Yoga X – Day 4 again

Hated it. But it works. As I have mentioned, I have had a couple of back surgeries, which destroyed much of my flexibility. Add to that I wasn’t flexible in the first place and, well it wasn’t pretty.

I would complain about an hour and a half but the day before and day after with the addition of Ab Ripper X (on the Lean Track) the exercise is 80 minutes anyway.

Now, two of my favorite poses were Crane/Bakasana (which I could hold for, oh, about 2 seconds) and Savasana, which I was able to hold for the entire minute with relative ease even though it was the end of the workout!  Oh yeah, I brought it!

Legs and Back plus Ab Ripper X tonight. I am going to Bring It!

all about Christ,
David Buckham

P90X Redux

So I had gone through about 4 days of P90X at the same time I was getting ready for a race. The race would have been at the end of week 2. I could not run 1/2 a mile after 4 days of P90X. I stopped.

The day of the race, I finished 4th in my age group out of 5. But I was still in last place in my age group because 1st place won the race overall so he was taken out of our category.

After the race (and two days before) the flu hit our house. The flu went through my two sons and wife over the period of a week and a half. During that time I stopped exercising.

Started back up Monday night. Oh, that is the other thing, I moved my exercise time to night. I sleep much better and get up much easier. Also, I have found the exercises easier to follow and I am pushing myself further. Maybe that is because I am comfortable with the exercising and knowing what will happen next. Who knows. But I am back and bringing it!

all about Christ,
David

Day 4 – Yoga X: Failure and Success

Failure. I felt like complete junk this morning when I got up, so I got back in bed. I did not attempt to complete Yoga X. I may try to do it later tonight, if not, I will pick back up tomorrow with what I think is supposed to be Legs and Back, Ab Ripper X.

I just want to be honest about my P90X experience thus far.

all about Christ,
David

STATUS UPDATE!!!

Many hours later, like 10:00 p.m., I came back to go through Yoga X.  It’s too long (1 1/2 hours), but I took the time to go back to what I missed earlier.  I hope I get more flexible.

Day 3 – Kenpo X…oops

I will be quick.  I did the wrong work out this morning.  My fault.  BUT, it felt good.  I will skip the next Kenpo X (Friday) and do what I was supposed to do today which I think was Arms and Shoulders, Ab Ripper X.

I don’t feel too good today.  There has been a bug going around and I may have gotten it now.

all about Christ,
David

Day 2 – Cardio X and a 5K

After yesterday morning’s workout I felt good.  I felt good all day…then night came.  I started feeling the tightness factor of muscles that have long forgotten what it felt like to be used.  So I did what I thought best, I worked out a little more, only this time it was family fun workout time with Wii Fit Plus (other previous Wii Fit owners will like the updates I think).

Well this morning I was introduced to Cardio X.  I got up at 4:45 a.m. and started pushing it at 4:55.   I was able to keep up mostly, that is until that danged Dreya Roll.  I really don’t like that thing.  In the past 12 years I have had 2 back surgeries so I have to be careful with what I do and do not do, as well as how I do it.  Like I was saying though, I was able to keep up with most of the workout.  It felt good to work the cardio and get my heart rate going.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been running for about 3 months now.  What I thought was a 5K (3.1 miles) ended up being 2 mile runs.  Other than a disappointing realization and wondering how I got the measurement wrong it was not that horrible of a thing.  It did help me get in better shape and prepare me for where I am now.

Recently, my running partner, Tosh, and I, have been running a full 3.1 miles.  He and I are young fathers that have realized we are not in good shape and we want to be around to see our grand kids so let’s get in shape while we can kind of guys.  He used to play football, I was in decent shape in High school mostly because of band (it actually was good exercise during marching season and really worked core muscles more than would think during symphony season).

At any rate, after my Day 2 workout I went to run with Tosh.  We ran a 5K five minutes faster than the last time we ran a 5K.  In all fairness, and a shout out to Tosh, he did finish it a few seconds ahead of me.

I aint going to lie, I went home and crawled into my bed.  Every muscle in my core was on fire and my knees were saying things to me…bad things.  After a little refresher nap, I am up and about and feeling good, but sore.

Current Stats:  (I realize weight can vary as much 4 lbs in one day, I still feel it important to keep track of what my body is doing for my sake and others who may read or follow this.)
Weight: 173 (-2.2lbs since Day 1 according to Wii Fit Board)

BMI: 27.16 (-.63 since Day 1 according to Wii Fit Board)

Chest: 40″

Gut: 42″…at thickest point

5K time: 35:30

Ready for Kempo X tomorrow.

all about Christ,
David Buckham

Day 1—For Realsies This Time

After much waiting (and wondering if eBay was a good place to buy P90X) it came in the mail…then my family came into town. I decided to wait to start until after they left, since my wife and I would be sleeping in the living room.

I began Dy 1 today going with the P90X Lean tract. I am most definitely out of shape. I have a new euphemism for hate now, I call it Sphinx Push-up (which I cannot do yet) or Dreya Roll (which I probably should not have done yet).

Stats for today (according to Wii Fit, which I know is not exactly accurate)
Weight 177 (change of 2.4 lbs since 13 days ago)
BMI 27.79 (Last BMI 28.17 again 13 days ago)
Status: Overweight.

I will keep getting up at 5 or 5:30 depending on if I plan to run or not. Tomorrow is a running day, so I will no doubt be exhausted. I vow to not to do much or more than I can handle. I do know my limits.

all about Christ,
David

Day 1…Still Waiting

I ordered P90X off eBay. It was advertised as being new and unopened. All good things. The package was coming from overseas. Suspicious. Well I tracked it and it was handed over to customs. A few days later the package was released and is on it’s merry way again. I am glad customs scans and checks packages coming in to the US. That does give me a warm fuzzy, but the fact that they even have to does not give me those warm fuzzies. Well here’s to a little more waiting.

In the mean time I took some before pictures. Will post all later.

all about Christ,
David

Day 1…False Start

Well, today was supposed to be day 1 but P90X hasn’t arrived yet. Hopefully it will be here tomorrow or Tuesday with a new start date of Wednesday. I am ready. My wife, Julie, has even shown an interest in going through this with me! Exciting.

all about Christ,
David Buckham

My P90X Experiment

Recently I purchased an exercise program called P90X.  Hopefully it will arrive this week (Sun. Sept. 27, 2009) and I will start next Sunday.  I will use this blog to track my progress or lack there of.  If you want to follow along, great, please post and encourage me.   My current intent is to exercise every morning at 5:00 a.m.  I have two young boys and a wife and life gets pretty busy in the morning, so I have to get up earlier.

I have steadily gained weight since college (entered college at 125 lbs and left at 165 lbs).  It’s time for that gaining trend to stop.  A few months ago, my blood pressure had remained elevated (155 over 95) for a several months.  I decided it was time to start exercising.  Another guy from the church I serve at and I began running a few times a week.  We gradually worked up our distance and stamina.  We are both young fathers and want to be around for our grandkids.  We even determined to run in our town’s annual 5K, which is later in October.  It’s not a huge distance, but it is something we can set a goal for.  If you want info about the 5K, it’s the 19th Annual Steven Rowlett Memorial Road Race in Pennington Gap, as a part of our annual Tobacco Festival.  Other than the fact that we are running a race during a tobacco festival, the big joke between he and I is that I am in the next age bracket up…I guess I am getting old and he enjoys reminding me of that.

When my friend and I started running I was weighing in at around 185-187.  After about two months of running I lost 15 lbs.  I am only 5′ 8″ so that is most assuredly overweight.  After I lost the weight, 10 lbs came back over the next few weeks of running.  I was encouraged by a nurse friend, who has acted as a voice of advice, that the extra weight was just muscle.  To be honest, I didn’t believe her, that is until I tried on some riding boots the other night at the store.  They had a zipper on the back of the leg.  The boots fit my foot and I started to zip them up and caught the zipper on my calf.  Yeah, that’s muscle there.  While that is good news, I have continued to loose weight at about 1-2 pounds a week for the past two weeks.  Lost 1.8 this past week.

In addition to the running, I dropped soda as of Sept 1.  I drink mostly water, sometimes flavored, sometimes just plain o’ God created water.  I have begun making other dietary changes as well.

While I will be starting P90X this week, I also intend to keep on running.  My fitness goals are simple.  Get into shape by loosing the gut and other areas of fat.  I will get more specific about my goals before I began.  Look for pictures and daily updates, good bad and ugly.  For now, it’s bed time.

all about Christ,
David Buckham