Day 82: P90X Legs and Back/Ab Ripper

Day 82. P90X Legs and Back/Ab Ripper. Today was tough. I don't think I got enough carbs yesterday. I did not want to do the Ab Ripper today. I was really feeling tired. I made it through though. You have to Bring it. Just goes to show you that nutrition is very important. You need to fuel your body in order to bring the intensity. Today was the last tough work out of this initial 90 days. Kenpo tomorrow and recovery week next week. Yoga, core, kenpo and then were done. My hands are also killing me today. I bought some gloves but they were ripped when I brought them home so I need to return them. Back and bicep day really gets your hands if you are using dumbells and then more pull ups today don't help at all either. All well. I think I bought the gloves too late since there is only 8 days left and I won't be using the dumbells during these last 8 days. That's ok. I'll use them when I start back up on the weights.

Day 80: P90X Back and Biceps/Ab Ripper

Day 80. P90X Back and Biceps/Ab Ripper. Only 10 days left. I can't believe it. Today's pull ups were tougher than usual. Not sure why, they were just hard. What a great work out. This one makes your biceps feel rock hard. I was pretty tired after this one and then I remembered we have to do the Ab Ripper also. Made it through ok. Always feels good when you are done. Still trying to get back on the right eating schedule since when we were in Biloxi I found myself skipping meals and eating later. I think after today everything should be back to normal.

Day 78: P90X Chest, Shoulders and Triceps/Ab Ripper

Day 78. P90X Chest, Shoulders and Triceps/Ab Ripper. It's been awhile since I did my P90X work out after 5pm. We just got back from Biloxi and I wasn't sure I was going to have the energy to get through these work outs today. Well, I surprised myself. I got through them just fine. I know my calories have been a little off for the past 3 days but I will get back on track tomorrow. My arms feel tight. My chest feels tight. We even ran while in Biloxi. Things are going good. We probably did cheat a little with some beers, pizza, Arby's, lobster tail with melted butter etc but I'm ok with that. 90% of the time we eat clean. A lot of people ask "Is there a cheat day during P90X?" I want to say no. The only person you are cheating is yourself. P90X is not just a 90 day work out but hopefully the start of a life long wellness change for yourself. P90X is just the tool to get you started. Do we cheat? Well, I guess you could say YES but it's more like we know we eat good most of the time so if we want a little something not on the nutrition plan then we go for it. For the most part though we follow it and do not feel deprived at all. You want 6 pack abs? Up your intensity and follow the nutrition plan exactly. If you cheat a little bit your results will suffer but if you are ok with it then splurge a little. Now I'm not saying go out and eat a dozen donuts but if you are craving a blizzard from DQ then go ahead and get yourself a small. It's not going to kill you but don't make a habit of it. Actually when I have a sweet tooth I have a protein shake with organic peanut butter and rice milk. Tastes like dessert.

Day 75: P90X Legs and Back/ Ab Ripper

Day 75. P90X Legs and back/ Ab Riper. I only have a few minutes since we are getting ready to go to Biloxi for a long week end. I didn't have a lot of energy today and I was kind of dragging during Legs and Back. Think I skipped lunch yesterday and now I am feeling it today. Remember what you feed your body is just as important as doing the work outs themselves. Since now I know how to post from my Blackberry, I'll try and put a quick post tomorrow of whatever kind of work out we do. "Bring It"

Day 73: P90X Shoulders and Arms/Ab Ripper

Day 73. P90X Shoulders and Back/Ab Ripper. One thing we definitely realized during this first round of P90X is you have to get your rest. We have crazy sleeping habits. What do I mean? Well, we fall asleep on the couch til 3-4 am and then go to bed thinking we will be able to fall right back to sleep. Wrong! We go to bed and then stare at the ceiling for an hour then sleep for 4 hours and then wake up and try and do P90X. When you don't get enough rest you will end up like Christina and pass out in the middle of the day.


You must get enough rest to perform at your peak level during P90X. Try and get at least 7 hours of sleep. Your muscles will thank you.

Day 71: P90X Chest and Back/Ab Ripper

Day 70. P90X Chest and Back/Ab Ripper. Wow! I did over 400 push ups today. 8 sets, 4 different moves. Plus all the pull ups that go along with Chest and Back day. I can't believe this was the last time we do this work out. 90 days goes buy fast. You don't do it in week 12 and the last week is just the recovery week. I don't want to sound like a broken record but now is the time you really have to dig deep and push yourself. Get those extra reps in. Tip for today. Don't eat for at least an hour before this work out. If you do you might lose it. Especially if you are "Bringing It".

Day 68: P90X Legs and Back/Ab Ripper

Day 68. P90X Legs and Back/Ab Ripper. Pull ups, sneaky lunges, wall squats, more pull ups and more lunges. This is a tough work out especially if you add the weights during the exercises. You will have to work up to that but it makes it all that much harder. I'm going to have to get some weight gloves. My hands are pretty beat up from the pull ups and Back and Bicep day. The dumbells and pull up bar have taken its toll. I can't find decent padding to wrap my home made pull up bar with so I just used 2 layers of hockey tape. Not enough. it still hurts. I'm hoping the gloves will fix that. It is very easy to slack off in Phase 3. You will be able to do all of the movements pretty well and you won't be very sore anymore so you might find yourself just repeating the previous week. Don't do it. Always try and get in more reps and more weight. More pull ups, more push ups, jump higher and dig deeper. Your body will thank you.

Day 66: P90x Back and Biceps/Ab Ripper

Day 66. P90X Back and Biceps/Ab Ripper. Isolate the biceps, that's the ticket. Curls and more curls and then throw in some pull ups. My triceps still feel tight from Chest, Shoulders and Triceps the other day. Now my biceps will be pretty tight for 2 days. I did realize that I need some heavier dumbells for lawnmower's, maybe 50-60 lbs. Not sure yet. Problem is I refuse to pay retail for weights. I like to find used ones. Much better deal. Brand new dumbells are about $1 per pound. Used ones are half that price. I found my last set on craigslist so I will check there and see what I can find.

Day 61: P90X Legs and Back/Ab Ripper

Day 61. P90X Legs and Back/Ab Ripper. We were tired today. Both of these work outs were more difficult today for some reason. I still added some 10 lb dumbells to the sneaky lunges even though none of them do. Now that makes it tough. We were on are feet all day talking about Team Beachbody at a job fair so I am not sure if that had anything to do with making us tired but we were whipped when we pushed play and super whipped by the time we finished.

Day 59: P90X Shoulders and Arms/Ab Ripper

Day 59. P90X Shoulders and Arms/Ab Ripper. Haven't done this work out since Phase 1 also. I like this work out. It works the biceps and triceps real good. Your arms feel really tight after this one so you know that you had a good work out. You have to "Bring It" though. You have to push yourself for each and every exercise. Ab Ripper is getting kind of easy and "no" I don't have 6 pack abs. There's a 6 pack in them but not on them yet. They do look a lot better now then they did pre-P90X but we'll see what happens. You can not just work your abs to get a 6 pack. You have to reduce over all body fat and for me what little body fat I do have is all around my waist. The fat is leaving the building and the next 30 day will be interesting.

On a side note Christina received a call from her friend today who is also doing P90x. She was at the store and needed the ingredients for a recipe in the nutrition guide. We personally haven't tried it yet but she said the Island Pork Tenderloin was amazing. So good that she is serving it at her wedding shower.

16 oz pork tenderloin, lean
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon chile powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 tablespoon fresh garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tablespoon Tabasco sauce

Serves 4

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Stir together salt, pepper, cumin, chile powder and cinnamon, then coat pork with the spice and rub.
3. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 12in skillet over moderately high heat and brown pork, turning about 4 minutes.
4. Stir together brown sugar, garlic and Tabasco sauce and pat onto top of tenderloin. Place pork in a roasting pan and cook in the oven for 20 minutes.

Day 57. P90X Chest and Back/Ab Ripper

Day 57. P90X Chest and Back/Ab Ripper. Holy cow! I totally forgot how hard this work out was. You don't do it at all in the second phase but now it is back with a vengeance. Push ups, pull ups, more push ups, more pull ups and just when you figure out that you are finally done then you have to do the Ab Ripper too. Pull ups were pretty tough today. Max reps on almost everything today. I think this might be the hardest work out. Then again I thought yoga was the hardest but now it's not that bad. I guess because of the muscle confusion, different work outs are going to feel harder and sometimes easier depending on when you do it. Also time of day seems to play an important role. Even though I work out in the morning I do have more energy in the afternoon. You will have to work P90x into your schedule at a time that is best for you. The important thing is to get going. Great things happen once you set your plan into motion.

Day 47: P90x Legs and Back/Ab Ripper

Day 47. P90x Legs and Back/Ab Ripper. All I can say is wall squats. Those of you that are doing P90x know what I mean. They Buuuuuurn. In a good way. Pull ups and more pull ups. Wear gloves, your hands will love you for it. I need to get a pair very soon. They will really come in handy on bicep day. All those curls and pull ups take their toll on your hands. This is also the last week of this routine. Next week starts week 8. Kind of a recovery week but i'm not to sure I would call it that since I have to do Yoga X twice next week. Just when you start getting used to a routine Tony Horton switches it up. That's where the muscle confusion comes in. I can't believe after next week I will be in phase 3 which is the final phase. The home stretch. Debating on getting Shaun T's Insanity when it comes but I haven't decided for sure yet. I want to get back on the weights.

Day 45: P90x Back and Biceps/Ab ripper

Day 45. P90x Back and Biceps/Ab Ripper Ahhh. The half way point for P90x. Today felt tougher than last week. My arms are spent today. Pull ups were tough and the corn cob pull ups were really hard today but all in all I really like this work out. You can really feel it in your arms. You get a lot of bicep reps in. My back feels good also. I think I might have thrown something out of wack last week with either the lawn mowers or the pull ups but today was just fine. Then just when you think you are done with that last super set then it is time for Ab Ripper x. Ab Ripper is not to bad any more. My hip flexors are still fine and I even have started using a medicine ball to do the mason twist. "Bring It"

Day 43: P90x Chest, Shoulders and Triceps/Ab Ripper

Day 43. P90x Chest, Shoulders and Triceps/Ab Ripper. Ahhh. Felt good to burn off some of the junk I ate on Saturday. I like all the different moves in this work out. Makes it go by pretty fast. You don't repeat any moves. You definitely feel it when you are done with this one. Almost to the half way point of P90x. 2 more days and it will be half way. I'm not getting sore any more so thats good but these work outs do make you sweat up a storm.

Day 40: P90x Legs and Back/Ab Ripper

Day 40 of P90x. Legs and Back/Ab Ripper. Ahhh. This is another great workout. Really works the legs and you still do a lot of pull ups. For anyone out there who is on the fence about doing P90X, I say go for it. This is a program like you have never done before. This is my first DVD work out and I love it. I jumped on the scale today and realized I dropped a couple more pounds. Ooops. I have to eat more. I'm burnig to many calories and not eating enough. Like I said before I'm not trying to drop any pounds. I will just have to eat more I guess. (yes clean eating)

Day 38: P90x Back and Biceps/Ab Ripper

Day 38 of P90x. Back and Biceps/Ab Ripper. All I can say is those corn cob pull ups are hard. Very hard. Pull ups in general are hard enough let alone trying to go up then side to side and then in and out all in 1 motion. Great work out though. This work out really isolates the biceps. One of the things I like about this work out is there are 24 different moves. So this is a no repeat work out. It seems to make it go by a lot faster.

Day 36: P90x Chest, Shoulders and Triceps/Ab Riper

Day 36 of P90x consists of Ab Ripper and Chest, Shoulders and Triceps. I still can't believe my legs are still sore from legs and back on friday. I only used light dumbells too. I still made it through today. Good thing there were really no legs involved. Only engaged the hip flexors during the Ab Ripper and they were not sore from friday. Ab Ripper is getting a little easier to do now also and it does not make my hip flexors sore anymore. I stil can't believe what a neglected muscle that was on me. Who knew? That is also one of the great things about P90x. You use all of these little muscles you didn't know you have. Now that the Stanley Cup Playoffs are over I should't have to worry too much about straying from the nutrition plan with some beers. The days I did get a few extra calories I just made sure I worked extra hard the next day. Well, tomorrow is plyometrics and I sure do hope my legs are back to normal by then. If not, it's going to be an even harder work out.

Day 33: P90x Legs and Back/ Ab Ripper

Well Day 33 of P90x consists of Legs and Back and Ab Ripper. I really went deep in the squats and lunges today. I will probably feel it tomorrow. This is a pretty tough work out. Well I have to run. Going to watch the Wings play game 7 for the cup.

Day 31: P90x Back and Biceps/Ab Ripper

Day 31. P90x Back and Biceps/Ab Ripper. You know it's funny beacause I was just thinking that we really haven't done any intense bicep work yet, until today. I was wondering when it was coming and my question was answered. In the other work outs we did some pull ups and some curls but those didn't really leave me feeling it like today's work out did. Today really focused on the biceps and I can feel it. (in a good way) All kinds of curls today. Felt pretty good. I really didn't have a ton of energy this morning but I still did the best I could. Sometimes I think I would be better off doing these work outs later on in the day when I have more energy. Come to think of it I did have a yogurt instead of a banana before my work out. I think the banana is better. Gives me a little boost I think.

Day 29: P90X Chest, Shoulders and Triceps/Ab Ripper

Day 29 with P90x. Chest, shoulders and triceps and Ab Ripper. Starting week 5. It's time to bring it. This work out had a great mix of exercises. All new movements. Tony Horton says that is the key. Muscle confusion. Those plyo push ups were tough. I had the mat moving all over the place for some reason. Once I got my hands and feet in the air it stopped moving but if I just clapped then the mat wouldn't stay in place. How about some 1 arm push ups. Those were very hard. Don't worry you can do them on your knees.