Plyometrics Revisited

What a difference a day can make! Just a few days ago, I took my first stab at Plyo and it went amazingly well. I set my expectations for an impossible workout, but instead I found it very doable and even fun. That changed drastically today.

I had a few things working against me today — the biggest being horrific stomach cramps that started at 4 AM and kept me awake tossing and turning in agony. I never experienced the pain from a miscarriage before, but I'm betting it feels something close to what I felt this morning. After a few sleepless hours and several trips to the bathroom, for lack of any other methods of relief, it got to be 9:30 and I couldn’t put off P90X any longer. How on earth was I going to get through a work-out today? We normally do Core on Saturdays, but I wanted to switch it up with Plyo for 2 reasons: 1) my stomach was already in enough agony, and 2) I had a tougher time with the leg work-out when it immediately followed Plyo. My bad knee wasn't too happy about it. So Plyo seemed the smartest thing to do today. Well, the smartest thing to do would have been to skip the work-out all together, but I'm way too committed for that.

So I went through with it. And it was torture. So many things were working against me. Working out in the mornings is always harder, but this morning I was in so much abdominal pain. Then I had that weird phenomena where your stomach doesn't seem to be attached to the rest of your innards. Is there a technical word for this condition where your stomach makes horrible gluncking noises every time you jump? I hate that. Imagine doing Plyo with all the gluncking and sharp pains. Then there's my chronic low blood pressure. I think jumping around in the morning with no food in me is especially challenging. I was constantly dizzy and graying out.

I kept thinking that God was trying to punish me. I didn't eat any meat yesterday (Good Friday) but it felt like I must have. Maybe I swore or lied on Good Friday. There has to be some reason that I was being dragged through the firey pits of Hell this morning.

All I can say is that I'm very proud of myself for getting through it all. It wasn't pretty, but I did it. I kept thinking about how much fun I had the first time and how I made the work-out seem so easy. I even inspired a friend that doesn't really care too much for exercise to want to do Plyo. Then it occurred to me that I may have sugar-coated the routine. I had visions of my friend buying this video and attempting it . . . Then immediately driving to my house to beat me silly. In fact, I'm sure she would get a better work-out from beating me than from trying to do Plyo. If you're investigating P90X and considering taking on Plyo, just make sure you're ready for it. Don't attempt it if you are not feeling your best. It's will take everything you got to get through it, so make sure you have what it takes to start with.