P90X And Triathlon

I get a large number of visits on this blog daily because of my experiences with the P90X work out program. And a few of these are from triathletes who are considering whether or not the program can help them with reach their multisport goals. I've tried to be as detailed as possible about my take on P90X and its benefits. For someone who doesn't have a lot of time and wants a strength program that is varied and well structured, I'd say it is well worth the investment of about $130 to $300 to assemble all the necessary equipment. If you want to know what I think about P90X then read the weekly posts. Sure you can look at the end result, but that won't give you the information you need about what it was like trying to do the program and maintain some semblance of triathlon specific work.  That, in a nutshell, was hard. Very hard.

But here's the thing. What I found doing P90X, and I'd wager you'd find this doing any coherent, focused functional strength program, is my endurance increased along with my strength. Translation, I was able to work longer, at a faster rate, more efficiently when it was all said and done. Did I look like the folks on TV? Nope. But honestly, I really didn't care about that. What I got from doing P90X for 90 days was a faster return to the level of fitness I enjoyed prior to my 5 year hiatus.

I've had quite a bit of time to consider to effects of P90X on Triathlon training having almost 2 years since I did my first workout pass. First I will say I do believe it is possible to do both P90X and Tri training. I've said that all along. But what I've also said is there are caveats. The main one being the results you are looking for from the program. If those results are more on the appearance side, then I'd definitely tone down the tri specific work until I "looked" the way I wanted.

On the other hand if you wanted to use P90X as a basis for enhancing tri performance, then I think with some modification to the routine it could be done with great success for all distances. 

Why do I say this? I say this because many athletes tend to overlook the importance of basic strength in triathlon and focus an overly large amount of time on endurance. And when I speak of strength I'm talking about a concept beyond lifting weights in the gym a couple of hours a week in the midst of swimming, biking and running throughout the week. When I speak of strength, I'm speaking about things like range of motion, connective tissue, power, balance, coordination, muscular access, and muscular endurance. 

The more I consider the way time is or can be spent preparing for Triathlon of any distance, the more I feel that each of the three sports are techniques to be learned and mastered, and the results you see on race day are from the successful integration and application of full bodied strength and technique work. P90X can certainly assist in creating that. You simply need to know when, where, and how to apply it in the scheme of your other tri specific training.

What a Difference a Little Persistence Can Make

Wow!!! There is nothing like visual confirmation that something you've been working at for a very long time is coming to fruition. For me this year was really about doing some races and addressing the area of changing my body composition so that I could see some economy benefits in cycling and running. What a difference a year and three months, some exercise, more sleep and about 60 days of counting calories can make. Even I am shocked by these pictures. The cool thing is I haven't been training more than a few hours a week since Thanksgiving. And I haven't counted calories since then either. I've been taking things pretty easy, enjoying my unstructured training time and doing a little yoga here and there.

A little over a year ago, I started out with just a goal of becoming fitter and healthier, and maybe doing a few races. I can't begin to tell you how many times along the way I was sure nothing was happening or that I was sliding backwards instead of moving forward. So whatever your goals are for the coming year keep working at them and you will see results. Here's a bit of proof and hopefully some inspiration. Happy New Year everyone!

Photos on the left taken 08-17-07. Photos on the right taken 12-29-08

After a Week of Tracking Calories...

I only have one thing to say. OK. That first sentence is a lie. But if I could keep my comments about tracking calories down to a single item, I'd probably say I should have done this a long time ago. I know I should have done it while I was doing P90X last winter (so if you are going to be trying P90X, take the time, calculate the calories, and watch the new you emerge). And I certainly should have done it when I was transitioning from racing to off season training. Jeez. The funny thing of it was, I had an inkling the off season weight gain was the result of my appetite and my training being out of sync. Basically my food intake was still at summer/racing levels, but my activity had gone into recovery/off season mode. The big thing that I find so amazing is just how little food 2000 or even 2500 calories actually amounts to. With that information alone, I'm able to better assess portion sizes and make better judgements on how much food is needed to fuel my body appropriately without excess.

I'm not really sure why I never looked at the discrepancy between how much I was eating and how much I actually needed to eat more closely. Perhaps it was no big deal a few years ago to shed 8 pounds in a month and start racing. Now of course losing that last 8 pounds has been like pulling teeth. And since I've already eliminated most culprits for stubborn and unwanted weight like HFC's (high fructose corn syrup), junk food of all persuasions (chips, cookies, desserts, ect.), and any and all processed foods from my diet, there actually wasn't much else I could do other than quit my job and work out more.

After a week of limiting my caloric intake, one thing is blatantly obvious. I was just eating way too much food. Based on my estimates from what I'm eating now and my current activity level, I'm eating about half of what I was eating before on some days. Granted there is about a 500 calorie deficit in the equation for losing a pound a week for 8 weeks. But as near as I can figure based on the size and frequency of meals I was eating prior to this, I had to be consuming between 3000 and 4000 calories a day. That's great if triathlon is your day job and you work out over 20 hours a week. But not if you aren't. The net result of this has been I'm simply amazed at how little food 2000 calories is. I'm not starving mind you. But this has really opened my eyes to how much food is necessary versus how much I was habitually eating.

Fortunately, it wasn't always this way for me. I'm also feeling 2000 calories was probably about what I was eating per day when I was younger. This all changed with the advent of a live-in girlfriend. When she left unfortunately my eating habits didn't go with her. Oh well. Live and learn. Hopefully, none of you will have to learn this lesson the way I did. I definitely chose the "hard" way on this one.

Oh, in case you were wondering what 2000 calories looks like, here is a day from last week. Another thing this has brought to my attention is the invisible "liquid" calories I was consuming.

Lemonade 8oz 110
Super Protein Juice 45
mushrooms 100
4 baby carrots 16
3 strawberrries 6
½ banana 50
pineapple 15
hemp protien 30
green food 20
Super Protein 6oz 95
Super Food 2oz 42
Greens Bar 12:30pm 250
Lemonade 8oz 110
½ veggieburger 8:30pm 170
½ fries 200
Lemon/Chive Drsg 1tsp 25
Switch Soda 140
Grapefruit 10:00pm 62
Smoothie 11:30pm 394

Total Calories: 1880

Thoughts About P90X 11 Months Later

So a lot of folks have been looking at my P90X posts this summer and for the most part I think if you take the time to look through them they speak for themselves but I thought I'd offer my take on the program now and give some input on which posts about my experience I thought might offer the most information.

I suppose one thing I'd want to know right off the bat is how is my weight/fitness now? When I started the P90X program in September 2007 I had already lost about 10 pounds and my weight at that point I was 164 pounds. Now I weigh 154 pounds. Aside from losing the weight and being able to keep it off, P90X allowed me to get back into triathlon training and racing faster than if I'd not used the program. I was not only able to build strength but I was also able to build my base endurance up in the process. P90X is also very, very core intensive. For this reason if you look around the internet you will see not only dramatic changes in weight but also huge changes in posture. Personally for the better posture alone P90X is more than worth the money and effort you will put into it if you chose to purchase the program and use it.

The nutrition plan that comes in the program is also very sound and well thought out. If you take the time to study it and adjust it to your personal needs and situation, you will find this is where your most visible results will come quickly. Without the diet you will get much stronger, but chances are you won't see the visual results P90X is so famous for. I also believe how we choose to eat affects not only how we look in the mirror, but how we ultimately think and behave. When we eat better, we are better.

Currently I still use the P90X workouts 2-3 times a week depending on time, timing (am I racing that weekend), and fitness goals. The workout is portable if you have a set of resistance bands. This summer I used P90X to stay in shape while on trips to California and Washington D.C. I plan to use the full 90 day program again during my off season. Where I decide to position it will depend on if I also plan to use the P90X + program in addition to P90X or not.

Finally, I found the results I got varied depending on whether I was using the resistance bands or the weights. The bands, I think give a type of strength that is present throughout the full range of motion of the exercise. You will look toned. The dumbbells will give you a higher top end strength wise and you will get more definition more quickly.

If you just want a quick overview of how the program is structured check out these two links:
Week 1

Week 1 Caveat

If you just want to know how the story ended, check out this link:
Final Thoughts on P90x

If you want to see pictures of what I look like now compared to what I looked like when I started, check out this link:What I look like now.

Final Thoughts On P90x

So its been about a month since my last P90x workout. And I've had some time to think about what I got out of the program. Personally, to get to the point, I think P90x is one of the best strength building workouts out there. For the money, about $120.00 for the DVD's or videos in VHS format, and another $100.00 to $150.00 for extra equipment like dumb bells or resistance bands and a pull up bar, you really can't beat it. P90x was truly like having a personal trainer come to my house each and every day and work me out. I got stronger and faster in record time. The only thing that didn't happen was I didn't lose a lot of weight while I was doing the program. I attribute that to two things. Number 1 was diet. For P90x to work the way you will see in the infomercial, on the website and elsewhere, you have to follow the diet. There is no getting around this. And I found this out first hand. You can see this in my photos.

The second reason, I didn't see the weight loss or muscular definition the program was famous for was I was also doing an average of 8 hours per week of triathlon training on top of my 6 to 7 hours of P90x specific work. The problem here was that with the additional activity, my caloric intake was greater and my body was probably in "starvation" mode thus not burning fat as efficiently as it could/would have had I not been doing the extra cardio work that is necessary for triathlon training. This extra cardio work also takes necessary energy,nutrients, and rest time from your body that would normally be used for actually building muscles.

I started P90x weighing in at 162lbs on day 1. By day 30 I was actually up to 165lb. By day 60 I had dropped back to 162lbs. And on day 90 I weighed in at 160lbs. From the pictures you can see the overall shift in where the weight was carried. But what is interesting is what happened after I stopped doing all P90x work and just went back to my normal triathlon specific work. Two weeks after P90x, I weighed in at 158lbs. And four weeks after P90x I weighed 155lbs. My only explanation for this is the increased muscle mass developed from P90x upped my metabolism which then burned fat more efficiently once I stopped doing the P90x workouts. My body must have deemed my caloric intake as sufficient and the additional recovery time allowed my body to burn off any excess body fat that was no longer seen as necessary to maintain the two different types of workouts simultaneously. This is just a guess, but it is the only explanation I have.


To illustrate, here are some of my P90x photos:





If you need more details or want to see more pictures, check out these links:

If you just want a quick overview of how the program is structured you should take a look at these two links:
Week 1

Week 1 Caveat

If you just want to know what I thought of P90X after a year, check out this link:
P90x One Year Later.

If you want to see pictures of what I look like now compared to what I looked like when I started, check out this link:What I Look Like Now.

If you have questions about P90X and Triathlon look here.

Rare Air

You know the saying about something you do working so well you stop doing it? In one sense I suppose I could say I'm somewhat guilty of that right now. The other day I posted a comment on Nick's blog and then forgot about it. Just now I was looking at his blog and checking out his latest P90X photos when I realized my comment was the focus of one of his entries.

"Whoa!" It was sort of like reading about yourself in the newspaper.

Well one thing I learned is I need to use the preview function on the comments and check what I write for grammatical correctness... But aside from that I was like, "You've been sitting around here all week trying to figure out what to write about on your own blog and you dropped a perfectly good topic on someone else's as a comment? And then proceeded to forget about it?"

I know. I know. I do amaze myself sometimes.

So where was, I? Oh yeah, Nick's blog. Nick was writing about an elevated heart rate during the P90X Plyometric routine. He'd been advised by some of his friends who were endurance athletes to work on controlling his breathing when he did Plyo. The comment I left on his blog advised him to go beyond controlling his breathing and to look at his overall breathing pattern. And this is where my earlier statement about having something work so well we stop doing it comes into play.

By and large most adults have just stopped breathing properly and do not completely fill their lungs with oxygen. In life this leads to high stress levels and a greater overall sense of anxiety. In exercise the result is a higher average heart rate and quicker fatigue. This is because most people breathe mainly into their chests which can be loosely associated with our "flight or fight" response.

But this was not always the case. If you want a quick primer on how breathe properly, just watch any child under the age of five. Children breathe primarily into their abdomens by fully engaging their diaphragms and expanding their bellies. This is what is known as belly breathing. When you belly breathe you literally fill you lungs and thus your body with oxygen. I don't have to tell you what this means to you as an athlete. More oxygen = more stamina, lower stress levels, and longer time to fatigue.

Retraining yourself to belly breathe isn't that hard. It doesn't take more than a few minutes to get the sense of it. To get an idea of what belly breathing feels like, lie on your back with one palm on your chest and the other on your stomach. As you breathe try to keep the palm on your chest still while you try to push the palm on your stomach up. At the same time try to get the feeling of having your diaphragm shift downward. You want to think of filling your belly with air. Once you get the sensation you can practice it whenever you think about it. Over time this will again become your normal breathing pattern and you should notice a dramatic difference not only in well being, but in sports related performance as well.

Oh and when you start breaking all those personal records, and you have to give all those, "Gee whiz, I didn't do anything special, I was just doing my thing..." speeches, try not to forget to breathe.

P90X Review Week 12... Finally!!!

OMFG! ONE MORE WEEK TO GO!!!!!

Well, I finally made it to and through the week 12 workouts. And I'd really like to say how happy I am and so forth. But honestly, I'm just tired. Not necessarily tired physically. But I am mentally tired of doing P90X. This would probably be a different story if I were just in it for the cosmetic changes and didn't have to attend to my triathlon specific work at the same time. So I do not really fault P90X for the way I feel mentally. That is just the nature of my personal goals and how they have affected my outlook at this point. Honestly, I'd rather be spending more of my time swimming, cycling and running. I can probably attribute some of this to being inside a little too much lately. I do live in Austin, Texas and the weather here hasn't been all that bad lately. It is pretty much in the 70's and sunny right now.

Okay enough of that. Lets look at some of the results so far. Basically when I started P90X the one thing I could do was pushups. So I wasn't really too concerned with those. But when I started these workouts I was doing 20 standard pushups. Now I do around 45. This is not my max, just what I do to be able to complete the rest of the 1 hour workout effectively. What is really telling is when the sets are repeated, I can still do 40 pushups during the second round.

When I started doing pullups, I could only do 2. Now I can do 10 unassisted.

But I started doing P90X because I believed it would make me stronger for triathlons. What happened there is nothing short of amazing when you consider I have done in 3 months what may have taken much longer without the program. In the pool since P90X, my swim times have dropped to pre-hiatus race levels and below on just the most basic technique work I can do. And my endurance is still quite high even though my time in the pool has been limited.

On the bike, the results are the same. My endurance is higher than it was this summer and comparable to pre-hiatus race levels. I have no problems with wind, hills, or just throwing down the hammer when I feel like it and I am pushing bigger gears at a higher cadence. The biggest difference I can say I see on the bike is being able to endure more uncomfortable efforts without sacrificing technique.

But the most dramatic effect has been on my running. For the first two phases of P90X I limited my running to once or twice a week for fear that I wouldn't have the needed recovery for all my other workouts. During this last phase I have run every day. Yep every day. I was NEVER able to run every day before this. Even when I was racing at my best, I wouldn't have even considered it. Running just beat me up too much to make that a possibility. Now even though I'm doing P90X and yoga and the rest of my workouts, with a little basketball thrown in for good measure, I still can run daily without injury. That is HUGE.

Last night I was talking to a friend who is a self proclaimed "fitness buff." He likes to collect vintage workout books. So he has heard a great deal about P90X even though he has never done the program himself. He was asking me my take on the program so far. I told him what I have told everyone else. The program works. Like most things you get out of it what you put into it. Even if you don't do the diet, you will still walk away with more functional, usable strength than you had when you came into the program. And you will have more functional strength than if you were working out on your own in a gym. Look at it this way. Basically for $120.00 you hired yourself a 7 day a week personal trainer. And a kick butt one at that who shows up whenever you want and works you out for an hour every day for 3 months. If you include all the necessary materials, like the pullup bar and resistance bands or dumbbells, for $300.00 you still can't beat the price. For a triathlete, or anyone else, who just wants to create more durable, usable muscle I don't think there is a more efficient use of time than doing P90X. Just be aware without the diet you won't look like the photos you see on the commercials so, if that is your goal make sure you commit to the food plan and put as much energy in your eating as you put into the workouts.

P90X Week 12 So Far (Week 11 Redux)

So if you read my P90X post about week 11 you know that I basically got my azz handed to me on a silver platter complete with all the fixin's. It wasn't pretty. I was sore, I was stiff, I was beaten. It was bad. I felt like I'd been 10 rounds with Mohammed Ali and Joe Frazier at the same time. Pushing play was never harder. Because of that I came into week 12 with a game plan. What was that might you ask? Two things really. First, "REPEAT THAT SEQUENCE!!!" I don't know about you, but while I can be a very gracious loser on the outside, that in no way means I am not plotting your ultimate destruction on the inside for our next encounter. And in this instance since the person who beat me was me (via a proxy by Tony Horton and crew), I figured it was time for me to take back what was mine -- aka my dignity and do some serious butt kicking of my own. Even if it killed me.

I know, I know, you're probably like, "Well Ace it was just one week. FIDO (forget it drive on). You are almost done!"

And you know, you are exactly right. But I don't roll like that. So after I decided to repeat the week, I knew the second thing that was needed. I needed to get right in the mind. And once my mind was right I was gonna bring it BIGGER, BADDER, MEANER and more RESOLUTELY than I had ever brought it before. To borrow a phrase from one of my favorite tribloggers, I was gonna show Tony and crew who was THE BOSS. Not even the dreaded AbRipperX was going to stop me. Because I was going to do AbRipperX every single day this week. And, and NO BREAKS. That's right. You heard me. No breaks. Except for water. But no stopping the DVD. During that time when I completed my sets before Tony and crew finished theirs, I jumped rope. And during the programmed water breaks, usually about a minute after each 10 or 15 minute set depending on the workout, I jumped rope. During the cooldown, I jumped rope. Then I went and ran for 30 minutes.

So now it is Thursday, and I can say to you after four days of this, I'm still doing it. But I also know I wouldn't be able to do it if I hadn't been doing these workouts for the last 3 months. So what I can say is this is a way to intensify your P90X workouts once you've completed the program once or if in that last third of the program for a week or two before the recovery week. But be warned, jumping rope through the breaks adds a dimension of aerobic intensity to the workout like no one's business. Even I wasn't prepared for how much energy it took. In workouts where exercises are repeated, during the last 1/3 of the program, I struggled. Jumping rope for 5 minutes can feel like running 30. But no matter what make sure if you add that dimension to your workouts that you drink a lot of fluids. As for doing AbRipperX daily, the first 3 days were brutal. Doing that program with a rested midsection is difficult at best even after consistently working at it for almost 3 months. Doing it back to back is just plain brutal. Try that one at your own risk. Personally, I won't be doing that again.

But after tomorrow's Leg and Back workout plus AbRipperX, I'll have the knowledge that I took this workout further than I have ever done before. And I'll have my dignity back. Though I'll probably be due for a nice long nap. Because that is how I roll.

P90X Week 11 Review

Okay, I'm not going to sugar coat this. There isn't any other way to say it. Somewhere between day 65 and day 80 there is a crevice the size of the Grand Canyon that is very, very hard to bridge. This is probably the most dangerous part of P90X. This last third of the program is where the fatigue, both physical and mental come into play. So on one level you are sort of worn out. On another level you see all the gains you've made so far which at this point to say the least are pretty significant. Your body probably looks nothing like it did on day one. And you probably didn't expect the program to work nearly this well. I'm here to tell you it works pretty well even if you don't follow the diet specifically. (Though, that being said, following the diet and doing the workouts with as few interruptions as possible will always yield the most positive results). If you don't believe me take a look at Nick's page and check out his photos.

But as I was saying this is the most dangerous part of the program. Because you aren't in that place you were in when you started, you look great, you feel even better, and more importantly you feel even better about yourself. No matter how you slice it, this is essentially what you wanted in the first place. You wanted to feel good about yourself again. You had to or you never would have been so captivated by the infomercial in the first place. So at about 2/3 of the way through, if you've been doing the program properly you should have gotten your money's worth already. People who know you tell you how good you look. Heck, maybe even people who don't know you are beginning to tell you this. But the thing is by this time you are also tired. The program takes a lot of mental and physical energy, your calories are fluctuating from one phase to the next, and the time commitment is starting to loom larger and larger. At the same time the end starts to feel further and further away.

This is about the time I remembered something that was in quite a few blogs that I'd initially ignored. I remember seeing more than one blog where the person stopped doing P90X right about here. So coming into week 11 I felt it both mentally and physically. I felt the weight of the program on my shoulders. I felt the knowledge that while I had seen some tremendous gains and changes in my body, I also felt like I hadn't reached the promised land and saw no safe harbor on the horizon. Every workout this week was tough. I felt as though I had just started the program. I took more breaks than I was used to, I was sore and I was frustrated. Even yoga was hard.

And that brings another thing to mind. Tony Horton doesn't know my yoga teacher, Keith. And Keith doesn't know Tony Horton. The two really should meet so that when I'm doing both of their programs in the same day, or even the same week, I don't wind up truly hating my life. Anyway, the take away from week 11 is that once you get to this point in the program, you really are almost done. Be careful here. It is really easy to stop. To quit. To walk away. But don't. Try to just settle into the workouts and not over do it if you are fatigued or burned out. Take more breaks. Look at working on your form as opposed to beating previous highs in weights or reps. Just keep pushing play because no matter how satisfied you may be with the results you have created so far, the best you is just around the corner.

P90X Week 10 Review - Sort of...

Where the heck did this week go? I truly have no idea. I looked up and it was Friday and I still had 3 P90X workouts left to do. So what did I do given it was Friday night at 9PM when I had this revelation? And I was at work? I started trying to figure out which workouts to do when I got off at 7AM Saturday morning. Maybe Plyometrics. Maybe Back and Biceps. Maybe both. How does one get into this sort of predicament, you ask? Well when one absolutely HATES the Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps disk, you sort of avoid it. So instead of starting my week with that on Monday, I did yoga instead.

This is what Monday looked like workout wise:
7:00 AM - Run 30 min Ave HR 152
8:00 AM - Swim (Open Water) 30 min - worked on sighting and body position
9:00 AM - Sleep
4:30 PM - Bike 1:15 Ave HR 124
7:00 PM - Yoga 1:30
10:30 PM - Sleep

Tuesday's workouts:
8:00 AM - Swim 1:00 3300 yards
9:30 AM - Sleep
3:00 PM - Bike 1:30 Loop 360 and Bee Caves (Very Hilly, Cold, Windy, and not my idea)
7:00 PM - Movie

Wednesday's workouts:
NONE (unless you count the two hour nap I took as a workout)

Thursday's workouts:
10:00 AM - P90X Chest, Shoulders, Triceps & AbRipperX 1:15
7:00 PM - Greencards show at The Saxon Pub

So as you can see, I waited until Thursday to start the dreaded P90X workout. That's how I got into trouble. The good news, I only face planted twice and from the looks of the reps I was doing I have gotten stronger and my endurance has improved a lot. I sort of knew this going into the workout because I had been doing some testing in my swimming, biking and running last weekend and had seen some improved aerobic function. Which I sort of put to use on Monday and Tuesday. Then applying some common sense, I rested Wednesday. This allowed me to really go into the Chest, Shoulders, Triceps workout with a guns blazing and take no prisoners attitude on Thursday. Better late than never I suppose.

The thing you have to remember about workouts like that, whether in regard to P90X, triathlon, running, the gym, or even mowing your lawn is that your unbridled enthusiasm can only lead to consequences later. Basically what I'm saying here is while you may think you are taking the workout to Tony and his buddies, or your boss, or whom ever, you are really taking it to yourself. This is a small but important point to consider when you start a workout frothing at the mouth. Translation? I woke up really, really sore the next day. And as a result, plus starting my work week (Yep, my week starts on Friday and I only work Friday, Saturday, Sunday), I took another day off. So that's how I got to Saturday.

Saturday's workouts:
7:00 AM - Got off work
7:15 AM - P90X Plyometric workout 1:00
8:30 AM - P90X Back and Biceps workout 1:00
10:00 AM - Bike Ride 1:45 (Windy - 20mph from the south) Aerobic Avg HR 127 Max HR 153
12:15 PM - Sleep
7:00 PM - Work

All I can say is that was a learning experience. And I'm finding it really hard to keep my focus exclusively on P90X while my primary objectives for starting the program seem to have been met within the first 60 or so days. It could be I'm seeing the result of continuing my triathlon training in the midst of P90X. It is sort of feeling like a "race" build up. Not that I'm tired. Because I'm not. And I do actually still like doing the workouts. Except for the "face plant fiasco" that is Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps. I think what is most challenging for me right now is developing the functional strength and not feeling like I'm applying it to its fullest. But I think that is a misperception on my part. It isn't like I'm going to stop doing these workouts at the end of the 90 days. I plan on integrating them into my regular routine alternating the 6 key workouts 3 sessions every two weeks. So there is really no "finish" to look forward to per se. I need to keep that in mind as I finish up these last couple of weeks. And I need to just do the workouts spaced properly while keeping my aerobic enthusiasm in check. I feel as though I could race now and I won't be doing one until May 2008. That has to be the hardest part. The waiting. Perhaps that says it all about P90X. The program works very well. Maybe in this instance it is working too well. Now all I have left for the week is Legs and Back and an easy endurance swim. But I think I'll go to bed first, then go workout after I wake up.

P90X Week 9 review

So this week I went back to a full complement of P90X workouts. Week 9 is really a repeat of the workout sequence done in Week 1. One on hand it was sort of cool to go back to the original DVDs and see how much progress I'd made. Overall, even with the 10 day hiatus I took from all things P90X, I saw some really dramatic improvement in my overall muscular strength and muscular endurance. This made it really easy to get through the week even with some lingering fatigue that I still had from the swimming, biking and running I'd done while I wasn't doing P90X.

I noticed that I was able to do a lot more reps without assistance on the Pull Up Bar. And I was able to keep up with the advanced moves in Ab RipperX (no small feat here) even though I don't think I'll ever get to the point where I say that 15 minutes is a piece of cake.

This week also was a first in that I decided to do one of my workouts at the gym using dumbbells instead of resistance bands for a change of pace. I took the workout sheet with me and actually this works quite well once you know what movements to do. I must admit I was a little surprised. For some reason I thought doing the workout in a gym I wouldn't push quite as hard or I'd be self conscious. But instead P90X gave me a really narrow focus and rather than spending time wandering around the gym looking for an empty machine, I stayed in one place and just hit it. It probably looked like I knew what I was doing.

I think Beach Body, the folks who produced the P90X videos, should see about putting the videos on iTunes for download. How awesome would it be to carry P90X on your iPod? You could take it to the gym and have Tony and the crew to help you where ever you wanted to work out. Oh well I now have a couple of days to get ready for Week 10 and the one workout I have truly come to hate, Chest and Shoulders. There will be no doing this one in the gym. I think I'm going to have to take my heaping helping of humiliation in the privacy of my own home, "Thank you very much." (If you don't know what workout I'm talking about, you can find my description here.)

P90X Vacation

I didn't plan it this way but last week wound up being a P90X Vacation. I didn't do a single workout. I did put the DVD's in the player several times but never got around to doing the routines. I was supposed to do a recovery week this week anyway and just wasn't motivated. I can attribute some of this to the arrival of the new time trial bike I bought a few weeks back. Between getting the bike fitted and test rides and tweaking, I just didn't find the time or motivation to "Bring It!" But that isn't to say I didn't work out. I got in three quality runs, fives swims, and almost eight hours on the bike. And I went to Yoga. We'll have to see how I feel this week. This is the beginning of the last phase the P90X program for me. I can say that I'm happy with the results. (I plan on posting my photos at the end of the program.) From my experience the program works exactly as it is promoted to. You put in the time, you get in shape. And honestly, right now I can say that I am in shape.

Starting P90X Week 8

I started week 8. Technically that means going back into a recovery week. But I'm not doing that. Because I cut week 6 short (due to the knee thing) I'm going to repeat week 7. What that means is I have to do the one DVD I truely hate, Chest, Shoulders and Triceps.

I try to do something triathlon specific to warm up for the P90X workouts. Tuesday I did an easy hour and a half ride. My max heart rate for this was 150. My average heart rate for the whole work out was 127. Hopefully next time I do this workout I'll get out of the house a little earlier and can miss some to the morning rush hour traffic. I try to keep my heart rate from getting above 145 for these rides and when I'm really motivated (i.e. I ride by myself and don't have to worry about getting buzzed by big trucks), I can keep my heart rate below 135 for the whole time.

I know a lot of folks would think I'm nuts for riding so slow. Especially if they knew what my max heart rate was. But from experience and what I've been reading lately, I'm finding that workouts like this really benefit my overall fitness. Why this works is a very important conversation to have about triathlon and endurance sports altogether, but I'll talk more on that in another post. Right now I want to let you get a feel for how my workouts are scheduled during a typical week so, this is what I've done so far:

Monday (P90X Recovery): Swim 30 min easy open water, 30 min easy run HR ave 145
Tuesday: Bike 1:30 HR ave 127, P90X Chest, Shoulders, Triceps 1:00, P90X Ab RipperX 00:15
Wednesday: Swim 30 min easy open water, Vinayasa Yoga 1:30, P90X Plyometrics 1:00

So right now I'm at 6:15 for the week. Here is what I plan to do for the rest of the week provided I feel up to it:

Thursday: Swim workout 1:00, P90X Back, Biceps 1:00, Ab RipperX 00:15, Run 30:00.
Friday: Swim 30 min easy open water, YogaX 1:30
Saturday: Bike 2:30
Sunday: P90X Legs, Back 1:00, Ab RipperX 00:15

So that's it. The whole week comes out to somewhere between 14 and 15 hours if I can do all the workouts and get enough rest. I take a lot of naps during the week to make this work. But I'm seeing the results I was looking for so I think it has been worth it.

P90X Week 7

So my knee healed and week 7 went by without a hitch. I got through all of the P90X workouts that I had planned and did most of my triathlon work as well. The only thing that I really noticed was how much I "HATE," and I do mean "HATE" the first workout of the week during this second phase of the program. Not that I don't recognize the benefit of said workout. It just really, really isn't one of my favorites.

The workout I'm referring to is the Chest, Shoulders, Triceps routine. Until I started this second phase of P90X, there really wasn't a lot in the program that I struggled with. Want me to do 100 pushups, 349 core/ab exercises, and 100 pullups with a bunch of other stuff thrown in for good measure in an hour and 15 minutes? No problem. There were some things I had to work at, but mostly I could handle whatever came my way. That was at least until I started doing the sadistic stuff on this DVD. OMFG! So what's the big deal you might ask? Well for starters a lot of these exercises are done to failure. FAILURE!!!

To be fair, Tony Horton calls failure by the PC term "maximum reps." Now while there is pain involved in doing workouts out like this, I'm not really sure this is why I hate doing it. Actually as I write this post I'm coming to understand my reluctance to put this particular DVD in the player comes more from my mental relationship to failure than it does to my ability to handle pain. Both of these things together (pain and failure) are really tough pills to swallow every Monday for three weeks in a row. So I find myself putting this workout off until I'm almost ready to go to bed. (There are some reasons this wasn't a very good decision -- namely it jacks up my sleeping pattern).

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about here, I'll describe a couple of the moves. The workout starts with what are called "3 in 1 Slow Motion Push Ups." So what happens is this: You start out in a wide hand position and go down very slowly on a four count and come up just as slowly on a four count four times. That is one set. The next set of the has you move your hands in a little closer to a standard push up and repeat the count. The last set is a Yogic or Chaturanga push up where the hands are close in to the side and the elbows graze the ribs. Then, immediately following those, as a bonus you get to do some standard push ups really, really fast at the end. Ugh.

The next killers are the Plange Push Up and the Pike Press. The Plange Push Up is similar to Chaturanga except that the hands are even further back. At the top of the push up you arch your back like a cat. The Pike Press is also sort of a push up with an interesting twist. Hands and feet are wide, like the Dive Bomber Push Up (or Hindu Push UP) but your body is in pike position shaped like an upside down "V". To do this movement you lower the crown of your head to the floor and back up. Like I said at the outset, a lot of these moves are performed almost to failure. So if you do not have a good gauge of where that point is, or are tired, you can face plant pretty easily. I have face planted a lot with this DVD.

Then there are the Floor Flys and Two Twitch Speed Push Ups. The Floor Flys are a combination chest fly and push up at the same time. Start at standard width with your hands then move the right hand out wide to the right, descend, then come back up moving the hand back to standard position. Four reps to the right side. Then do the same movement on the left side four times. Sounds simple till you get to about 12. From there on its a plain and simple gut check. The Two Twitch Speed Push Ups involve doing 4 fast push ups and 3 slow ones for one set. The slow ones are on a four count up and down like the Slow Motion Push Ups described earlier. Tony and his group do 4 sets. At present I am lucky if i make through 2 sets. This is another sure face plant for me weekly.

From there the workout moves to Side to Side Push Ups, One Arm Push Ups and finally ending with Clap/Plyo Push Ups. The Side to Side Push Up is one where you do a standard push up, then slide over to the right moving both feet and hands, then doing another push up before moving back to the starting position. We all know what One Arm Push Ups are. Nothing really to say about those except just like one arm pull ups, they are hard. And to be completely honest so are Clap Push Ups. Tony likes to show you what a stud he is here and does Plyo Push Ups for an advanced option. These are where he gets airborne with both his feet and hands leaving the ground, clapping while suspended in mid air.

Compared to this, the rest of the workouts for the week are a breeze. Tony likes to say that the Plyometrics workout is the mother of P90X workouts, but he is wrong. Plyo, while challenging, is no where near the psychological and physical drubbing handed out on this DVD. All I can say is I'm glad I had already gone through 4 weeks of P90X leading up to this. There is no way I'd have had the mindset to "Bring It" if this had been what we started off with. So as usual I have to complement Tony on a well designed workout series. Next week is a rest week, then pictures before moving into the final phase. And no more of this DVD for a while. Thank God.

P90X Week 6

This week did not go as planned at all. I only got in 3 P90X workouts. Each week I shoot for 5. But I also try to get 3 bike, 4 swims, and 2 runs. Almost none of this happened. "Why not?" you might ask. Did I get sick? NO. Work get in the way? NO. Death in the family? NO.

No I didn't do my workouts because I brought a 5 gallon glass bottle of water into the house and as I was doing so I smashed my knee into the wall with a loud, "WHAM!!!!" The whole house shook. It was so hard and so loud, I almost didn't want to look down. I remember when I was playing basketball in school and two guys went knee to knee it sounded something like that. The swelling on one guy's knee grew to the size of a grapefruit. It wasn't pretty. He had surgery and wound up sitting out the season. The thought of surgery and rehab also was not a welcome one. I sort of use my knees a lot. So when I looked down and saw swelling only the size of a quarter I was relieved. The spot was painful but not when I walked. Cycling, however was another story. The pain wasn't bad, but it was noticeable.

So in the interest of healing I stopped working out on Wednesday. I did the whole RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) treatment. Although in retrospect compression probably was overkill. I also went to my acupuncturist. Twice. And both times completely forgot to mention the knee and had her work on my left achilles tendon. The pain goes away when she inserts needles into points that stimulate my liver and kidneys. Go figure?

P90X Weeks 4 and 5

Week 4 was supposed to be a "recovery" week. Let me say this for the record. Tony Horton's idea of recovery, and mine are not the same. This week, while lighter on the actual workout intensity in some regards is in no way a lessening of duration. In fact given the addition of an extra YogaX workout, this week actually in terms of time is longer than previous weeks. Add to the mix extra cardio and a workout called Core Synergistics and you have a formula for shear pain. Yes I said it. This week just like the weeks before it is quite challenging.

The reason for this, aside from the added Yoga focus, is the Core Synergistics workout. This workout takes all the moves and strength you have built up from them during the first few weeks and packs them into a single hour long sweat fest. Essentially what you are doing is movements involving your arms and legs through your core. These are the kinds of workouts people who are doing manual labor endure everyday. So for a sedentary population like ours, this workout can only be described as pure money. By the end of this week I knew I'd done something good for myself no matter how hard it was or how much a lie the promise of a "recovery" week might have been.

Week 5 we took pictures again. I was surprised to see that my stomach had indeed shrunk. But what was most striking was that my posture was 100% better. In the photos it seemed I was almost 2 inches taller than my original pictures. I was standing in the same shoes against the same wall as in week 1. Week 5 also begins the introduction of 2 new workout sequences, "Chest, Shoulders and Triceps" and "Back and Biceps". These 2 workouts and the new sequence in the "recovery" week are where the programs' promised "muscle confusion" system comes into play. Although I must say that after doing this program for the past 6 weeks, I've come to think the term is really just marketing mumbo jumbo. What is really happening is that your muscles actually become more intelligent and cooperative, not confused. These workouts really differ from work done in the gym in that almost no movement in the entire 12 disks is done in isolation from the rest of the muscles in the body. And if you ask me this is the true beauty of P90X. Even when doing pull ups, you are engaging your core for stability. The same is true for all the curls and push ups. Even when we use free weights in the gym this is not always the case. Our muscles have become isolated from each other by using benches and bars and pulleys. This is not how they are required to work in the real world. In this regard P90X retrains our bodies to work as they were designed. And like Tony says, "That's where the money is!"

P90X Week 3

This week should really be called "MORE OF THE SAME."

Just more of the same from the previous 2 weeks. And more, and more, and lots more, of it. I did more pushups, more pullups, more 1 and 2 legged squats, jumped higher, landed softer than I had in the first 2 weeks. Add to that my functional swim, bike and run workouts and this all made for a very active week of working out indeed.

I must say at the end of it I was totally pooped. Normally I sleep about 7 hours a night with a 1 or 2 hour nap during the day. By week 3 I was up to about 9 hours a night with a solid 2 hour nap each day. And I was napping way more during my lunches and breaks at work.

I think I'm really starting to put this together and I'm seeing improvement everywhere. Not to take anything away from Tony Horton and P90X, but I'm really seeing what consistency and focus in fitness is all about. When I worked out before and I worked on my sports, there really wasn't a single unifying theme. Now I think P90X gives my training a focal point around which to plan my triathlon specific work. Gone from my daily and weekly routine are those "JUNK" miles. Gone are the workouts I was doing to accommodate friends so I wouldn't have to train alone. (Basically, I had already started this prior to P90X, but Tony and crew gave me an excuse to say "no" and used up any spare time that was left for it anyway.) Since I only have 4-6 hours of training left after P90X, I make my triathlon workouts count. With this new focus, I'm already contemplating how to incorporate this into my thinking about training throughout the year.

I do want to mention one other thing since I don't think I've covered it in earlier blogs about the program. The YogaX workout is just plain badass. Yep. No other way to put it. I've been doing yoga now for over 2 years and I've progressed fairly well during that time. But the poses Tony and crew do in this video are wicked challenging. This video is about an hour and a half long which makes it about 30 to 40 minutes longer than the other P90X workouts. It also has quite a bit of strength, balance and core work so while it may seem as though it is a recovery workout toward the end of the week, it is not. Honestly, the Yoga they do in this video is every bit as intense as most intermediate classes I've done. The only reason I wouldn't classify it as advanced is the poses are what you would typically find in beginner and intermediate classes. But what makes it borderline advanced is the length of the vinyasas at the beginning, the shear number of balance poses, and that some of these balance poses such royal dancer (also called Natarajasana) or wheel/upward bow (also called Urdvha Dhanurasana) seem to be held forever. While, as with all movements and exercises in P90X, you aren't require to do them (and Tony does advise caution while showing modifications and less challenging alternatives) the fact that these types of poses are in this workout simply bear out what I'm saying. I'm saying I could already do yoga and I found this video quite challenging. But it does what it is designed to do. And that is to make the strength you are developing within the program accessible and controlled by emphasizing muscle coordination.

Next week is a "Recovery" week. Whatever that means in Tonyspeak. But there are multiple YogaX workouts and something new called Core Synergistics. I can hardly wait.

P90X Week 2 Review

Well I made it through week 2. I'm pretty happy about this for a couple of reasons. One is because of the difficulty of the P90X routines, most of the blogs I read talked a lot about the soreness and fatigue that comes along with starting this program. Honestly, I only had one problem coming out of week 1 and that was that my calves were pretty strained after the first leg workout. They would have been OK if I hadn't decided to do a 6 mile walk the next day. That probably was a bit much considering the leg workout I'd done the day before. Going into week 2 I replaced the Plyometric workout with an hour technique swim and the StretchX workout instead to give my legs some more time to heal. This turned out to be a good move. I was able to run for 45 minutes as my prelude to the next day's Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps workout. Ultimately by the time the YogaX and the Legs/Back workouts rolled around again my calves had recovered.

The next reason I found to be happy was that I was able to reintegrate my triathlon training back into the P90X routine without any apparent additional fatigue or soreness. I will say again right here there are probably some reasons for my doing this and being successful that I will go into now. As I mentioned before, I normally workout anywhere from 9-14 hours a week depending on the time of year. The P90X workouts total somewhere between 7 and 8 hours if you do them daily. My body is accustomed to working out daily for around 2 to 3 hours given appropriate recovery time. The P90X workouts while targeting strength are still highly aerobic which is my largest training focus. I also had been doing body weight workouts for almost 6 months prior to starting my P90X odyssey. Just not as hard core. I looked at the BeachBody web site and saw what people where able to do in the way of pushups. When they started a lot of the guys were doing about 50 in the beginning. And that's a really good starting point. When I started I knew I could do at least that many because I was already doing them several times a week. With P90X I only have to do an intense session for a body part one time each week. The rest of the week is sort of active recovery while focusing the workload on other muscle groups. I did the P90X workouts exclusively for a week to gauge my fatigue levels and recovery speed before reinserting sessions of swimming, biking and running. This gave me an idea how much and what intensity levels I could handle.

An unexpected bonus from adding these workouts back into my training has been the ability to see what effect P90X has on my performance at this early stage. With swimming, I am now slower in the pool. But this is to be expected. Because swimming speed is gained more from technique than strength, I find that increase strength will initially slow me down in the water until I have time to integrate the power effectively. Running and cycling I saw almost immediate improvement as far as the speed I could handle comfortably. What was most noticeable on the bike was the ability to tolerate larger gears for longer periods of time without fatigue. In the weeks to come I anticipate I should see this added tolerance translate to a higher average power output on the bike.

All in all I will say I am satisfied with the progress I saw during week 2. And who knows, maybe by the time this is all over I might just be able to "stomach" Ab RipperX.

P90X Week 1 Caveat

So I'm halfway through my second week on P90X and I realize my post detailing my first week's experiences left out one very vital component to the program. At the end of each strength based workout is a 16 minute torture session called Ab Ripper X. Thus this workout is done 3 times each week. Obviously the name is a sadistic play on "Jack the Ripper" and "The Grim Reaper" at the same time. First let me say that as a triathlete and someone who has been Rolfed, I think I have a pretty good idea of how to handle pain. But Ab Ripper X takes human suffering to a whole new level.

Basically in the 16 minutes necessary to finish the workout, you are challenged to complete a total of about 325 Ab/Core specific movements. Honestly some of this stuff I have never seen before. There isn't a single crunch in this routine. Most of the movements in some way require you to engage muscles connecting your core abdominals to your hip flexors and vice versa. Needless to say finishing the main P90X strength work and having that be my last 16 minutes is like facing a life sentence without hope of parole. And I'm sad to report that I am no better at mastering some of these movements than I was the first day I started doing them.

But in all fairness, these movements really do get quick results. I noticed a difference in my stomach after the first workout. But like all P90X workouts, you want to be very honest with yourself about your initial fitness level before starting. Throughout the session Tony Horton advises you to use modifications of the movements and/or to take breaks rather than push beyond yourself. And you really want to make sure you do this workout after you have thoroughly warmed up. This is one workout where, although short in duration, you want to go in with your eyes open and your game face on. "Bring It!"

P90X review Week 1

So I've started my P90X odyssey.

My impression of the program so far is pretty good. I firmly believe this is one of the best comprehensive strength building workouts I've done. I don't think you can beat it for the price of around $120.00. You do need some dumbbells or stretch bands and a chin up bar. So if you have to buy these items, the initial monetary outlay could top $250.00. But honestly after a week I think the money is well spent for what you are getting.

The workouts follow a pattern of muscle development, muscle coordination/recovery, muscular development. The first day starts out with a session focusing on the chest and back. Basically this is one full hour of various versions of pushups and pullups. There are 12 exercises in all. After the first round the exercises are repeated with the order reversed every two exercises. This looks like 2, 1, 4, 3, 6, 5 and so forth. The session is pretty evenly paced with water and stretch breaks. And the instructor (a guy named Tony Horton) keeps things moving along by challenging you to set goals for the number of reps you complete throughout the workout. You are also encouraged to write down the results so you can track your progress.

Day 2 is Plyometrics. There is really nothing to say about this workout other than you will feel this. Basically this was an hour of jumping. And landing. The sets are timed in 30 second and 60 second intervals. In this sense you could look at this workout as a fast twitch leg workout. What is also emphasized is hip rotation, waist twists and several forms of squats. Just like in day one, the movements all give you a real sense of integrating your core with all the moves. But just like the day before the entire hour is also very aerobic at an intensity that should see your body burning calories for the rest of the day.

Day 3 moves back to strength work focusing on shoulders and arms. The workout follows same format as Day 1. Because there were smaller muscle groups involved, this workout was not as physically taxing. But that isn't to say it wasn't challenging, because it was. And instead of repeating every two exercises this workout repeats every 3 sets. The exercises are pretty standard. You'll do curls and flys and tri extensions, all to close to failure as long as you can maintain form. Also just like day one, you will set goals and track your results for future workouts.

Day 4 is Yoga. I was a little skeptical about a yoga DVD from a guy who looks like he just got a botox injection. This is probably my own yoga snobbery coming out. I've been doing yoga for a couple of years now and know its many benefits. I just didn't think someone who came from a strength based fitness background would understand the practice. I also didn't think they would grasp the complexities of linking asanas for maximum results. I will say it here. I was wrong. The yoga in the P90X series is as good as any yoga class I've experienced. And not only is Tony Horton muscular, but he is really flexible. What this means is that he has done yoga and incorporated it into his own personal fitness program. That being said, just like all the other workouts in this set, the yoga is challenging. At this point if you have developed any stiffness or soreness from the routines, the yoga session should help you recover.

Day 5 is legs and back. This brings you back to the strength work. You won't need any weights for this workout although you could use dumbbells for some sets to add intensity. Honestly, the first time you do this workout, I wouldn't advise it. After the first thirty minutes my legs were quivering. There are so many types of squats in this workout it is almost unreal. From reading on the site I learned that this workout had been modified for the DVD from its original format. It started out as just a leg workout but the test groups felt it was too intense. The back exercises where added to allow the legs to have a break. Thank God for the test group. The workout will test those with even superior leg strength. Alternating between the back and legs is a good solution. At the end of the workout I was tired, but I wasn't trashed. As I found with the workouts from earlier in the week, my strength and aerobic capacity were being worked at the same time with functional, challenging movements. This is exactly what I wanted when I purchased these videos. I wanted to develop strength and do it functionally. After the first five days I knew I was getting exactly what I wanted.

The next two days are Kenpo and Stretching. I opted not to do the Kenpo in favor of a 5 mile walk. My legs were still recovering from the day before and I had wanted to ride my bike more than I wanted to do a video workout. But the stretching, like the yoga earlier in the week, was also very good. I got some relief from some muscles that had definitely been pushed to their limits.

One thing I will point out is that while the workouts are strength based, you will get an exceptional cardiovascular workout from each daily session. In fact after one week I can see that while the strength movements will challenge everyone, it is the cardiovascular component of each and every workout that will really leave you breathless and is probably equally responsible for the remarkable physical transformation this program promises. I want to stress that you should already be in pretty good shape before attempting this program. I can't emphasize this enough. If you are inactive and don't have a good base of cardiovascular fitness and muscular strength already, I wouldn't use these workouts as my starting point. They are extremely demanding. This is one of those times where the words "Buyer Beware" have tangible meaning.

Personally, I found the workouts very intense and engaging. They were similar to some shorter body weight personal workouts I had devised and was already doing, so I don't see boredom being a problem. What may pose a problem, however, is if you are a cyclist or a triathlete. For me these workouts while intense and highly aerobic only take up about 7 hours of my week. On average, I typically train anywhere from 9 to 14 hours which leaves me with a shortage. Because of this I decided to focus on the P90X program for the alloted 90 days and fill in any perceived training shortfall with my normal triathlon workouts. I think this will allow me to focus on the goal of building strength and endurance while also maintaining my swimming, biking, running technique. All in all though, so far, so good. I can't wait to start week 2 and keep pushing play.