P90x Week 6 Day 5 - Legs and Back

It's static and ballistic... it's Stablatic!!
This workout felt pretty good - we had to cut out a few times to help the kids, but we prevailed again! Feels good to be almost done another week.

Here's today's work:

Download P90x Workout for Free!

I have a friend that is trying out the P90x program, but he doesn't have the videos. He has somehow picked up the text version of the program and is reading that as a guide through the program. If you want to save $130, this is the way to do it, but I don't think it is worth it.

Here are some of the reasons for purchasing a program:

Timing of exercises
One of the reasons why this program is so good, is because it's fast paced. You don't have to watch the stopwatch to know how long to work out and how long to rest... it is done for you. I barely have enough time to record what I did and get ready for the next exercise - I can't imagine having to read it!

Complexity of moves
Some of these workouts are not for those who lack in coordination... like myself. It takes a few times watching and trying to look somewhat like the demos, and we are still trying to master them. Yoga and Kenpo especially are difficult to follow and master; I couldn't imagine trying to figure out those moves from written text.

Investment helps commitment
What do you think is easier: quitting a program you didn't pay for or one you did pay for? The more you invest in something (time and money), the hard it is to ditch it. Do you remember when your mom put you in piano lessons and you said you were going to quit? She made you finish because she had already paid didn't she? No one likes to waste money. You will be more likely to see the program to the end if you make a financial investment. If you take the time to study the program and see the testimonials from others, chances of program completion increase even more.

Ease conscious
I don't know where my friend got the text version of the program, it may very well be legit. I do know there are pirated copies of this program out there that are readily downloaded. So let me ask this, if you do get a pirate version and have great results, who are you going to tell? What if they ask you where you got your program? I may be a bit anal about this since I work in the software industry, but I don't think $130 is worth the cost to someone's integrity.

Make the investment!
So decide to do the program and make the investment; go pickup bottles/cans and cash them in - the exercise you do in the process may even help you get ready for the program!

So, why are we video recording our workouts anyway?

That's a good question! It takes a long time (a least for novice video editors such as ourselves) to edit and format the video so it can be posted on the web... is it really worth it? I hope to answer this question below so when I am tempted to curse this camera and back my car over it - Shilleen will be able to point me to this post and perhaps reason will prevail.

Motivation
We couldn't think of any better motivation to ensure we do the exercises properly, consistently and to the best of our ability. Sure, the video is in fast-forward, but you can still get the idea if the technique is correct and or if we are "doggin it". Just the thought in the back of our minds that hundreds of thousands (ok, maybe 10 tops) are going to be looking at these videos and studying our every move -makes us try that extra bit harder.

Proof: We Believe in Showing Our Work
Shilleen comes from a math background where she was taught to always show her work - at the end of this program we what to be able to prove that we did every work out and did it to the best of our ability. Video doesn't lie... unless it is skillfully altered, which skill we don't have.

Remembering the Glory Days
Ok, we are both in our early 30's now, so the real glory days were a decade ago, but I know I'll be saying the same thing when I am in my 40's. At least when I am in my 40's I will have something to look back on, whereas right now I don't have anything to show for my 20's.

Remembering Accomplishing a Goal
By recording our attempt at accomplishing a goal - we hope that we will either learn from the failure, or use it as a spring-board to accomplish even greater goals together.

Report to accelerate improvement
I heard a quote that I believe: "When performance is measured performance improves. When performance is measured and reported the rate of improvement accelerates" - Thomas S Monson. Who would be better to report to than you? We hope we will have some good feedback and encouraging comments. We also recognize that there are some out there that may not be so kind - if this is you, all that we ask is for a generous monetary donation and you can say whatever you want. Encouragement is free, criticism will cost you.

Show Others they Can Do It
By showing exactly what we did with exercise and diet, we hope to help others to learn from our successes, and mistakes - and get even better results than we did. Let's face it, we aren't the typical "gym monkeys" that have all day to work out and look at themselves in the mirror. If we can do it, you can do it too.

Have you ever done something like this? What was your motivation?

Here is today's workout video:
Week 1: Day 02

P90X Day 01 Workout: The Real Story

Why is that whenever I try to accomplish a goal, I can expect the unexpected to happen. We wanted to do this work out regime by the book - doing exercises and eating all recommended meals and supplements to see if it really works. It was a challenging day, but we decided that we were going to start today no matter what.

Here are just a couple of things that happened:

No Supplements
We kind live out in the sticks, so our mail arrives a few days later than most. We had hoped to have them before we started, but after a week - they had not arrived. This is a bit discouraging because we wanted to do everything by the book.

Kids
Shilleen and I have done workouts in the past together - usually the kids hang around, do a few exercises and play with their toys... not today. Check out the video above, we had to take a break mid-way through the workout to referee a cage match between a 1 and 3 year old... it was a good tilt, I must admit.

Head ache
As you may have noticed in the video, I only lasted for about a half hour before I had to bail out with a headache. I know, what a sissy! I don't know what brought it on, but it wasn't getting any better by trying to push through - I'm hoping Tony's voice doesn't have the same effect as Mary Hart's did for that woman with epilepsy... only time will tell.

No Tripod

We recently purchased a new video camera so we could record our workouts, yet we didn't think that we would need something to hold it in place while we worked out. We spent a good 20 min deciding where to put that thing. We finally decided to balance it on some towels (piled on an angle), that were on top of a box lid, that was balanced on top of a 6ft tall lamp. Having a new camera on a tipsy lamp with 2 kids running around... the reasons for my headache are starting to come clear...

Is it just me, or does this sort of thing happen to you when you try accomplishing a goal?