Day #5- Legs & Back/ Day #6- Kenpo

I have officially completed Week #1 of P90X (hooray for me)! My biggest obstacle for completing my workouts this last week was getting to bed on time. I have a busy life taking care my family and all of the household chores. Some days I got to bed way too late and didn't wake up at the optimal hour (for me) of 6 AM to complete my workouts. On these days I found time to do them during my children's naps or after my kids went to bed for the night. I think that for most people working out and getting healthy is about priorities. If you willing to commit to it, you'll make it happen. Now, not every day is going to be perfect...but we can do the best we can with each day we're given...and that's what I'm striving to do.

Overall, I am very happy with how well P90X is going for me. If someone were to ask me why I hadn't done this sooner I would say that it's because I wasn't ready for it. Doing such a intense workout regimen takes a lot of commitment...and time. You have to believe that you can do it and that you're worth it! These workouts are long, (most around an hour), and certainly not easy. But when you find in your life that you really want a change, and want to get into the best shape of your life, a person can achieve amazing results through P90X (or another similar workout program). I'm very much looking forward to the changes I notice in my body over the next 90 days. It might take a little longer then 90 days to reach my fullest potential, but I'm just going to keep working and enjoying what this is doing for my body and my life. :)

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Yesterday I completed Legs & Back for the first time. It involves a series of movements to build muscle in all parts of the legs: the hamstrings, quads, glutes and calves. And then it would jump to working on the back through different variations of pull-ups (or you can use resistance bands coming down from up above.)

With the leg workouts they have you do lots of lunges, leg squats, dead lifts...Oh, and don't forget the wall squats!! Doing those brought back haunted memories of grade school when my gym teacher had competitions for who could do wall squats the longest. I was the super skinny wimpy girl and I always hated them! Luckily, they weren't as bad as I remembered them and Tony Horton doesn't make you do them too long. And you alternate with different angles on wall sits, so it felt like I was working on different muscle groups at different angles.

I felt that the legs part of "Leg & Back" wasn't too bad since that is my strong point...But my back is going to need a lot of work. I expect that building strength in my upper body is going to be a grueling process through these next 90 days and beyond. For the pull-ups I relied heavily on a chair and my legs...but I did do my very best to use all the strength I could use in my arms and back to lift up above the chin up bar repeatedly.

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Today was Kenpo X!! At the beginning Mr. Horton mentions that with Kenpo you'll be having so much fun that you'll forget how hard you're working. I found that remark to be pretty true for me. I very much enjoyed Kenpo and found that I'm actually pretty good with it. It requires strength, but also balance and focus. In Kenpo you do kick-boxing type movements with a lot of kicking and punching. It actually reminded me a lot of a self-defense class I took in college.  I loved all the variations of punches. The jabs and hooks, and then the kicks; to the side, front and back. I was so excited to do well with it. I'm not sure if it was because I've just completed my first week of P90X and I'm stronger, or because I'm just naturally good at this type of workout. Either way, I'm down with Kenpo!

Tomorrow, Day #7, I will be taking my rest day...gladly. :)