[Blackadar]

Ya'll are doing great and thank you!

205 again this morning, which doesn't surprise me since we had "normal" pasta last night rather than whole wheat. But the fact that I didn't gain anything shows it wasn't just water weight, so I'm happy about that.

However, I do get to celebrate today. I finished up my own personal P90X rotation today. It’s been a long road and I can sum up P90X with the following progression of my thoughts during the program:

Day 1: Oh God, I’m going to die doing this!
Day 90: Oh God, I’m going to die doing this!

I know now what the “P” stands for in P90X. It is 90 days of Purgatory. Of course, considering that P90X is comprised of many different workouts, I developed a running internal monologue during many of the ones I saw most. Things such as:

Chest and Back – Tony Horton talks about a “Variety of grips and hand positions”. Yes, there is a variety, Tony - painful, more painful and I’m going to blow out my spine through the top of my head. “Pace yourself” – ok, I’m going back to bed, wake me for Round 2. Why in God’s name did I do 140 pushups in Round 1, knowing that I have to do Round 2?

PlyoX – “We’re going to get airborne”. Not without some NASA jet-thrust propulsion packs attached to my ass, buddy. “Get your little bucket ready”…so you can puke into it. “No one said this was easy.” No one said that I’d have a heart attack jumping around in my living room, either. “The Mother of all workouts”…because it makes you cry for your Momma.

Shoulders and Arms – I don’t remember a damn thing Tony says in this one. I’m too busy gazing at Dreya Weber’s pigtails to concentrate on anything else. Wait, was I supposed to actually work out?

Back and Biceps – “Double back, double biceps”…so you can hurt more for the next 2x2=4 days. The “strip set curls” at the end just stripped me of all dignity when I couldn’t finish lifting 15 pounds on the last set.

Chest, Shoulders and Triceps – Who in their right mind saves plyometric push-ups for the end of a workout? I did more than a few face plants on those to the point it looks like I got a nose job.

Legs and Back – “We’re going to do wall squats. We’re going to stay here for 90 seconds”…or until our quads explode through our kneecaps, whichever comes first. If the CIA had used these as part of their advanced interrogation techniques, we’d have caught Bin Ladin years ago. “Sneaky Lunges” showed me that my days of being a cat burglar are long over. “One legged squats” – well, the poor coffee table learned the hard way how good my balance is, though the duct tape around the leg is a constant source of mirth for my 11 year old, a fact he reminds me of quite often now.

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Seriously, I worked my backside off. I modified the program a bit, subbing out a few things:

Yoga X (Thursdays) – I’ve tried this twice and gotten hurt twice, so never again will I attempt YogaX. I subbed out KenpoX, other kickboxing DVDs, elliptical, jogging and Peak 10 Cardio for this despicable routine.

Ab Ripper X – It takes too much time, hurts my back and is massive abdominal overkill…not to mention I’m always doing abs when I’m already exhausted. So I skipped this and then realized around the end of phase 2 that I wasn’t getting enough ab work, so I subbed in my own series of 100+ crunches from there on out.

KenpoX (Saturdays) – I was out at football practice running wind sprints, so Kenpo would have been a lot easier. On days the weather was bad, I was doing Tabata workouts over the slow-paced Kenpo.

Recovery Week – This was my time to get away from Tony, so I’d do Peak 10 Cardio, Atletica, my elliptical, Turbo Jam, jog and only do Core Synergistics once. Getting away from Tony for the majority of the recovery week was very helpful in keeping me going.

Even with the substitutions, I have no qualms about saying I completed the 90 day P90X rotation. With the exception of the Ab Ripper, the stuff I subbed in was at least as difficult as the stuff I subbed out and I modified (something Tony recommends!) where I needed to do so to keep going.

But for the rest of it, I’d do it all the way through and with virtually no modifications. When it was time to do Plyo, I jumped. When it was time to lift, I went as heavy as I could. When it was time to do push-ups, I did my maximum (270 total during my last Chest and Back routine).

The results were fantastic – better than any program I’ve done. I had previously lost 45 pounds and I had heard a few remarks about me losing weight. I lost another 15 pounds on P90X (that’s 60 and counting!), but the reshaping of my body was so tremendous that I got more compliments about losing a lot of weight while doing P90X than I did when losing 3x the weight! Really, my entire upper half has been transformed, with me losing inches off my waist while adding considerable size and definition to my arms and my chest. In particular, my pectorals have really gotten larger and more solid. I’m barrel chested anyway, so I look pretty big now in my upper body, which also probably helps make my waist look smaller. I actually can wear a tank top now and look pretty respectable in it. I don’t have a 6 pack or anything, but that’s because I’m not slim – I still have a way to go on that. My legs are a bit prettier, but they’ve been solid and I’ve worked those more than the P90X routine calls for with my cardio Thursdays and football Saturdays.

However, I don’t want to do it again anytime soon and I don’t see myself ever doing another full rotation. Essentially, I’m looking at the same 6 DVDs for virtually 90 days and that gets old. I’ve grown to detest Legs and Back, despite the appearance of Dreya, because I don’t feel I’m getting a lot of growth there. The rather awkward lunges during this routine put stress on my knees, which is atypical for me. So I could see myself doing an upper body/plyo rotation on M, T & W and doing something else for legs later in the week like Supreme 90’s leg routines.

P90X - It works...if you can live through it.