WTF!  Seems like there are times when you can’t catch a break.  First, my lower back has been slowly getting sore again.  Then my knees starting getting sore.  Next my stomach has been pissed off at something in my diet.  Finally, yesterday morning I pinched a nerve in my neck.  Or something else happened, but my neck hurt like a sonofabitch and that did not help my workout.  I pretty much dogged it the entire workout, afraid of shooting pains in my neck.  Never quite happened but the workout suffered.  Heart rate barely stayed in the aerobic zone.

Thank god for the recovery week.  Time to regroup and refocus.

No workout Saturday night. Instead we hung out at the neighbors and watched the kids play.

Pull-ups are one of the big goals for me.  I have to use a chair to do pull-ups because I am a weak girly man.

I’m getting closer to that goal of unassisted pull-ups.  One day I’ll be able to do that.  Wasn’t Friday night.  I swear the wall squats are going to kill me.

Weight has been stuck at 202-204 lbs.  Fortunately my waist continues to shrink.  I bought a pair of 36 waist jeans.  I was wearing 38.

It’s yoga. Is it hard or easy?  Is it good or bad?  I think the consensus is that it is good. Really good.  But it’s hard…really hard. At least the X version in P90X.  It’s also long.  Have I mentioned the 90 minute time cost?  I think that is what you end up dreading the most.

Last nights Yoga went well.  There was a point 30 minutes in where I looked at the clock and thought “WTF?!? 60 more minutes!!!”.  But that quickly turned into 40 and then 30 and by then we were into the balance and stretch stuff.  Once you get through the Warrior sequence things do seem to lighten up and become more manageable.  The trick is getting to that point.

Tracking your reps and weights is invaluable.  Last week it showed me that I was dogging it.  This week it showed me that I was making improvements.  I managed more reps in all the pull-ups and increased the weight for all of the arm (bicep) exercises.  Felt good to be able to write down these higher numbers each time.

Ab Ripper X was also a good one last night.  I really felt the burn in my abs by the time we got to hip rock’n raise.  Good workout.

Kept a nice heart rate of 140-150 during most of the plyometrics workout.  As always, plyo is tough.  The better you do in the beginning of the workout the harder it seems to be as you work through the rest.  Slowly but surely my endurance and strength continues to improve. Sure signs that P90X works.

I’m no Jack Palance.  I’m not even Laura from the video.  First I try to do the normal one-arm pushups and utterly fail.  Then I try the knees version.  Still can’t do it.  Laura, you win!

End of week 6.  We made about half way through. Can’t say exactly since P90X is a 13 week program.  Kenpo is that workout that is fun to do.  Works up a good sweat. Gets the heart rate going.  Falls short at the end.  I’ve felt like this aspect of the Tony Horton P90(X) series has been a short coming. In P90 there wasn’t a Kenpo but the second part of Sweat was basically kicking and punching ala Kenpo X.  They both suffer the same problem.  You start strong and get good and lathered up.  The heart rate gets up into the zone.  Then over the course of the final 25 minutes of Kenpo (maybe 10 in Sweat from P90), it’s like its a cool down.  You continue to sweat but the heart rate slowly but surely drops out of the aerobic zone.  The moves just are not intense enough to maintain a good aerobic heart rate.  I’m looking to burn calories in the non resistance workouts by maintaining a high heart rate for the duration.  I’m going to have to try to push the intensity myself next time.  It’s not easy when you are getting tired by the end to self motivate and self regulate to a higher intensity.

This is still one of the hardest resistance workouts.  Squats and lunges very quickly turn your legs into quivering lumps of jelly.  Wall Squats and Single Leg Wall Squats are killer.  I’ve never felt fire like that in my legs or any other muscle.

Ended up cutting Ab Ripper X short this night.  A neighbor needed to get on our internet connection to access some work files and so she came over at 9:30.  She was done just as we were getting started on abs.  Val started talking and before I knew it 30 minutes had gone by and I wasn’t motivated at all to try to finish up.  Ab Ripper X…I’ll see you next time my friend.

Moved the rest day to Friday.  Val went out for a night out with the girls.  Sex in the City 2.  Probably cliched for a group of ladies to go out en mass to see a Sex in the City movie but what can ya do.  The weather has been terrible with on and off rain for days so the kids and I played it lazy and sat in side watching Instant Play movies on Netflix through the Wii.  It was restful.