Round 3 / Day 68: One-on-One with Tony Horton - Power 90 Road Warrior

I've read that the Power 90 Road Warrior video in the Tony Horton One-on-One series isn't super-intense, so I thought I'd check it out as part of my Recovery Week.



Now that I've completed it, I can confirm that: (1) Power 90 Road Warrior is nowhere near as challenging as many of the workouts we've seen from Tony, but (2) it's tough enough to rival Core Synergistics as a damn satisfying, full-body Recovery Week session.

More after the jump...

Round 2 / Day 68: 100 Pull-Ups + P90X Ab Ripper X

This morning, I decided to do 50 weighted pull-ups before finishing with 50 standard ones. With this workout, I want to build strength (rather than focus on my conditioning or endurance), so I'm starting each rep from a dead hang in order to avoid using momentum to assist me (so no kipping pull-ups -- at least for now). To keep proper form without exhausting myself, I had to limit myself to low-rep sets, so the workout took a bit longer than I expected. Still, I'm feeling much better about my pull-up numbers than I was just a couple of months ago. Practice, practice, practice, right?

That said, I would never attempt this:

P90X Day 68: Legs & Back + Ab Ripper X

Perhaps it's only because I was trying to impress M (who was exercising on the other side of our garage), but I managed to haul myself up and over my pull-up bar more times this morning than ever before.  Sadly, my wife remained focused on her ChaLEAN Extreme video, so I'm fairly certain she failed to notice my supreme awesomeness.

Here's a Week 1 versus Week 10 comparison of how I did on the pull-ups and chin-ups in Legs & Back:

Reverse Grip Chin-Ups

Week 1 / Set 1: 10 unassisted
Week 10 / Set 1: 14 unassisted

Week 1 / Set 2: 7 unassisted, 3 assisted
Week 10 / Set 2: 10 unassisted, 3 assisted

Wide Front Pull-Ups

Week 1 / 1st Set: 5 unassisted, 10 assisted
Week 10 / 1st Set: 12 unassisted, 10 assisted

Week 1 / 2nd Set: 3 unassisted, 7 assisted
Week 10 / 2nd Set: 6 unassisted, 10 assisted

Closed Grip Overhand Pull-Ups

Week 1 / 1st Set: 5 unassisted, 10 assisted
Week 10 / 1st Set: 8 unassisted, 10 assisted

Week 1 / 2nd Set: 3 unassisted, 7 assisted
Week 10 / 2nd Set: 6 unassisted, 10 assisted

Switch Grip Pull-Ups

Week 1 / 1st Set: 5 unassisted, 5 assisted

Week 10 / 2nd Set: 6 unassisted, 10 assisted

Week 1 / 2nd Set: 4 unassisted, 6 assisted

Week 10 / 1st Set: 8 unassisted, 8 assisted

So in total, I performed 90 pull/chin-ups (42 unassisted, 48 assisted) during Legs & Back in Week 1.  And today, I managed to complete 132 (70 unassisted, 62 assisted)!

Frankly, it's about time I upped my pull-up and chin-up numbers.  A couple of months ago, these exercises appeared to be an exciting new challenge, but recently, they've just been a source of dread.  A few weeks ago, my rep count hit a plateau and stayed there, and I soon began worrying that further improvement wasn't in the cards. 

But now, I know that progress is possible -- provided that someone's (possibly) watching.  I guess it's not unusual for people to perform better when embarassment is the alternative; that's why group exercise classes can be so effective.  For the most part, however, P90X is a solitary pursuit, so if I want to boost my performance, I may have to start working out with my garage door open, so that random passersby can shame me into ekeing out more pull-ups while their dogs defecate in our front yard.

Switching gears: When you're lying on the floor during Ab Ripper X, does your belly button remind you of an overflowing birdbath?  Because mine does.