SoldierHawk wrote:

Excellent work, GP. I was very interest to see how this would turn out. I know you said you haven't done any weightlifting since high school, but do you have a general idea of what your performance might have been like before P90x?

A few years back when I was about 22 I remember doing a couple of benchpresses. I was only able to lift around 125ish as a maximum. I was doing lots of martial arts at the time, but no weight training.

My guess is that 4-5 months ago when I was in the worst shape of my life I probably could have benched around 130ish once or twice, but nothing more. I would have blown my back out trying a 225 squat. I am guessing I safely could have done 135-150, but that would be just once or twice, not for reps. As for deadlifts. Oh boy. That is a pure power exercise, how much can you pick up and stand. I had terrible posture and 3 inches of extra stomach. I bet I could have lifted about 120-130lb but wouldn't have been able to move the next day.

In order to do P90X a friend of mine gave me a 25" old school tube TV. It weighs around 80lb. The thing doesn't have a remote that works and it has shitty as hell picture. He was throwing it out until I asked for it. I recall that when I carried it downstairs I had to have my wife help and make sure I was ok. In addition I remember my back hurt really bad for the next 2 days.

By direct comparison, I have recently lifted a 150+lb tree stump and the only trouble I had was the fact that I got dirty from holding it.

My friends were extremely impressed that someone my size, 5'7.5" @ 145lb could move so much weight and not tire out easily. There is no question that today I feel it, but it isn't hurt as much as it is just tightness. Stretching has helped and I am confident that by the end of the day when I go home, I'll be out playing basketball or rollerhockey... oh shit.. .no I won't, I need to power wash the deck. Maybe after

SoldierHawk wrote:

Nice! I'm especially impressed by the squats. Those *kick my ass,* as does ruck marching. I really need to get better at that. I don't think any amount of training is going to make carrying half your body weight on your back a whole hell of a lot easier though. Still, even some progress is better than no progress. Any special advice you have on squats and/or working those muscles? Or was it just a matter of repetition and gradually increasing the weight?

Yeah, do plyometric workouts. Do them as fast as you can but be VERY safe on your ankles. In about a month your ankles will look like cankles. Don't worry, your calfs will catch up if you keep it up and then you'll just have solid ripped lower legs. Your quads will be easy to build up after you have lower leg strength.

The reason I like plyo so much is because it really makes your stabilizer muscles go nuts. Those are the ones that I fear failure with when I am active, so extra support on them is fantastic.

If you want to just get some solid calf strength quickly go pick up 20lb weights in each hand. Point your toes inward at a 45 degree angle. Stand on your toes, then bring your heels down. Repeat slowly 15 times. After 15 slow, do 10 very rapidly. Take 15 seconds. Adjust your feet so they are parallel shoulder width. Do the same exercise. Finally rest 15 seconds and point your heels together with your toes away from each other at 45 degrees outward. Repeat the 15 slow and 10 fast. Try to do it twice a week.

Once your lower legs, ankles, feet, etc are strong then I'd start to really push your upper legs. The easiest thing you can do is lunges with weights in your hands. If you feel like you can do more than 15 or so, then hold more weight.

If you want to really get hard, do toe roll iso lunges. Get into a lunge position while holding weights (5-10lb per hand). Straighten your back leg and push your heel back like you want to touch the ground. Really go deep on your front leg. Once in position roll your back foot forwards over your toe pushing your lunge forwards. When your heel is over your ankle of your front foot, stop. Roll your foot back using your toe as a hinge. Do it 20 times per side. If you don't feel that, then go with higher weight.

Lastly, I don't know what they are called, but lunges where you go from standing down into a front lunge, and then use your front heel to push yourself back to standing. Hold weights to make it harder.

Those are a lot of the things I was doing to get my legs stronger during P90X. The amount of weight you choose will determine how fast and how big your muscle gain is.

Well, a bit of a progress update.

I have been working my ass off six days a week to get tho this point and this morning I achieved one of my primary goals.

My starting waist measurement was 34.5 inches. This morning I did a quick measure and I finally broke 30". At 29.9" I am satisfied with my waist line. I'll continue to workout, but the gut is gone completely now and I can focus on purely building up.

Adding four days a week of martial arts for a full month has definitely helped and so has swimming a few days a week.

I have never had this much physical energy in my entire life. It feels terrific!

Captain_Pollution wrote:

Man, Fontaine, do you like, work for P90x, or something? But yeah, congratulations.

Heh, working for a fitness company doesn't actually sound like a bad gig. Being a physical trainer sounds fun, but then you realize that people have to workout early and late. So the hours are pretty much 4:30am - 10am and 5:30pm - 10pm. Those kinda suck.


Right now my schedule looks something like this:

6-7:30 am - Workout
9-5 - Work
7-8 - Martial Arts

I tend to stay up until around 11pm. So I have free time in there. I usually jump in the pool, fix up the house, watch tv, or play on the computer during that time.

Where the hell do I get one of these things so I can see if P90X made me strong enough to do this...

I am going to talk with my Martial Arts Master and see if he would be cool with one in the Dojo. I have no room at home for one. I think I might talk with one of my friends who builds flooring for a living. He gets plywood and has all the tools and resources we need to make one.

I have clapboard siding that needs to be replaced within a year. Also I don't really have a place on the house where my wife wouldn't kill me for mounting it.

Yeah it is!

Only ninjas don't get pegs and are expected to be able to go around the wall as many times as needed until they see someone to kill.