Day 42

Week 5, Day 4 Eccentric Lower. I was dreading today a bit after my I tweaked my knee on Sunday. I watched the dvd yesterday and didn't feel any more confident either. Doing the workout today, however, I felt no pain or even a twinge of pain in my knee at all. I was very pleased with that and with how the workout went. My glutes and legs were still sore from Triometrics but it was good to work some of that out. My quads felt this workout.

This workout is similar to Eccentric Upper in the respect that you are doing the negative reps again, but with the legs. The exercises ranged from a squatting position or a lunge and you squat down on a 3 count and exploding up quickly. The squatting on one leg was the big worry for me, but everything seemed to go really well. I got fatigued and had to pause a couple of times. I also used the bands on the first few exercises and did find myself stopping and starting over because I was using the wrong band. It barely fazed anything though as I was able to pause and change without missing anything. I don't know if anyone else ever has this problem with the bands, but I find it difficult to get the right placing on them quickly. If you don't understand what I mean, it's like this. When you place the bands down you have to step on them to gain the resistance in the bands, you pull against them with your body weight on them. They are under one or both feet and sometimes you get different resistance levels on the different ends depending how much slack you give on that side. That is where quick placement can be difficult and sometimes the bands wedge within the treads of my shoes.

Once you get that down, if you use the bands, it's a pretty good workout. The Albanian squats I think are from the P90X Legs and Back workout, but not sure on that. They are similar anyway. The last few exercises are a break from the standing squat and are on the ground. The one I found the toughest for me were the side leg raises I think there were called TT leg raises. You are in side plank on your forearm or hand and raise your top leg and down slowly behind then up quick and down slowly in front. One in back and one in front is 2 reps so that is repeated 4 more times and then switch sides. Tough for me and my hip was already tired from the side leg kicks so it was a struggle. Some of the exercises were on one leg while holding a weight so not only were you working the quad in the squat end of it, but you also had the balance component which increased the workload in other areas of the leg.

Tomorrow is Incenerator. I haven't previewed it, but it sounds like a cardio workout. The day after that is MMX and then Dynamix. So far with this block, I have not been disappointed. I like the workouts and enjoy the negative reps with the resistance days. I think the incorporation of the resistance and core work with cardio type workouts makes this program work for all around fitness. I am still overweight, but things are always moving in a positive direction. I am guessing that as long as I maintain my nutrition correctly and continue the workouts to fruition I will have dropped a significant amount of weight.

When I say significant lets break it down. 2 to 3 pounds a week is what most would consider an aggressive attempt at weight loss. 13 weeks is how long the 90 day program is so by that rational, losing 26lbs over the 13 weeks would be considered good. In 4 weeks I have lost 20 lbs and by that standard I would lose 60lbs over the 13 weeks. 60 pounds is pretty good and way better than 2 to 3 pounds a week. The Biggest Loser has the finale coming up and the guy who has lost the most "weight" has lost 143 pounds to date and that was over 12ish weeks.  That would be more than double what I have been doing per 4 weeks. I have been working out only 30 mins a day where they probably spend near 3 hours a day in the gym doing different things.

I feel that with only a 30 minute workout daily, that I have done extremely well. When I did P90X the workouts were either an hour or hour and a half. I had similar types of weight loss, but I also didn't get under the 300lb mark during the first round. I know I will during this round of P90X3 and I am starting a little bit lower than I did with P90X, but not a hugely significant amount lower. All I know is that I see the results, both in the mirror and in the clothes I wear. My family sees the results as well. I know that over time and continued commitment to both maintaining my fitness level and my nutritional habits that I will continue to expel the excess fat from my body. It is easy to get frustrated because you want results faster than they appear, but there is no quick fix to health and fitness, only commitment and determination.