Exactly one week ago, I was reading reviews on the 100 pushups challenge, mainly because I wanted to see more opinions and experiences from people that are taking part into this challenge. Probably I should have done that before I started with the challenge, rather than after completing one full month. For the first three weeks I was quite content with the progress, but in week 4 after finishing the 5th set on each of the 3 days, I was feeling as if my triceps were to literally explode even though the push-up is supposed to be mainly targeting the chest muscles (the “pecs”). My progress of the 100 pushups workout is illustrated below. I am amazed as to how much I have progressed, but I still cringe just thinking of the pain I had after the workouts in week 4.
So, as I was reading reviews about the 100 push-ups, I’ve noticed few people mentioning how a more diverse program such as the P90X is a better alternative. At first I was wondering what the hell P90X is, since I’d immediately think of the Sony Ericsson P900mobile that I used to have. But as I read up more about it, I thought to myself “Hey, this looks interesting!”. Fast forward few hours and I was in my shorts in front of the TV ready for my P90X trial.
Day 1 - Chest and Back
I had completely no idea what to expect. Just by looking at the title of the disc “Chest and Back” I thought that it shouldn’t be that hard of an exercise since I’ve been working out my chest extensively for the last month. And man was I wrong! Up to the 20 minutes mark, I could follow the quick pace of switching from one exercise to the other, but then I was completely gasping for air. Since that point I had to hit the pause button after almost every other exercise and make small breaks to calm my pulse down. I wasn’t even pushing myself to the maximum for the various push-ups, but still had periods of feeling nauseous. So with extra breaks I managed to complete every exercise and actually looking back at the log I didn’t do so bad. The most critical area are the pull/chin ups. I managed to do about 7-8 in the first round, and about 5-6 in the second. I am still not sure if I should go for higher numbers doing assisted pull/chin ups or just do as many as I can each time I try.
I didn’t realize that at the end of the disc there is the extra Ab Ripper X workout, so I didn’t do it.
Day 2 – Plyometrics
So day 2 comes and I am still wondering what the hell plyometrics is. I didn’t look it up online, but I quickly went through the disc the day before and I got the basic idea. So I start the work out, and same as the day before, but at about the 30 minute mark this time, I start gasping for air. But still I find it quite nice so with my extra breaks, I manage to make it through the end. Very challenging, but I enjoyed quite a lot.
Day 3 – Shoulders & Arms, Ab Ripper X
The day starts off with pain in the muscles from the Chest and Back workout. I never figured out this about myself, normal people feel sore the next day, and for me it takes two days. But the pain was not that bad, actually it felt quite interesting to feel some muscles that I didn’t know off. So I start off my 3rd day and I start doing the things that Tony is doing. I am bit surprised that today the exercises go in groups of 3, whereas every group of exercises is repeated twice consecutively. The first day, first I had to complete all the exercises and then start from the top for a second round. Today I am a bit more cautious with the weights, trying not to over do it. I realized that for some exercises I need heavier weights and for other lighter. At this point I’m seriously considering buying 2nd set of weights since it takes so long to adjust the weight on my current set. Being more cautious with the weights didn’t help much, so half way through I am not able to follow the pace set by the exercise and I am hitting the pause button more often to catch some breath. But I managed through the end, and I even fully completed the bonus round and it just felt great!
This time I did the Ab Ripper X as well. Well at least I tried to do it 
. For the first two exercises I somehow managed to do the full 25 reps, but after that it all went south. I was struggling to keep proper form and still do as many reps as I can. I would make a break at around the 6th rep, then rest for 6 reps (while the others are doing them) and then do another 4, rest, and do the last 3 with the rest of the group. I went through the whole exercise, but I missed out so many reps and at the end I still felt as if my stomach will shout out “Ouch!”. Laughing was painful, and to make it worse being in pain while laughing was funny as well – vicious circle .
Day 4 – Yoga X
I was so surprised that a program like this has yoga as part of it. To me yoga was something to do if you are flexible and are into meditation. I never thought of it as a sort of a work out. And being very inflexible I thought there is no point of me doing it. I mean, there are flexible people, not-so flexible, inflexible and then there is me. When I bend over to touch my toes, I manage to reach only about 5cm above my ankles. So being skeptical about doing it, I was looking around the Internet for answers and I found this video from Tony on YouTube. He claims that it is very important for the overall success of the program, and plus it is very good for the body so I thought to myself “what the hell, I’ll give it a try”.
Doing this didn’t look pretty. After the gazillionth sun salutation I was not able to even hold my hands up in the Warrior 1 position ( straight arms above the head ). So even today on an exercise that I thought would be easy and boring, I find myself gasping for air. I start doing my extra breaks and somehow manage to make it through the first 45 minutes. After that it was a bit easier as most of the exercises are about balance and are not so physically demanding. There were few positions that killed my abs again but somehow I managed to make it through the end.
Overall, I have to admit that I skipped many positions (twisting half-moon, crane come to mind immediately) and many others I did with terrible form. But overall I am positively surprised with the workout and I hope I’ll get better at it, and that one day I’ll be able to complete all the positions, with a good form and within the 90 minutes.
Day 5 – Legs & Back, Ab Ripper X
So day 5 comes and I am surprised that it is about legs. I thought that the legs were covered with the plyometrics day but I was wrong. So half way through the exercise when I was gasping for air again, it became clear to me why there is plyometrics and legs exercises separately. I did most of the exercises with as many repetitions as the others, albeit with no weights for some of the exercises where they did use them. But at least this time I wasn’t hitting the pause button that much. I was so glad when the 60 minutes were up because my legs were burning. 10 minutes after that I could barely remain in a standing position in the shower, I had to sit down.
Today I did the Ab Ripper X before starting the Legs and Back workout. I was even writing down the number of repetitions since I am quite interested in seeing progress here. I managed to do way more reps compared to two days ago, but this time I am more energetic as I am doing it fully rested. However after the first 3 exercises I started lagging behind again and I have to do many breaks while the others are going full steam. Same as 2 days ago, the stomach is trying to say “Ouch, ouch, ouch!” the whole time. Oh, and I think that they should rename the “Pfeiffer Scissors” into it’s real name which is “Torture X” .
Day 6 – Kenpo X
Again an exercise that has me puzzled as to what it is. I quickly scanned through the video and saw many “karate” moves. So I thought that this could be quite enjoyable but it turned out that it was the first exercise that had me disappointed. I don’t know if there was a problem with me on that day, but somehow it seemed very unclear as to what I am supposed to be doing. No proper explanation about the proper form before they start doing it, and as they start exercising the camera jumps off like crazy from one angle to the other. I felt quite frustrated most of the time because I found it quite hard to do it properly and follow the pace of the rest of the group. So many times I was hitting the rewind button just to see what am I supposed to be doing.
And it seems like this is the only exercise that is not so physically demanding. If it wasn’t for the “warm-up” breaks every 10 minutes or so, I doubt that I would even break a sweat. But anyways, I went through the whole video and now I am planning on spending some time on just watching this video again to get an idea of the exercises. Hopefully I will get into it because it is probably a lot more fun to do it when you are not feeling frustrated.
Day 7 – Stretch X
So this day is a recovery day and there is the possibility to either do Stretch X or rest. As I mentioned earlier I am terribly inflexible so of course I opt for the Stretch X. I feel so ridiculous when I see the others bending like gummy bears and then me on the other side bending like the tin man ( Tony’s analogy). It is a good program, not very physically demanding except for few of the stretches. I don’t remember which ones , but I am pretty sure that by Week 3 even those will not be challenging.
So there it is, this is my first week experience. Today is the beginning of the 2nd week and I feel soreness in many muscles. However I am super happy with the program and I am looking forward to the rest of it.
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