Day 8

Chest & Back + Ab Ripper X

Note: Day 7 skips.  Typically, it would be a choice of either a rest day or to do the P90X Stretch routine.  I burnt my rest  day sick in bed on what would have been Day 3, made up for it on what would have been Day 7.....  you get the idea, now we're on Day 8.

I was as excited for starting week 2 as I was week 1.  For one thing, a brutal chest cold really took some wind out of my sails through much of week 1.  For another, I found myself stumbling through many of the workouts trying to figure out the motions and poses.  So I'm really looking forward to rocking out week two!

The results (reps) of the Chest & Back routine were a bit surprising.  I did fewer reps on many of the exercises.  However, I felt WAY more of a burn during, and now after, the workout.  I felt like I pushed myself harder, and I felt like my form was better.....  way better.  Despite the less impressive numbers, this was a much more solid workout and will likely leave me achy in the morning.

The second set of diamond pushups was a zero!  I was spent, but got in position, began to push, and my elbows simply gave out.  These are easily the hardest for me in this workout, followed by the wide-grip push-ups.

The couple of exercises which require the bands (weights for some) concern me.  He says that if you're looking to add size, to use heavier weights to max out at 8-10 reps.  My smallest band is the green band, which represents a 40# weight .  This was actually an error of mine when I bought them (remember, I'm only 143#!).  But I am able to do 11-15 of most of these, and the video moving on actually stops me before fatigue.  Am I doing something wrong?  Do I need a stronger band?
I did advance to the blue (45#) band in the second set on some, but my success worries me.

Ab Ripper X is hard!  Its part of the workout 3 days a week.  I'm getting better, but not making it through all of the exercises without significant breaks.  I can make it through the finale, and it burns!

Reps: (2 reps.  Compare with week 1 here)

Standard Push Ups: 25/16

Wide-Front Pulls ups: 5/4

Military Push Ups: 8/5

Reverse Grip Chin Ups:  8/8

Wide Fly Push Ups: 15/12

Closed Grip Overhand Pull Ups: 3/2

Decline Push Ups: 9/11

Heavy Pants: 14/8 (green/blue)

Diamond Push ups:  7/0

Lawnmowers: 10/10 (left/right, green)
                       10/11 (l/r, blue)

Dive Bomber push ups: 15/8

Back Flys: 11/11 (green/blue)