Showing posts with label Ab Ripper. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ab Ripper. Show all posts
Monday, April 21, 2008
Nice Turn of Events
Last week was bad. I felt tired and weak and was all around losing my desire spark for P90X. But I think I learned my lesson and this week I made a new schedule. So far we did Legs & Back and then Yoga. Both were good strong sessions – probably the best yet. I must have done something right because I just noticed that my legs are a tiny bit sore – a good sore . . . "it feels like I worked out" sore. Hmmm, now that I think about it, that may have come from gardening this weekend. But either way, I feel good and I’m not dreading working out tonight. In fact, I’m looking forward to it. I plan to tackle Ab Ripper X at lunchtime to get it out of the way. I find it much easier to break up the two work-outs rather than doing Ab Ripper immediately after the lifting sessions.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
My Tail Was Dragging Today
I don't remember a day that I dreaded doing my P90X work-out more than I did today. Wait a minute . . . I don't think I EVER dreaded doing it before today. But this afternoon, I was exhausted. I have to blame my husband because his cell phone alarm went off at 3:15 AM and woke me out of the most blissful, deep sleep. I was not a happy camper. After that, I tossed and turned and never could fall back to sleep. That set the tone for the rest of the day.
On the 30 minute commute home from work, a sat there in the car cherishing every minute of the relaxing ride. I wished it would take just a little longer so I could catch a little longer snooze. I should make a note here that my husband and I work together, and I am the passenger during the commute. I was not snoozing at the wheel!
We got home and I let out a big sigh . . . . "uuuuuugh, do we have to work-out?" I made it flawless this far and I'm not breaking my perfect record. Luckily, I already did Ab Ripper X at lunchtime, so that would help lessen the pain. Tonight was Legs and Back and considering how stinkin' tired I was, I think I did great. I felt freakishly strong and breezed through most of the entire work-out. I did more pull-ups then ever and the only thing that killed me, as usual, was the skin on my palms (and I wore gloves today). And now that it's all over and my tummy is full from my stir-fry dinner, I'm feeling better and more awake than I did all day!
On the 30 minute commute home from work, a sat there in the car cherishing every minute of the relaxing ride. I wished it would take just a little longer so I could catch a little longer snooze. I should make a note here that my husband and I work together, and I am the passenger during the commute. I was not snoozing at the wheel!
We got home and I let out a big sigh . . . . "uuuuuugh, do we have to work-out?" I made it flawless this far and I'm not breaking my perfect record. Luckily, I already did Ab Ripper X at lunchtime, so that would help lessen the pain. Tonight was Legs and Back and considering how stinkin' tired I was, I think I did great. I felt freakishly strong and breezed through most of the entire work-out. I did more pull-ups then ever and the only thing that killed me, as usual, was the skin on my palms (and I wore gloves today). And now that it's all over and my tummy is full from my stir-fry dinner, I'm feeling better and more awake than I did all day!
Thursday, February 21, 2008
A Word About Ab Ripper X
Actually two words, “it sucks.” I am seriously doubting that I’ll ever be able to keep up with all the exercises on the Ab Ribber X video. I have notoriously always had strong abs, but that is, by far, the most challenging routine I ever tried to endure. And it doesn’t help that I’m trying to do it after I’m already burnt out. From now on I’m splitting it off from the rest of the routine and I’ll tackle Ab Ripper at lunch-time and do the rest of the work-out in the evening.
Last night (Legs, Back & Abs) was by far the toughest day for me. It’s really the only day that is unpleasant. And it really bugs me too since my legs have always been much stronger than my upper body. But things are shifting. I’ve been lifting all winter and I slacked off for nearly the entire biking season last year. My legs are just not what they used to be. But that will change!
On top of having weaker than normal legs, I also have a bad knee which really challenges me, not to mention bums me out. As if all of my physical activities are not hard enough, I have to add to it the sheering pain when my bones scrape together from the lack of cartilage in my knee. I have suffered with this problem since high school and it only gets worse every year. How depressing is that?
So last night my knee was giving me problems right away during the warm-up jog. I should be wearing a knee brace, but I'm not. Then I insisted on using weights during some of the lunges, despite Tony’s advice for “people with bad knees.” I really should have listened to him! Add to that the fact that we got a new pull-up bar which is thicker than our old one. I struggled with getting comfortable on it. I tried wearing gloves, but that didn’t stop the burning feeling like my skin was falling off. Sigh. It just wasn’t a good night.
Oh, and then there’s the fact that I promised a picture of our pull-up set-up but my whining, pain-in-the-butt husband wouldn’t let me take a picture of him. So the cat is out of the bag – he doesn’t look like the guys on the video. There, now you all know! But the fact is, he still looks great and one day I’m snapping a picture when he’s not looking and posting it. So there!
Last night (Legs, Back & Abs) was by far the toughest day for me. It’s really the only day that is unpleasant. And it really bugs me too since my legs have always been much stronger than my upper body. But things are shifting. I’ve been lifting all winter and I slacked off for nearly the entire biking season last year. My legs are just not what they used to be. But that will change!
On top of having weaker than normal legs, I also have a bad knee which really challenges me, not to mention bums me out. As if all of my physical activities are not hard enough, I have to add to it the sheering pain when my bones scrape together from the lack of cartilage in my knee. I have suffered with this problem since high school and it only gets worse every year. How depressing is that?
So last night my knee was giving me problems right away during the warm-up jog. I should be wearing a knee brace, but I'm not. Then I insisted on using weights during some of the lunges, despite Tony’s advice for “people with bad knees.” I really should have listened to him! Add to that the fact that we got a new pull-up bar which is thicker than our old one. I struggled with getting comfortable on it. I tried wearing gloves, but that didn’t stop the burning feeling like my skin was falling off. Sigh. It just wasn’t a good night.
Oh, and then there’s the fact that I promised a picture of our pull-up set-up but my whining, pain-in-the-butt husband wouldn’t let me take a picture of him. So the cat is out of the bag – he doesn’t look like the guys on the video. There, now you all know! But the fact is, he still looks great and one day I’m snapping a picture when he’s not looking and posting it. So there!
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Day Five of P90X
I may have gotten a bit over confident during this first week. I was expecting the work-outs to be pure torture and too hard to get through. I was surprised and pleased that I was able to do most of the moves and reps. My confidence was building. Then yoga slapped me into reality. Here I thought I was a strong yogi, but I wasn't feeling too strong during that session.
Yesterday was Legs & Back, followed by Ab Ripper. Legs and Back was a series of standing leg exercises, mostly with no weights. How hard can that be? Well, it was pretty hard. I usually pride myself on having very strong legs, but we are out of biking shape. I have a bad knee and doing too much weight in squats has always been a challenge. My thighs can take much more than my knee can. I made it through all the leg stuff, but it was hard.
And in between each set of leg exercises we had to do pull-ups. Yuck. All different kinds of pull-ups: wide arm, narrow arm, hands wrapped around the bar one direction, then reverse the direction. I knew I wouldn't last very long doing multiple pull-ups so I used the back of a chair for assisted pull-ups. Even that was hard. And the worst part . . . I never tried doing a pull-up with my hands wrapped around the bar, in what I consider a backwards way. During my first pull-up I felt something snap in my back and instant pain up to my neck. Just what I needed. I've been in a lot of pain ever since that moment. The rest of the workout became doubly challenging.
After an hour of this, we still weren't done. Next it was Ab Ripper and it's called that for a reason. I have always had amazingly strong abs. I compare my abs to my greyhounds. They lounge around 99.5% of their lives and still look like buff athletes. They don't deserve to look the way they do. They don't work at it. It just comes naturally. Well, that has always been my abs. I guess I'm very lucky that way. But still, last night showed me that I have a long way to go in building more strength. There were very few exercises that I could do the full 25 reps. I think after the 15 minute blast, if you did them all, you would have done over 600 ab ripping moves. Good grief, I need a donut.
Yesterday was Legs & Back, followed by Ab Ripper. Legs and Back was a series of standing leg exercises, mostly with no weights. How hard can that be? Well, it was pretty hard. I usually pride myself on having very strong legs, but we are out of biking shape. I have a bad knee and doing too much weight in squats has always been a challenge. My thighs can take much more than my knee can. I made it through all the leg stuff, but it was hard.
And in between each set of leg exercises we had to do pull-ups. Yuck. All different kinds of pull-ups: wide arm, narrow arm, hands wrapped around the bar one direction, then reverse the direction. I knew I wouldn't last very long doing multiple pull-ups so I used the back of a chair for assisted pull-ups. Even that was hard. And the worst part . . . I never tried doing a pull-up with my hands wrapped around the bar, in what I consider a backwards way. During my first pull-up I felt something snap in my back and instant pain up to my neck. Just what I needed. I've been in a lot of pain ever since that moment. The rest of the workout became doubly challenging.
After an hour of this, we still weren't done. Next it was Ab Ripper and it's called that for a reason. I have always had amazingly strong abs. I compare my abs to my greyhounds. They lounge around 99.5% of their lives and still look like buff athletes. They don't deserve to look the way they do. They don't work at it. It just comes naturally. Well, that has always been my abs. I guess I'm very lucky that way. But still, last night showed me that I have a long way to go in building more strength. There were very few exercises that I could do the full 25 reps. I think after the 15 minute blast, if you did them all, you would have done over 600 ab ripping moves. Good grief, I need a donut.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)