I wanted to get in a quick workout today.  I only had half an hour, but I wanted to do some resistance training.  I decided to do the P90X Shoulders & Arms workout, but with a twist.

Instead of doing the entire routine, I only did half of it.  With  P90X Shoulders & Arms it’s easy, because this routine is divided into five sections.  Each section has three exercises, and when you have done the three exercises, you repeat them.  So my “speed it up” solution is simple: I don’t repeat them.

I do the first three exercises, and instead of repeating them, I go on to the next three, and so on.  The last three exercises are the “bonus round”, so I skipped them as well.

With only one rotation through the exercises, it’s easy to go through the entire routine in less than half an hour.

I assume that I don’t get as good a workout if I only do each exercise once, instead of twice.  However, I suspect that probably 60% or 70% of the benefit comes from the first set, so I get most of the benefit in only half the time.  I make sure of that by always doing maximum reps, or using maximum weight, with each exercise.  When I know I have to do it all over again I “hold something back” on the first set.  When I know I’m only doing that exercise once, I go all out; there is no need to hold anything back.

That’s why I believe that I am getting almost all of the benefit, in only half the time.

The other advantage of a quick workout is it allows time to do the Ab Ripper X routine, the 16 minute core workout added on to the end of all resistance training sessions.  Again, I may only do the first few exercises, but I’m still getting lots of benefit.

The first few times through the workout I did it in full.  Now that I am more in to maintenance mode, the quick version works for me.

Today I did my first P90X workout in almost two months.

I finished the 12 week program, and then transitioned into other things.  I did some skiing (and discovered that P90X is great preparation for downhill skiing), and started working on my cardio for the upcoming running season.

I discovered, however, that running is hard on your body, and I ended up with a sore back.  I had no back problems at all when I was doing P90X, but when I spend most of my day sitting at my desk, and then try to go for a run, I have back problems.

So today I decided that a tune up was in order, so I did the P90X Legs & Back workout again.  I was quite pleased to discover that even after a two month break, I was still able to complete the workout at almost the same intensity and number of reps as the last time I did it.

I suspect if I took a two month break and did nothing I would have trouble, but taking a two month break from P90X and still doing other exercises I found I was able to maintain my fitness level.  That was encouraging.

My plan now will be to do perhaps one or two P90X workouts a week, interspersed with my other training.  Today I did a cardio workout (running on the treadmill) in the morning, and then I waited a few hours and in the afternoon I did the Legs & Back workout.  That worked out great; I was fresh for my primary running training, but still had time to rest prior to the P90X workout.  (I wouldn’t want to do P90X and then try to do a hard running training session).

I suspect that a Yoga workout every week or two will also help with cross training.

As Tony says, variety is the spice of life, so instead of trying to run six days a week, I’ll run three days a week, and do P90X workouts at other times.  We’ll see how it goes.

Today, as I progress through Week 11, was Legs & Back day.  This was the ninth time I’ve done this workout, so it’s not new to me.  I’m happy to report that I have made significant progress since week one.  I can do significantly more chin ups, and my legs feel great.

As I reported last week, the legs & back workout also contributed to a great weekend of downhill skiing, thanks to P90X.

My strength was great today; I did more chin ups than ever before.  What surprised me, however, was that I was getting winded.  I was out of breath more than I remember in previous workouts, so my cardio-vascular system wasn’t working great today.

It’s possible I was just having a bad day, or it’s possible that with my time off for skiing I haven’t done enough cardio recently.

Of course it’s also possible that all of those extra chin ups left me short of breath, so perhaps I shouldn’t worry.  Time will tell.

I have now completed 10 weeks of P90X, and so I decided to take a break for a few days by taking my family downhill skiing for a long weekend.  Three days of skiing; how would my body react?  How did P90X prepare me for skiing?

The answer: very well, thank you.

I skied for three days, and my legs felt great.

I believe there are two workouts in particular that contributed to my success.

First, the Legs & Back workout is an obvious source of leg strength.  Specifically, all of the squat-type exercises were great for strengthening the quads and glutes, which are critically important when hitting the hills.  The calf exercises also helped for the lower legs.

During the legs & back video Tony Horton even mentions that squats are critical for skiing, and I believe he’s correct.  He mentions that he’s a skier, and that he “shattered his knee” while skiing as a youngster, so it’s not surprising that he has designed workouts to help him, and us, prepare for one of his preferred sports.

Second, the Plyometrics workout was a big help.  Again, that’s not surprising.  All of the jumping around is a good simulation of the skiing motion.  In fact, some of the exercises are very similar to skiing.

Other workouts also helped.  Yoga, for instance, improves flexibility, which is important in every athletic activity.  Arms are used when going down the hills, and when propelling yourself to the lifts, so the upper body workouts also contribute to overall fitness in general, and ski specific condition in particular.

Obviously P90X is not designed as a skiing workout.  However, next year, in the weeks leading up to the start of the ski season, if I’m not doing P90X full time, I will certainly do a Legs & Back, Plyometrics and Yoga workout each week to prepare for hills.

Today was my fourth time through the Shoulders & Arms workout.  I am happy to report that I have improved significantly since the first round.  For example, the first week I did 10 reps with 15 pounds per arm in the alternating shoulder press.  Today my first set was 12 reps with 25 pounds.  I am doing more reps, and/or more weight on every exercise, and significantly so, so I’m quite satisfied.

And today, for the first time ever, I attempted the Ab Ripper X workout, which is a 15 minute core routine tacked on to the end of the resistance workouts.  The result: I can’t do most of the exercises, and on the ones I can do I can’t do the suggested 25 reps.  Oh well, something to work on for the future.

I am now in the fourth week of the P90X workout, which is the “rest” week.  The theory is that you go hard with the resistance training for three weeks, then in week number four you do no resistance training.  Instead you concentrate on cardio and stretching, so you are doing Yoga, Core Synergistics and Kenpo.

Today I did my fourth Yoga X workout since starting, and I now have a new favorite phrase: “Last Vinyasa”.

A Vinyasa is a series of poses in yoga.  In P90X it’s part of the Sun Salutation sequence: plank, chaturanga, downward dog, upward dog.

After the warm up in Yoga X you spend about half an hour doing variations of this sequence.  The first few are easy; the last few are killers, so when they flash on the screen that you are doing the Last Vinyasa, it’s a happy time!

Unfortunately even though you are 45 minutes in to the workout there are still 45 more minutes to go when you do your last vinyasa, but that’s fine.  The final half of the workout is balance poses and stretching, so although it’s hard it’s not as intense as the first half.

Of all the workouts I still find Yoga X to be the most difficult, and the most draining.  I am always most exhausted after the Yoga X workout (which hopefully means it’s working).

The first time I did the Legs & Back workout I found it to be difficult, but not impossible.  Today I did it again (since I’m now in week #2), and I realized that the the reason I didn’t kill myself the first time around was because I didn’t do very many reps of the various chin ups and pull ups that are required.

If you are doing the maximum number of reps you could do 120 or more pull ups.  I’m not doing anywhere near half that number; I do what I can, then I crash.

The leg exercises I’m able to do the maximum reps of virtually all of them, so next time I will increase the weight slightly.

As for the pull ups, I’ll just have to keep pulling, and hope I get gradually better over time.

I’m on Day #11 of P90X, so for me today was my second attempt at the Yoga X workout.  (You can read my wife’s thoughts on the P90X Yoga routine; she found it boring).My first run through was on Day 4, the first time I did the Yoga routine.  The first time I found the first 20 minutes very difficult.

Today I found it somewhat easier, presumably because my flexibility as improved marginally.  I was also more familiar with the moves, so I knew what was coming next, so I wasn’t constantly stopping to watch the screen.

But that, unfortunately, is also the problem with this routine.  For the first 45 minutes of this 90 minute workout you are doing the same moves over and over, with slight variations each time.  You start with move #1, then you repeat #1 and add #2, then it’s #1, #2, and #3, then #1, #2, #3 and #4, and so on.  By the end of the first 45 minutes you are quite sick of the “downward dog” and the “plank” and some of the other moves you have now done dozens of times.

I will admit that the first 45 minutes are difficult, and your heart rate will be pumping if you move at a good pace.  But it is still somewhat boring.

The second half of the workout is primarily balance poses and more stretching.  I’m no exercise expert, so I have no idea how important it is for general fitness to practice balancing, but I’m not sure that 45 minutes of balancing and stretching is necessary.

I think this would be a decent one hour workout, instead of a stretched out 90 minute routine.  So, that’s what I did.  I made it a one hour workout.

The beauty of a DVD is you can hit fast forward whenever you want, and on my DVD the fast forward button takes you to the start of the next exercise.  Perfect.  So when I’m bored with something, I hit fast forward, and go on the next one.

That’s also useful for some of the moves that I just can’t do.  Unfortunately I am not flexible enough to put one hand on the floor, twist, and put the other hand straight up in the sky.  Over time I assume I’ll improve, but I’m not there yet.

So, going forward, I’ll give the yoga another shot, but it will be for an hour, not longer, making use of the fast forward button.

Lest you think this review is all negative, I will make one positive comment: I did notice increased flexibility from the first run through last week.  In some of the exercises where I could only stretch a certain distance, today I was able to go a bit farther, so the incremental progress is encouraging.

Today I did the full Kenpo workout and what a blast that was.  Kenpo is a style of martial arts and the P90X workout uses a combination of jabs, kicks, hooks, uppercuts, sword movements, blocks, elbows, knee kicks, ball kicks, side kicks and three-direction kicks to work up a sweat.  If you’ve ever taken a cardio boxing or kickboxing class this is similar. I will admit I had no idea what I was doing and had a little trouble keeping all the hooks, jabs, uppercuts and kicks in sync.  But it was definitely one of the funnest workouts I’ve done yet.

What I liked:

• It was fast moving and fun.  A little practice and you can get the moves down.  I didn’t worry about getting the kicks high at first but found even by the end of the reps I had better control and balance.
• It’s a pretty good cardio workout. Move and lean your whole body into the moves and you’ll work up a sweat.  The trick is to do more that just move your arms around — get your whole body into throwing the punches and kicks.  I can see it getting easier over time though once you master the balance aspects.
• The lunges and kicks are great for the glutes — yeah baby!
• As with all the P90X CD’s, Tim Horton does a good job of working stretches into the beginning of the routine.  While he does add a short cool down at the end of the session I would also recommend you add some stretches at the end of the workout.

What I didn’t like:

• Not knowing the moves made it a bit hard at first which probably took away from some of the cardio benefit I should have been getting.
• Cool down and post stretches are a bit short.  You should definitely add in some post workout stretches to lengthen those muscles and help reduce soreness the next day.
• I think over time I’d want a boxing bag or speed bag to add a bit of intensity (and fun!).
• I was a bit disappointed with the insert of running on the spot, jump rope moves and jumping jacks (even the X jumping jacks).  This was a bit lame and boring.  Perhaps they are put in to kick up the cardio intensity a bit.  If so, find another way that fits in with the overall fun of the rest of the workout.  Boring workouts just mean you don’t do them well or at all.

How I did:

• Can you say lack of coordination.  My first time with many of these moves I definitely had the flailing arm thing going on and did not have the best footwork.  However I suspect it just takes a bit of practice.
• Finished the full 55 minute workout without too much difficulty.

I’m now way off my original ‘plan’.  While I’ve been doing workouts consistently I’ve mixed up the order a bit to suit both my schedule and mood.  S’okay by me though — it still meets my objectives of improving my overall fitness level.  Tomorrow I might try some Pilates (remember my dislike of Workout 5 – P90X Yoga!).  I have some old Winsor Pilates DVD’s I’ve pulled out.  Let’s see how they compare.

Now that I’m in week #2, this was the second time through doing the Shoulders & Arms workout. I did the first P90X shoulders & arms workout on Day 3.  I found this workout to be better than the first one, primarily because I knew what to expect.

I recorded my first shoulders & arms workout on the P90X worksheets, so it was easy to see the weight and reps I used last week.  (The worksheets have 10 columns, for 10 weeks of workouts, so it’s easy to track your progress).

My strategy today was simple: try to improve on what I did in the last workout.

My overall goal is “lean” as opposed to “lift weights to increase bulk”, so I attempt higher reps with lower weights, as opposed to low reps/higher weights to build mass.  So, if last week I was able to do 10 reps, this week, I’d shoot for 12.  If I could do 15, then it’s time to increase the weight and drop back the reps until I can improve.

I was able to improve, so I was satisfied with today’s workout.  With two of these workouts done, it will be easier to set goals for improvement in future workouts.