P90X Diary: Day 35. End of Phase One

July 12, 2007

So it?s been 35 days since I began my P90X journey and I?m thrilled with the results. Not only can I already tell a huge difference in how I look, but an even bigger difference in how I feel and how I move. I wanted to write a new post for the P90X journey, since I haven?t updated that lately. My hope was to give a day by day or maybe week by week update of P90X, but I soon realized that there really wasn?t much of a point. There wasn?t a hell of a lot of difference between day one and day seven. There were only so many times I could say that I was sore, but enjoying myself. Having realized this, I decided to change my tactics for my online P90X journal. I?ll give updates for the pinnacle moments, the exercises themselves and some of the tips, tricks and dangers for anyone who might be thinking about attempting this themselves.

Day 35 finds me at the end of the first week of P90X Phase Two and one recovery week down. It?s been an interesting journey; harder at times than I expected, yet easier at other times. I?ve begun to see incredible changes in my body, having lost eight pounds worth of fat and put on quite a bit of muscle. I?m nowhere near where I want to be yet, but the gains I?ve made in a short 35 days have been more than worth my efforts. It?s an incredible morale booster to get to see changes happening in such a short amount of time. What?s been even better than the visible changes, are the improvements that I can feel. When I move now, I feel so much stronger than I ever have before and I don?t have anywhere near as many back problems as I used to. At this point I can even feel new muscles in my back being used that have never really be utilized before. Best of all I have more energy when I wake up in the morning, feel far more productive during the day, and sleep much deeper at night.

My sleep habits recently have been some of the biggest changes. I used to stay up until all hours of the morning, going to sleep when I decided (not when I was tired, but when I decided it was time to sleep) and waking up after twelve hours feeling just as tired as I did when I went to sleep. It wasn?t healthy, but I figured I was a young guy, entitled to some lying around time. I have to say that I much prefer the way I feel now. Now I wake up feeling incredibly refreshed, having slept like a log the night before. I?m usually sore, but a few quick movements and stretches take care of that problem. I still stay up pretty late when I can, just because I?ve always been something of a night owl, but now I?m limited to how late I can stay awake because I?ve begun to get really tired. This may not sound like much to most people, but it?s something new to me; I?ve never felt truly tired at night. I?ve always just gone to bed when I thought I should, without really being sleepy, taking at least thirty minutes to fall asleep and hardly ever sleeping soundly. Now I find myself suddenly exhausted at the end of the evening, am asleep within seconds and sleep like the dead all night long.

Phase One of the X is now over, leaving me to take on Phase Two. I was hoping that I would shed some of the less than lovable exercises, but no such luck. I still find myself staring down the barrel of Yoga and Plyometrics every week; in fact I got all of those I could stand during the first recovery week. I?d just like to point out right now that ?recovery week? is something of a misnomer. It sounds like it will be easier, but even the P90X booklet says flat-out that this will not be the case. If anything, it?s the same level of difficulty, just a different brand of difficult. There are no resistance exercises during the recovery week, much to my annoyance. I?ve been doing weight lifting off and on all my life. I can?t get enough resistance training, so the recovery week is like being chained to the dog house and not being able to get out and run. Needlesstosay, by the end of the week I was leaping at the end of my chain to pick up some weights.

I?ve also decided at this point in the program to add a fat burner to my work out, just to try and help give a boost to my workout calorie burning. I don?t want to mention it just at the moment, because I don?t want to seem like I?m giving it an endorsement and if it doesn?t work, I don?t want others to waste their money.

I?m going to be following up this 35 day update with some reviews of more supplements I?ve been using during my exercise time and all of the exercises that are included in the P90X package. For now I just wanted to let everyone know that I?m still going strong, still in the thick of it, and that it?s working like a charm.

35 Days and 8 Pounds Gone. 55 Days still to Come.

Posted in Fitness, Motivation, P90X