DJ’s BodyBlog

I was going to update my P90X adventures daily but that became a daunting task that I was unable to do with my busy daily life going on. But today I have a few moments so I figured I would update my last three weeks for the 4 folks who have asked about it.

Day 1: Chest - Back and Ab’s: Push-Ups and Pull-Ups for an hour. Can you say OUCH!

Day 2 Plyometrics:  Awesome workout, a lot of jumping, a great cardio workout.

Day 3: Shoulders - Arms and Ab’s: Awesome weight workout, SORE that’s all I can say!

Day 4: Kenpo X:  Martial Arts workout, great cardio, a lot of punches and kicks!

Day 5: Legs - Back and Ab’s: Squats and Lunges, and more Pull-Ups!

Day 6: Kenpo X: Martial Arts workout that was so much fun I did it twice!

Day 7: Stretch or Off

I did the same basic workout for 3 weeks and now I am in a recover week.  “Yoga” *BOO HISS* is twice a week during the recovery week, but I just substituted other more “normal’ Cardio workouts.

As you could tell from my *BOO HISS* the only DVD I didn’t really care for was “Yoga” I tried it twice, but come on it’s just too SLOW and too BORING, yes it’s difficult and to those that enjoy it, or do it regularly I give you props because I really, really, disliked doing it and at an hour and a half I just can’t be still that long.

But overall I love 99% of the exercises, there are some that I have difficulty doing, due to bad knees, shoulder etc. but the DVD’s give you several different ways to do the same exercise. And for me that’s helpful. I really look forward to starting the next 3 weeks of weights and pull-ups.

As for physical changes my weight has stayed about the same, due to not eating enough, but I am working on it. I do see changes in my body, and my clothes fit different.  I guess I will know more when I hit days 30 – 60 and 90 and take update photos.

If anyone has any questions I will do my best to answer them. Or you can check with my success coach:  Dave

http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/Dave0928/

Or his Personal Website: http://www.Dave225fitness.com

Until next time

DJ

Day 1 Chest and Back

OK Tony said “Bring it’ and I really tried, but the first workout, ‘Chest and Back” kicked my butt.  It’s an hour of push-ups and pull-ups in every way one could imagine. I was dragging but I didn’t quit. Then if that wasn’t bad enough there was the ”Ab Ripper” to finish after the regular workout. OMG, I could not hang. After all those push-ups and pull-ups my Ab’s were toast.  I will do better next time. 

 If this is any indication of the next 89 days, I plan to buy my pain reliever by the case. Because right now I am so sore, I don’t know if I will be able to get out of bed in the morning.

Now I don’t want to go off on a rant here but seriously.

I’m going on vacation next week and after losing 32 pounds most of my clothing is, well, a little large. My wife decided to take me shopping. I loathe shopping by the way, did I mention that?

Well anyway, she says let’s go to “Trendy Store” as they always have great deals on clothes. Ok fine, whatever will get me to Starbucks fastest, I’m all for it.

So we go into the store and I am checking out this array of clothing. And she was right they do have some great deals. Problem is none of their clothes fit me. Or for that matter her.  All of the clothes are really small. I found a shirt I liked and pulled out a large, and it looked like a small. Thinking it was miss marked I continued my quest and after trying several other shirts I found a XXL that would fit my shoulders, but the body was huge.  Now I’m not a huge mass monster, just what I consider to be an average guy. But to be honest the only way I was getting into a large shirt was to lop off my arms, and well I really like my arms so that just ain’t happening.

My wife, though built like a gymnast is not what I would consider huge. She tried on a pair of pants that were too tight in the thighs and about 2 inches too big in the waist. To say we were growing frustrated with our shopping experience would be an understatement.

As I was looking around the store watching the overly enthusiastic employees and customers, I noticed that they were for the most part walking stick people. They were so skinny I wanted to drag them to the nearest gym and force feed them cheeseburgers while making them do shoulder presses….. I mean really… Eat something people.

When our frustration hit its peak we gave up and headed for Starbucks where we discussed the “experience” over a couple of mochas, and one very tasty Peanut Butter cookie. We decided that the reason 80% of the pants in the store had cargo pockets was to hold the extra weight our stick friends needed to remain grounded when the wind gust over 5mph.

As for me, I’m thinking I will just stick with the five dollar T-shirts from Wal-Mart. They come in a variety of colors and I can pick them up when I swing in for a can of Oatmeal.

That’s my opinion. I could be wrong.

While on the way to a family function the other day I was driving down a two lane road. I was minding my own business listening to the radio and staring out the window.  I looked to the left side of the road and saw her, She was wearing a sports bra and short shorts and had about an 8 pack set of ab’s,  great shoulders and arms , legs the whole package and she was starting a run.

For a moment I was just lost in, WOW, and I think I said Oh My God as I craned my neck to continue checking her out.  

As I turned back around I realized two very important things.

1)       I was in the wrong lane.

2)       I was not alone in the car.

I quickly swerved back into my lane of travel as I heard my wife say. “Ahem hello, I’m in the car”

For a moment I was speechless, I looked at her and tried to say something intelligent but to be honest, it was gibberish, just me pointing behind us and smiling like a fool. My wife who is very fit in her own right just smiled and said I know…

Then I said you know how rare it is to see that, she agreed and said, yep she was hot.

Hot, I think that about covered it, You know perhaps It’s just me but there could have been a pack of cheerleaders, bikini models, playmates, you pick a type of woman, and very few would catch my eye to the extent that I forget what I am doing,  You know like driving.

There’s just something about a woman that has obviously put in a great deal of time at the gym, and well, has muscle. That’s just cool!  And to my fit friend running from Body Plex in Grayson, all I can say is, well done!

And now for a public service announcement:

To those women, who are fit to the extreme, please keep in mind that you have a responsibility to protect the public, so try not to run on the main roadways of Georgia when I or other like minded individuals are driving down said road. If you must then I give fair warning to the general public, I drive a gray Jeep and may swerve at any time.

Have any of you reached that point in your lives where you’re just unhappy? Unhappy with your job, your health, of just the way life’s going in general? Don’t get me wrong, I love my family, home life etc, But I really feel dissatisfaction with my current job situation and I believe the stress and unhappiness is having and ill effect on my health. I am on week 3 of a cold and sore throat that refuses to go away. So I know my immune system is taxed. And as hard as I worked and no matter how clean I ate this past summer I never saw my ab’s.

Needless to say I have been extremely frustrated as a result of my lack of progress and have been going through the motions. It’s clear that it’s time to leave my current job and seek something new before the stress kills me. I am making changes to improve things.  I now have a personal trainer/friend to help me out. I plan to put 110% into working out and making other changes that will improve my quality of life.

And just to clarify this isn’t just some discontent that started in the past few weeks but has built up over the course of the past five years, while I plow ever forward like a stubborn mule.

I was just curious if any of you have been in my position and if so what you did about it.

Just looking for some feedback folks! 

Well that and a good Monday thru Friday job.

I’m just sayin…….

I was in the middle of my workout today. The goal was 5 sets of the pull-up, push-up, body weight squats work out I started last week. I was moving right along, my knees were giving me the usual popping and cracking that one gets with 40 year old abused body parts. But something was different. By the time I got to the last set I had to push myself up with hands on knees. I finished the 5 sets because I refuse to quit. Some people call that stubborn. Anyway, Now its 11:00PM and both knees are killing me, and the left one looks a little swollen.

OK OK It’s twice the size of the right one. geeeze

I had to give up squatting with weights years ago because of their condition. So I figured just doing my body weight would be fine. I guess its time to change the work out around and add in some non-contact non-squat related cardio.

I will not be deterred; maybe I will just throw in some ab work!

Now where did I put that Ice Pack?

As I wrote in my previous blog, I had burnt out on regular weight lifting and cardio and began looking for something different. Well I found something that so far I really like in the Cross Fit training. I started with something simple but find it to be very challenging. This is week one of an 8-week workout. I will post my weekly info here with my time, or number of cycles for time if anyone is interested. If you try any of these post your time in the comments section.

Like I said before, I need a challenge to keep me motivated.

Week 1 - Workout 1

1 pull-up

2 push-ups

3 squats - body weight only

20 minute time limit.

The goal, to do as many sets in the time frame given as I could.  I pushed out 19 sets in 20 minutes. 

Week 1 - Workout 2

5 Rounds for time

2 pull-ups

6 push-ups

10 squats - body weight only

My time 5:39 

Week 1 - Workout 3 

For Time One Set

10 pull-ups

21 push-ups 

21 squats - body weight only

My Time 2:14 

As these workouts move forward they will take longer to complete, they are a challenge but so far they have given me great results in a short amount of time.

After a less than stellar performance during the last challenge, and my over training and poor improvements in the time frame given I decided to revamp my fitness program. After having great success with body weight exercises during the first few months of my journey, I switched it up and went back to lifting weights. And to be honest I didn’t make any real gains, I lost very little body fat and I was really bored. Not to mention the mind numbing boredom of the treadmill or the elliptical trainer. Ugggggggg

I have no desire to be a huge mass monster, there’s nothing wrong with that, but for my job it really helps to be compact and fit. So I began to look around for something new and found something called CrossFit, and after checking out some of their exercises and workouts I decided to give it a try. I found an 8-week work out that involves no weight other than your own body, and the exercise sessions are timed, so I am racing myself to get improvement.  And to be honest I really like that kind of challenge.

So My first work out was Thursday the 5th and when I first saw what I was supposed to do I laughed because I thought It was such a small amount of exercises that it would be cake. I was Soooooooooo wrong because it flat out kicked my butt.  

Here’s workout one.

1 pull-up

2 push-ups

3 squats - body weight only

20 minute time limit.

The goal, to do as many sets in the time frame given as I could. The first five sets were a piece of cake; around the 6th minute I was pouring sweat. By 10 minutes I was fading fast. I kept pushing and at the 15th minute mark my push-ups were looking weak. I pushed out 19 sets in 20 minutes. Then just lay in the floor for a while. I was sold at that point.

I was sore all over that night, and today I am still hurting, I look like I need a walker. But I can’t wait until tomorrow for workout 2.

I plan to post my workouts during the next 8 weeks for those that are interested.

Ab’s here I come…… 

DJ

Well I started the challenge on fire; working out, doing weights and cardio. I guess I just did way to much. During the challenge I got hurt at work and couldn’t do cardio for about a week. And then I started getting weak and not making gains. Add stress to the mix and it became a disaster. I stayed sore for almost 2 weeks, couldn’t sleep and just felt like crap. That’s just not normal, and when my strength started going down I knew things were going south.

So I took a few days off and just relaxed. I am feeling a lot better now, and even got a workout in this morning. I made some good gains I guess during the challenge, a half an inch on arms, an inch on my chest, and 2 inch’s on my thighs. My only problem right now is body fat. It seems intent on hanging on like an ill fitting suit. Maybe I ate too much or too little, who knows. I will just keep after it and try and figure it all out. My job is very stressfull and that may well be a problem, add to that 4 days a week my eating schedule is all screwed up.

The way I look at it this isn’t a race to the finish line, its a lifestyle that I will live till the end, and as with everything in life it will change and evolve as life moves forward. So I will keep tweaking it until I get the desired results.

For all those that sent me good advice and motivation, Thanks.

And Kat I will be ready for the Kat Challenge starting July 1st!!! 

Well I am coming to the end of the Kat & DJ challenge on 22 June. I feel, well I feel 40, closing in on 41.  I worked my butt off for the last 3 weeks and the changes seem to have been slight. It’s almost as if the fat just refuses to go away.

I have done days of cardio and weights and consumed so much eggs and chicken you would think I would sprout feathers, but so far nothing. It seems theres no change. My weight has stayed the same for 3 weeks and although sometimes it seems I have lost inches, other times.. Not so much.

Right now I am just very frustrated. A friend who has been lifting for decades told me I was over trained, I had actually done too much and my body has just flat stopped. So I think I am going to take a week off. Maybe two. I had really hoped to have good progress to report but right now it’s not looking good.

And to PhatKat I want to say thanks for the challenge and the fun. You win this round, but I will be back in a few weeks, hopefully with much better news about my progress.

Until next time…………..