Week 1, Day 1 of P90X

I kicked off the P90X workout series today with a fantastic chest, back and ab workout that totaled about one hour and fifteen minutes.  And at the end of that set, I could certainly feel the burn. 

The chest and back portion of the workout consisted mostly of various types of chin-up exercises and push-ups.  For someone like myself that has not quite reached the expert chin-up level, they showed you how to use resistance bands to mimic the movement and work out those muscles.  By the time I am done with this program, I want to be able to do a proper chin-up so I have some work to do.  There were other exercises as well that used the resistance bands, or weights if you have them.  I can certainly tell a difference in muscles used that may not have gotten a lot of attention before whenever I used standard dumbbells.  I am already feeling it in my back area for sure.

Then there were the push-ups.  My oh my, I never knew so many variations existed.  I have always hated push-ups and have tried to avoid doing them at all costs.  Over the last couple of months, I have started doing more of them, either modified or my best effort standard push-up, so my fear of them is not as high as it once was.  Today I did about six different types of push-ups: Standard, Military, Wide fly, Decline, Diamond and my new arch nemesis, Dive-bombers.  I did what I could do for each variation, switching from being on my knees to not so I felt good about that, but those dive-bombers and my brain just were not connecting.  I posted a video below.  I will master these by the end of the series.

Once you complete the back and chest workout, then it is time for Ab Ripper X.  A full 15 minutes of about 11 different exercises.  I had never seen about 80% of those moves before and was about ready to die by the end of it, but I hung on the best I could. 

 

Overall, I felt like today was a great workout.  I know I will feel it tomorrow and that is a great feeling.  As time goes on, I know my body will progress and be able to handle more of the weight and movements.  Tomorrow is the Plyometrics workout.  I may want to kill myself after that one from what I have heard.  Wish me luck!