Round 3 / Day 37: One-on-One with Tony Horton - Plyo Legs

As you've probably noticed, I've not been following my Monster Mash-Up schedule to the letter. (My goal, after all, isn't to slavishly follow a set calendar of routines, but to add variety to my workout regimen while keeping my intensity high enough to maintain my current fitness level.)

For example, on Friday, instead of resting, I did Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit and Killer Abs. Yesterday, I did Upper Body Plus, but skipped Abs / Core Plus after M reminded me not to work my abs two days in a row. And today, I didn't want to do Plyo Cardio Circuit twice in three days, so I whipped out Plyo Legs from my One-on-One with Tony Horton DVD set.



Plyo Legs offered a great counterpoint to yesterday's upper body workout. For the most part, it combines exercises from the "Legs" part of P90X Legs & Back (e.g., Calf-Raise Squats, Super Skaters, Wall Squats, Deadlift Squats, Chair Salutations, Toe-Roll Iso Lunges, Groucho Walks, etc.) and P90X Plyometrics (e.g., Run Stance Squats, Mary Katherines, Leapfrog Squats, Run Squat 180 Jump Switches, Squat Jacks, etc.), but also adds some challenging variations. For instance, Tony does Mary Katherines and Leapfrog Squats with a medicine ball, and he demands higher jumps and more reps on just about every exercise.

Overall, this is a tough workout, but very doable -- especially if you've already tackled P90X and Insanity.

Bonus: Tony hocks three loogies during this workout, though none on the floor.

Round 2 / Day 37: Insanity Plyometric Cardio Circuit

A half-hour after this morning's (rather grueling) workout, my preschooler ambled sleepily into the kitchen, muttered "good morning" and gave me a half-hearted hug.

He then started coughing violently and croaked: "Ugh! Dad -- your body smells FILTHY."

That's a sign of a good workout, my little friend.

P90X Day 37: Plyometrics

I started Plyo today feeling great. Part of it was attributable to the fact that I knew I had zero pull-ups to complete, but mostly, I just woke up wanting to exercise. So after downing some yogurt (and totally ignoring Tony's warning not to eat for at least an hour before plyo), I threw myself into the jumps, twists, spins, marches and circle runs with the abandon of a Shaker in late-eighteenth-century New England (but minus the speaking-in-tongues and faith-healing).

Get your knees UP, people!

Unfortunately, my quads are still super-tight and achy. They burn crazily every time I do a squat-related move. It's like the front of my thighs contracted gonorrhea. (But for the record: Neither I nor anything attached to me has ever contracted gonorrhea.)

[UPDATE: I'm very proud to report that this is now the first site that pops up when you search on Google for "Shakers and gonorrhea."]