Day 39

Block 2 is here. Week 5, Day 1 Eccentric Upper is done. This workout is a good upper body workout. I say upper body because it works chest, back, shoulders and arms. I honestly think that once in better shape, this workout might be excellent to do twice in a row. You would double your sets. Maybe that might be too much, but I think if you pushing hard for big results, it would not be out of the realm of possibility. Right now, however, I am not doing anything like that.

Eccentric Upper is a good push/pull workout you do for the first 4 rounds, 4 different pullups, pushups and shoulder exercises. Then on the last I think 2 rounds you alter and do triceps, biceps and shoulders. Burnout section at the end and its pushups and pullups. Tony has you do wide grip pullups and military pushups, but I bet if you do this more frequently as an upper body workout outside of the "P90X3 program" kind of on its own, you can change it up and do different pullups and pushups. I get to do this workout 2 more times during this block and I think 2 times in block 3, so I might switch it up in the burnout as well.

I have been done with the workout for almost an hour now and I still feel it in my chest and arms. The workout is not a max number workout like The Challenge however. It is only 10 reps per exercise but you are doing negative work here. What I mean is that for instance, in the pushup, you go down on a three count then explode up. Each rep is the same where you have the strain in the negative part of the workout, you go slow. For pullups you would do your pullup and then go down to full extension slowly over a 3 count. Curls would be the same. Curl up and then release slowly to full extension. I think you get the point.

Negative work is not new and there was some of that in P90X as well. I think that it is good to do for the simple fact of controlling your work in both directions. Understand? Have you ever seen a guy bench press and bounce the weight off his chest? That person would allow the weight to come down to his chest with little or no resistance and bounce off their chest and then push through the upward motion. This is so bad for so many reasons.

It's not a true example of their ability to bench press. It also is so dangerous to allow weights to bounce off your body like that. I'm sure they are used to it and they have been doing it for so long it's all they really know. Negative reps  allow you to build strength that can allow you to control the weight you are using without risking injury on heavier weights. You will have to work with lighter weights to build up, but no one starts out with great strength. It is all acquired with hard work and proper technique. Negative reps are good to incorporate into a routine, but I'm pretty sure that you should not do negative reps all the time. I think if they were, we would have seen them much sooner than today in P90X3. I think there might have been a negative rep mixed into one of the exercises in block 1.

Tomorrow is Triometrics and it sounds cardio or plyo ish, so I hope my knee will be ok tomorrow. It has felt fine so far today, but I haven't taxed it at all. Tomorrow will be the test, but I will play it by ear. I am sure that it is fine as I haven't felt it yet getting up from a sitting position as I did yesterday. I love being reminded of my age through my joints. Time to soak in the hot tub and enjoy the rest of the day. Still need to plank and finish my pushups. Onward and upward.