit more, prayer twist I was able to put my elbow pass my opposite leg, before if I twisted to the right, my left elbow was in the inside of my legs against the left thigh, but now it was on the outer side of the right thigh, so that’s awesome.

Lots of improvements, slowly but surly. Now there are some moves that I struggle big time with that I don’t see me doing it any time very soon LOL, the one that comes to mind is either right or left angle pose and grab. Man oh man what a pose, I tried explaining this before, so instead I will show you a screenshot.

 

As you can see, this is a bit tough LOL, first off the amount of time spent with the leg in this position is burning your thigh, second you need to be able to reverse hug yourself while your leg is also caught in-between LOL, you back is really telling you, I don’t bend this way, while your leg is saying, hey go set off the fire alarm I am burning! LOL But hey I keep trying so I am sure at some point I will be able to do it. But at the same time I don’t last as long as necessary in that pose to keep trying, my leg eventually gives in, but I am lasting longer.

Tomorrow I have Legs & Back + Ab Ripper X, Like I mentioned before I will switch the pull up for the resistance bands and see if I get a better kick to start with since I wont be able to use my legs to help me.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 31 – Back & Biceps + Ab Ripper X

Today was what I thought an OK workout, it was no supper amazing, I was tired, for these next 3 days I have to get up very early, review lots of materials and give two 4 hour lectures on Computer Networking Technology and they are both different subjects , then come home and workout. My brain is tired LOL, however I did not seem to have eaten well today either. During my workout I was running out of gas instead of the muscle exhausting itself in the routines, so I felt pumped but it was not massive pumped, I did get a bit of jitters but not much and they wore off quickly. So I did my best and forgot about the rest. Either way I worked out and still burnt calories.

So lets see how I did and I will try to keep it short, time is short for the next little bit:

Back & Biceps:

Results Chart:

01 Wide Front Pull-Ups	NC	1	C	10	15
02 Lawnmowers	RA	20	W	20	20
	LA	20	W	20	20
03 Twenty-Ones	R	23			40
04 One-Arm Cross-Body Curls	RA	13	W	20	20
	LA	13	W	20	0
05 Switch Grip Pull-Ups	NC		C	6	10
06 Elbows-Out Lawnmowers	RA	15	W	20	20
	LA	15	W	20	20
07 Standing Bicep Curls	R	10	W	20	20
08 One-Arm Concentration Curls	RA	5	W	20	10
	LA	5	W	20	10
09 Corn Cob Pull-Ups	NC		C	2	5
10 Reverse Grip Bent-Over Rows	R	13	W	20	20
11 Open Arm Curls	R	8	W	20	15
12 Static Arm Curls	R	12	W	20	15
13 Towel Pull-Ups	NC		C	2	5
14 Congdon Locomotives	R	39	W	20	40
15 Crouching Cohen Curls	R	7	W	20	15
16 One-Arm Corkscrew Curls	R	10	W	20	15
17 Chin-Ups	NC		C	8	10
18 Seated Bent-Over Back Flys	R	14	W	20	20
19 Curl-Up/Hammer Downs	R	8	W	20	15
20 Hammer Curls	R	7	W	20	15
21 Max Rep Pull-Ups	NC		C	3	5
22 Superman	R	All			All
23 In-Out Hammer Curls	R	5	W	20	10
24 Strip-Set Curls	R1	8	W1	20	10
	R2	10	W2	H++	10
	R3	12	W3	H+	10
	R4	9	W4	H+	10

Reading this Chart:

• Last Column = Set Goals
• NC = No Chair
• C = Chair Assisted
• RA = Right Arm
• LA = Left Arm
• R = Rep
• W = Weight
• H = Heavy Resistance Band
• H+ = Heavy Resistance Band with loop
• H++ = Heavy Resistance Band with large loop

So this workout is pretty cool, there is lots of curls in this one, and I used my 20s for almost everything. Now like I mentioned it seemed I was not able to lift anymore in the rep, but not because my muscle gave up, but it seems my energy was low. The next thing I will mention is that I am not really seeing an improvement on my pull ups, and I don’t feel my back pumped much. I believe that even tho the chair is further away, I may somehow be using the leg more. So I will be switching to use the bands instead of the pull up bar for a bit and see if I can get better results for a start and then I will come back to the bar, I think I should have started this way, but we shall see.

The craziest routine here has to be the Corn Cob Pull Ups, holy cow this is insane. I don’t think I can explain it well enough, so I found it on youtube, so you can check it out:

As you can see this is intense, I did this with the chair, was able to 2 and then when I did the max pull up section with 3 of these. But again I did not feel it was huge workout on my back. Some times what I do is I lift then remove my leg from the chair and try to let myself down slowly, that seems to do something, but I still can’t pull up.

Ab Ripper X:

Results Chart:

	Day 29	Day 31	Difference
In & Out	50	50	+0
Seated Bicycle	F25 R25	F25 R25	F+0 R+0
Seated Crunchy Frog	25	25	+0
Crossed leg/Wide Leg Sit-Up	14	18	+4
Fifer Scissors	20	25	+5
Hip Rock 'N Raise	25	25	+0
Pulse-Up	25	25	+0
Roll-Up/V-Up Combo	8	9	+1
Oblique V-Up	RS25 LS25	RS25 LS25	RS+0 LS+0
Leg Climb	RS6 LS6	RS7 LS7	RS+1 LS+1
Mason Twist	37	45	+8
Total Crunches	317	336	+19

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

OK so I concentrated and mustered all the energy I could to bring it here, I really like Ab Ripper X, as I believe this is what will really bring my Buddha belly down big time LOL So I brought it, I know that I am doing 50 for In & Out but they are still crunches, in the DVD they do a total of 339 Crunches, I am 3 crunches away from doing that amount. I really felt it on my abs, I can really say I was satisfied with this part of the workout.

Tomorrow I have Yoga X, I love this routine, it makes you work hard and I hope to be able to bring it.

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 30 - Plyometrics

Alright so I have not seen this workout routine for two weeks. This is a killer routine, if done properly. The first time I did it, I did everything that was asked like it was asked for and it nearly killed me. If you remember the second time and third times around I had to modify because my left calf was having issues, but I still rocked it. Now if you remember a week ago, my right calf started with issues. Yesterday I did the jumping jacks and I had no problems, I thought to myself, cool I am ready for tomorrow. Well everything was fine till mid workout, during the mother of all jumps called jump knee tuck, you have to jump really high tuck your knees up in the air and then land on your toes. Well towards the end my right calf let me know it was there. I thought CRAP! NOT NOW! AND NOT AGAIN! well needless to say I did not stop and I modified yet again, what I did for jumps was either A) Place most of the weight on the left leg, I felt bad for it LOL or B)Use the muscle of my upper legs, squat a bit more, use the inertia of my torso as well and propel myself up and land very close to flat foot, and use my hamstring to cushion the landing and trying to make the cushioning long so it wont put a strain.

Now my main purpose with all this is to continue to workout and burn those calories, I have my mind set that I need to loose the darn Buddha belly and I am not letting anything get in my way LOL. But at the same time I am watching myself to try and not get hurt badly.

Well all in all, it was still a fantastic workout, heart rate was up there and I was sweating buckets, I mean my shirt was completely drenched, so I know I was still working hard.

Tomorrow I have Back and Biceps + Ab Ripper X, And I will BRING IT!!

Thank you for your time:

Mike

Day 29 – Chest, Shoulders & Triceps +ARX

And so today started Phase II and what a kick start. I don’t think I have done so many push ups before as I did today LOL, but I loved it. I wanted to take a moment to say, that I feel so much better, I find myself more energetic, and I am starting to do things teenagers do like walking and all the sudden jumping to touch something up high like a sign or a beam holding a roof LOL.

So lets see how I did today.

Chest, Shoulders & Triceps:

Results Chart:

01 Slow-Motion 3-in-1 Push-Ups	Reg	10	Bon	6	20
02 In & Out Shoulder Flys	R	16	W	H	20
03 Chairs Dips	R	14			20
04 Plange Push-Ups	N1	6	K1	6	20
05 Pike Presses	R	10			20
06 Side Tri-Rises	RA	10	LA	10	20
07 Floor Flys	R	16			20
08 Scarecrows	R	14	W	H	20
09 Overhead Tricep Extensions	R	15	W	H	20
10 Two-Twitch Speed Push-Ups	N1	7	K1	10	20
11 Y-Presses	R	10	W	20-H	15
12 Lying Tricep Extensions	R	20	W	H	20
13 Side-To-Side Push-Ups	N1	8	K1		15
14 Pour Flys	R	12	W	H	15
15 Side-Leaning Tricep Extensions	RA	12	W	H	15
	LA	12	W	H	15
16 One-Arm Push-Ups	N1	1	K1	4	5
17 Weighted Circles	R	36	W	M	40
18 Throw the Bomb	RA	13	W	H	15
	LA	13	W	H	15
19 Clap or Plyo Push-Ups	N1	1	K1	15	10
20 Slo-Mo Throws	R	10	W	H	15
21 Front-To Back Tricep Extensions	RA	20	W	H	20
	LA	20	W	H	20
22 One-Arm Balance Push-Ups	R	6			10
23 Fly-Row Presses	R	7	W	H	10
24 Dumbbell Cross-Body Blows	R	15	W	20	15

Reading this chart:

• Reg = Regular Rep
• Bon = Bonus push ups
• R = Reps
• N = No Knees
• K = Knees
• RA = Right Arm
• LA = Left Arm
• W = Weight
• M = Medium Resistance Band
• H = Heavy Resistance Band

Alright I will have to say that this workout was fun but crazy, I will try to keep this short. Today I tried my best to do Quality over Quantity and I will try to do the same every day now, so some numbers may drop, and like Tony says, it’s not about the numbers, but the quality, fighting for form.

The first set of push ups were very slow, I honestly did not think I was going to do more than 5 even tho I plunged to the floor and very ambitious I said “I will do 20! YEAH BRING IT!!!” LOL I did them as low as I could go I was about 2” of the floor and went as slow as it was asked and oh man, when I got up, I already felt my chest pumped up, something in the back of my mind said OK that was tough, and my mouth said “Yeah give me more!” LOL.

The chair dips I will mention that before I had my legs in a sitting  position to be able to them, today I extended them like it should be done and I was pleased that I did 14 reps.

I want to say something about all of it LOL but this will be to long. Explaining the Y-Presses, you will notice that it says 20-H, I started with the 20lbs dumbbells and ended up using the bands to continue. I am starting to do that quite a bit now with push ups too, do whatever I can without knees and then use my knees to squeeze a couple of more reps, not all, but on must.

I will jump to the one arm push ups, man I tried doing them normal, I could not go down all the way, even my back somewhat hurt a bit, switched to knees and still could not go down all the way, went about half way and could only muster 2 on each arm, man these puppies are tough. Clap push ups, I did one regular and that was it LOL I could not get enough lift off for the second one, so I used my knees and that was a bit to easy, did 15.

Oh and I have to say, what a killer the weighted circles were, I used the bands and even tho I was so close to 40, I just could not keep it going, my arms dropped LOL.

Needless to say, I felt it was a fantastic workout, I was already pumped from the first 3 or 4 exercises, I could really feel it in my triceps and chest, so imagine how good it felt by the time I reached the end, I sweated buckets and at one point I had a bit of adrenalin shakes, not to the extreme but I had them.

And after being exhausted from this new workout I had to do Ab Ripper X, I really did miss this one.

Ab Ripper X:

Results Chart:

	Day 19	Day 29	Difference
In & Out	50	50	+0
Seated Bicycle	F25 R25	F25 R25	F+0 R+0
Seated Crunchy Frog	25	25	+0
Crossed leg/Wide Leg Sit-Up	12	14	+2
Fifer Scissors	25	20	-5
Hip Rock 'N Raise	24	25	+0
Pulse-Up	25	25	+0
Roll-Up/V-Up Combo	4	8	+4
Oblique V-Up	RS25 LS25	RS25 LS25	RS+0 LS+0
Leg Climb	RS4 LS4	RS6 LS6	RS+2 LS+2
Mason Twist	40	37	-3
Total Crunches	313	317	+4

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

Alright, I will say this was not bad, considering I was pretty tuckered out. Only managed to do 4 more than last time in total, I dropped –5 on fifer scissors, I tried not to let it happen but I just could not do it. So than I tried my best to bring it for the rest. The Roll-up/V-up keep in mind that they count 1 for every time you touch your toes and I count 1 for every 2, I made that mistake at first and I am caring it over in order to keep with the data, so I did not really do +4 more, but +8 more. Leg climbing, still struggling, I get about half my back up, but I am doing my best and forgetting about the rest. And finally Mason Twist, I like this one, somehow I fell over at 37, well next time I will try to get some within the bonus round.

Alright also want to take a moment to mention the new calendar I made, I took desktop wallpapers from beachbody.com in order to make this calendar, I hope they’re not mad at me for that. I placed it on the right side, click on it to see the large version and you can see what I have done so far and what I have left.

Tomorrow I have Plyometrics and I shall BRING IT!!! :o)

Thank you for your time:

Mike