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.

Keep On Keepin' On

The brilliance of Joe Dirt really isn't in question here, but perhaps my dedication to P90X has fallen under scrutiny. The fact is however, I'm still going strong. After my original restart after 5 weeks, I am now halfway through week 7 and feeling pretty decent about it.

With the San Diego trip coming up right in my rest week (I won't rest the first half of next week and I'll do week 9 stuff to get workouts in) it's decent timing. I'll run while in SD, but the lifting will have a short hiatus while some moderate, well heavy.....maybe borderline illegal fun ensues.

I think Mauzy is pretty well going along although maybe more hit and miss these days, everyone else seems to have fallen to the side of the road like the pansies in an Ironman race. Alex, you're exempt from this scathing remark with your effort induced dislocation of a semi-important knee related bone. The rest of you, now is a good time to get back on the horse, especially those of you in SD. If you ignore my nearly translucent epidermis, you'll be embarrassed by how good I look and how flabby and pathetic you have become when we're on the beach in 10 days or so....

Improvement

Last night I ran about 3.5 miles with the lady and was actually reasonably impressed with how I felt. I've ran maybe twice in the last 40 days, but have continued doing P90X (strength training at least). During the run I didn't feel like I was in marathon shape or anything, but I felt fine and only got stronger as time went on...maybe there is something to this P90X strength training thing.

I'm going to need it: This weekend I'm dong a mini-triathlon (200M swim, 6mi bike, and 5k run), considering I haven't swam in god knows how long and I use a mountain bike, it should be interesting.

Shout out to my good friend Mick out in Cali, heard about your unfortunate Softball accident, as long as your mended up in time for the labor day bonanza there will be no problems...get well soon buddy.

Appearances

If you follow my blog (and no one does) then you would think that I simply quit working out and eating healthy...this is not true. I am still doing P90X 90% and following the diet 90% and I have certainly improved in strength and general health. I guess it comes down to priorities and again, blogging loses.

I restarted the program of course and am now in week 5. There is a very probable speed bump when I take a trip over labor day weekend to sunny San Diego, but I'll still exercise and that can;t be avoided. Friends in Cali seem to have either quit or been injured in P90X or sports related activities, so I guess I should feel lucky I am relatively unscathed.

I still have the Phoenix marathon in January looming on the horizon, so my training for that needs to start ramping up now. I did Back & Biceps yesterday and today I'll be running with Mel. From now until the marathon, I will run at least 3 days a week while maintaining strength exercises. Once I get done with the initial 90 days, I will move to a more lean based P90X with 2 strength days a week and 4 running.

I could make promises about posting, but we all know how that would work out. I'll try to be more active, but we'll see. Either way, keep pressing play unless your maimed or injured, I'll be doing the same.

Blogging Laziness

I actually find it easier to work out then i do to update this blog, but I thought I would take another crack at it today. I'm still rocking the P90x and still feeling pretty good about it. About to go into a rest week next week for the second time and then back to the second phase again, the change of pace will be nice. I always felt like after a couple weeks everything would be come easy and then last night I did a chest & back and almost threw up....so I guess it really is what you put into it.

As far as I know Mauzy is still doing his thing as well, but i haven;t received much update from California. Also, my wife claims she will be starting it again soon, so I guess we'll see how that goes. I give her a much better chance than Jondle, so that's something.

Should I actually put effort into making this blog entertaining, or even writing it? Does anyone actually read or pay attention to it? Let me know, if it's useful, I'll do more than just blankly type out text as an excuse to update the space.