Week 1, Day 3 - Backpacks as Torture Devices

It's 2-a-Day-Wednesday! p90x in the morning, and teaching spin class at night!

This morning I completed the Shoulders & Arms section, followed by the Ab Ripper X section. Whew! My shoulders have been thoroughly worked. One of the things I like about p90x is that you constantly switch between muscle groups, so you don't realize how many times you've hit them. For example, Tony and I kept rotating through a set targeting deltoids, then biceps, and then triceps, over and over again. We'd do 2 sets each, then move on to 3 different exercises. We used weights, a chair, a mat, or just gravity, constantly mixing it up and keeping it fresh. I didn't even realize how much work I'd done until I put on my backpack - ouch! But the good kind of ouch. Lol, a very satisfying ouch.

Do enjoy this diagram, with this very muscular woman (I think it's a woman) striking a jaunty pose. She looks very pleased with herself, yes? Today's workout targeted the biceps, triceps, and deltoids, but also hit the trapezius (traps) and latissimus dorsi (Lats).

I stuck to low weights today, just to keep correct form and watch what to do. And I honestly don't know my limits and didn't want to be crippled tomorrow, so I erred on the side of caution. The rest of this dull paragraph is for my record. In general, I used 5 lb weights for shoulder exercises (shoulder flies, alternating shoulder press, swimmer's press) and tricep exercises (kickbacks). However, for any row exercises, I used 8 lb. I also used 8 lb for all bicep exercises (curls). However, I think I need to invest in 10 lb weights for curls and rows, and bump my shoulder presses to 8 lb. I mostly did 10-12 reps, unless Tony insisted that I do 16. For all the non-weighted exercises (chair dips, side tri rise), I did 15 reps.

As for the Ab Ripper X, well, it didn't seem that bad when I tried it for fun on Sunday. But I get "Second Day Soreness", which means I'm feeling the effects of Core Synergistification from Monday. Sooooo...Ab Ripper X was ROUGH today. Lol, but I battled through it, and made a goal each time to do 20 of the 25 reps for each exercise. And luckily, no SuperMan Bananas on my poor hip bones.

I'll be fine for Cycle & Abs class tonight. My hamstrings and glutes are tender, but I've taught through worse. Cycling is actually a really a nice workout to do with sore muscles, since it's so low impact. And I'm am definitely going to teach some Ab Ripper X exercises in the abs portion of class.