Round 3 / Day 64: One-on-One with Tony Horton - 30-15 Upper Body Massacre

I'm supposed to be kicking off another Recovery Week today, but there are a few workouts that I skipped when I was out of town a couple of weeks ago, so for the sake of being totally anal about it, I decided to go back and knock 'em off.

After today's workout, I'm sort of regretting that decision.

30-15 was a kick in the balls. Even after I ramped down to 10 pull-ups per set instead of Tony's 15, attempting 12 sets of 30 push-ups and 12 sets of even 10 pull-ups was neither fun nor successful: I ended up quitting before finishing my last two sets of push-ups and pull-ups.

Round 2 / Day 64: P90X Chest & Back + Ab Ripper X

Just for kicks, and feeling inspired by "The Naked Warrior," I decided to up my weights and lowered my reps during this morning's Chest & Back workout. For example, I chained a weight plate to my belt before doing my pull-ups, but did only five per set. Cranking up the intensity level, I actually felt like I worked harder than normal. Still, none of the moves were done to exhaustion, and at the end of the hour, I wasn't completely exhausted. I could really get used to not feeling like I'm going to pass out at the end of a P90X session.

P90X Day 64: Chest, Shoulders & Triceps + Ab Ripper X

I thoroughly enjoyed Chest, Shoulders & Triceps this morning. My form continues to improve, and both my reps and weights are increasing. I'm positively killing the Tony-style airborne plyo push-ups, and I'm now able to squeeze out a respectable number of one-armed push-ups, too. I'm even getting the hang of the various triceps moves.

But thank God I didn't have to do any pull-ups or chin-ups today. I'm having a hell of a time with them. Although I'm now able to gut out almost twice the number of unassisted pull-ups as I could on Day 1, I've been stuck on a plateau for a while.  My rep count hasn't seen much upward movement in weeks, which frustrates and bewilders me. Why is it that I see significant progress in my ability to perform virtually all of the P90X moves except for pull-ups and chin-ups?

I don't have Back & Biceps until the day after tomorrow, and I'm already dreading my rendezvous with the pull-up bar in my garage.