Monday, December 15, 2008

P90X PLUS Day 1: Upper Plus & Abs/Core Plus

The Next Level Began today!

Before I get into the workout lets begin with a couple of stats and how I am going to go about the next 89 days

First, my weight is 167 lbs. That is a 14 lb loss from where I started with P90X. I gained zero pounds (thank you very much!) over the 11 days I took off. My Body Fat % is 17.5 percent. I used a digital scale that sends an electric pulse through you and I also used old fashion calibers. I did each one three times and took the average to come up with 17.5%.

The supplements I will be using this round are 100% Whey Protein (40G) - mostly for breakfast. Wheybolic Extreme 60, which is a post-workout drink, 3 scoops is 60 grams of protein. The pre-workout drink I will be using is NanoVapor (only when needed). I am also a week into a cycle of creatine. These will be used for my first 30 days to coincide with the nutrition plan which calls for 60% of my diet to be protein. I am in level 2 of the P90X nutrition plan and this calls for about 2600 calories per day. The protein bars I am using are called Pure Protein and they are 19G of protein and 210 calories per bar and I might have a minor addiction to them!

Sorry, I like stats! I know that is disappointing to my female readers who more than likely used to think that I am a super cool guy until I just unveiled that little nugget of info (haha ... just kidding!)! But I do like stats so I am keeping a TON of them this round. If anyone shares my glee of said stats send me an email and I will forward them onto you. If for some reason you are having trouble sleeping at night I can forward to you as well -- you'll be out in like 2 minutes!

Alright, onto the workout! Upper Plus kicked the crap out of me! Tony introduced something called the "Frog Push-up" and "L Chin-up". The frog is a push-up and then you spread your legs in a "V" and jump them up to your hands then jump back and do a push-up again and repeat ... sweat inducer! The "L" is a chin-up that you keep your legs straight out - toes to the ceiling like - then pull yourself up to the bar and slowly down. I had a ton of trouble with this because I was swinging back and forth and it really hurt my arms! Upper Plus is brutal. I also have decided to use dumbells instead of resistance bands on this round! And the dumbells are definitely more intense than the Bands. My arms had veins popping out all over them - never really had that with the bands.

Now onto Abs/Core Plus. This was also very challenging. I think the first time I did Ab Ripper X was more difficult than Abs/Core plus but overall Abs/Core is a more complete core workout. Tony did something called Banana Cannonballs and the killed me ... banana to cannonball ...banana to cannonball. Also he had us do a bunch of moves while hanging from the pullup bar. I felt myself getting nauseous a few time!

Overall, the two PLUS workouts were very fast paced and it is going to take a little time to get used to the moves but I think I am going to enjoy this workout and I did appreciate the 40 minute Upper Plus and 20 minute Abs/Core Plus -- I burned 583 calories -- awesome for a non-cardio workout!

Tomorrow is something called Interval X and it sounds a little scary. Glad to be back in the swing of things!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff

5 comments:

  1. It will be interesting to see what you think of +. Reviews seem to be mixed on how good it is. Can't wait to see the rest. Keep on bringitn it.
    -J

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  2. Alright here's my opinions Kenpo Cardio + while possibly fun to do and better cardio than reg kenpo, not a great WO I'd rather do Plyo. Abs/core+ not hard either, I prefer ARX. The lifting vids I did like BUT I got almost no muscle soreness from them, then again it's pretty hard for my muscles to get sore nowadays. It's good to have the vids to switch out but I could not do a full round of X+. I am mixing it up btwn X and X+ now.

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  3. Well those stinking L pull ups killed me as well. I think after we get used to the exercises it will get easier and harder.... Easier b/c we will know exactly what it is we are doing, harder b/c we will be doing more of them. I felt that some of the moves for abs/core were particularly hard to do correctly. I noticed that when I really did them correctly I could feel it alot more. The one where you put the weight behind your foot and up on the shelf(similar to the exercise in Core Synergystics except that your feet are locked) was easy to do wrong I feel. Once I started turning my core all the way around toward my back and acted like i was putting the weight on a shelf behind me it really brought out the burn in the oblique. I started out doing this wrong trying to put it on a shelf to my side..... I guess I feel this way about alot of excercise....they are easy to mess the form up. After a little time I will be A ok though.

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  4. Turns out Tom just started the Plus about a week ago so you might wanna swing over to his website and check it out!!

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  5. I am pretty sore this morning. My shoulders are aching and so is my lower back. We will see how this goes ... Joc, I am a little concerned with abs/core compared to Ab Ripper. Ab Ripper seems to be more concentrated on the abs whereas abs/core is more broodly focused on the entire core. IMO, it would be better if it was 15 instead of 20 exercises!

    Matt- I saw Tom started too. Its always good to have a few of us doing it around the same time! Good luck with Interval X today!

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