Day 49

Week 6, Day 4 Eccentric Lower done. Two more workout days left. Incinerator and MMX then it's SuperBowl Sunday. Today, however, was a tough day to start. My legs still being sore from Triometrics, even though I did yoga yesterday, were not going to like me after today. I have been done now for about 45 minutes and I am sitting. It's times like these that I will say, "Oh my legs feel fine.. no issues here" and then get up and I'm like WTF! Why are my legs so sore.. oooohhhhh yeah that's why.

I wanted to push myself this week and next week and so far I have this week. I have one more upper body workout and then MMX which in my opinion is more of a cardio workout than anything. The sprawling makes it tough for me, but I will get through it. I just have to push myself with both workouts, then rinse and repeat next week and increase the intensity once again. I will be back in transition week before I know it.

Just for the record. I am doing a pushup challenge and a plank challenge while doing P90X3. I am not dissatisfied with P90X3, quite the contrary. I feel that the program is progressing well and for what it offers in 30 minutes, it is doing exactly what I hoped and I am on pace to lose just as much weight as I did with my first round of P90X. I will not really know until I get to that 90 day point, but so far it seems to be trending that way. That is the buzzword this year. Trending.

The reason I am doing those challenges along with is this. I know the program has its system and dedicated workouts in a specific order to maximize effectiveness. I understand that, but I have also done P90X and know I can do more of some things and I know I need work in some areas I don't feel I am getting, specifically my core, and it's not because the ability to work that area is not in the program. My core is horrible, but it's getting better. Planking will ultimately make my core stronger and I feel it in my abs when I plank.

There is no Ab Ripper with X3 included, but you can order it extra or buy the challenge pack and get it with X3. Ab Ripper X was included and it was a 15 minute workout that you did on resistance days. X3 has an Ab Ripper you can do, but it's not an essential part like the first Ab Ripper. I'm not angry or upset about it, but it is a fact of the situation. While the core is worked harder with the primary workouts, some of the things that are in it for core, I have a lot of trouble with and therefore I can't do almost at all or very well and the work to the core needs to be increased. This is why I plank. I posted the information on the plank challenge on day 36 or that area of this blog as well.

The pushup challenge is something I think we all should do. It is a simple little thing of doing 100 pushups each day for 100 consecutive days. No breaks, no rest days and no excuses. If you miss some or part of a day, make it up the next day. If you do sets of 5 to 10 at a time, you can spread it out over the day. On days that I do pushups, I count those obviously. If you are whipped and need to modify, then do so. Change your hand position to increase or decrease difficulty daily or within each set if you like. It is up to you. The idea is you need to push your face away from the floor at least 100 times a day. If you feel froggy and want to do 500 then do it, but the goal is 100 per day minimum.

The goal here is not to load up with the most stuff I can possibly do so I can say "Look at me". My goal is to become a more healthy and fit person. The healthiest and most fit person I can be. I want to be able to do things that others my age and younger do like snow ski. If I am obese, I won't do that. I want to do a Tough Mudder. They didn't have those kinds of things when I was younger. Just standard 5k's and I did those and 10k's. I don't think I will be able to run like I used to because of my back, but I can be fit despite my spinal health. I think though as I increase my fitness, my spinal health will increase as well by default. I wont do things that are what I feel out of bounds for me or too much to the point of causing injury or derailing what I am trying to accomplish. You need to find your limits then learn how to push beyond them. There are always challenges in life to overcome. Whether fitness, nutrition or anything else you have to deal with, it's the challenges that makes us push beyond boundaries that have been set around us. Don't get discouraged with challenges, embrace them because it's the challenges that help us to grow.