30 day photos

This really shows me what areas I need to work on and it's a great motivator too! Things area progressing and I can't wait to see what my results will be in another 30 days! You like the frown/smile? Typical for before & after photos, right? You'll need to click on the photos to see the whole thing.

"Recovery Week"? Yeah, right!

After three weeks of taking a pounding, my body was begging for some relief. Week four is called Recovery Week and it's supposed to allow my body to recover from the hard resistance training and enhance my adaptive process. According to the P90X fitness guide, this week focuses on tightening the entire midsection into a "hard, ripped sheet." Core strength, balance, and flexibility are the focus of the week as my body increases its stabilizer-muscle strength during recover and ab focus.

Day 1 of the week was Yoga X, which I enjoy although it's quite a challenge still.
Day 2 was Core Synergistics, the first time for this workout. This was the toughest workout yet, I think. This workout focuses on strengthening the lumbar spine and trunk muscles. Some of the exercises include:

• Stacked Foot Pushups - standard pushup position, but your right arm is out in front of your body while your left hand is tight beside your rib cage and you stack your feet one on top of the other. Tough stuff!
• Bananna Roll - Tougher yet! You lie on your back with your legs & arms extended straight out approx. 6-12 inches off the floor (biceps should be beside ears) and hold for five counts. Then you roll to your side side, keeping legs and arms extended and off the floor. Roll to stomach, keeping legs & arms off floor. Hold for 5 counts. Continue to roll to the other side, maintaining form, until ending up on your back in original start position. You repeat this process, rolling back to the start position. Sounds easy, but try it for yourself.
• Prison Cell Pushup - You start standing then bend forward, place your hands on the floor, jump back to plank position, perform a pushup, then bring your right knee in towards your chest, then put it back. Do another pushup, then bring your left knee in, put it back, do a third pushup, then jump up to standing position. And that's one rep... ugh!
• Superman Banana - Just like the banana roll, but you try to get as much of your body up off the ground as you can while on your stomach, then roll to your back.

There's lots more, but those are the doozies for me. It's a 57 and a half minute workout.

Day 3 - Kenpo X. I'm liking this more and more each time I do it.
Day 4 - X Stretch
Day 5 - Core Synergistics again
Day 6 - Yoga X
Day 7 - Rest or X Stretch

Now here's the bad news for me. I had to take a week off from the program due to a business (and pleasure) trip to Florida. I tried to consider how I was going to perform week 5 at the hotel, but it really wasn't feasable. I really prefer weights over the resistance bands now and being that week 5 is the start of Phase 2 and includes some new workouts, I decided to just take a week off and get right back at it when I got back. Also, there was no dvd player in the hotel room.

Oh, by the way, PHASE ONE IS DONE!!! That means I have to take 30-day photos... They'll be posted next!