Wellps, I’m a little over two weeks into the P90 program and somehow, miraculously, defying all logic and precedence, I’m still going strong.
Despite the scale-related setbacks that I’ve been experiencing, I’m actually starting to feel pretty great about having set up an actual fitness routine (though, as I explained yesterday, it’s not really that routine yet… but at least I’m still fitting it into my day somewhere!) and the slow improvements I’m making with the various moves in P90 Sculpt and Sweat A.
I still find myself following the modifier for a lot of things, like the press jacks (actual jumping jacks are kinda hard on my bazoombas), pushups, walking planks, and ab stuff, though even that is an improvement on where I was when I started. I didn’t really talk about this in my initial Week 1 update, but even though P90 is the “beginner” videos, I still found myself needing to modify some of the modifier’s moves at first.
There are a lot of moves that require you to be able to hold a plank in order to complete the move (sprawls, walking planks, the half-pushups), and I wasn’t really able to do them well, even following the modifier (which mainly meant just doing the moves slower or less deep). So I’d have to do the half-pushups on my knees instead of on my feet, or just try to hold a plank through the sprawls instead of actually, y’know, sprawling.
But now I’m pretty much doing the full moves as prescribed, and even upping my game and following the non-modified folks in the video, especially with the mixed martial arts moves and cardio. Hoorah!
Just another week and a half of the “A” videos and I’ll be able to move onto Phase B. Which is good, because as I suspected might happen, I am admittedly starting to get a little bit annoyed with watching the exact same video every other day.
Mostly it’s Tony Horton’s “dad jokes” that are starting to make me a little stabby. There’s this one joke that he makes in the Sculpt A video — one of the workout guys in the video’s name is Jim. So when he’s introducing the folks, he goes something like, “Jim! Jim Beam came to work out. Jack & Jim went up the hill to fetch a pail of… liquor!” *cue forced laughter from workout folks* Then Tony continues, “No, they fetched a pail of Shakeology! That’s what they did!” and that’s when my eyes get their own little workout because they are rolling SO HARD.
I’m thinking that I might start doing the videos with the captions + put on my own music, since at this point I think I’ve done the moves enough that I don’t need to really watch the screen to remember how to do them, I just need the cues to know when to move on to the next one.
Anyway, it’s not so bad that I’m tempted to stop watching (yet), since it is somehow gratifying to go through the same cycle of moves because I get better at doing them each time. I’ve also learned a few additional things about this workout so far that I thought I might share:
- I am finding I like using dumbbells more than the resistance bands during strength moves. The resistance band handles hurt my wrists a bit, and it’s kind of awkward to attach the band to a door hinge because it means I have to do the resistance moves at a little bit of an angle.
- I think I need a better/thicker mat — my tailbone hurts doing some of the ab moves (especially those targeting my lower abs, which require the use of my legs). I’ve cracked my tailbone once and bruised it twice in my life (I fall down stairs a lot…) so maybe this isn’t a problem that most people have, but I’m definitely thinking I need some more cushioning. Even doubling up my mat doesn’t seem to do enough, so I definitely think I need a thicker mat. Working out on carpet might also be a solution for this, but I have hardwood floors so womp womp.
- As I mentioned before, in addition to the Sculpt and Sweat videos, there’s also one called “Saturday Special” that you do on, well, Saturdays. Duh. It’s a lot more intense, and still requires a lot of modification for me, but I think this makes sense since it’s the same video throughout the entire 90-day program, not just Phase A.
- I’m really pleased with how immensely doable P90 is on a daily basis. The time really flies (God bless that countdown timer!) and before you know it, you’re done and you feel nice and sweaty even though it’s only been 28 – 34 minutes. It’s such a short amount of time that I have also started adding in a little bit of additional strength work afterwards if I have some extra time.
Anyway, even with Tony’s annoying dad jokes starting to get on my nerves, I’m still pretty happy with having started the program (as a reminder, I’m just following the fitness plan, not the nutrition plan — I’m not using Shakeology or anything), and while I’m definitely not in fighting shape by any means yet (dude, it’s only been two and a half weeks, haha) I am already seeing differences in my physical capabilities. Which, frankly, is surprising to me because I didn’t actually think progress would be noticeable after only two weeks. But I guess that’s because I’ve never paid attention before! Or, maybe it’s because I’ve never actually worked out this much before. Your guess is as good as mine. 😉