Starting Fresh

Now that I have my new dumbbells, I am starting fresh today. I was only 2 weeks from completion of the program, but I'm not really worried about that. This isn't something I am going to do and then just quit, so restarting really doesn't matter. After midweek I'll give a review of the new dumbbells, but so far, I'm loving them....

On another note, yesterday I watched like 13 hours of RescueMe with Mel. Which is completely against the P90X lifestyle, but it is an awesome show.

Resistance Bands with P90X Review

So, as I stated in my last post I purchased the Bowflex Selecttech dumbbells yesterday after using bands for P90X for about 14 weeks. The red one snapped, but that was just a little more motivation along a track I was on anyway, that is to get actual dumbbells.

The bottom line is simple: dumbbells are superior, but bands can certainly serve a purpose. They are far more portable, much, much cheaper and perhaps slightly safer if you don't know what you are doing. Honestly, if you haven't exercised for a while and don't know if you will stick with it, I would recommend definitely dropping 50 bucks on bands before shelling out $400 on a set of dumbbells.

There are certain workouts which are unwieldy with the bands, especially on the second set of workouts and then there are some that are basically impossible (Damn you back-flys). Also, regardless of whether you use bands or weights, you certainly need a dedicated pull up bar.

With the large difference in weight between the beginning and the end of the lift with bands, it can be difficult to get a full workout, because it seems easy at first but becomes very hard to finish reps. The highest end of the lift has all the added resistance and it's just harder to gauge then weights. Also, it's very hard to document exactly how much you lifted from week to week since a slight variation in foot placement can change the resistance significantly. Perhaps you could document more, but I don't want to write a dissertation about my foot placement between every exercise.

To reiterate, the bands are a great starter tool to get you back into exercise and are certainly recommended for those who want to make sure the program is right for them before financially committing themselves heavily. I will continue to use the bands occasionally for certain exercises, but I am excited to get my dumbbells and the prospect of a more complete workout.

The Price of Perfection

In my life there are some costs associated with fitness, but presently there is one cost in particular that is worse than the others: $400.

That is the cost of Bowflex Selecttech 552 dumbbells. Mel, with her Samson-like strength obliterated our red band over the weekend. For a while now I have been considering it, but it just seemed like too much of an investment. Now that I know I'm sticking with it (and my wife has participated as well) it doesn't seem as unreasonable. It will be a better workout and make some impossible exercises much easier to do from a form standpoint.

As far as the workouts, I've been pretty solid. The San Diego trip delayed me a bit, but I'm rockin' out week nine currently and feeling pretty solid about it. I'm much stronger than I was at the beginning of the summer and feel pretty good in general. My running will be increasing, so I will no longer be doing Plyo until the marathon in January. That leaves me with the three strength training workouts a week. Still solid, I might take it down to 2 closer to the marathon and run 4 days a week, cutting out legs & back. Not too much though, legs and back has really helped by muscular endurance while running, something I hope will help me decrease my marathon time significantly this time around.

I'll be updating again from time to time, no promises on regularity, but stay tuned for some new diet and exercise tips from my wife. Oh and a quick shout-out to my sister, who ran her first half-marathon this weekend in Chicago and is still standing....congratz.