Friday, May 6, 2011

I Think I Can, I Think I Can


I figure I should chronicle my adventures with P90X for a couple reasons. One is that I like to hear myself talk. I am an excellent talker.

But it also will be good to look back at the end of 90 days and see if I am still alive and have not broken anything on me that is important or irreplaceable.

Suffering a tiny bit of a delay, we just started the fit test to prep for the P90X last night. There’s been a little delay since Austin wants to do it with me and he has been super sick for the last week.

Along those lines, here are some cool things you can try if you want to have fun on a Thursday night and feel refreshed the next day at the office. These are the 8 things you do for the fit test to prep for doing P90X:

1) rest quietly for 2 minutes and take your BPM

2) reach as high up the wall as you can flat footed, then vertical jump as high as you can reaching up the wall, then subtract the difference (jeesh, how hard could this P90X really be?)

3) do as many pull-ups as you can until muscle failure (uh-oh)

4) do as many push-ups as you can until muscle failure

5) do as many 20 lb dumbbell curls as you can until muscle failure (do you see a trend here?)

6) sit with your back against the wall, feet directly below your knees, so your knees are at a 90 degree angle and stay in that position until muscle failure

(The main thing is they want your muscles to fail. That is the goal here. 'Cause, if your muscles are not failing, then... well, we obviously need to do something to change that.)

7) sit on the floor, hands at sides, pull your knees to your chest, then stick your legs straight out, without letting your feet touch the floor and repeat this as many times as you feel like until you would like to stop.

Hahaha! Just kidding. UNTIL MUSCLE FAILURE.

... and finally:

8) do jumping jacks at a semi-rapid pace for a minute and a half. At the minute and a half mark, start doing the jumping jacks as fast as you can for the remaining 30 seconds until you vomit and collapse on the floor crying and asking where is your mommy.

Kidding. The manual says (I am not making this up) that at the end of 2 minutes you should still be able to “stand and breathe”.

Sooooo, breathing is good. If you have stopped breathing before the 2 minute mark, I guess you probably should stop the jumping jacks and hurl your body toward the nearest phone before you finish blacking out and press 911.

But if you are still conscious (optimal) at the end of the two minutes, as soon as you finish the jumping jacks, you're supposed to immediately record your heart-rate again. WHOAH, it's way higher than the resting one, huh?!?! You betcha!

The good news is that this only took about 30 minutes, but the workouts themselves are equally or more intense and last ONE HOUR. Luckily though, they are only SIX DAYS A WEEK. And only for NINETY DAYS.

So. Wheeeee.

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