A few weeks ago I talked about how I was considering jumping in full bore and trying P90X. I had heard it was tough, but when you think about it – so many things in life worth having aren’t easy to achieve.

After considering all the pros and cons and hearing from several P90X graduates (and P90X evangelists!) I decided to give it a try.

I got the class materials a couple of weeks ago and delved into them. The class takes a whole life approach to losing weight, eating healthy, and exercising to become fit. They give you a full nutrition and exercise program when you sign up, not just a workout program.

Nutrition Is Important

One thing that becomes apparent when you watch the introduction video is that the exercise in the course is not  going to help you to be fit by itself. In fact they stress that the diet and nutrition portion is also an integral part of the plan.

Quite honestly I think the nutrition portion is the part that I’m probably going to have more trouble with.  No, not because I’ll find the exercise easy – because I won’t, but because this is usually where my fitness plans break down – on the eating side.  My love of donuts and sweets always seem to do me in.

So I’m looking at the nutrition plans and hoping to carve out some sort of routine so that I can do this thing the right way.  All I do know is that I’ll be going to the grocery store later this week to get some better foods than what we have now.  Lots more protein rich meats like chicken and  turkey, more veggies and fruits.

Last Night’s Workouts – Night Number 1

So yesterday was my first day doing the P90X program.  I followed the nutrition portion of the program pretty well, eating healthy foods all day. I had a salad for lunch, healthy snacks in between and then grilled chicken, broccoli and rice for dinner.   I plan on trying to do the workouts in the morning once I adjust to it, but this week I’ll probably be doing the workouts at night.

Last night I did the first workout, the chest and back workout, and then the ab ripper workout.   Let’s just say it wasn’t pretty.

I struggled my way through the chest and back workout first.  There are lots of pushups and pull-ups in this routine.  If you want you can modify the pull-ups a bit to use a chair if you’re not confident in your pull ups  – or use bands to simulate pull ups.  I used a chair part of the time as my pull ups have never been very strong.  Something to work on.  I think I was still able to get in a pretty good workout. The pushups near the end I had to modify a bit and do from my knees –   as I started getting pretty tired.  Just goes to show how out of shape I am!

I was able to complete the hour long routine though, despite having to keep my number of reps significantly lower than the folks on the video.    As they say in the video, however, doing less reps when you start out isn’t a problem, just “do your best and forget the rest“.

On several days of the week you’re supposed to also do the ab ripper workout after your initial workout.  So that’s what I started to do.  Let’s just say that I made it through about 3-4 of the exercises in the ab ripper workout before i was complete toast.  I didn’t complete it. I was so sore from the first workout that I was just spent.

I have a feeling it will get better over time as my body adjusts to working out again, but let’s just say it was rough that first night.  The question is – did I miss something in the manual?  Are you supposed to split the two workouts out – one in the morning, one at night?

Sticking To It

So tonight I’ll be moving on to workout two – Plyometrics.   I hear this one is also good but will leave you exhausted. I can’t wait – my tired sore body and all.