Holy crap this is tough. It’s 24 exercises, each max reps, alternating between two back and two bicep exercises – 24 in total. Half of the back stuff is pullups/chinups, and most of the bicep stuff is various types of curls. By the end, my arms were so tired I could barely lift my water bottle to take a drink. I know I’m going to feel this one tomorrow, but I’m looking forward to it.

I did get the pullup bar at Linens and Things yesterday. It’s very easy to set up, and it’s much better than the bands. The bands are great for a lot of things, but I wasn’t getting very much resistance for the pullups. I was doing 20 reps per set of pullups with the bands before. Now, I’m using a step stool for some extra support, and still just barely being able to do 10-12 reps. I hope to be able to wean myself off of the step stool over the next few weeks, and increase my reps.

In other news, I’m going to the White Sox – Rays playoff game tonight. Go SOX!

I’m one third of the way through this thing, and it feels good. I’m glad the recovery week is over, it was good to wake up with sore muscles again. Today was Plyo, and I definitely feel like Tony – “I hate it, but I love it!” I was starting to get sick of not really feeling like I was doing anything, except Core Synergistics is a good workout – I wish it was included during the regular weeks sometimes.

I was thinking about taking some Day 30 pictures to see progress, but I had a huge dinner last night over at my parents, and feel like my stomach is exceptionally large. So I may wait until tomorrow when things even out a bit.

I’m hoping to go find a pullup bar today over at Linens and Things. It’s very similar to the official P90X bar, but cheaper. If I get it, I hope it will help with my progress a bit, because the bands are not giving me as much resistance as I had hoped for.

I started Phase 2 today with Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps. There are 24 moves, 8 each of Chest, Shoulders and Triceps. The chest portion is mostly different types of pushups, shoulders is a lot of flys and, and then various triceps moves. I found it good to mix things up from the Phase 1 workouts, and this workout definitely Brought It. As always, the workout is confusing the first time though, especially some of the more complicated pushup moves.

After that was Ab Ripper, which is still hard, but I’m able to do more of the reps now. I still need work, but I think by the end I’ll be doing the whole thing.

I’m now three days into the Recovery week, but I changed the schedule a bit due to some scheduling conflicts. My sister’s wedding was this weekend, and we ended up needing to leave early for it at the last minute, so I wasn’t able to get Yoga in Saturday morning. So I figured the 5.5 mile run I did on Friday would count as my Yoga day, since I did spend a good amount of time stretching, and Saturday became my rest day. Then I picked back up with the schedule Sunday with Core Synergistics.

Core Synergistics is a core workout, but done with other exercises as well. There are prison cell pushups, which are pushups with pulling in your knees for some core work. Then stuff like doing lunges, then doing tricep kickbacks, curls and shoulder presses all in the lunge, and “Banana Rolls” which are a bit hard to describe, but they work all 4 sides of your core at once. It’s all good stuff, and my low back muscles are sore today, which is good because I know they need work.

Today was Kenpo, which I’m starting to enjoy a bit more. I’d still rather go for a run, but it’s not as bad as Yoga. Tomorrow is X Stretch, but I think I’m going to go for a real easy run (20 minutes or so) then stretch for 20 minutes on my own, since what I’ve seen of the X Stretch DVD is kinda lame.

Today was the last active day of Week 3, with Kenpo. It was a decent workout, but I still don’t feel like I’m getting as much cardio as I would if I had just gone for a run. Which is why I’ll be going for a run tomorrow morning, since I know I’ll need the calorie burn before my sister’s wedding this weekend.

Next week starts the “Recovery” week of Phase I, with two days of Yoga, Two days of stretching, a Kenpo workout, and two “Core Synergistics” workouts. I’ve heard some scary things about that workout, so I’m kind of looking forward to it. It’s supposedly harder than Plyo, so I should get a nice burn out of it.

Yesterday was Yoga, with Legs and Back today. Yoga was better again than last time, I definitely felt like I got a good workout holding the poses and stretching. However, it’s still my least favorite so far. Something about how long it is, and the stillness and repetitiveness of all the poses, especially at the beginning, just makes it seem boring to me.

Legs and Back was good this morning, I’m already starting to feel my glutes and quads. I moved back another six inches or so for the pullups with the bands, and it definitely made a difference. I’m currently using the blue and green, and might try adding the red as well to see if I can maybe do fewer than 20 reps and still feel a burn. Right now, 20 is about all I have time for, and I’m not really struggling as much as I’d like to by the end. I’ve got a couple of weeks before I get back to them, since Saturday starts my first recovery week.

Tomorrow is Kenpo, and Friday is Rest/Stretch. We’ve got my sister’s wedding rehearsal Friday afternoon, so I’ll take the opportunity of being off work to get in a good run Friday morning, and spend some good time stretching.

Today was Shoulders and Arms, plus Ab Ripper. I think I made it through Ab Ripper the best so far, and I’m starting to almost make it through all of the Fifer Scissors, but my leg is still not very straight yet. I might need to switch to bands when we come back and do this workout again, since the smaller weights are getting to be too light for some of the Tricep stuff, and the bigger weights might be too much.

I figured out a better way to make my Protein shake also. No matter how much I shook it before, it would always have some clumps left in it. On Saturday, I mixed the shake, and left it in the fridge while I showered. When I came back and shook it again, all of the clumps were gone. So today I started making the shake before the workout, putting it in the fridge and then shaking it up again after the workout.

Yesterday started Week 2 with Chest and Back w/ Ab Ripper again. This will be the last time I’ll to these workouts until Week 9. I’m kind of curious to see what the Phase II workouts are like. Yesterday was a busy day with a doctor’s appointment in the morning, and some other activities for our 3rd anniversary, including a not very healthy dinner. Tony would not have been happy.

Today was Plyo, but I didn’t get around to it until 4:30 this afternoon. I was hoping it would be getting easier, but it really hasn’t. But maybe I’m doing everything with more intensity so it feel as hard as the first time.

I’m hoping to get into my running schedule tomorrow with easy runs Monday and Wednesdays after work, and either a long run or some speed work on Fridays.

Today was a rest/stretch day. I had hoped to run a bit and get in a stretch, but ended up just resting. We’ve got a lot planned this weekend, so I’m going to save my energy for that, and hopefully get a more regular running schedule started next week.

Tomorrow starts Week 3 with Chest and Back – more pushups and pullups. I can’t wait…

I didn’t have time to post yesterday, so I’m combining the past 2 days. Yesterday was Legs and Back plus Ab Ripper, and it went pretty well. I was pressed for time again but still managed to get everything in. I’ve changed the bands I use for pullups, and I can tell I’m getting better resistance now, I might need to ad another band or sit further back, though, since I’m not really going to failure with 20 reps, it’s just all I’ve got time for. I was finally able to complete all 50 of the Mason Twists at the end of Ab Ripper, and I’m starting to be able to do more of the Fifer Scissors, too. So I know there’s some gains being made already.

Today was Kenpo, and I felt better doing it than last week. I think getting the moves coordinated to a point where where I can do them without spending 5 minutes figuring out what I’m doing wrong helps. I was definitely able to up the intensity to the point where my heart rate was up, and I was sweating a lot. I also cut the breaks a bit short to keep my heart rate higher, since it drops so quickly.

I think I may run when I get home tonight, depending on how I feel. If I don’t tonight, I will tomorrow since it’s the rest/stretch day and a run will let me get a good stretch in as well as keep up my running ability.