This was a tough workout. Again I was sweating like crazy at the end and felt like I had been through a meat grinder. The heaviest dumbbell used was only 12 pounds.

Tony said the key to this workout is that virtually every muscle in the body is used for relatively simple moves which is what generates the work resulting in all the sweat. He’s right.

The bad cueing and Tony’s new sort of over the top attempt at humor continue. It’s really too bad that his success resulted in this. He hit it perfectly in P90X and really needs to dial it back if there ever is a P90X3.

At the end of the first week I have come to a conclusion on P90X2. I have been thinking that I should return the DVDs and just do the old P90X. But the new moves are good in the actual workouts. I can ignore the bad acting and cueing. Instead of doing X2 Recovery + Mobility I will substitute the old X-Stretch. Instead of doing X2 Yoga I will substitute real yoga from Rodney Yee or some other yogi.

So, one week down and twelve to go.

I tried P90X2 Yoga yesterday. I was really looking forward to this new Yoga workout because it is about one hour long instead of 90 minutes as in the P90X version. To say I was disappointed is an understatement . After about 10 minutes of lousy moves I was very disgruntled. And the disjointed cueing that seems to plague all the P90X2 workouts continued.

I am sure that tens of thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of people are going to claim that P90X2 is the greatest workout ever. But I am extremely disappointed. I can heartily recommend P90X, but I cannot recommend P90X2. I hope it grows on me.

Anyway, back to Yoga. I pulled the P90X2 Yoga DVD and put in Rodney Yee’s Power Yoga workout instead. This is an 80 minute Yoga routine that is much better than either the P90X or P90X2 version. I figure if I have to do Yoga at least once a week, I might as well do it right.

Well, I did X2 Recovery and Mobility yesterday and I’m totally disgusted with the program. I won’t be using that workout ever again. I may substitue X-Stretch from the old P90X instead.

I am thinking about sending it all back, but I’ll finish the first week and then decide.

Tuesday is Plyocide day jokingly referred to by Tony Horton as “death by plyometrics.” I was expecting a tough workout based on the P90X Plyometrics session.

It starts out once again with the new warmup section that uses the stupid foam rollers. Tony has really drank the Kool-Aid on these time wasters. Oh well, time to get with the program so I did it and I won’t mention it again.

Finally the warm up is over and we get into the actual moves. I’m expecting lots of jumping pretty much the same as in Plyometrics only different. (BTW, I always thought the Plyometric workout was one of the very best in P90X.) Although there is still jumping in Plyocide, it is way different than Plyometrics. Lots of the new stuff is jumping while balancing if that makes any sense. And the jumps seem lower impact too. And fewer of them. In fact, I was starting to think the workout was toned down too much and I was sort of starting to think I may have wasted my money. Maybe I should have stayed with P90X and just do it again.

But then I noticed that just like the X2 Core workout, I was sweating more and having difficulty completing all the moves with good form. The whole floor was covered in sweat. My heart rate was lower than when doing Plyometrics, but it was a deceivingly tough workout.

This morning my whole body is stiff and sore in all new places. One main difference between Plyocide and Plymetrics is that in addition to jump training it works the core more. It seems I was snookered again. The new workout is harder than it looks.

I’m ready for a rest day and am looking forward to X2 Recovery + Mobility. The only problem is that there is a lot of that stupid stuff I said I wouldn’t mention again.

My transition week is over and I have started the new P90X2 program. The first workout was X2 Core. I now have aches and pains where I have never had aches and pains before.

When I started the workout I was very worried that I had made a big mistake. The warmup isn’t like any previous warmup. Instead you have to use a stupid foam roller and a medicine ball. I went through it and was just thinking Oh Crap! Finally the warm up was over and it was time for the big workout.

And then Oh Crap – again!!!! What stupid moves. Each move was more stupid than the last one.

But then I started to notice a couple of things. First, I was sweating like crazy. Then I noticed that even though the moves looked easy on the screen, I couldn’t do some of them. And the ones I could do I wasn’t doing with good form. At the end of the workout I had a whole new respect for the X2 Core workout. My aches and pains that I feel this morning are good aches and pains. It means I activated muscle systems that haven’t been used lately.

Today the workout is Plyocide or “death by plyometrics” which is sort of ominous. But I am looking forward to it and will post the first impressions.

Warning: If you are considering any of the BeachBody programs, take their fitness test first and get a clearance from your doctor. If you have never done them before, consider this sequence: Power90, P90X, and then P90X2.

I just finished a great workout taken from The Complete Guide To Navy SEAL Fitness by Stewart Smith. It looks like this –

First the pyramid.

.                            10
.                         9      9
.                      8            8
.                   7                  7
.                6                        6
.             5                              5
.          4                                    4
.       3                                          3
.    2                                                2
. 1                                                     1

At each step of the pyramid you do a super-set of three excersises. The level of the pyramid is multiplied by the number of reps for the exercises in the super-set. I did the following:

x1 pull-ups
x2 push-ups
x3 sit-ups

For example:

SET #1:

• 1 x 1 = 1 pull-up
• 1 x 2 = 2 push-ups
• 1 x 3 = 3 sit-ups

SET #2:

• 2 x 1 = 2 pull-ups
• 2 x 2 = 4 push-ups
• 2 x 3 = 6 sit-ups

Pretty easy so far, right?

SET #10:

• 10 x 1 = 10 pull-ups
• 10 x 2 = 20 push-ups
• 10 x 3 = 30 sit-ups

By this time you are pretty wasted and very thankful that you are going down the back side of the pyramid.

When it’s finally over you have done 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 sit-ups. Not bad for an old fart.

This pyramid workout is very useful and can be applied to many different exercises. You can do it for a single exercise or any number that are super-setted. You can vary the multipliers. For example, there is another popular variation that does the above but then adds a fourth exercise of dips with a multiplier of 2.

For kayaking, try this. Do the same pyramid but the exercise is paddling as hard and fast as you can. The multiplier would be 1 with 1 minute of slow recovery paddle until the next step:

1 min paddle hard, recover 1 min
2 min paddle hard, recover 1 min
3 min paddle hard, recover 1 min
and so on until you complete the pyramid or puke.

It was all worth it. I just finished 13 weeks of P90X. As I progressed in the program I added a bit to the mix.

During this 90-day program I did the following.

I walked one hour per day every day of the week. Sunday and Thursday are my “rest” days so I must walk at a comfortable pace. All other days I can do a walk/run or a run depending on how I feel. But no matter what I have to at least walk every single day.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are my heavy days. In addition to the morning walk I add the P90X workout of the day in the afternoon. At the end of the P90X workout I pause the DVD just before the cool down and I do 100 kettlebell swings with a 40lb kettlebell. Then I restart the DVD for the cool down. I follow that with the P90X Ab Ripper workout. After that I start up Insanity and usually to their Pure Cardio. This intense sessions take a bit over two hours to complete.

Tuesday I do the P90X Plyometrics in the afternoon.

Thursday I am supposed to do the P90X Yoga but instead I usually do P90X X-Stretch. Sometimes I just take the day off as a rest day.

Saturday is supposed to be P90X Kenpo, but their Kenpo sucks so I do a Bas Rutten or Team Quest or SEAL Workout. Or sometimes I just do a bunch of yard work.

Sunday is always rest day but that includes a walk.

Note that I started with just P90X. The other stuff was added as I progressed. When you reach my advanced stage of decrepitude (64) you have to progress carefully.

The Results After 13 Weeks:

• Net weight loss of 18 pounds
• Lost 22 pounds of fat
• Gained 4 pounds of muscle
• Flexibility has improved significantly

Not bad.

For the next 13 weeks I will be changing to P90X2. I’m also going to change my nutrition plan just a bit, and I will have kayak day twice a week now that I can fit in my kayak.

It’s all good!

Week four is a recovery week for P90X and I have been taking it easy all week. However, I added Insanity to the workout plan as well as a 2 mile walk every day. I’m really looking forward to getting back into the high intensity P90X workouts on Monday.

After a forced layoff from training for almost one year I am back in the game. I started P90X two weeks ago. Today was the last workout of the second week and I feel great!

P90X is very intense and there is no way I can keep up with the DVD, but I am doing pretty good considering I am a few decades older than everyone on the screen including Tony. If any WaterTribers out there decide to use P90X for their workouts, be careful and pace yourself. It is a three month cycle so don’t think you have to do the same rep counts as the demo group on the screen.

Next week I am adding Insanity workouts. I’ll do a P90X workout of the day followed by the Insanity workout of the day. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I will also do Ab Ripper. The overall goal here is to get back to my fighting weight of 170 pounds of pure gristle.

Of course, since I intend to “kick the panties” off all the class 1 guys at the NCC2012, I will also be doing kayak trips 2 or 3 times each week. These are going to start off fairly short but each week they will get longer right up to race time.

I’ve been out in the Viviane three times now. Each time has been a very short and leisurely paddle just to get the kinks out. And there are a lot of kinks.

I’m too stiff, too fat, too weak and too old for this. I have a lot of work to do.

The good news is that the Viviane’s front and back storage compartments are bone dry. The bad news is that the day compartment just behind the cockpit isn’t. Also, the skeg worked fine for the first two paddles and quit working on the last paddle. For a kayak that is about 10 years old she is in great shape but needs a little work just like me.

The skeg will be an easy fix. The glue or whatever used to keep the cable sleeves in position got brittle with age and broke loose. The cable got out of position which caused a jam. Easy to fix.

I’m not sure why the small storage compartment leaks.

I am adding a rudder system because I plan to sail downwind. It is possible to sail without a rudder, but in some conditions it will be nice to multitask: steer while using an aggressive brace. Sometimes that is the difference between surfing a wave or being in a washing machine.

I’ve also started working on my body. Stretching, P90X, Kettlebells, and paddling 3 times a week.