P90X3 Day 1

1.6.14. The first Monday of 2014. I'm in Western PA and I got the call this morning (I'm a teacher) that we have a 2 hour delay due to snow and debris on the road. An extra 2 hours to sleep. 

NOPE! 

I got out of bed at 4:55am and got to work. I was too excited NOT to! 

Today is my official Day 1 of P90X3. I am so excited to start this program. It's EXACTLY what I need. My body is craving something new and so is my mind. Heck, I've been craving this for a long time. 

In fact, I let myself go over the past 7 weeks. Really let myself go. Like, gained 12 pounds, let myself go. Yes - I am the typical American statistic. I gained the holiday weight. And I feel like a stuffed sausage in my clothes. Heck - I look like a stuffed sausage. Give me 4 weeks. I will look much different!

Could it have been prevented? Yup! Do I know how to prevent it? Yup! Did I follow my own advice and that little voice in my head saying "Kelly, don't eat that..."? Nope! Am I UTTERLY EMBARRASSED about my before pics now? You better believe it. 

But guess what? I'm gonna show them to you! I MUST show them to you so I can be accountable. 

So - here goes nothing:

So - to the main point of this blog post - P90X3 DAY 1!

Just as stated, the clock started at 30:00.  The warm up took us to 26:26 and it warmed me up nicely. 

During the meat of the program, 26:26 - 1:10, Dreya is the modifier. Some things can be modified even more than she modifies, so use your judgement and modify as needed. There is NO SHAME in modifying. I'm still recovering from the FLU so I modified quite a bit this morning. 

One thing I MUST recommend is that you print out the X3 worksheets. They are easy to fill in and it's so cool to see your progress over 4 weeks. I fill mine out like this:

I fill it in with rep numbers when we aren't given specific reps. If I can't remember the exact reps but need to remember to count next time, I put a "?" beside the number of reps I thought I did. My hope is to do more reps by the end of the 4 weeks. When weights are involved, I put a little arrow off to the right if I need to up the weights next time. If the weight was challenging enough, I either put a check mark beside the weight or leave it blank. Like my "OUCHES"? Haha - that's when something is challenging!

The workouts today were as follows:

1. Push-up/Side Arm Balance - this one was tricky and requires some serious balance! I'm not so good at it right now.
2. Crescent Chair - at first this doesn't seem rough, but my quads were burning at the end!
3. Pull Knee Pull - I do this pull-up with resistance bands. I don't have a chin up bar nor do I have a place to put one. I have two holes drilled into our basement rafters and I have a resistance band strung through each hole and doubled up. I put my hand through the loop and pull down. I followed Dreya on this one. Someday I WILL do a pull up!
4. Flip Flop Crunch - my abs are not my strong point. These were kinda rough for me!
5. Crawly Plyo Push-Up - These were nuts! Fun and hard but NUTS! For modifications, don't jump switch your knees. To even further modify, do the push-ups on your knees and bring your knee up to your elbow while doing the push up. Much more manageable for a beginner.
6. Releve-Plie, weighted - I used 15 pounds and will go up to 20 next time. This is a balance challenge. I will not wobble in 4 weeks!
7. Boat Plow - I love these! They stretch my back and neck while working my abs!
8. Balance Arch Press - These are a balance challenge. I used 12 pounds and will go up to 15 next time. I always forget how strong my shoulders are from conducting!
9.  3 Hop Press - These kill me. I really have to focus on the squat part of this little move or I don't get a good workout. Anytime you squat, make sure to keep your knees BEHIND your toes! If you don't, you WILL have knee problems!
10. Glamour Hammer - Hammer curls are my favorite. I used 10 pounds and it was plenty. I will do another week at 10, maybe another 2 weeks. All in all, I did 17 reps with my arms. One rep is a front hammer and a side hammer. So, essentially, I did 34 curls on each side. OUCH!
11. Branon Boat - Ever done Banana Boats in P90X? Well these are the distant cousin. You go into boat and then raise and lower your legs 4 times. Then you hold your legs stationary and raise and lower your upper half 4 times. Repeat all this for 60 seconds. YIKES!
12. Flying Warrior - I loved this move. I used 8 pounds and it was PLENTY. In fact, I was completely fatigued by the end. It takes balance and focus. Don't get upset if you have to put your foot down, I did!
13. Squat Rockers - Can we talk about Quad Burn? This does the job. I used 15 pounds and I had to take a 5 second rest. I love exercises that work my lower body. I will use 15 pounds again next time.
14.  Side Raise Punch - These are very hard for me. I have ZERO tricep muscles. Plus, I did the entire first set wrong, so I had to redo it! I used 5 pounds and could have easily followed Dreya and used no weights.
15. Warrior Squat Moon - I have a feeling that I'm eventually going to love this move. Eventually. Right now I feel like a doofus trying to balance and maintain proper form. I hope I'm not the only doofus out there :)
16. Cooldown - 1:10 marks your cool down. It wasn't quite enough for me so I did a runners lunge and some extra stretching.

Now it's on to drink my breakfast - R&R Vanilla Shakeology! Fits perfectly into my X3 meal plan! Oh yeah - here's what Plan B looks like for this week:

I have to say, I could have upped my weights more today. I will remember to do that next time. I enjoyed the program and am looking forward to doing Agility X tomorrow! Check back for my day 2 review!

Oh yeah, as I was getting ready to publish this post, we got the call that school's CANCELLED! Woot Woot!

<3,

Kell