Pushing Play

I started my scheduled P90X mini cycle last night with Chest and Back and it became clear within 5 minutes that I am not ready for it yet. Doing the leg raises (steps), the pain in my ankles started of as a dull ache and turned sharper and sharper the further along I went with it.

After talking it over with my wife, I decided to not go as intense as P90X and to start with 10 Minute Trainer. So that’s what I did. Lower Body and Abs. The section with the lunges and such was hard and made me sweat. It still hurt my ankle – especially any time they talked about lunges. But I was able to power through the pain and do my workout. Then I decided to do the 10 Minute Abs simply because I was on a roll and because I need to keep my core strong.

Man, I did not think that I was THAT far out of shape!

And you know what? Until my ankle stops locking and hurting like this, I’m just gonna stick to this specific routine for a week or two. Calf raises, light lunges, balance drills and things like that. And in between all that, I will do my abs as needed.

The last thing I wanna do is re-injure myself. And so as much as I WANT to go straight into P90X and Plyo (in particular), I can’t bring myself to the point of risking another injury simply because I wanna fast track this.

I was told by a friend of mine who does Kinesiology that it would have been better if I would have broken the ankle outright as the bone would have healed better and stronger than before. But with fractures and ligaments, it’s worse because it takes longer to fully recover (if ever) from the damage done.

Hearing that makes me even more weary of starting up a tough routine like P90X when I am still experiencing pain when I flex and stretch the ankle joint.

I decided early this morning that I would totally do my ab workout as scheduled and that I would do another round of Ab Ripper X, as it is supposed to be done every second day.

It took me the entire day to actually get around to doing it, but I finally did it!

My wife joined in this time (to keep me company) and that was fun. She kinda struggled through it, but she hasn’t done any major workouts like P90X in about 6 months so she is gonna be sore tomorrow!

Me? I’m good. Not as sore as I was after the first time, the muscle weakness is fading and I feel less tired as well. I am starting to slow the movements down to get maximum extension / burn on the reps, too! And I capped it all off with 40 continuous Mason Twists! I’m starting to build to 70 again! So that was good to see. I’m still taking too many breaks for my liking but I figure that it’s because I’m not doing P90X daily. So my muscles aren’t as strong as they would be if I did the actually routines.

With Halloween gone and nothing major on the horizon to keep me busy in the evenings, I think I’m gonna be doing my ab workouts daily once again!

It’s good to be back!

The marathon of missed workouts continues!

I was up all night until 8am completing a Halloween costume for my son – he wanted to go as Lightning McQueen this year. Then today, with all the Halloween activities, the workout day was pretty much a wash.

Oh well.

I have some great memories of tonight and my family is, after all, the most important aspect of my life and the reason I do what I do to stay fit.

Tomorrow is a new day, though … and I have a LOT of Halloween chocolate to work off …… maybe I’ll do a double workout tomorrow ….

I took my kids to get their H1N1 vaccine (aka – Swine Flu) today and happened to luck into the option of having one taken myself, simply because I had kids!

I decided to get it.

As a result, I am now immunized (supposedly) against H1N1 … but the after effects of the vaccine, including a headache and muscle soreness made it unappetizing to work out tonight. I am especially sore around my arm. I can barely lift it above shoulder height right now without some pretty severe pain. I took a Motrin and used some ice in order to bring down the swelling.

The way I have it figured, it was a good investment (safety net, insurance) over the long term of this year – especially if I come into contact with peeps who have H1N1.

So as a result, I did not work out tonight.

Oh well. Marathon, not a sprint, right?

So let’s hear from you, on something other than P90X ….. have you gone to get your H1N1 flu vaccine? And was there a reason for your decision?

After forgetting to work out two days ago, I decided last night that it was time to punish myself for that mistake. So I went ahead and popped Ab Ripper X into my DVD player.

The last time I did ARX, I had a hard time just finishing the reps and capped off the Mason Twists by only doing 25 – a hard fought and well earned 25.

Last night, I was able to keep up with the DVD (with a few breaks in between) and ended off the night by doing the 50 Mason Twists that they do on the DVD. I was tired afterward, but not as severely drained as I was the first night.

Today, I don’t feel as sore and could EASILY go ahead and do another round of ARX, albeit probably with more pain the next day. I’m not gonna push my luck or test my limits right now, though.

The only thing I have noticed is that my hip flexors are a lot tighter than they normally would be and that I am suffering from a slightly stiff back. I don’t know what that’s all about, but I know that strengthening my core will help with any back issues …. it’s a never ending cycle, I guess. AS for the flexors … a round of Yoga or Stretch can’t hurt either.

OMG !!!

I forgot to workout!

I just simply wasn’t feeling it.

I went through my entire day, today, feeling heavy and a little blasé about my workouts. Not just today, but over the last little bit. The thought of having to endure broken ankle pain AND ab pain was a bit overwhelming today, for some reason. Maybe it was the 3-4 days of ridiculous ab pain I endured over the last little bit. Regardless, I wasn’t feeling like my old, gung-ho “Let’s do this!” self.

And what does a guy who wants to avoid working out turn to? TV, of course.

On the platter tonight was last week’s episode of The Biggest Loser. I didn’t wanna be two episodes down and my PVR really could use the 120 minute purge from the memory …. so on it went!

Boy was that an inspiring episode! Contestants were chosen to go home and deal with losing weight in a real life setting – away from the trainers, the dieticians, the gym …

Watching them struggle through their workouts, work through their mental and emotional hurdles and making the right choices in eating was very uplifting. Like, they CAN do it! … And so can I!

There was a point where I looked at my wife and said … “Well, now I HAVE to go work out after this.”

See, it’s not that I was forced … it’s more that once you open your eyes and are able to see the truth, bound by none of your preconceptions and excuses, it becomes hard to NOT do the right thing …. and the right thing for me was to continue to follow through on my Ab Challenge.

So after my show, I went to my basement and proceded to start light – Ten Minute Abs. I figure I’ll do this til I work up my muscles to be able to tackle the grueling sessions of Ab Ripper X again …. it won’t take long … maybe a week?

And “Light” is WAY too soft a term to describe the workout ….. it was tough … but a positive note is that my ankle is getting stronger. I was able to put more weight on it than last time. And some of the exercises I had skipped because of pain, I was able to do this time! So that was definitely uplifting.

I feel sore now … but really … pain is the only thing that we have to let us know that we are living, right?

If you are stuck in a rut and are having a tough time finding motivation I say this: Either watch the Biggest Loser, or try to understand that the only way to make THAT type of change is to struggle. You can do it …. WE can do it.

And I am glad that I did it tonight …