Last week was a couple of new routines and the word that sums it all up was “ouch”. I had finally decided to try out one of the “P90X” routine since a friend had so kindly given me her DVD set. While I am reluctant to adhere to the nutritional program (after all, the chances of peanut butter cookies & nachos on the menu is probably slim), I am keen to see what the workouts will do for me. DVD #1 was the chest/back routine. Since I don’t have a pull-up bar yet, I used resistance bands thrown around the beam across our ceiling for an anchor. We all have to improvise sometimes!
I knew I was in trouble when the routine started off with push-ups and the instructor asked each of his groupies how many they were planning to do. No one (including the woman) answered less than twenty. Crap. Well, my number was about 16, with half of those on my knees. By the end of the hour, all my push-ups were on my knees. The resistance bands also beat me up a bit and I can only imagine what actual pull-ups would do, assuming I could do more than two. Somehow through all this there is quite a bit of core action going on, so I’m feeling a nice soreness all over, though I still had to follow it up with a brisk 3 miles of treadmill hills. (I know, there is something kind of wrong with me.)
So – that was Monday. Tuesday I returned to the spot I took my first Zumba class to try something else (it’s a Groupon deal for 5 classes). I decided to give the “barre method” workout a try. Of course, after Monday’s chest & back workout, what’s the first thing we do in this class? Push-ups. OUCH. Then a few of those free weight moves that are somewhat deceiving: the kind where you use very light weights but in ways that have your arms shaking within a minute. Let’s just say I’m very glad that when the instructor told me to get a set of weights she steered me away from the 10lb ones. The rest of the routine was a nice full-body mix and a lot of core focus. By Tuesday night I could barely lift my arms high enough to wash my hair.
Wednesday I decided to take it easy and headed to the pool for a short swim. Why do I always seem to forget how much your abs are involved in a flip turn? GOOD GOSH OUCH OUCH OUCH! I did manage about 2500 yards, and I have to say that the weightlessness of the swim helped, at least enough so that the barre method class on Thursday didn’t seem as bad. I’ll give it a couple more of those (use up the Groupon) and perhaps then I might be in slightly better shape to take on the P90X monster again. Just don’t take away my cookies.