Today is the first day of Phase II, the first day of week 5 - Oh hai, Week Five, nice to meet you! I feel pretty stoked about this milestone, to be honest. Moreso, I am excited to be done with Week 4: Recover Week, because it was so hard to stay only relatively motivated, or motivated to keep it on a slow burn, or generally be able to keep up with the schedule knowing the general gist of the week and that there were other more fun things to be doing (like that bomb-ass 40-mile bike ride and the 4.5 mile run and the 14 laps in the pool and the bitchin' yoga sesh, brah, woo! Mountain Dew!). For some reason, it's easier for me to work out when I know it's a real workout, and part of the schedule and important to do. I don't know why I got it in my head that Recovery Week meant Whatevs Week, but anyway I'm glad it's over.
Today was Chest, Shoulders & Triceps and Ab Ripper X. A few things I noticed:
1. I'm better at push-ups than I was when I started.
2. After a week of not doing much Ab work, Ab Ripper X was pretty damn difficult compared to a week ago.
3. My chest, shoulders & triceps will probably be pretty pissed at me for the next few Tuesdays. They were definitely not prepared.
This morning, I essentially just did push-ups for an hour, interrupted intermittently with some sort of weight lifting with either a dumbbell or band that was to heavy for exercise. At one point, we (yeah, "we" as if I was able to really do this. I did the wimpy version where I and two of the people on the video clapped our hands in between instead, and I did half on my knees because I was afraid of breaking my jaw even more than it already is) were doing these plyometric push-ups, where everytime at the height of the push-up "we" jumped up in plank pose and clapped our hands and then landed and did another push-up. This is my life now.
Tomorrow is Plyometrics, the thing that's been separating my floor boards in my livingroom. I actually really enjoy Plyometrics, lots of jumping around and pretending to play football. Tonight, friends of mine from Asheville are playing a house show in Garfield, which means I'll be eating Spak! Not on the diet, but I don't care.
It is really crazy how quickly your ab muscles can learn, and how quickly they forget, like more than other muscles, it seems like. I also know what you mean how it's easier to workout when you feel you are working towards something or you have structure. I think that's why, in the absence of P90X :) it really helps to have a trainer, or take classes, or sign up for races, anything that gives you a goal. Just losing or maintaining my weight is not enough, I've found. As much as I want to look good in a bikini or a dress or whatever, thats not enough to get me to the gym or for a run when I'm exhausted and just want to eat a giant bowl of cereal, and drink a beer (yeah, cereal and beer is my favorite combo) and sit on
ReplyDeletethe couch! It's those higher goals that actually give me that extra push. Anyway, keep up the good work! You're totally killing it!!