90 Day Transformations

Resolutions..

Those of you who received P90X for Christmas or bought it for yourself as part of your New Year's resolutions should be finishing up your first round of P90X this week.  If you did, congrats!!  If you didn't, well... 

Just keep going.

Workout Logs for Stage 3

I'm starting Stage 3 of the 4 stage Men's Health Book of Muscle Beginner Program and I finally get to do some real squats and deadlifts, instead of bodyweight P90X style ones (my legs are still sore from Monday's lower body workout of pistol squats and King deadlifts).  Here are my workout logs I just finished in OpenOffice..

 

Pretty cool, huh?  It takes up less space to just type "Nosebreakers" than it does "EZ Curl Lying Triceps Extension."  I'm not sure if these would be useful for download for anybody since they are right in the middle of the program, but I have all my prior workout logs (they have improved considerably over time).  I'd be more than happy to post them if people are interested.

I finished my last upper body workout today and I have one more lower body workout to go on Monday and then I'm right into the first of two mini-stages in Stage 3 (two weeks each).  The final stage - Stage 4 - has three workouts broken up into two mini-stages, which are performed one time a week for three weeks each (a total of 6 weeks).  So, if my math is good, that's 10 more weeks of this part of the program.  I think I have two more recovery weeks in there before it's all said and done. 

Then I'm done with the Beginner Program and it's on to the Intermediate Program, which lasts for another 6 months.  Yeah, I'll be taking a break in there. 

Weight this morning, 182.

Onward..

So, I have formulated my plan for Round Two of P90X.  Goes a little something like this:

1. Finish this break week (doing some yoga and cardio x every day).
2. Do another break week (doing same as above) 
3. Restart P90X the following week, which will be Monday, November 10th - by the way, if I start on this day (which I will) my last day of P90XR2 will be New Year's Day 2009!! 

During my break weeks here I am going to reboot my diet.  I left my nutrition guide at home and have been eating the same thing almost every day for like 100 days.  Time to change it up a little bit.  I can only eat so many dang turkey sandwiches.

My next big question is whether to incorporate P90X Plus or One on One with Tony into my next round.  Or both?  I am having trouble finding more information about the One on One dvds.  It definitely doesn't look like a standalone program, but how do you mix it in with P90X?  Or do you?  I don't get it.

For all the rest of you out there who made the commitment to P90X and are having trouble finding time to fit your workouts in (and you know who you are), just remember that everything you are involved with and everything you do starts with you.  Take care of yourself first.

Round One Fit Test Results

So I rolled out of bed this morning and did the fit test.  I was a little surprised by some of the results - in a couple of them there was little change.  I can attribute that to one or a combination of three things:  I was in better shape than I thought at the beginning, I dogged it in that aspect of fitness in P90X (not likely), or my measuring technique was faulty the first time (or, hell, the second time).

Here are my fit test results.  And by the way, crap.  I don't have my measuring tape here so I can't take my measurements until I either buy a new tape or I go home and use the one I have there.  I don't think they will change much in a few days.  I've included the before results for comparison:

Body fat percentage:  before 9.5%  after 8.5%

Resting heart rate:  before 48  after 51  I used a heart rate monitor after and just took my pulse before so I think the before number is suspect.

Weight:  before 164  after  ???  I don't have a scale and I don't really care, as long as it's not less than 164

Pullups - before 5.5 - after 15 
Vertical Leap - before 22" - after 22" (this one is the same!?  I think I took an extra cheat step when I did it pre-P90X)
Pushups - before 43  - after 57 (oh, this just will not do)
Toe Touch - before +2"  - after +5"
Wall Squat - before 1:03  - after 2:07
Biceps Curls - before 29 reps with 20lbs  - after 15 reps with 35 lbs
Ins & Outs - before 54  - after 100 (on the nose)
Heart Rate Maximizer:  Again, I don't exactly know what the point of this exercise is, but I am pretty sure I wasn't doing it hard enough the first time.  I wasn't "bringing it" in the fit test!  Also, I was using the good old fashioned carotid pulse method and the microwave timer the first time around and a for-real heart rate monitor today.

Heart rates:

Immediately after:  pre 128 bpm - post 171 bpm
1 minute after:  pre 100 bpm - post 121 bpm
2 minutes after:  pre 92 bpm - post 110 bpm
3 minutes after:  pre 82 bpm - post 104 bpm
4 minutes after:  pre 78 bpm - post 83 bpm

There you have it.  Pre and post fit test stats.

Shannon - 90 Days

 

Wow.

Shannon included some words about his experience and his plans for the future:

Starting weight:  235
Final weight:  208

My 90 Days have been a mixed bag of situations, emotions and physical ailments. I'm not going to have a full-on puff piece on how great I feel or how awesome this whole experience has been. My words are not going to be put on any testimonial pages on Beachbody.com. What I have  for you instead is my real experience with actually working out solid for 90 days...for the FIRST time in my life.

I didn't know if I would last. I didn't know how much I wanted to work to get to this point. All I knew was that I was tired of being fat.  Tired of my knees and back hurting for no reason. Tired of feeling depressed. And most of all, tired of being tired.

PAINS
Ignorantly, I thought that doing this program would be a cure-all for my body aches. I didn't expect to have even MORE ailments throughout this program. To its credit, my knees do hurt far less, but I think my back problem needs to be looked at professionally. I think it will take more than just exercise to fix it. I didn't plan on a hip problem six weeks in to the program though. It created a situation to where I couldn't do a good amount of the leg exercises in the cardio or the lower ab routines without severe pain in my hip joint. SO, I had to be creative with my workouts. I ran, biked and swam for cardio as an alternative to some of the exercises on the program.

RESULTS
Now, I don't know if switching up hurt or helped but i knew I was plateauing on the last 30 days and I found it very difficult to lose weight as fast as I did during the first 60 days. As you can tell, I only lost 5 pounds this last 30 days as compared to 10 pounds each prior 30 days. However, like Dan and Mat have been telling me and what I have witnessed is that I noticed little changes everyday in my physique.  I wasn't losing the weight but I was still changing for the better.

MINDSET
It was hard, invigorating, painful, redundant, annoying, satisfying, and ego-boosting at the same time. You get out what you put in.  Everyone around me would make fun of me while I was working out because I was growling, grunting, howling with every rep I took. I took it to the max because I didn't want to cheat myself. Others around me kinda sorta jumped on the band wagon at some point or the other, but never stuck with the routine because they maybe didn't want to sacrifice the food or didn't want to really  "work" when they exercised. But I think, they didn't have the mindset. If you don't want the change, you won't get it. If you do this program and just go through the motions, you won't get the satisfaction and results you want. Like I said, it's hard, it will hurt, and you have to want it.  Period. If you can't handle that, then you will always be stuck.

FOOD
Growing up, you get so used to eating a certain way and eating certain foods. You get used to tons of sugar, salt, fat and you rely on them as flavor gauges. Doing this program, all that you know gets stripped from you. No sweets. No fatty, salty cheeseburgers. Just pure, bland good for you healthy whole foods. Yuck. At lease, that's what I thought at the beginning. Now, I can tell how much salt and butter and sugar is in something just from smell. Eating a bell pepper is more satisfying than a chocolate chip cookie. A banana is a dessert. AND ITS GOOD! Your taste for food changes. You realize how good natural food tastes once you are stripped of your dependance from fat, sugar and salt. PLUS, you don't feel like crap after you eat a banana. Will I stop eating cheeseburgers? Uh, no. I will treat myself to whatever I crave. If I crave a cheeseburger, I will eat it. If I crave ice cream, I will eat it. The good thing is that I know I don't crave those things nearly as much, if at all.

RESULTS
Am I happy with the results? Heck yeah!  Would I do it over again? Every time!  Do I think I could have done more? Looking back, probably. But that would have meant more time away from my family. Getting fit is one thing, not everything. My family comes first.

FUTURE
Will I do P90X? Probably not. I can't sacrifice the time it takes to be dedicated to the program.  What will I do? I will continue to workout. Lose the rest of my tire belly. I will be doing Tony's 10 minute Trainer workouts as well as working on building up my chest and back. I will continue to post updates and results because I am not finished with my physique and most of my routines and diet plans are still based off P90.

THANKS
Mat has been a great resource for motivation and information throughout and he has always given me solid alternatives and ideas with each of my predicaments and I would just like to thank him for everything. You're a great man, Mathew Allen.  Thanks for motivating me to do this. I will never regret it!

Damn.  You look incredible, Shannon.  But I knew you would make it because you wanted it bad enough.  You are welcome.

Hey, Mom, Where's MY $2,300?

In his own words:

It's been an interesting 90 days for sure. I've worked out in hotels and borrowed living rooms in Indiana, Missouri, Colorado, Wisconsin, Indiana again, and on day 90, Florida. Once I got into a routine, I found I needed less and less motivation to get started. Once the clothes started falling off, I was looking forward to eating well and breaking a sweat. Everyone with fat pictures of me should hang onto them. They'll be collector's items one day. I'm just simply not gonna be out of shape again. It hurts and makes me sad. Those of you who have known me for long enough know there are times when I've had less body fat or bigger muscles, but I have never been this fit. So, time for the nitty gritty such as it is...

Before:
Chest:40"
Biceps: 14"R 13.5"L
Waist: 37"
Hips:37"
Thighs:22"
Weight:167#

After:
Chest:35"
Biceps:14.5" each
Waist:30"
Thighs:20"
Weight:144

Also, my mom offered up a hundred bucks per pound I lost, so protein drinks on me. Couple of things the stats don't show..haven't used my asthma medicine in over a month (savings of $185 per month), I don't make noises when sitting or getting up, my back doesn't hurt, I feel good all the time. Worth it. All of it.

And now for the photos.  Here he is on Day One, all soft and doughy:

And here he is today, Day 90:

Dude, you look phenomenal.  You really have to really want it to get here.  Congratulations on all of your hard work. 

I'm still going to beat you in the pushup competition, but you'll look good losing.. 

90 Day Finale

 

Only 180 more days to go until I am stacked!

Let's recap, shall we? 

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:
 
Bye bye back fat.

90 Days Is Only The Beginning. . .

Today is the Big Day(tm).  90 days of sweating and praying.  I know you are all very excited to see my results (I'm looking at you, Dan), so I will be putting my final P90 photos up this afternoon after I finish my last workout.

Stay tuned!