P90X – Month Two

  

I’m now six weeks into my P90X program, and I’m still going strong.  My schedule has made it tough to stick with it perfectly, but I’m doing my best.  When I can get up early and do it in the morning, I do.  A couple of times, I had DVD malfunctions in the middle of workouts, and I had to fill in with the glider.  I’m also still doing up to five sets of stairs, 1st thru 4th, during the week. 

I don’t really notice a difference in my physique visually, but I can feel the changes.  I’m sore in places that I haven’t been, and I feel leaner in some areas.  I wish I looked more like one of those “ripped” fitness models, but the internal changes are more important.  Not bad for a regular girl! 

Week 2 of P90X

I’m halfway through Week 2 of P90X.  It’s a terrific program.  So challenging.  Ab Ripper X, which I did tonight after doing the shoulders & arms workout, makes me use LOTS of foul language.  It’s tough, man!

The hardest one for me, though, is Yoga X.  That’s the one I have to do tomorrow.  I’ve always found yoga hard.  The longheld poses that seem to stretch the muscles endlessly kill me.  It will take everything I’ve got tomorrow to stick with it.  I can do kick-ass cardio and multiple weight reps forever (well, not really forever, but you know what I mean), but yoga… yowsa!  Sheer determination is the only thing that gets me through.

And, it’s a bit of a shame that it’s so tough for me because yoga is extremely good for you.  The whole mind-body thing is very important to good health and battling illnesses and stress.  I need to do yoga, even if I don’t want to.  As much as I recognize the importance of mind-body workouts, I have trouble making myself do ‘em.  I need to work on it, and this is an unexpected benefit of doing the P90X program.

I wonder, will I get “ripped” like the people in the ads?  I have some muscle definition, but it’s hard to imagine myself all cut like “those people”.  Supposedly it’s possible.  I just want to complete the program and lean out.

I’m a little apprehensive because we will be traveling on workout days over the next several weeks, so I will not be able to do all the workouts.  I will bring DVDs with me and do the workouts on the computer when we go to San Diego next weekend.  But, the week after we’ll be camping on the Grand Canyon, and I doubt we’ll bring the computer with us.  It’s a constant challenge with the life I lead with my fiance to stay on track.  There are ALWAYS special circumstances.  In fact, it’s really more of a special circumstance when there aren’t special circumstances.

I should give myself kudos for being able to adapt and adjust, but instead I usually feel frustrated and like I’m doing it half-assed.  Bottom line: I can only do what I can do, and clearly it’s worked for the most part.  I keep having to tell myself that!  Boy, it takes some of us a long time to internalize the message, eh? 

Anyway, I’m really enjoying P90X so far.  It’s great to be so challenged and to know that after another week, new challenges will come.  It’s great to save some money and to be home at night where I can do laundry or other things while working out.  P90X rocks!

A new month… a new workout routine

Pole dancing has been amazing.  I’ve learned so much, and I’ve gained a lot of physical improvement.  But, now that the wedding is fast approaching, money is becoming an issue.  The $100 a month I’ve been spending can be better used elsewhere.  Plus, I think it’s time for me to shake things up again.

So, tonight was Day One of P90X.  I bought the program nearly a year ago, before my literal transformation.  I didn’t start it beause I discovered pole dancing.  Now that I’ve decided to make the switch to something less expensive and home-based, P90X is perfect.  Tonight’s Core Synergistics workout was awesome!  There were all kinds of moves I’ve never done before, and there was a whole lotta sweatin’ goin’ on!

Tomorrow night is Cardio X.  I’ve done that one before; it’s a good one, too.  Looking forward to it!

More Pole Pics

The first picture is of a pose that I think is called The Lady.  It doesn’t look like much, but holding on by your thighs and one hand is challenging.  Normally, you lean your head back and arch your hips up more than I am in this pic.  We wanted to show my face.  My hips need to be arched more, but I’m close on this one.  As with the strength holds I describe below, it has taken me several months to develop the muscular ability to do this pose.  It’s deceptive, as is much of pole work.

Another part of what we do in pole class are strength holds: poses that build our strength so we can do more maneuvers on the pole.  They are much harder to do than they look.  It took me several months to be able to do these two poses.  I could never hold them for any length of time.  So, I’m really thrilled at the progress I’ve made. 

 

Replacing P90X with the Pole

Back in the summer, I got P90X and had grand plans of embarking on the program after recovering from my surgery in August.  Well, life never goes quite as planned, and shortly after I could start exercising again, I discovered the pole fitness studio.  I was hooked!  It’s such a challenging workout – deceptively so – that I don’t have the stamina – or the desire, at this point – to do the P90X plan.  I still do several sets of stairs at work every weekday (usually 10), but otherwise the classes at the pole fitness studio are the only ones I do: pole dancing classes of varying levels, lap dancing, go-go dancing, and Booty Camp. 

I am excited to report that, after three and a half months at the studio, I have finally been able to invert (go upside down) on the pole.  Yay!  It’s a HUGE and exciting accomplishment for me.  Here are some pics.  I’ve also gotten better at handstands against the pole, so here are some pics of that as well. The inversion pics were taken at home, on my pole in the bedroom.  (Yes, my fiance’s friends tell him he’s a lucky man all the time. ).  The handstand pics were taken by J, a student at the studio.  She’s an amazing woman.  A yoga instructor fromNew York, she has the most amazing physique.  She has tremendous control and can perform extraordinarily beautiful moves on the pole.  My friend from the studio, M, and I always say that our goal is to reach J’s level.  For right now, I’m just happy to have gone upside down!

  

  

 

Exercise may just be the “miracle pill”.

Looking for a miracle?  Lace up your running shoes for a minute or two.

British researchers have discovered that a mere 7 minutes of vigorous exercise every week can ward off Type II Diabetes.  Yeah… you read that correctly… only *7* minutes a week can prevent one of the most debilitating diseases plaguing our country today.  And you don’t even have to do it all at once.  In the study, the participants rode exercise bikes four times daily in 30-second bursts for two days a week.  That tiny bit of exercise significantly improves the body’s ability to process insulin. 

That’s some seriously amazing news.  It astounds me that such a miniscule amount of exercise can have that huge an impact on our bodies.  We can all fit that in every week; there’s no excuse for not doing it.

The same day I read about this study, I saw Frontline’s program on Parkinson’s.  Two sets of monkeys were used in a MPTP test.  (MPTP is a byproduct of a narcotic that has been shown to cause the same signs and symptoms as Parkinson’s disease.)  One set of monkeys was sedenetary.  The other set exercised regularly on a treadmill.  After a period of time exercising or not, the monkeys were injected with MPTP.  The sedentary monkeys immediately demonstrated the symptoms of Parkinson’s.  The physically active monkeys, however, showed almost no signs of the disease.  Even their brain scans were different.  The exercising monkeys had much healthier brain scans than the inactive ones.  All from walking on a treadmill consistently.

As a society, we focus almost exclusively on how exercise can help us lose weight and look better.  But it goes far beyond our looks.  The benefits of exercise are extraordinary on levels we haven’t even begun to realize.

All this a good reminder for me when I get discouraged about not looking “hot” enough or not getting my spins right in pole class.  Those aspects of exercise are really immaterial in the grander scheme of things.  The exercise I’m getting every day is helping me in ways that are literally cell deep, preventing all kinds of nasty conditions that I may never know I was risking.  That is truly a miracle.

Fitness doesn’t come in 60 minutes with time for commercials

I am a living, breathing, real-life example of the fact that yes, you can change the way you look. I am also an example of the fact that it can’t be done overnight or even in six or eight weeks.

According to Dr. William Kraemer, a kinesiology professor at the University of Connecticut, making a change in how you look “…takes six months to a year.” And doing it requires consistent strength training with body-challenging weights and a customized program.

What’s up with our desire to accomplish life-changing goals in 24 hours or less? Is it that our attention spans are that short? Or, do we just abhor hard work?

I don’t think so. I think we’ve been conditioned by TV and magazines to believe that transformations are nearly instant. Reality TV portrays extreme makeovers – of all kinds – in timeframes that are compressed by clever editing to make it seem like changes are happening much more quickly than they are. Even though we know it’s not real, we believe it anyway, and that becomes our expectation. No wonder we get frustrated when we don’t drop 10 pounds in our first week of dieting!

I am very aware of this, and yet I struggle when I don’t succeed at a new goal right away. This is happening right now with my pole fitness classes. I take Lap Dance class once a week, and I get irritated with myself when I can’t get the routine just right AND look super hot doing it. Intellectually, I know this is silly. I have only been taking this class for a couple of months, and it’s only offered once a week. My instructor is a professional stripper who’s been dancing since she was five years old. I am just not going to be as good as her right away. Yet, I still leave the studio bummed out sometimes, disappointed in myself, thinking I am not nearly as clever and sexy as I should be.

Thankfully, the lessons of my six-year lifestyle change carry me through. Although I get unreasonably discouraged, I persevere. I know that, in the long run, I’ll get there if I stick to the fundamentals of hard work and consistency.

Guess that means I’m more of a mini-series than a sitcom, hunh?!  J

Booty Camp, Day 2, and a Lap Dance

So far this week, I’ve attended five hours of classes at the pole fitness studio, and I’ve loved every single class.  I plan to rack up a couple more hours before the week is out.

They offer “Booty Camp” several times a week, and I was a litle worried that it would be repetitive and quickly grow stale.  Nope!  The second class had most of the same moves as the first, but the instructor – AJ – changed things up nicely, and I once again used my muscles differently.  I was sweatin’ by the end, which is how I like it.

Lap Dance class was fascinating.  This was my first experience with learning to lap dance.  My instructor is an actual stripper, and man, is she amazing!  That girl knows how to move, and she’s an athlete.  When I complimented her, she said, “that’s probably why I get $100 tips.”  Nice!

Walking around the chair isn’t hard.  Your stripper walk is just centered on the chair, rather than being a straight line.  Turning from behind the chair was interesting, though.  Gotta remember to get my inside foot positioned correctly to lift my outside leg high enough when I pivot.  I found sitting on the chair and laying back – and later jumping on the edge of the chair, perching on my toes – a bit challenging, and I’m not sure how it’s going to fly with my BF actually sitting there!  My instructor assured me that it’ll work just fine, and I guess she’d know. 

I also learned more pole tricks this week, including a backwards spin.  It was so pretty when my instructor did it!  I did okay, but it’s definitely going to take me a while to loosen up and make my moves beautiful… not mention get rid of the bruises!  Yup… bruising, especially at the beginning, is a common pitfall of early pole dance training. 

I’m so glad I’m taking the classes regularly.  I’ve tried doing it on my own, and it’s very hard to get it right.  Plus, the way my pole at home is positioned, I can’t see myself in the mirror to evaluate my form and presentation. 

We also did some terrific stretching.  I really need the stretching.  My stair workouts are excellent cardio and great for my bum, but they tighten up my muscles.

More later after I take the weekend classes!

Back to the pole

  Two years ago, I took a pole dancing class and fell in love.  The instructor was amazing: so approachable and celebratory of everyone’s efforts with the most amazing muscle tone – and beauty of movement – I have ever seen.  It took the cheesiness out of pole dancing and elevated it to high art.

Several months ago, I finally bought a pole for myself and have had it set up in the bedroom.  I used it a lot at first, even had fun demonstrating a couple different spins for my adopted fam during my PB&J party.  I’ve since slacked off, focusing on other things.

I’ve been restless, trying to decide what adventure to pursue next, so this week – in honor of the first day of December - I impulsively signed up for a month’s worth of unlimited classes at the pole fitness studio in town.  It cost $99 a month, but there’s no contract.  So, I’m not locked into anything.  Last night, I attended my first two classes: Pole Level 1 and Booty Camp.  It was so fun to revisit all the moves I learned in the first class two years ago!  The studio offers several levels of pole work, and I’m looking forward to moving up to bigger and better spins.  Plus, now I have my own pole to practice with at home!  Yay! 

Booty camp was interesting.  Lots of jogging, weirdly enough.  I’m going back tonight.  I plan to go several times a week, mainly when my BF is working out of town.  I’ve been in a bit of a funk, eating too much and fighting a couple of pounds up, so being out of the house is a good thing… especially if it involves exercise.

As always, perspective is important, and like looking at old photographs, attending the classes gave me a perspective I really need right now.  I look so different from two years ago.  Then, even after having lost a bunch of weight, I was one of the biggest gals in the class.  Now, I fit right in with most of the other ladies; in fact, there are a couple who are much bigger than me… and I’m so proud of them for being there!  I personally know how hard that can be, particularly in a class that’s all about sexiness.

I was also impressed with my physical stamina.  So much of the exercise I do is in a vacuum.  I have no way of knowing for sure how I compare to other people.  I also do a lot of the same stuff, so I’m never quite sure what my general level of fitness is.  Good news!  I had no trouble at all keeping up last night; I could have done more.  It was cool to realize how far I’ve come!

Spacey Fitness

Zero gravity may sound nifty, but it’s tough on the bod.  According to NASA, studies indicate that astronauts can lose an average of 1 to 2 percent of their bone mass monthly.  The Earth-bound among us use strength training to combat bone loss, and now it’s even easier for space rangers to do the same.

“The advanced Resistive Exercise Device, aRED for short, functions like a weight machine in a gym on Earth, except it has no conventional weights. Instead, it has vacuum cylinders — canisters with air that have had a vacuum applied — that provide concentric workloads up to 600 pounds, NASA says.”

Little flywheels on the aRED generate the gravity by spinning in opposite directions, so astronauts can do squats, dead lifts, heel raises, bicep curls and bench presses.  If they’re on the International Space Station, they’ve also got access to a bicycle and a treadmill.  

Apparently, making yourself exercise in the first place is as important in the outer dimension as it is down here.  Clay Anderson, a NASA astronaut from Omaha, Nebraska, exercised for two-and-a-half hours a day for 151 out of the 152 days of his voyage, losing only 4 percent of his body mass instead of the usual 12 to 16 percent.  The lesson for those of us tethered to Beautiful Blue?  Pretty much any exercise you do is going to help; just do it.

Next up for scientists to figure out… what supplements an astronaut should take and what type of food they should eat.  A study going on right now should provide some interesting insight when it’s completed… insight that will probably be valuable for us here on Earth, too.