I felt really weak during my workout today. On some of the exercises I wasn’t able to do as many reps as I did during this workout the last time I did it and I fell on my face a few times during some of the pushups. I’m sure I haven’t lost any strength so maybe my muscles are just fatigued after over 2 months of working out more than I ever have in my life.

I still pushed through the workout and made sure I felt the burn on each exercise but I was frustrated that I couldn’t do as many reps as last time. Although now that I’m writing this I’m thinking I may have had better form today than the last time I did this video since I have really been focusing on my form. So, if I was using poor form previously I may have had some cheat reps or the moves may have been a bit easier.

Have you had weeks where you felt weaker or just couldn’t do all the reps you could previously? Do you know why you had them?

70 days down, only 20 to go! I can do anything for 20 days.

I don’t know if plyometrics is never getting any easier or if I just consistently push myself harder, but this is the only workout where I still feel like it’s just as hard as when I started. I guess that’s good though because I’m still getting a great cardio workout and burning a lot of calories.

I’m already thinking forward to what I want to do when my 90 days of P90X is over and, call me crazy, but I think I want to do it all over again. I really have been enjoying the program so much and am liking the results I’m getting. So, unless something else that sounds much better presents itself before then, I think I will take a week off and then start it up again. I can’t believe I’m saying that given that 2 months ago I was doubting I’d even be able to get through this 90 days. It’s almost turned into a bit of an addiction. But, it’s an addiction to improving my body and health. Anyone else feel like this after getting through a large part of the program? I think you just have to get over the initial hurdle and make working out part of your life and then you really do change how you feel about it. And then, it just…works! Your body changes, you want to eat better, you lose weight and gain muscle and just feel better. So thank you, P90X!

58 days down, 32 to go. I can do anything for 32 days!

So I’m into the 9th week of P90X and I decided it’s time to step it up so I did all of the push ups off my knees! I can’t explain how awesome it feels to not do “girl” push ups. And in many cases, I was able to do as many real push ups as I was doing on my knees. If you are already doing P90X I highly encourage you to get off your knees and at least do some of the moves off your knees. You’ll get results mush faster and you’ll work on your core much more. If you are just looking into P90X or just starting it, do yourself a favor and start with real push ups from the get go, even if you can only do a couple. I wish I would have.

Because I increased the intensity of my push ups, some of the other moves in this workout were harder today so I had to do a few less reps. But, the impact wasn’t as much as one might think. I just had to do 2 or 3 fewer of the hardest pull ups and the lawnmowers. I bet by next week I’ll be back to full sets.

57 days down, only 33 to go! I can do anything for 33 days.

So I’m officially half way through P90X and I feel like I’ve reached a changing point in how I feel about diet and fitness. Working out has become a habit instead of something I have to try to fit in or dread doing. Sure, some days I still groan when workout time comes around. Usually that’s on plyometrics days. But, for the most part, I look forward to my workouts for a few reasons.

Counting calories has also become habit. Actually I’d say it’s bordering on an obsession. Eating out nearly causes me panic now since I don’t know how much oil was used to cook those innocent looking vegetables or how much butter is hiding in that sauce. Oddly enough it is easier to eat fast food if I have to eat out since the nutritional information is available for fast food whereas it’s not for regular restaurants. Just trying to make good choices at restaurants doesn’t cut the mustard either. A simple grilled chicken breast might still be covered in oil or marinated in a sugary marinade, adding calories that you aren’t counting.

So, I find the healthier I become, the more of a pain in the ass I am. If I am meeting friends for dinner I will eat a home cooked meal before I go and then have a salad with dressing on the side at the restaurant. One benefit though is that because I am counting calories, I also count the calories in beverages so I usually only have room for a glass of wine or two. So, when I am vigilant, I can’t drink too much. That’s when I’m being vigilant of course…

45 days down, 45 to go! I can do anything for (another) 45 days!

I can definitely tell that my legs are getting stronger. During the wall sits I am able to go lower and I’m not mooing by the end. I also added 15 pound weights to the calf raise squats, calf raises, the alternating side lunges (half the set) and the step back lunges. I don’t have any smaller dumbbells right now but I wanted to add weight so I just went right for the 15s and it doesn’t seem that much harder. So, if you’ve been doing them without weight, give it a shot with some. You’ll increase your results and the effort won’t be that much more.

I tried to do the toe iso lunges again this week now that I’m stronger but they still hurt my angry little feet too much so I am going to keep just jogging in place during this move. If you have the same problem I recommend jogging through it rather than fast forwarding so you burn a few more calories.

Do the 80-20 speed squats ever get easier? It’s a good thing that’s the last leg move or I might pass out before the workout is over!

39 days down, 51 to go! I can do anything for 51 days!

This week I was able to use my boyfriend’s free weights since he was out of town. For most of the moves I used 5 pounds because I didn’t know what weight would be appropriate. I did use 7.5 on a few moves like the overhead trice extension.

I’m still using the 1 pound ankle weights during the weighted arm circles and they seem to do the job. I don’t know why arm circles are so hard but they are so I don’t see myself increasing the weight I use here anytime soon.

I gave the one arm pushups another try and discovered the trick really is to rotate your body so you are tilted more towards the ground with your back. If you do that, I bet you’ll be able to do at least 1 one arm push up. I was and couldn’t believe it! How cool is it to be able to do a one arm pushup?!

This P90X workout should be a favorite for women because of the emphasis on shoulders. Shoulders are probably one of the slimmer parts of your body, no matter your weight. If you work on your shoulders and get them taught and defined, they will look even hotter in halter dresses or even tank tops. Also, most women will notice weight loss first in their arms and shoulders so the definition you gain here will be visible before other areas that may have more fat. I’m already starting to see some changes in my upper arms and shoulders. Also, working your chest muscles will help keep your breasts up where you want them!

This was an enjoyable workout for me because I like working my biceps. But, this reinforced even more that I want to get free weights instead of using the bands for my non-pull up exercises. Especially because I only have one set of bands so I had to keep taking them off the door, putting them on the door, taking them off, putting them on…ugh.

I keep moving back a little bit at a time for the back exercises but I haven’t found tension that will give me enough of a workout on those muscles. I guess I just need to dig in and move much further back and adjust from there.

Yesterday was the first time I felt like I wasn’t going to die during plyometrics. I’m not saying it was easy. It still kicked my ass. But afterwards I could still stand and I feel like my heart rate returns to normal faster than it used to. I can also do most of the cool down now along with the video rather than having to wait 10 minutes to stretch until my head is done throbbing.

I don’t really feel like I am seeing any changes in my body yet and I haven’t lost much weight but I do like the workout schedule and am going to stick with it.

31 days down, 59 to go. I can do anything for 59 days!

This workout was a nice change from Chest & Back. It had a lot of different kinds of pushups including one arm ones that I couldn’t even do on my knees! But the pushups were mixed in with a the shoulder and tricep exercises which I enjoy. The workout is really tough on your shoulder joints though so make sure to take the warm up seriously. My shoulders started to hurt during the pour flys and slo-mo throws so I think I either need to reduce my weight or push through until my strength increases enough to support my joints during those moves. Chair dips also irritated my shoulders a bit until I adjusted the angle so I was as close to my chair as I could get. If you’re having any pain during chair dips make sure you’re at the right angle so you don’t put stress where it shouldn’t be.

During the weighted arm circles, I grabbed some 1 pound ankle weights that I had lying around and just held those. Give this a try if you want to use weight on the arm circles but aren’t ready for the lightest dumbbell you have.

29 days down, 61 days to go. I can do anything for 61 days.

Uh ok so I thought this was going to be a week off. Boy was I wrong! Core Synergistics is an ass kicking workout! Tony lets you know this workout is no nonsense by starting with crazy staggered hands push ups that I can only do one set of on each side. I also can’t do the Sphinx Push Ups Yet and don’t know if I will be able to any time soon. Oh, and my superman banana must look like a sad mushy banana getting kicked around!

There are some exercises that are a good cardio boost like the squat run so it’s kind of like interval training which is nice. I am definitely not worried about my calorie burn this week anymore. This workout had to have burned plenty of calories while giving me a nice core workout. I didn’t even really notice I was working my core that much until after the workout when I felt how tired those muscles were. But, I think this is another workout where you really need to focus on form to make sure you’re getting the most out of it. It would be easy to half ass some of the exercises and not get all of the benefit so I’m going to have to pay attention and make sure my mind doesn’t drift.

I’m into my fourth week and have talked about each workout daily, so I’m going to try to do more broad updates about the workouts and talk more about what’s going on with my body, diet tips and P90X workout tips. I’ll still do individual posts about the new workouts that I have over the next 3 week phase as well.

I’m looking forward to not having to do plyometrics this week! But, I see Core Synergistics is on the schedule twice. Since I haven’t done that workout yet I don’t know what to expect but since it has core in the name I can guess that it’s going to be hard on the core which is good since I can’t do Ab Ripper because of my back injury.

I am a little worried about my calorie burn this week since normally plyo and kenpo are the workouts that feel like they burn the most. So, without plyometrics this week and with more yoga and stretching, I hope I don’t stop my weight loss trend.