Pushing 60

Hard to believe it's been another 30 days since last I updated you on my p90x progress. Actually, it might seem to you that I very recently updated you, but from my point of view it's been a while.

The second segment of p90x was a little shakier than the first. Daylight savings time has not been friendly to my waking-up-at-6-am to exercise plan. There was a solid week when I just couldn't get up in the morning and ended up having to work out in the evening instead (something I really hate). Also, I'm ashamed to say I missed a day in the last 30. It was just a day of stretching during the recovery week, but I'm still feeling a little guilty that I didn't make it up. It was during the week or so that I had what I'm pretty sure was at least walking pneumonia, but that my doctor insists was "seasonal allergies." Getting a Nyquil induced 8-hours of sleep won out over a cough-fest while doing stretches.

Other than that one day, I've been trucking along. I'm getting more adept at completing the moves correctly. The p90x system supposedly works through the process of "muscle confusion" meaning that your body never adapts because you keep changing things up. This may be true, but unfortunately while my muscles may be confused by all the different movements, my mind has quickly learned the workouts and started to find them repetitive. Sometimes this is a benefit because it enables me to count down how many exercises I have left in the routine (although it's unfortunate if I accidentally forget one, only to be blind-sighted by one of my least favorites right when I think I'm in the home stretch). However, I worry that my capacity to "bring it" is being compromised as my mind starts to wander. I'm focusing more and more on the human drama and what I perceive to be Tony's relationships to his back-up people.

Many of them are clearly Tony's friends. I suspect Dreya more just humors him by smiling at his jokes. Daniel takes his good natured ribbing with a laugh, but I feel like he silently resents Tony every time he is scolded for not being low enough in his squat or screwing up his form. The lawyer, whose name I don't remember, clearly hates Tony. So obvious (or at least after repeat viewings fully of scrutiny and analysis) is this, that I wonder how he got on the video at all. And then there's Pete (or is it Kyle?), the super fit Asian guy whose name changes about three times through the Back and Shoulders dvd.
I think the reason Tony chose to add an X to his regular p90 workout is because of how easy it was for him to visualize the marketing campaign.

It isn't all bad though. This morning I noticed that if I feel my stomach, I can note individual abdominal muscles. I'm hopeful that these are the humble beginning of a six-pack and plan to try to nurture them out of their shell over the next 30 days. By 90, I plan to be able to wash clothes on them. I've always been blessed with a fairly flat stomach though, so the changes in tone I was really looking for were in my legs and arms. I haven't noticed huge changes in definition, but I am able to do more push ups and use heavier resistance bands than I used to, so clearly I'm stronger, even if it's not a visible strength yet. I'm looking forward to seeing how this evolves as I enter the home stretch!