Round 6 - Week 10

This is a Plus Week

MONDAY - August 2, 2010 - Upper Plus
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This workout seems to wear me out more than it should. The exercises are hard, but individually, they don't appear to be that much harder than Classic P90X. However, they move so fast, I find myself hitting pause a lot. The Combat Pushups are a tough finishing move, and I did 14 of them. On the Lean Back Curls, I accidentally cut my weight down from last time, and did 20 reps at 25 lbs instead of last month's 12 reps at 30 lbs. I'm not sure which is better. Overall, I burned 493 calories, which is right in between my last two times.

TUESDAY - August 3, 2010 - Interval X Plus
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I'm really beginning to appreciate this workout more and more. There's still a few moves I don't like, such as the ones where you're squatting to the floor and jumping up, but most of them I do like. I get a good calorie burn for the time involved. Today I had to pause for a minute or so about a third of the way in to check on my dinner, but still burned 445 calories in just under 45 minutes.

WEDNESDAY - August 4, 2010 - Total Body Plus
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This is the same situation with Upper Plus. It really wears me out quickly, and I'm taking all kinds of short pauses. Because the Plus workouts are more time based, it's difficult to increase your rep counts, so it's tough to see improvement from workout to workout. One way is to increase the weights a bit, but not all the exercises use weights. The other is to shorten the "break" time. Today it took me 56 minutes to do the 46 minute workout. A lot of that is writing things down and changing weights, but there's also the 15-20 second "catch your breath" breaks that I'll try to reduce down. I can remember going through the same thing with Plyometrics and Core Synergistics. I still am uncoordinated on the Spiderman Jumps. I just can't do them fluidly without thinking about where my hands and feet should be where I land. That's definitely something I can work on. I could also use better balance on my Balance Curls (left leg balance is horrible), and the Lara Lunge Crunches. I burned 544 calories, which is about average for this workout.

THURSDAY - August 5, 2010 - Yoga X
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I saw a YouTube video yesterday from someone who had been struggling with Yoga X, then tried to "clear his mind and focus on the present moment". He said it made it almost a different workout. I tried to concentrate on that idea today. The first thing I did was to make sure my heart rate monitor strap was tight so I didn't repeat last week's fiasco. Overall, my concentration and focus was better than usual, but I still have a long way to go. My mind was really wandering during the second half. I fell out of all my balance postures, and only held Crane for 15 to 20 seconds. But it's a start. I'll try and hold my concentration a little bit longer each time I do it. I burned 549 calories. I've measured my burned calories for 12 Yoga X sessions now, and it's ranged anywhere from 500 to 600 calories, but that's only a small part of the picture. Those are the cold numbers. I'm really looking for the "peace of mind" feeling to deem it a really successful workout.

FRIDAY - August 6, 2010 - Legs and Back
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Was up at 6:30 this morning to play golf. Drove 27 miles there, 27 miles back, and walked a lot of the course when I had the chance. Did some grocery and yard supply shopping on the way back. Mowed the lawn, trimmed the bushes, and weed whacked, all without a break since waking up. For a lot of people, that's a normal day, but for me, I'm usually stuck behind a desk all day. I was still revved up when I started the workout about 6:20 pm. I have to say it was one of my best workouts ever. The leg exercises were the usual reps with the usual weights, but I felt like I was doing them with so much more energy than usual. I did 86 pullups, which was nine more than last week, and five more than my record 81 done three weeks ago. I'm very happy with the effort. I burned 596 calories, and the most I'd ever burned on this workout before was 571. An all around good job. A pat on the back to me.

SATURDAY - August 7, 2010 - Kenpo Cardio Plus
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I did the workout in the morning to keep the momentum going from yesterday. As I mentioned before, this is my favorite workout, and the time goes by very quickly. I watched the Gladiator move before I started the workout, as I can never get it right. It helped, as I think I got the mechanics down. It's just a matter of getting used to it. I burned 384 calories, which is lower than usual, but I don't care because I enjoyed the workout, and I feel good and exhausted.

SUNDAY - August 8, 2010 - Weigh In and Abs Core Plus
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WEIGH IN: Weight = 174.6; Body Fat = 22.3%

A drop of .7 lbs from last week, which I'm happy with. I ate pretty good for the week. A little half-fat ice cream here and there, and a hot dog at golf on Friday, but no junk food binges.

ABS/CORE PLUS: I did roughly the same amount of reps I did the last few times. I'm still getting used to the exercises and the sequence. It moves so quickly, that while I'm trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing, the exercise is half over. I think once I'm more familiar with it, the reps will increase. I burned 236 calories in the 24 minutes it took me to do the 20 minute routine.