Day 3: Shoulders and Arms/Ab Ripper X - Day 4: Yoga X/ Cardio X

26Mar08

I ended up doing Shoulders and Arms last night instead of yesterday morning because I went to sleep late the night before. I previewed the workout and each exercise the day before and mentally chose the weights that I thought I’d be able to use for each one in order to “feel the burn”. Since I’d done some shoulder work with NROL4W I knew that I could go for about 15’s on shoulder presses alone.

I actually had fun with this one, felt a little like jello after it was all over and really felt like I had picked the right weights for most of the exercises. I could have gone heavier with some, and of course I wrote all of that down so I’ll know for next time. I’m going for size, working on 10 reps for each exercise unless Tony says we do more. Since I know that it takes alot for women to bulk up so I figure if I’m going for bulk I’ll get lean in the process. Just my theory.

ARX did get a little easier, but not much. I don’t know HOW these folks are lifting their legs off of the floor so easily during that damn crunchy frog or the Mason Twist. Just hoping it will get easier for me with time.

Okay. Yoga. UGH. I set a goal this year to do yoga because I wanted to be more flexible. I experimented with different yoga DVDs, but just didn’t click with any of them. I even got a Kundalini Yoga DVD from Amazon.com after seeing all these rave reviews not really knowing what KIND of yoga it was. All I saw was some woman sitting on what looked like a bathroom rug gyrating around like she was having sex and breathing like a dog with her tongue out. I was expecting simple basic yoga, you know, downward dog and all of that.

Well Yoga X certainly has alot of downward dog. There is definitely a learning curve with this one, and it ain’t easy. I got a little frustrated; yoga has always been tough for me because I need to see what’s going on on the TV, but my heads down or up so much that I can’t see the TV and what I’m supposed to be doing, how I’m supposed to be standing, all of that. So I have to break my pose, look at that TV, then go back to the pose. I’m assuming the more I do it the better I’ll know what’s coming up next and won’t need to look at the TV so much.

I also see that I am pretty damn inflexible. I used the blocks when I needed to. My goal was to get through the entire thing - I have the time in the morning to complete an hour and a half workout if I need to - I made it through 45 minutes. Not bad I thought. I was with Tony until he wanted me to twist my body into some kind of pretzel and after looking at the TV wondering what the hell they were doing I was just DONE. No love lost though. After that I pushed play on Cardio X, skipped the warm up and told Tony “No more downward dog for me, thanks!” did the Kenpo and Plyo sections and skipped the other parts where you get on the floor since I had already put my yoga mat away.

Overall not bad. I already knew I’d be frustrated with the yoga since it’s new to me and it’s all awkward and weird, but I’m gonna stick with it, especially since it’s in like every single week. I will make it to the end of it before the 90 days is over. I actually like this particular workout because there isn’t all of that dancing the shakras and namaste praying and chanting and all that nonsense (I think.. I didn’t make it to the end, so I don’t know if Tony’s got us sitting on the floor chanting Tina Turner style) it’s just yoga, which is what I had been looking for.

I felt like I’d been stretched a bit after it was all over. I could definitely feel it in my hamstrings which always seem to be quite tight lately.

Tomorrow: Legs and Back. Looking forward to this one, I LOVE to work legs.

Filed under: P90X   |  
Tags: amazon.com, Cardio X, Kundalini, P90X, Shoulders and Arms, Yoga