In the beginning

Before starting this workout I took some body measurements — I’m not a fan of weighing myself and haven’t owned a scale in years. This is how it broke down:

• Total body fat %: 13.88%
• Measurements:
  • Chest: 37?
  • Waist: 34.5?
  • Hips: 35.25?
  • Left thigh: 20.25?
  • Right thigh: 20.25?
  • Left arm: 11?
  • Right arm: 11.25?

Not too bad considering I have had quite the on again, off again relationship with exercise. I also took some before photos to see just how much my body has changed (patience, they’re coming).

In the end

Now, after 12 weeks of plyometrics, yoga, pushups, pull ups, extensions, raises, lawnmowers, and various other exercises, my measurements are:

• Total body fat %: 8%
• Measurements:
  • Chest: 38?
  • Waist: 32?
  • Hips: 34?
  • Left thigh: 19.5?
  • Right thigh: 19.75?
  • Left arm: 11?
  • Right arm: 11.5?

Alright, those numbers are great on their own but how about a comparison:

• Total body fat: 5% lost
• Chest: 1? gained
• Waist: 2.5? lost
• Hips: 1.25? lost
• Left thigh: 0.75? lost
• Right thigh: 0.5? lost
• Left arm: No change
• Right arm: 0.25? gained

And now, what you’ve all been waiting for, the pictures:

Always room for improvement

As committed as I was to giving this my full effort, there were a few areas I can improve on. The first and most important one being food. Next time going through the program this will be one of the top areas I focus on. Your body needs the right fuel to run properly and mine wasn’t getting it.

I also took it easy on the back exercises a little longer than I should have. Pull ups have always been very, very difficult for me so I stuck with the exercise bands instead of doing assisted pull ups from the beginning. There’s a reason pull ups are so prevalent in P90X — they work.

Final thoughts

When I look at the numbers, I remember expecting something different… possibly bigger changes in my chest, arms, and legs. Instead there was a decrease. I also thought I’d lose more around my waist. It’s not all bad though; the 5% drop in body fat is amazing.

I’m pretty sure the big change in body fat is what made me think my chest, arms, and legs got bigger while my waist got smaller. Getting rid of all that fat just leaves toned muscle. While the measurements may not have changed much, my muscle mass has certainly increased.

More?

A lot of people thought I was crazy when I told them I was trying P90X. My question to them now is:

How crazy am I for wanting to do it again?

And as a follow-up, is it even more insane for me to do “doubles” this time around? The answer is probably going to be “yes” in both cases but I have no problem with that.

Before starting again, I do want a bit of a break in order to set myself up with a nice routine of eating properly. This post is a little late and comes a week after my last workout day — which takes care of one break week. February 2nd seems like a good day to start again. I’ll shoot for that.

As I predicted eating was definitely touch and go over the holiday. Partly because I love my gran’s cooking but mostly because my willpower wasn’t exactly where it should have been. I’d like to see if you can resist my mom and gran ganging up on you with chocolate, turkey, buns, and various other desserts and treats. Diet was really a negative the last little while.

The workouts

It was really great to be doing different exercises again and mixing up the muscle groups that were being worked each day. Progress in my chest, arm, and shoulder strength seems to be getting significantly better and it’s more noticeable now than it has been the past two months.

Where I’m not seeing quite as much improvement is in my back strength — mostly with pull ups. I’m not saying there is no improvement, it just seems like I’m not pushing myself as hard as I should be. This will change in the next couple weeks.

Yoga is becoming much easier as well. The great majority of it at least. The warrior three sequence gets me every single time. My goal was to be able to make it through yoga x with no breaks by the end of three months. That’s still a goal.

Consistency

Throughout the past two and a half months I’ve been able to keep very consistent with my workouts. Always working out in the morning. If I missed a workout in the morning I’d do it at night as soon as I could. To this point I’d only missed two workouts due to illness.

Christmas is a different creature though. I took Christmas (Thursday) off this year and skipped that day’s workout. To make up for it I did Christmas day’s workout the day after, on Friday. The rest of the week didn’t work out so well. The day after catching up (Saturday) was a travel day and I was bagged, so I skipped that day’s workout as well. And nobody likes to workout on Sunday right?

Almost finished

As I write this I’m midway through week 10. That means there’s only two and a half weeks left. My goals for the final couple weeks are:

• Push myself as hard as possible with pull ups
• Be more consistent in eating the right foods
• Finish strong

Simple goals but important nonetheless.

Even during the recovery phase I’m currently in it’s getting tough to force myself into it. For the second time since starting I actually put off a morning workout and almost didn’t do it that night. Luckily my ironclad willpower got the best of me. It really would have sucked if I didn’t get that yoga workout done.

Today I woke up a little more upbeat though. So for now I’m going to blame it on the rain. Yeah. Yeah. (ok, that was really bad but at least it’s true) Looking forward to the last phase of this run since I get to alternate between workouts each week instead of doing three weeks of the same thing.

Talk about the progress already

Progress is continuing nicely as well. I’m feeling stronger and seeing my body change quite a bit. I’m excited to put together the comparison pictures after this weekend.

Unfortunately I’ve still been neglecting the Sunday stretching. I always have the intention of doing it but then I get distracted working on pet projects or catching up on TV/movies. I’m paying the price though. Stretching is important and as much as I’m seeing improvement in each workout, I’m also noticing a lot more stiffness in my muscles — which hampers my improvement. I need renewed vigor to keep up with the stretching and improving my flexibility.

Balance and strength are coming along nicely though. I can get through basically all of the yoga workout, with the exception of the warrior three sequence — it’s a killer. I could even do crane for at least half of the time Tony does. Sure, it only equates to about 30 seconds but lets see you do it.

Push ups and pull ups are getting easier. Well, the first 30 or 40 push ups and the first 20 or so pull ups are. Doing back and biceps on the same day, followed by legs and back two days later, seems to have weakened my pull up strength. At least right now. I’m curious to see how it will be when I get back into a muscle building phase next week.

Eating

Ugh. I do my best to continue eating healthy but sometimes I’m a sucker for a treat. I probably should have read the P90X food guide before I started but at least I’ve thumbed through it. Mostly.

In all honesty I should have written down notes and printed out some of the recipes so I could just buy and eat the proper foods. I’ll add that to my checklist for the next run through.

The end

The end is nearing. I have a three day stint visiting my parents and a launch to get through but I’m going to give it my all. Food will be touch and go given the season but I’ll do my best and at least confine myself to having small meals instead of pigging out.

I’ll also do my best to get some progress pics up this weekend and some updated body measurements.

This was the start of a new phase in the grand plan laid out for me. So now I get to figure out and get used to a whole new set of exercises. Good thing knee push ups are acceptable because after a point that is all I was able to do. Starting off the week blasting my chest, shoulders, and triceps was a nice wake up call.

Oh my god, and plyometrics is worse than I remembered, in a good way of course. There was a lot of huffing and puffing going on. I had to stop early a couple times but I stuck with it as best I could.

After picking up the chin up bar, this week was the first time I got to put it through it’s paces. Back and bicep day was the first to put me in that situation. I’m glad I picked it up because it has proven to be a major challenge.

My balance has at least kept up to some degree. Yoga was still very challenging this week but my balance has improved quite a bit. Still made me sweat like a pig too.

At the beginning I thought it was cruel putting three ab workouts in a row — despite Tony saying abs shouldn’t be worked two days in a row, pfffff. After doing legs and back followed by abs I still think it’s cruel and unusual punishment. I’ll be excited when the ol’ six pack finally makes an appearance though.

Despite my best intentions I skipped the Sunday stretching again. I’m really starting to kick myself for doing this every week. I even thought I’d make it up by stretching Monday night but that didn’t happen either. Fingers crossed I’ll follow through on my promise this week.

The changes my body is going through are starting to show even more now. Every day I’m amazed at just how the changes are happening. This is by far the best workout plan I’ve been on in years. Imagine what I could do if I actually follow the meal plan next time I go through the program.

The purpose of the recovery periods is give your body a rest and let the muscles build. A couple positives of the P90X recovery weeks is the multiple times you get to do stretching, which I’ve missed the last couple of weeks. I’m big fan of stretching because of it’s importance to overall health.

As I’ve stated — and will keep saying — the yoga part of P90X is a killer. For someone that has had great balance and flexibility for most of his life I’m constantly surprised at just how much of that I’ve lost over the past few years. Recovery week is an opportunity to improve that by offering it up as two of the workouts this week.

At the end of the week I ran into a little hiccup, late Thursday night/Friday morning I experienced intense stomach pain. Three days later I’m still working it out but it’s been a bit of hinderance in my being able to finish off the week’s workouts.

There’s not much else to say about this week. Everything has been going great to this point, with that one exception. Improvements in my strength, balance, flexibility, and appearance are constantly happening. I’m excited. Progress pics are due this weekend but I’m still undecided as to when I’ll take them (you know, the whole bloated, icky stomach thing). I’ll take them if I’m feeling better later.

Week 2

Oh boy. Not only was I still somewhat sore from the first week, but during the second week I got to compound the soreness by starting all over again. The positive side was the soreness didn’t last nearly as long this go ’round.

I decided to increase the weight I was using on some exercises but still found that sweet spot of feeling the burn and getting enough reps in. Using weight bands for the pull up exercises is challenging but I decided to order a door jam pull up bar. Something about wanting to be able to push myself even more.

Unfortunately my flexibility and balance are still pretty poor — as evidenced by the yoga and stretching parts of P90X. There is some improvement but it’s minimal right now. My coordination is much better on the second time with the kenpo work though, and that makes me happy.

Week 3

It’s amazing just how much a person’s body can change and adapt to in a short period of time. Even though I’m not following the meal guide — I haven’t even read it yet to be honest — my body is getting trimmer and more toned all over.

Having skipped Sunday last week, I was really looking forward to getting started on week 3. I’m feeling a little tired from the toll all this exercise is taking but every day I’m pushing as hard as I can and doing my best to maintain the best form possible.

All the various push ups are starting to get a little easier and I’m happy that I can get through more than one rotation without having to do knee pushups. Well, for most of it at least. I did kind of dog it a little bit during this week’s plyometrics though. It’s a lot of jumping and apparently I wake the downstairs neighbours.

Finally there is some improvement in my balance, flexibility, and coordination that I can see. Yoga is killer but in a completely different way than plyometrics. Looks like I’ll have to hit up Sports Basement and grab some heavier weights soon.

Preparing for the next phase

For all the back work it seems that the exercise bands are getting a little too easy. So I got the P90X chin up bar and will be using that from this point on. I have a feeling I’ll only be able to do a max of five or so the first few times but it’s a great challenge to give myself.

Next week is a recovery week so I’m looking forward to a slight change of pace. Guess that means it will soon be time to take some progress pictures. Can’t believe it’s been three weeks already. Time sure flies.

And now for a little day-to-day breakdown.

Day 1

Today was a muscle building day. I haven’t been to a gym or lifted weights for several weeks now and today hurt. I bought some small weights and exercise bands because I didn’t know what exercises I’d be doing and how difficult they were going to be. I’m glad I did.

The reps were really low today but I’m looking forward to seeing how they evolve over time.

Day 2

And my first experience with plyometrics was one for the books. After yesterday I knew I was in for a shock with P90X, and today really put me in my place. In the end I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised given my lack of exercise but wow. I was totally knackered at the end and actually felt like I wanted to puke a couple times.

Oh yeah, and the soreness started kicking in from yesterday’s workout too. Doing cardio is not necessarily easy when your abs are too tired and sore to work properly.

Day 3

Another muscle building day today. It was a little more focused and I took it pretty easy because yesterday totally obliterated my legs. I powered through as much as I could but my legs were definitely some sort of factor in taking it easier instead of pushing as hard as I could.

Seriously, I can’t believe how sore my legs are.

Day 4

Back at it with the cardio today. This time it was yoga. I haven’t done yoga ever in my life to this point so this was another interesting experience. Back in the day I used to have really good balance but not so much any more. I’m surprised at just how tiring it was.

My flexibility obviously needs some work as well. Looking forward to doing this again and seeing my improvement. Legs are still super sore today.

Day 5

Time to build those muscles again. My still sore legs definitely affected today’s performance. I made sure to push to the point where I just couldn’t physically do any more. It was another day where I felt like puking after finishing up.

Oh, and there was the whole I-worked-out-after-four-hours-of-sleep-because-I’m-travelling-today thing as well. :-/

Day 6

Because of my travel yesterday and today I wasn’t able to get today’s cardio in until the evening. It was a good workout and I got a nice sweat going by the end of it. It was a little more complex today and there were a bunch of times I was mixing up the movements. Hopefully the movements get easier so I can focus on the intensity.

Day 7

I opted to go ahead and do a workout today. Well, it’s not really a workout, it’s stretching but it’s still doing some physical activity. Again, I can see just how bad my flexibility has become and hope it gets better over time.

Closing thoughts for week 1

I’m feeling better already. I’m sleeping better at night and I’m waking up easier and earlier each morning. Even after one week I feel a little stronger and — I may be projecting a little bit here but — I’m already seeing some changes.

Getting P90X is one of the best things I’ve done in recent history. I’d been considering a Bowflex home gym because I was getting fed up with going to the gym and P90X is much, much cheaper. I’m really excited to see how it goes over the next few weeks and looking forward to starting week two.

What is P90X?

P90X is a fitness program developed by Tony Horton. It’s claim to fame is muscle confusion. Muscle confusion is very important to the continued improvement in fitness and muscle development. The best way to keep muscles growing is by working them in ways they aren’t used to.

Confusing muscles can be done in any program, all you need to do is change the exercises for the muscle groups in different intervals. Muscle confusion keeps your body guessing — and at the same time, growing.

The P90X program just lays it out explicitly for whomever wants to use it. Instead of having to figure out what exercises to change and what to change them to, Tony lays out a 90 day plan for you.

P90X comes as a set of 12 DVDs with a printed program and nutrition guide. The DVDs are set up as one days exercise per DVD. There’s no need to switch DVDs during your workout, you just pop in that day’s DVD, hit play, and workout.

Starting out

The P90X program asks you to gather up some information on your body — body fat percentage and actual measurements of various body parts. I left out a few things — height, weight — because I’ve never been a fan of body weight. I know muscle weighs more than fat and at this stage I’m not concerned with that measurement. Height doesn’t change so there’s no point in noting it — I’m 5′10″-ish if you’re curious.

This how my body measures up before starting:

• Total body fat %: 13.88%
• Measurements:
  • Chest: 37″
  • Waist: 34.5″
  • Hips: 35.25″
  • Left thigh: 20.25″
  • Right thigh: 20.25″
  • Left arm: 11″
  • Right arm: 11.25″

Bring on the pictures!

The P90X program also asks you to take pictures of yourself in the following poses: front hands on hips, front making muscles, side, side upper body twisted to camera, back hands on hips, and back making muscles. I took all those pictures and have them handily sitting in my photo archives.

I’m not going to post them now but I will post them with comparison shots after the first 30 days. I’m also going to take milestone photos at 60 days and at the end of the program.

Now, as Tony says in the videos, it’s time to bring it!

“I think relationships are the ones that feel like relationships.”

It is definitely refreshing to see this point of view when most people are concerned with metrics and stats.

If you’re selling yourself as a designer or design agency you should either have enough talent to design something great yourself, or the money to pay someone else to do it for you. Be inspired by someone else’s work but don’t steal it, change some colours and two graphics, then call it your own.

It’s a popularity contest

If you’re going to steal someone’s design you should pick a good one. Here’s the problem, the good designs are usually popular and widely known. You’re shooting yourself in the foot right from the beginning because someone is bound to notice the theft.

Good design gets promoted. Good designers get promoted. People look at popular, promoted designs to get inspiration and learn from their peers, mentors, and idles. You’re seriously deluded if you think you won’t get noticed using a stolen design and passing it off as your own.

Make an excuse. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

When you’re stealing a design and you get caught — and almost everyone gets caught eventually — don’t use the excuse that you were “just seeing how things worked wasn’t going to keep it up[sic]” (source). Why? Because you’re lying. And you’re apparently really bad at it.

That excuse has been used over and over again. Every time I see another design theft when the thief finally reveals themselves and wants to win back some favour, they use that excuse.

“My bad. I’m just learning and wanted to learn from the best.”

“Oh, I only wanted to know how they did this or that.”

“This is just a temp site. I’m too busy to work on my own and needed something up right away.”

Anyone working in the web that is worth a damn knows about testing environments. Hell, anyone that’s built anything on or with a computer knows about testing. Using the “testing it out” excuse implies to me that you think you’re above testing your work. This reeks of immaturity and unprofessionalism. Would you build a client’s website and throw it on their live server just to see how things worked?! I don’t think so.

Grow up people. Get a better excuse. Better yet, get some talent.