Pushing Play

After a mandatory 6 week layoff, I find myself completely out of shape and dying to get back into something resembling physical activity.

My hosuehold has been battling a bed bug infestation that has taken well over 2 months and a half to sort itself out. I’m not going to talk about that at all, save for the qualifier that every single possession in my house had to be piled in the middle of each room in order to be treated (sprayed). That put a major dent in my workout plans because …. well it just was the way it was. Honestly, you’ll never know what that’s like til you go through it.

So now I am down to 7 days to being declared free of that infestation which means that I am gearing up again to work out once more as my house has been in the process of being cleaned over the last few weeks in preparation.

So 6 weeks. That’s how long I was away. It certainly feels like it. In the time I’ve been away, I’ve kind of watched my diet as best as I could. But the nature of life dictated that I eat a lot of fast foods. That sucked …. a lot. But I did it knowing that I would get back into P90X and get rid of all that garbage … only … I don’t want to restart …

lol.

The whole process of starting is so painful and I simply don’t feel like I am ever going to get a REAL chance at finishing a P90X cycle because every time I start, it seems like SOMETHING comes up that forces me to stop everything. ~sigh~ I’ve been pretty frustrated recently.

I decided last night to start up. But not at full speed. I am making a conscious effort to strengthen the core slightly before this massive undertaking again. I’m going to do Ab-Ripper every second day until July. Once July hits, I’m on P90X full speed ahead.

So last night I started my warm up period with ARX only. It was good. Every exercises was done to the full rep total as expected. Only I burnt out in the end and was only able to do 25 Mason Twists. I’ve read this book before and so I am not concerned by it cuz I know that in a week or 2 I’ll be back to normal.

In any case, I woke up this morning with surprisingly very little pain and was like “Maybe I’ll do ARX again tonight!” … yeah … it didn’t happen. The muscles got more tense and tight and sore as the day wore on and they feel like they did Ab Ripper X for the first time right now (1:00am). So that idea went out the window, lol.

Bright side? It’s no different than normal, so I’ll just fight through the pain tomorrow like I normally do.

Bottom line, I am hoping I can maintain a rhythm once again …..

Sometimes I just don’t understand why things happen …..

I had to stop my P90X routine over the last week or so – and for the foreseeable future as we have had an infestation of bed bugs. We found out 2 Fridays ago and had to hustle in order to prep our house for the inevitable exterminator visit. Only, after the exterminator visit, things went from hard to complex as we have to make life altering changes to our lifestyle for the next 6 weeks minimum and until the bugs are gone. Not to mention the fact that our house looks like it was ransacked by a Tornado. We are also having car issues that require the purchase of a new(er) car – for which we have no money. And to top it all off, we had some racist neighbour issues and an accident that will impact our insurance – all in the same week!

So now, my workout (and videogame) space is completely and utterly filled with furniture that has been fumigated and cannot be moved until every last bug has been eradicated. I just feel so stressed out because the ONE thing I could control (my health and workout) has been cock-blocked and now I have no way to release any stress! All progress that I have made thus far appears to have been stopped cold in its tracks for the next month and a half!

And it’s not just general life that has been affected, it’s also my social life and work! My new work-at-home job has been put on hold until I can consistently access the PC and some of my friends are acting like ignorant fucktards acting like we’re the harbringers of death to their family, asking why we’re hanging out with them when we have this infestation and just asking stupid questions based on ignorance and making things more uncomfortable than they already are. I mean, great. I understand your concerns, but stop making things more complicated than they already are! Ostracizing and shaming us is not even one ounce of helpful right now …

I just can’t handle that …

I mean, sometimes, I just wanna pack it in when shit like this happens. I can understand one or two bad things happening in a short amount of time, but four MAJOR life issues in the span of 7 days?

FML, man. FML.

I’m not gonna lie. Tonight was tough. The whole “Legs & Back, Basketball, Basketball” routine is grinding. But I just said to myself “Jerry Stackhouse and Kenny Smith and Barkley do it” lol.

Anyway, there have been HUGE HUGE strides over the last week. When I first started P90X, I did 10 or 12 pushups to start and that went down as the workout went on. Towards the end of my 2nd cycle, I was able to push out 20 pushups on the first go round. That number got halved by the second round.

This time, I’m pushing out 30 EASY on the first and 20 on the second. In fact, ALL my numbers keep going up.

From 6 Militaries to 12 now. From 7 declines to 15 now. From 5 Diamonds to 13 now. And from 5 Dive Bombers to 10 now …. there is progress to be SEEN now. And the funny thing is that my arms (or chest & back) no longer HURT from the workouts. Instead, they feel engorged and like they swell. They feel tired, but no longer hurt like they used to either.

I keep comparing my numbers to last year ONLY because I did more activity last year than this year. Yet this year, I am seeing more improvements and greater spreads between my numbers …… I’m gonna go find my original FIRST cycle worksheets and compare the numbers …..

Maybe I’ll do a “By the numbers” post or something once I organize all the stats during the recovery week.

Meanwhile, Ab Ripper was REALLY good. I did the Bicycles, In & Outs and Crunchy Frogs all with hands raised in the air like I used to do last year. I did all 25 of the Wide Leg/Cross Leg situps and did 20 of the V Up Roll Ups, which is 15 more than I did 3 days ago during Legs & Back.

I don’t know what’s going on with my body but it is turning into a beast again ….

Yesterday was fun. Hard workout, but fun.

The only thing that left me wanting was the fact that my orthotics are giving me THE worst blisters ever in my arches and they rub and pop whenever I plant and change directions, which is ALL THE TIME!

After “sitting on it” for 4 weeks and trying my new orthotics out, I have decided to get them looked at and possibly fixed because this is getting to be a distraction. With a 4 game in 3 days weekend coming up …. I can’t afford to be worrying about blisters.

Aside from that, the night was fast and furious and I was able to keep up with all the young gazelles out there.

Good show, old man!

I was watching the Bucks/Hawks Game 4 on replay on NBA TV today and, during one of the talking segments of the broadcast, the commentators focused on the fact that Jerry Stackhouse seems to have been revitalized over the last year or two and noted that it is because he does P90X!

I was very surprised.

Even MORE SO when they noted that both Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Charles Barkley both do it as well!

So what did I do? I hopped onto YouTube, of course, and found an old~ish video of a post game interview featuring both Kenny Smith and Stackhouse!

It is encouraging to know that even the pros turn to programs like P90X to get back in shape.

And hey, for ME, it provided that much more motivation and encouragement – like, yes, I’m on the right track, here.

After doing my Legs & Back routine on Sunday, I felt good enough that I could go hard again on Monday.

So I tried.

For the most part, there were a LOT of positive results to bank and look back on.

For starters, my jumping has gotten faster and stronger. My leaps off the ground are a tiny bit higher and they are happening with more frequency. This is a decided change from the past few months where I would THINK about jumping at a play but by the time my body reacted, the play was well and done. It was ultimately manifested in a number of blocks and rebounds on the night, some of which were not “normal” for my usual play over the last little bit.

My  core strength is also increasing and this was demonstrated in my ability to withstand the shoving and grinding that usually happens when I go to the low block for a post up. I was able to muscle my way in for a layup or a rebound on a number of occasions and I took some hits from behind on a few plays that would normally send shocks up and down my legs and back.

Ultimately, because of the frequency of my workouts, I kind of gassed out towards the end of the night and ended up with a mildly sore back on the way home. I think the part that is bothering me the most are my hamstrings followed closely by my quads.I think once I build up some endurance and strength in my legs and abs, I’ll be able to play even harder than before.

After a deep sleep, I feel a bit tired and worn out, BUT I still feel like I can play tonight with a good warm up prior to playing.

I’m definitely not a spring chicken anymore, but I’m not trading my Nike Shox for a cane and a rocking chair just yet!

Day 15 – So I spent nearly 5 days incapacitated by this stupid headcold. The idea that I had fallen behind by a full week was not appealing to me at all. Especially since we have so few precious weeks left before our marathon basketball tourney in Brandon.

I had made up my mind that I was gonna try P90X today, but after a full day of wheezing and sneezing I decided to just rest up.

Day 16 – I woke up yesterday feeling better than I had all week. The headaches, joint pains, sweating and eye sensitivity were gone. The only things I had left were sinus congestion and light headedness. But I felt good enough to go. SO I did my scheduled Legs & Back routine.

Aside from a severe lack of oxygen and burning lungs from physical activity, I did well enough. Half way through my routine, I began to get dizzy and light headed again. All I did was to breathe harder and make my lungs work more. I suppose it worked well enough as I was able to do the entire routine with the exception of One Leg Wall Squats, which I had to stop in the final 5 seconds because my legs were shaking so hard. Overall, my numbers were MUCH better than last week, even though I am sick.

Ab Ripper brought forth some more personal triumphs. The above picture is the cross leg/wide leg situps. The last few times I have done ARX, I decided to sit out these and the V-Up Roll Ups because of the strain they place on my back. Well, last night, I was able to fight through the back pain to do 15 of these and 5 of the V Ups. It’s not great, but compared to where I was last week, I consider it a sign of forward progress. Every other exercise, including the Mason Twists were done alongside the P90X people (with a few pauses in between for rest). After the first few Mason Twists, the fear and pain went away and I was left with nothing but my core and my mind to do the whole thing!

Imagine that! Last week I did 15 of all the exercises and this week I did the full 25 reps! More than that, I grinded out (very painfully) 30 of 40 Twists and last night I did 40 and could have done more!

My legs feel sore today, but nowhere near as exhausted as they felt last week. Last week they felt like rubber and today they feel like I could push them once warm!

So good to be on P90X ….