P90X - Day 1 - Wow I'm Out of Shape!

10/13/2008

Okay, so I haven't done any real exercise for 10 years. I just turned 30. I weight 192 and I'm probably 5' 8" - basically, I'm overweight and out of shape, not to mention starting to feel a little older.

So, a friend (who's in quite good shape) and I decide to hit P90X. Actually, it was mostly my idea. Stupid idea, in hindsight, but there's no way I'm backing down. That is, unless I hurt myself doing this.

We get P90X only to find out that that's just the start of what you really need to do it right. Since my friend's fairly in to this sort of thing I let him scout out all the things we need like weights, bands, yoga mat, etc.

He also picked out which workout calendar to base things off of. We went with the Lean, since that's what I'd like to be (also I'd like to be rich, but I digress...).

Then, I find out about this Nutrition Guide. I'm thinking, "Cool, eat a few of the right things, yada, yada." Nope. Completely redesigning how I eat and in ways I don't like. I'm a Mountain Dew guy - this is not something I'll give up without a fight.

Well, that fight ended as soon as I took pictures for the "before". I'm fat. I had no freaking idea I looked like that until I saw a picture of me from the back. It looked like a person's back that's overweight. Really bothered me. I didn't realize I looked like that. Luckily my wife confirmed, "Yup, that's what you look like!" in a somehow chipper voice.

My friend and I go shopping for foods and such the night before. Spent about $60 to start. I was blown away by that amount! Holy crap!

Day 1

So I get there a couple minutes late, but we still have a moment to joke about "Bringing It" (Tony Horton's chant).

I throw down my mat and we start. It's 6:30AM and I'm used to getting up at 7:45, so this already sucks a little. Here we go - a nice intro with plenty of "Bring It!" thrown in there. This is the Core Synergystics or something along those lines.

BANG! Off we go. Basically two minutes per bizarre, painful exercise and move right into the next one. This is seriously beating me down in legs, arms, stomach, etc. I'm keeping up fairly well - doing about 2/3 of the reps and such. Breathing like I'm going to hyperventilate because I am so not used to cardio.

After about 30 minutes of this crazy rolling, forcing movements, and pushing myself I start to develop a headache. My friend's also complaining about how much each exercise is kicking his butt, but he's still keeping up with it. My favorite thing about these is the way they found a way to get you completely spent on one exercise, then increase the strain on those same muscles while bringing more parts of you in for the pain in the very next change. Wow, this is not for people like me, that's for sure. And I'd been warned, so this is all my fault.

After about 40 minutes I started getting nauseated and I backed down a bit - feeling ill from overworking.

I lost two pounds...

Because I threw up a few times. The workout seriously destroyed me. I felt crappy the rest of the day afterward - I don't know, maybe I was just getting sick. My kids had been sick, so maybe...