Foam Roller

My husband has been having some issues with his knee, and his physical therapist recommended he try foam rolling. So I got him a big piece of foam exactly like the one in the picture (from amazon) for Christmas. It looks like an over sized pool noodle, only it's harder, thicker around, and rigid. He feels it's really helping him and has been looking up all sorts of ways to roll various muscles on YouTube. When my middle back was tightening up, he was able to instruct me on some rolling points to help alleviate my discomfort. It does feel kind of nice to be honest.

While I've been doing the P90X lean schedule (currently finishing up week 6), I deviated today by joining my husband in doing the plyometric workout, which I'd never attempted before. Some of the plyometric exercises are in the core synergistic and cardio workout and if I could rename it I'd call it "Jump, jump, jump, x infinity." Tony Horton calls plyometric "the mother of all workouts." Indeed, this workout generated the greatest amount of sweat I've experienced while doing a P90X workout.

Week 5, day 1 P90X

Well, I've made it through the first 30 days. Good thing weight loss isn't the goal, because I haven't lost any weight. I'd like to think I've gained more muscle and burned some belly fat. I have a pair of pants I'm using as a gauge of what I'd like to get into, and while I can squeeze into them, I wouldn't wear them yet, because their still too tight for public. I might have lost an inch in the waist, but what I notice is that it varies from day to day and from the beginning of the day (when I look significantly slimmer) through the progression of the day and meals. Sometimes I tape at 34, sometimes 35, and often at the end of the day 36 inches.

As long as I'm eating and drinking enough I feel so much more energetic, and I'm able to do more and more of the exercises. So I feel stronger and more flexible.

Week 3 slow down

Working out took a bit of a back seat to the increased demands of a round of colds giving our immune systems a specialized workout. An already hectically paced week full of doctors appointments, recitals, and snow, which brought a few heaven sent cancelations, resulted in a couple necessary off days. Though, I managed to squeeze in a round of Ab ripper one day. While this week has brought gains in strength and increased ability to do even more of the exercises, I can see a little less endurance on cardio movements. Since 90% of my respirations take place through my mouth these days, decreased oxygenation is a very real excuse, so I'm taking it easy as it seems prudent.  

Today I picked up where I left off and completed yoga. This workout seems very helpful, but requires so much time. I blow off the three minutes of meditation at the end so I can get back to caring for the masses in my home. I can lay around in a fetal position some other time, or relax several times a day while nursing the baby. In fact my session was interrupted for about 10 minutes to nurse the baby in dire need. That's what the pause button is for after all. And any how, nursing a baby a workout in and of itself, requiring a lot of high quality care and nutrition to ensure success. I don't need to work very hard to feel the taxation on my body, so judicious prudence stresses that it's good to slow down when needed.

Don't be like me...
remember mozzarella!

Fuel is very important. Last night we had The Pioneer Woman's Potato Leek Pizza. I missed the part about mozzarella, and simple used goat cheese and parmesan only, which might explain why the kids weren't so thrilled with my latest experiment. However, Ree's pizza dough recipe yield much better results than the one we'd been using before, which redeemed my potato pizza enough that no slice went uneaten.

I'm working out!

Today was my third day of my first week doing the workout program, P90X. My husband acquired this a while ago. As I was pregnant when he went through it last year, I've never tried this before. The husband doesn't like working out at home, and prefers to go places and see things while exercising. Since I'm committed to being home with the kids at all times, everything that happens in my life has to take place at home or it's not going to happen, at least not on a regular basis. So I've dusted off the group of CD work outs, and am giving them a try. Maybe I'll update with a flabby belly shot next week and keep track of my results.... we'll see.

The first workout I did, on Monday, was the Core Synergistic, which was brutal! Some of the moves I simply could not do, because I seem to lack even a introductory level of core strength. I tried everything at least once, but for moves I found I could not do, I just lay there and watched, or did part of the move instead. I've been so stiff and sore since doing this first work out.

Yesterday, I did cardio, which wasn't too bad. The funky jumping jacks are kind of fun. Since I was sore I wondered if I'd be able to do another workout, but as each workout is targeting different muscles it wasn't any harder once I'd got warmed up and going. I've noticed that doing the next workout helps relieve the tightness of the muscles used the day before.

Today I attempted the shoulders and arm workout, but I had to break so many times for kid and baby issues that it took twice as long to complete the actual workout. My guide also directed me to complete the Ab ripper workout, but I decided to post phone that till tomorrow, perhaps while the turkey is in the oven. I suppose this is still better than not doing anything at all, and at least this way I can hit pause and come back to it when I need to step away.


Using 5lb dumbbells I found shoulders and arms to be quite doable. Though I modified the chair press, and had to limit my reps on the funky side crunch thing when my 8 month old decided if I was on the floor I must be a fun piece of playground equipment, repeatedly climbing on top of me.


All and all I think my core is the weakest and that's where I'm going to flounder for a while. Hopefully, this will help me get that part of my body more in line with everything else.

My goal is to get stronger and more energetic. I want to be able to do more with my days and not feel so tired all the time. You never get something (worth anything) without putting in hard work to earn it.

Update: Day 4 was Thanksgiving so I did Ab ripper X, which I'd missed the day before. Yowzers, do I have a lot of room for improvement there! However, now I'm inspired to develop some nicely toned abdomen muscles, something I've never achieved before. Today I resumed with the regularly scheduled day 4; Yoga, which seems long. I'm beginning to feel strain in muscles I didn't even know existed. I suppose that's the point. There's certainly a few of these moves I can't do yet, but I tried just about everything.
Update: Day 5 was legs and back. Half the workout is pull ups. I've never done a pull up in my life, but not for lack of trying. The best I've ever been able to do is a bar hang. For the first week I just did mock pull ups, but next week I hope to employ our portable chin up bar and try them using the chair assist method.  Day 6 was Kempo X, with lots of punching and kicking karate style, lots of fun! And finally, today, Day 7, was rest and Stretch, which still required about an hour of my time; well spent. Tomorrow will be Core Synergist again. I started the week at about 130lbs and haven't lost any weight so far, which isn't my goal anyhow. I want to build muscle, strength, endurance, and energy so I can do of the things I need and want to do. I do feel a bit more energized already.