By Shawn, on November 15th, 2010
Alright. We are now in the final phase of the P90X journey. We are back to good old Chest & Back with some Ab Ripper X. I was excited to see what progress I made since Phase 1. Well, I was actually hoping I didn’t regress!
I was excited to go back to some workouts we haven’t done in a few weeks. I have to say.. I forgot how tough this workout was. I thought it was going to be a walk in the park as its pretty much just basic push-ups and pull-ups with nothing special. Man, was I wrong.
My first day in my first week doing Chest and Back, I had a feeling like I was going to puke. I chalked it up to it being my first P90X workout. Well, I think it was more because of how tough this workout because I had the same feeling again today. Now, the couple of cheese curls I had before the workout could have been a factor.
I was a little disappointed in my results. I thought I would have blown away my week 3 results. Unfortunately, that didn’t really happen. I was about the same as I was in week 3.
|
Week 3 |
|
Week 9 |
|
Set 1 |
Set 2 |
|
Set 1 |
Set 2 |
| Standard Push-Up |
30 |
21 |
|
35 |
22 |
| Wide Front Pull-Up |
4 / 8 |
2 / 8 |
|
8 |
4 / 4 |
| Military Push-Up |
23 |
15 |
|
23 |
15 |
| Reverse Grip Chin-Up |
4 / 5 |
4 / 4 |
|
8 |
7 |
| Wide Fly Push-Up |
19 |
15 |
|
17 |
15 |
| Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Up |
4 / 6 |
3 / 6 |
|
8 |
7 |
| Decline Push-Up |
15 |
14 |
|
15 |
15 |
| Heavy Pants |
10 @ 40 lbs |
10 @ 40 lbs |
|
12 @ 40 lbs |
12 @ 40 lbs |
| Diamond Push-Up |
15 |
12 |
|
13 |
11 |
| Lawnmower |
10 @ 40 lbs |
10 @ 40 lbs |
|
12 @ 40 lbs |
12 @ 40 lbs |
| Dive-Bomber Push-Up |
8 |
9 |
|
10 |
9 |
| Back Fly |
8 @ 40 lbs |
8 @ 40 lbs |
|
8 @ 40 lbs |
8 @ 40 lbs |
Once again, I ended up skipping Ab Ripper X. I was still feeling a little nauseous after I finished the chest & back portion. Even as I write this post a few hours later while watching the Eagles blow out the Redskins in the first quarter, I’m still feeling it. I’m guessing I ate something that didn’t quite agree with me.
Final Thoughts
Man, this is still a tough workout. My chest was almost cramping after the first push-up exercise. Its amazing how well basic push-ups can work your chest. I only get one more week with this workout so it will be all or nothing next week!
<table cellspacing=”0″ cellpadding=”0″>
<col width=”215″>
<col width=”75″ span=”2″>
<col width=”13″>
<col width=”75″ span=”2″>
<tr>
<td width=”215″> </td>
<td width=”150″ colspan=”2″ style=”text-align: center”>Week 3</td>
<td width=”13″ style=”text-align: center”> </td>
<td width=”150″ colspan=”2″ style=”text-align: center”>Week 9</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>Set 1</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>Set 2</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”> </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>Set 1</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>Set 2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Standard Push-Up</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>30</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>21</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”> </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>35</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>22</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Wide Front Pull-Up</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>4 / 8</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>2 / 8</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”> </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>8</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>4 / 4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Military Push-Up</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>23</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>15</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”> </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>23</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>15</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Reverse Grip Chin-Up</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>4 / 5</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>4 / 4</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”> </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>8</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>7</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Wide Fly Push-Up </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>19</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>15</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”> </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>17</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>15</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Up </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>4 / 6</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>3 / 6</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”> </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>8</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>7</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Decline Push-Up</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>15</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>14</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”> </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>15</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>15</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Heavy Pants </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>10 @ 40 lbs</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>10 @ 40 lbs</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”> </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>12 @ 40 lbs</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>12 @ 40 lbs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Diamond Push-Up</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>15</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>12</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”> </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>13</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>11</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Lawnmower </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>10 @ 40 lbs</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>10 @ 40 lbs</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”> </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>12 @ 40 lbs</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>12 @ 40 lbs</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Dive-Bomber Push-Up</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>8</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>9</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”> </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>10</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>9</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Back Fly </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>8 @ 40 lbs</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>8 @ 40 lbs</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”> </td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>8 @ 40 lbs</td>
<td style=”text-align: center”>8 @ 40 lbs</td>
</tr>
</table>
By Shawn, on November 14th, 2010
Its Sunday and that means a rest day. Which is good for me since I’m driving home from Long Island today. After a 4 hour+ long drive the last thing I’ll want to do is workout. After my mid-afternoon nap, I’ll be ready to take some updated pictures and measurements. Stay tuned to see the results!
Final Thoughts
Alright, I made it through 2 phases of P90X journey. I”m pretty excited I made it this far. I’m not sure what my results will be in the last phase with the holidays coming up. I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities to cheat,which will be my downfall. For the most part, I’ve kept myself away from temptations. It will be much harder with Thanksgiving right around the corner.
By Shawn, on November 12th, 2010
 After my great Core Synergistics workout earlier in the day, my wife and I had plans to meet her family out to dinner to celebrate her uncle’s birthday. They were all meeting at a local Golden Corral. Good news for them.. bad news for my diet!
In case you never had the joy of eating at a Golden Corral, here’s a quick description. Golden Corral has endless buffet that features an abundant variety of delicious familiar favorites and continuous new menu offerings for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Golden Corral’s legendary, endless dinner buffet features an enormous variety with 15 proteins including USDA, grilled to order sirloin steaks, pork, seafood, shrimp, and chicken. In case you couldn’t tell, I took that from their website. I didn’t write that great description myself.
Alright, I’m not going to sit here and tell you I had a chicken salad with non-fat dressing. That didn’t happen. By the time we got to the restaurant, I was starving. I had worked out a few hours earlier and hadn’t really eaten anything since lunch. Just like you shouldn’t go grocery shopping on an empty stomach, you shouldn’t go to a buffet when dieting on a completely empty stomach. It won’t end well.
I was very surprised to see that Golden Corral lists the nutritional facts of many of their items. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t bother taking a look at it before I went there. I knew it would be a complete cheat day.. and it was.
My advice to anyone going to Golden Corral (or any other buffet for that matter) is this. Take a look at their nutritional guide they have posted on their website. Pick out a few healthy foods you want to eat beforehand and stick to it. If you go in without anything in mind, it will be way too easy to cheat.
By Shawn, on November 12th, 2010
Alright, we are back to another Core Synergistics workout.. my new favorite P90X workout. Plus, I found a much more enjoyable way to do this workout. Its pretty simple. All you have to do is turn down the volume and play some music in the background. This should allow you to still hear the instructions while drowning out the Tony and Dreya flirting.
This workout probably has my favorite exercises and my least favorite exercises. Lets start with the two least favorite. The first is the Dreya Roll. Really, do I even have to go into why? The second is the bow to boat. This is where you start on your stomach, reach back and grab your ankles pulling your chest and thighs off the ground. After holding this for 10 seconds, you roll over on your butt making a sort of U shape with your arms and legs, working your abs and core. The problem with this exercise is that I can’t do a boat. For whatever reason, I can’t grab my ankles. I look like a beached whale squirming around. I’m not sure if its my lack of flexibility or my short arms that keep me from success. Either way, its something I can’t do.
One of my favorite exercises is the walking push-ups. I’m not even sure why its one of my favorites. It doesn’t sound like something that would be very tough.. but trust me, its tough to do it for a minute. It gives you a pretty good core and upper body workout. If you’ve never tried it before, give it a try. Its pretty good.
Final Thoughts
Alright, this weekend will be a test for me. My wife and I are traveling to her parents this weekend and then to Long Island for a business trip she has. That means I’ll be eating out as well as eating at the mother in law’s place. I won’t have the safety of eating boring chicken salads all weekend. I’ll have to restrain myself from eating tooooo bad this weekend.
By Shawn, on November 11th, 2010
Today we got another workout we only do during the rest week in our P90X journey: X Stretch. Well, I shouldn’t say we only do it during rest week. You have the option to either rest on Sundays or do X Stretch. Being the competitor that I am, I normally choose to rest.
X Stretch is a cool little workout. Its definitely something you can do on a day when you want to work out, but you aren’t feeling something difficult. Don’t get me wrong. Its not a cake walk. But its definitely something you can do without a ton of motivation.
As I said the first time I did X Stretch, I wish I did this workout more often. All the stretches are used in the other workouts. Plus, as I stated hundreds of times already, I’m not the most flexible person. I chalk it up to having huge muscular thighs!
Final Thoughts
Alright, I’m getting excited to wrap up phase 2. I’m a little over half way through the last week. At this point, I don’t think its going to be an issue getting through all 90 days. I’m not that bored with the videos yet so that shouldn’t be an issue. I think the only issue will be time. I’ve been lucky so far as I’ve always had enough time in the day to do a workout. But there are days or even a few days when its tough to find time to workout. Plus, Thanksgiving will be coming up soon along with some traveling. We’ll see how much we stick to the schedule.
By Shawn, on November 10th, 2010
In my phase 1 rest week, I switched days 3 and 4 around. This time I manged to follow directions and did the correct workout: Kenpo X. I always talk about how Kenpo X is one of my favorite P90X workouts. Even after doing it for 8 weeks now, its still fun.
And even after 8 weeks, I still kick like a girl. Well, its not that I kick like a girl.. Its more that my kicks aren’t very high. So if I ever get in a kick fight with a little person, I have a chance. I guess the low kicking ability and inflexibility go hand and hand.
Final Thoughts
It was nice to do Kenpo X on a day that didn’t follow a legs workout. Usually, Legs and Back are on Fridays with Kenpo X on Saturdays. But my legs and butt are always sore after doing the leg workout. For once my legs weren’t sore, which was nice. Tomorrow we do some stretching.. we’ll see if I can get more flexible!
By Shawn, on November 9th, 2010
Its Tuesday in the rest week in my P90X journey, and we get to do a workout that we haven’t done since the last rest week: Core Synergistrics. Its unfortunate we only get to do this workout a few times throughout the 90 days. I would have much preferred this workout over Yoga X. But no one asked my opinion when they put the workout together!
The last time I did Core Synergistrics, I declared that its my favorite workout over Kenpo X. I think I like it a little better because there is more variety. In Kenpo, you do those stupid blocking and elbow moves. While they would be great if you were doing some kind of martial arts, they don’t really give you much of a workout. Because of this little detail, I’m putting Core Synergistics in first place.
Now, the only thing that would keep Core Synergistics out of first place is the set of characters in the video. Unfortunately, we have ‘the world famous’ Dreya Weber. Not only do we have to put up with her for a full hour, but we have to do an exercise named after her called the Dreya Roll. Yes, its as stupid as it sounds. I won’t ramble on about it here. I’ll save that for some future posts.
Final Thoughts
It was funny that today was my Core Synergistics workout. Earlier in the day, I got a text message from my old roommate asking about a core workout. He’s been looking for some more core exercises to do at the gym. I have to admit, before I started my P90X journey, I never really gave a thought to core exercises. Its definitely something I’m going to focus on after my journey is over.
By Shawn, on November 8th, 2010
Alright, its rest week in phase 2 of my P90X journey. That should be a good thing, right? Well, it is only if you consider doing Yoga X twice in one week a good thing. I, on the other hand, hate Yoga X.
Even though I hate it the workout in general, it is growing on my ever so slightly. Not growing on me that so much that I’m going to do it after I’m done with my journey, but growing on me enough that I don’t loathe it so much.
I have to admit… I’m pretty disappointed in my flexibility after 50 days. I thought for sure I would be farther along and much more flexible. It just hasn’t happened yet. I think I’m going to have to live with always being inflexible. Oh well.
Now, my balance has improved slightly since my first day. Don’t get me wrong. I won’t be one of those performers you see in the piazzas in Italy that stand there for hours at a time.. but I’m not falling over every 5 seconds either.
I managed to struggle my way through Yoga Belly. I was pretty spent by the time this part of the workout. I just don’t see the reason in doing abs after an 1:15 long yoga workout. But I guess that’s probably the reason I don’t have a six pack!
Final Thoughts
Alright, I think I only cursed at the screen 10 times during workout. Trying to stretch on one leg while twisting your body while constantly falling over just doesn’t seem all that fun to me. Some of my friends who are doing P90X just ended up skipping Yoga X every week. I thought about skipping it and adding in Kenpo instead, but I wanted to keep this journey as close to the book as possible. I think for my second round that I’ll probably change it up a little and not do Yoga X as much.
By Shawn, on November 7th, 2010
Today is my the final rest day in phase 2 of my P90X journey. As I predicted in Friday’s post, my legs and butt are still a little sore from the legs and back workout.
Tomorrow starts the beginning of the rest week in phase 2. We go back to doing the Core Synergistics workout. I liked this workout and its unfortunate we only do it during the rest week.
Final Thoughts
Alright, we are finishing up phase 2 of my P90X journey. I”m pretty excited for the rest week and then the updated pictures and stats. Alright, its time to watch the Eagles (hopefully) beat the Colts
By Shawn, on November 6th, 2010
Yes, its Saturday, Day 6 in week 7 in my P90X journey. We get another Kenpo X workout. There’s not much to report on the workout, but I did have a special workout partner. I finally convinced my wife to join me in a workout after 48 days. My wife is one of those who isn’t all that into sports and working out so it was a struggle to get her to work out with me.
I’m proud to admit that she made it through the workout. She wanted to quit with about 8 minutes to go, but I made her go all the way through to the end. Just like I did my first time through the workout, she had a little trouble keeping up with all the combinations so its just not me!
Final Thoughts
Tony talks about working out with a partner. I’ll admit. It was a little fun getting to work out with someone. Usually I’m just yelling at the screen so it was fun to get to talk to someone during the workout. Alright, tomorrow is another rest day before the rest week to cap off phase 2.
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About Me 
So you want to know a little about me?
I'm a 30 year old man starting my first real training program. I've been slightly overweight for a while now (probably since the day I got married!) and its finally time to shed those extra pounds. If you need to know more, you can read all about me here. Affiliate Disclosure Pursuant to new FTC regulations, it should be known that I am a part time affiliate marketer. What does that mean? Well, if I write about something (like P90X) and link to that product, there's a slight chance I might make some money off of it. I won't become Bill Gates but maybe I'll make enough for a beer on the weekend. If you don't like it, don't click on my links. Simply Google the products instead. If you thought I provided something useful or at least made you laugh, then feel free to click on a link. If its a link to a product, assume that its an affiliate link. You can read the full boring legal disclosure if you have extra time on your hands. |
