Saez

Another strong week. This is the first week of my third month where you get back into strength building and muscle isolation. This is the same workout week as you start on week 1. It seems like they make you repeat this week for motivation since you see dramatic increase on your reps and endurance compared to the shock during your first week.

My greatest accomplishment was to jot down 17 on paper for pull ups in one set. I paused for a minute. Wow! This, compared to my 8 count during the first day fit test felt better than reaching the green from a nice knock down 7-iron swing 160 yds away. It’s a golf thing, you would not understand.

Talking about golf, over the last two weeks, I have felt sharp discomfort on my left forearm near the elbow joint, probably medial epicondylitis or golfer’s elbow. The pain is more pronounced when my left forearm is pronated (left arm with my thumb in a clockwise twist). I attribute this to stress from pull ups, but I’m not sure. I welcome any comments on cause or treatment. Since the pain is fairly localized, I can work through it and forget about it easily. Surprisingly, it does not surface while I’m doing pull ups but just when my arm is heavily pronated. Hmmm?

I continue to reflect on my observations as I complete this journey. I believe that this is just one of many milestones to come as I continue to stay active. You hear all these success million dollar stories turning into coaches. It is easy to relate to this feeling, especially when it’s in your nature to mentor others.

Volleyball action this week? Just a few hours and somewhat leisure. I gotta step it up next week. Push play, workout harder and imagine summer its just around the corner. This is kinda hard when you have over a foot of snow in the ground here in Chicago!

written by osaez \\ tags: P90X, sports training, workout

Another P90X day and a new workout. Good combination, lots of switching dumbells. My Powerblock set is severely inadequate for the time needed to change 5 pounds which was the difference between some exercises. This was impractical. I’m going to get some fixed weight dumbells.

This whole routine is based on five trilogies of alternating muscle at near superset speed. Each trio includes shoulders, then moving quickly to biceps and finishing with triceps. Each trio is performed twice. So altogether you perform 30 sets. This is intense.

There is a fair amount of isometric holds and the sequence of exercises is antagonistic which are likely to produce a significant increase in the strength and endurance. You perform this routine only the 1st month three times and then again on your third month following the P90X classic program.

Day 3 - 1st time doing this workout

I did not feel that today was a strong workout. I don’t blame the program, but rather my own adjustment to the right weight and rep count. In general, I focused on form and not weight. I’m going for some upper body volume some I need to stick to 8-10 reps and need to feel the last few to near failure. I wrote it all down, so I should be ok next time. I survived the Ab Ripper X a bit better this time. Keeping my balanced through the crunchy frog is still a challenge. The burn on this core workout is insanely intense. I look forward to the day that I can do all 339 (or whatever many) reps as Tony calls that this workout has.

Month 1 Summary

I did not increase my weight much but I increased my reps to about 15 on most moves. I kept my focus on strict form which I think it has a better payoff for muscle definition. I don’t quiet subscribe to the idea that you need to be a 8-10 reps for size. I think this is psychological and somewhat fictional figure which has been debated and disputed with methods like hypertrophy. Here again, you will likely learn about your body’s lack of balance. For instance, my left arm could push two more reps than my right. I’m left handed. My shoulders and triceps appear stronger than biceps when comparing the weights used. This could be unique to my sports where one side is stronger, left arm to spike and right leg to anchor and take most of the burst during a jump.

Shoulders and Arms score: A

written by osaez \\ tags: arms, P90X, shoulder, sports training, workout