P90X: Day 3 - Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X

Date: 01/24/2011
Workout: Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
Day 3

All day today and most of last night I was ludicrously sore! Normally feeling sore in the muscles and having a slightly hard time moving fluidly is not a problem. However, this time I was in actual pain almost all day long after not being able to fall asleep or stay asleep overnight. My neck hurt the most and gave me the most trouble throughout the day, and I could not get it stretched or loosened up enough. My triceps hurt even though I hadn’t worked them yet. My ribs hurt. I was sore and hurting all over.

However, as soon as I started my workout tonight after getting home from work, my body loosened up, and my exercises went as planned. As listed above, I had Shoulders & Arms tonight. This was a more traditional workout that I’m used to doing in the gym, but some of the moves were very creative and challenging. The first time through it was tough picking the right dumbbell weight for each exercise, so it was great receiving tips on which exercises to lighten up on since I had never heard of some of them before and thus didn’t know where to begin. All in all, I think my beginning weights were very appropriate except for the laying down tricep extensions, which I underestimated the first time around.

Some of the tips they gave on the exercises like twisting the wrist at the top of a curl were things I had heard a little about before, and it was nice to hear it reinforced here and seeing everyone in the video doing it. This was by far the easiest of the three workouts so far, but I think that’s mainly because of the body part being exercised and how common it is in most weight lifting routines people do. With that said, I’ll say again that it was challenging and creative and definitely well worth it! I know it’s a good workout when I can’t get my elbow above my head to stretch when I’m done; and if I do happen to get my elbow way up there, it feels as if I’m going to snap my arm off!

As a whole tonight, I’m very pleased and happy with this workout. I think it’s complete, well put together, creative, challenging, and has a good pace. Of course it wasn’t fun having Ab Ripper X at the end, but I think that workout is wearing on me, too. I was able to do a few more reps in each of the exercises this time, and I definitely had better form than when I completed the workout two days ago. It’s amazing what just going through the DVD one time can do.

As for my diet, I am eating the right amount of foods in all the food groups (piling up on protein, getting a fair share of veggies, a little dairy, a fruit, and very few carbs). However, I’m pleased to say that I’m still getting full when I eat. I was worried going in that I was going to starve myself, but that isn’t happening yet. I’m going to start taking my foods down just slightly to see if I can shoot for slightly better results, but we’ll see what I end up doing when the time comes. (I ate some gummy bears today. Oh no!)

Tomorrow I have Yoga X, which I hear is the longest workout. However, I have an away basketball game right after work. After the game I’m going to try to come home as soon as possible and get right into the workout, because I don’t want to miss a day this early in the program. It’s going to be tough to stay motivated and on track, but I am committed!