P90X 30 Day Wrapup

I have completed the first month of P90X, which means I am about ¹⁄₃ of the way on my journey.

When I attempted P90X the first time (last fall), I got about 5-6 weeks into it before faltering. However, this time it’s more of a milestone since I stuck to it with more dedication and accuracy than the last time I saw Day 30.

Results so far

Unlike previous updates, I’ve got more to report, since 30 days is a milestone. To be fair, these measurements were actually taken on Day 28, but that doesn’t really matter. This is also the first checkpoint to include progress photos.

A few caveats

I didn’t take “before” pictures 30 days ago, so I am using the ones I used last time, which were taken in Sept 2010 – which accounts for the lack of major difference in my physique (when I started P90X last time, it was after a few months of hitting the gym, running, etc), as well as how much less pale I am in the “before” shots.

Also, I didn’t do my measurements on Day 1, but started them on Day 7, so it’s really only three weeks worth of progress, not a full month.

Before/After Photos

Before you make fun of me for the “poses”, these are standard P90X photos. I fully realize that there’s not a lot of progress shown in the pictures, and I debated actually posting them (as they are pretty embarrassing), but for a full accountability purposes, I need to totally own this. It will also make it look that much more impressive when I post updates in 30 days.

The tale of the tape

Measurement-wise, I see pretty good improvements. Here are my measurement stats (all are in inches):

Date	3/13/2011	3/20/2011	3/27/201
Neck	16	16	16
Shoulder	18	21.5	18
Chest	43	41	42
Waist	42.5	41.5	40.5
Abdomen	45	44	43
Hips	44.5	43.5	44
Thigh	24	24	26
Knee	16	14.5	14.5
Calf	16.35	15.5	15.5
Ankle	9	9	9
Bicep	14.5	13.75	14
Forearm	10.5	11	11
Wrist	6.75	7	6.5
Waist-Hip Ratio	0.95505618	0.94827586	0.92045455

The measurements in some are a little off, but the important ones (waist, etc) are accurate and they reflect a loss of two inches in three weeks. I’m pretty proud of that one.

Scaling out

Pound wise-, I’ve only lost 1.1 pounds, and according to the BF monitor in my scale, I’ve only gone down 0.2% in body fat. But I’m putting most of my stock in the inches measurement, not the scale or the (generally wildly inaccurate) body fat monitor.

P90X Stats

This was “recovery” week, so I don’t have as many fun charts and stuff. Don’t let the name fool you – it was NOT an easy week. It’s just a break from weights and pullups.

Yoga X

In theory, during the recovery week you do Yoga twice. I actually only did it once, since I got a little off of schedule and then was out too late on Saturday night to get up early enough on Sunday for an hour and a half of yoga.

That being said…when I did Yoga X on Monday, I did the entire video (all one hour and 38 minutes of it) for the first time ever. There were some poses and exercises I had trouble with (okay, a lot of them), but I did the whole thing.

Kenpo X

No major changes here for me. Kenpo is becoming a pretty stable day for me – I am able to get through the whole thing without issues. I had set a goal to do all of the “X” jumps during the breaks, which I did. My goal for the next time I do Kenpo is to try to get higher with my kicks.

Core Synergistics

This was new for me. I’d never done it before, and it came up TWICE in Recovery Week. A really tough (but pretty fun) all around core workout. I have major challenges with the Dreya Roll (especially since I’m pretty much toast by the time I get to it), but I held my own pretty well with doing it twice in one week.

The week ahead

Phase 2 is a set of different workouts, although a lot stay the same. Actually, I think only my Monday and Wednesday workouts change – Monday is now Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps,Tuesday is still Plyo, Wednesday is now Back and Biceps, Yoga moves to Thursday, Friday is still Legs & Back, and Saturday is still Kenpo.

I expect to have less than perfect performance on the two new days (I did CS&T this morning and know that I could have pushed it harder) since with new workouts I have to get a feel for the pacing. But I still am looking forward to mixing it up.

Diet-wise, I am going to try to get more in line with the P90X plan, which is less about calories and more about specific servings of things like protein, etc, throughout the day (just a different metric, but I think it will help me be more properly focused).